Hopelessly Devoted

Chapter 13- Girls

*RING* *RING*

I slowly open my eyes, groaning at the onslaught of light. I attempt to use my arm as a shield, but the annoying Saturday-morning rays are not thwarted by my actions.

*RING* *RING*

My phone sits on the table beside my bed, rattling from the vibrations. With great effort, I somehow manage to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" My drowsiness makes my voice sound a bit gravely.

"Hey, Luca, it's Elizabeth. Jackie and I will be there in about 10 minutes, ok?"

Shoot. In order to apologize for not spending as much time with the girls, I had promised to hang out with them today but I completely had forgotten to set my alarm.

"Y-yeah, sounds great." I lie through my teeth as I throw the covers off of my body and climb out of the bed.

"Sure... Tell ya what, I'll take the long way to give you more time to get dressed. Be there in 20."

About 18 minutes later, Elizabeth's blue jeep pulls up in front of my house. She's wearing her signature leather jacket and black sunglasses, her hair pulled into a side braid. I'm just walking out the door in a basic pair of blue jeans and a Beatles T-shirt. 

Elizabeth rolls down the driver's window and sticks her head out a bit. "Get in loser, we're going shopping!"

I roll my eyes. Of course, shopping. Due to feeling guilty for spending all of my time with Sean, I'd said we could do whatever they wanted for the day. I should have known that'd mean we'd be going to the mall.

"You seriously did not just quote Regina George." I slide in the back seat. Jackie turns around to shoot me a smile from the passenger's seat. Like always, she looks adorable.  Her short blonde hair sits on her shoulders, each curl seemingly perfectly placed. She's wearing a white floral top that flows out at the bottom as well as some acid-washed jeans and converse. 

"You know you loved it." 

***

"Alright, ladies." I say as we walk through the large glass doors of our local mall. Elizabeth has an arm slung around Jackie's shoulder, not the worst PDA I guess. "I have decided that, as an apology for ditching you, I will use some of the money I get from tutoring Sean on you. You can each pick five things and I'll pay for them!"

Jackie's eyebrows shoot up her forehead. "Are you sure, Luca? You know, that's not necessar-" She tries to say before her loving girlfriend gently places a hand over her mouth.

"What my dear Jackie was trying to say is, 'Thank you for being so generous Luke. We'll be glad to spend your money." Jackie shoots a playful glare at Beth, but otherwise says nothing.

I chuckle a small bit at the interaction. "So, where to first?" 

"Oh!" Jackie squeals as she tears Beth's hand off her face. "Can we go to the craft store? I need more paint stuff."

"Of course!"

So, we head to the Blick store in search of paint. It was kind of cool seeing all of the different kinds of art material they had available. Jackie mistook my general interest for a desire to know everything and started explaining the differences between the types of paint.

"The ones on the tray are watercolor, meaning they are activated with water. They give kind of a pastel, faded kind of color. These bottles are acrylic. They contain plastic and dry super super quick! Ooh! These! These are Oil paints. Obviously, they are made with oil, but what's cool is this is the kind that all the painters like Da Vinci and Van Gogh would use. They're the professional kind but also quite expensive..."

I'mma be honest, I droned out about 5 seconds into her rant. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging with Jackie, but for such a quiet girl she sure can talk a lot. I'd occasionally nod my head and smile whenever it seemed appropriate, but other than that I just stood and endured. Beth stood behind Jackie, shooting me looks of amusement. I bet she experiences these kind of lectures all the time. 

"These little tubes contain gouache. I actually don't really know what's so fancy about these paints other than a lot of people talk about them and the name sounds funny. Oh, and these..."

"This is fascinating Baby, believe me, but I think that it's time you pick out some paints to actually buy." Elizabeth says in the most diplomatic way possible. 

"Oh... right." Jackie blushes as she quickly looks at the paints on the wall. "Luke? Would it be ok if I got some oils? They're a bit more expensive but they're really good for canvas..."

"Jackie, I said whatever you wanted. Don't worry about me, just pick out some paint." I give her a genuine smile, one which she gladly returns.

In the end, Jackie decides to get five oil paints. She got Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Pthalo Blue, Sap Green, and Titanium White. I resist the urge to cringe at the numbers as they come up on the register so as not to scare Jackie. It's not like it's too much money, Sean's been paying me way too much for the little help I give him, it's just weird seeing the bill go into triple digits for a couple small tubes of paint.

"So, my turn?" Beth asks as we exit the store. Jackie is smiling nonstop at her bag of goodies, not truly paying attention to her surroundings. Thankfully, she does keep hold of Beth's hand so we can at least lead her in the right direction. 

"Yup. Anywhere in the building."

"Sweet! I'm goin' to Hot Topic!" Beth says before leading her quite distracted girlfriend toward the store. 

I've been in Hot Topic only a handful of times, always with Beth accompanying me. Neither of us are really into the goth/emo aesthetic that most of the store's customers subscribe to, but Beth loves searching their wall of Pop Vinyls for characters she recognizes. Every time we go to this mall, it's almost become a tradition for us to go to the back of the small store and check out the fresh stock. Beth usually doesn't buy anything, and even when she does she only buys a single figure. However, these figures are quite overpriced in my opinion, as is much of the rest of the store. Beth and I both know she's going to take full advantage of my patronage, meaning I better ready my wallet for another attack.

We enter the store and are greeted by the familiar atmosphere of teen angst. As I expected, Beth makes a beeline to the back wall. 

"Ooh! They have a Bob Ross figure, today! AND A BELSNICKEL DWIGHT!? Aw, you know I'm getting both!" Beth squeals as she swipes the figurine. I take a quick look at the sales for that day, as the store is always having some promotion for Pop Vinyls.

Buy two get one half off

Of course. The one day Beth is interested in multiple figurines is the day where the discount doesn't apply. If I didn't know better, I'd think she planned this.

Beth then drags us around the store, making multiple passes at every display. "There's just too many options!" She whispers under her breath as she runs her fingers over a desk nameplate that says "Assistant (to the) Regional Manager".

Beth ends up buying said nameplate, as well as a Sherlock keychain and a The Office Calendar. The final bill ends up around another hundred dollars, making my wallet cry as I pay the bill.

Despite the pain my wallet was made to endure, I have no regrets. Seeing the smiles that light up Jaqueline and Elizabeth's faces makes me want to do it all over again.

I really love my girls.