Kai drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of his truck. He could hear the tapping of Drew's phone as he, what did he say he was doing? Something to do with birds.... Tweeting! Kai never saw the point of sharing snippets of your life with the Internet, personally. Who knew what kind of creeps could stalk you using your tweeter thing?
Kai turned his head as he heard the click of a phone camera going off. Drew snickered. "Going...to...the...mall...with...the...bf," he read slowly as he typed. "And add the super cute picture I took of you, and there we go!"
"You took a picture of me?"
"Yep. I'd show you, but you're driving," Drew said, shrugging exaggeratedly. "Guess you'll never know, seeming as you refuse to get a Twitter."
Kai rolled his eyes, "When we get to the mall I'm stealing your phone," he said.
"Challenge accepted."
"Oh, it's on," Kai threatened playfully. "Your phone will be mine, then I'm sending alllllll your embarrassing selfies to my phone. Don't you lie and say you don't have any, I've seen you take them."
Drew blushed. "You did not! I'm really good at hiding when I'm taking a selfie!"
Kai's jaw dropped. "Wait, you actually have them? Holy cow, now I'm really stealing your phone."
Drew smacked his arm, "Hey! Tricking people isn't nice!"
"It's not tricking," Kai said, "think of it as skillfully making people think something else."
"That's tricking!"
Kai copied Drew's exaggerated shrug from before. "Oops."
Drew stuck out his tongue and stuffed his phone into his pocket with a little smirk that said 'come and get it.' "May the best man win."
"Oh, I will. Hey, can you turn the radio on? I have Fancy stuck in my head and I'm three seconds from stabbing myself."
"Weirdest topic change I've ever heard but sure." Drew reached over and fiddled with the knob that changed the stations. "Nope, no, no, ew classic, no, definitely no, nope," he muttered blandly.
"Pick one!" Kai hissed after the twentieth 'nope.'
"No, no, ahaha! Here we go!" Drew grinned, "I love this song!"
"You like Nicki Minaj?" Kai asked.
"Excuse me, she is my queen!" Drew said, putting a hand on his chest. "I adore her."
Kai raised an eyebrow, "Didn't see that one coming."
"This one is for the boys with the boomin' system, top down, AC, with the coolin' system. When he come up in the club, he be blazin' up, stacks on deck like he savin' up," Drew rapped along. Unsurprisingly, he was terrible, but it was still adorable. He gave Kai a cheesy grin and pointed at him.
"We're in a truck, Drew," Kai said, "If the top is down we have serious issues."
Drew stuck his tongue out, "Way to ruin the mood, Kai. Excuse me for trying to be cute." He stuck his bottom lip and poured, crossing his arms.
Kai stopped at a red light, leaned over, and kissed the pout off his lips. "I'm just teasing you; you're adorable."
"I'm not adorable!" Drew said with a blush, "I'm sexy as hell!"
"Mm, yes you are," Kai said, sweeping his eyes over Drew and whistling appreciatively.
Drew's blush darkened and he buried his face in his hands, "Shut up and drive."
Kai grinned and reached over to ruffle his hair. "Okay, okay."
"It's a miracle we haven't crashed," Drew muttered.
"Well, don't jinx us," Kai said. "I'd hate to crash five minutes before we get to the mall."
"That only happens in cheesy teen romance novels," Drew said.
"Oh my god!" Kai yelled all of a sudden. Drew jolted and let out a short scream, losing all color in his face. "Gotcha," Kai said, biting his lip to smother his laughter.
"I HATE YOU OH MY GOSH!" Drew yelled, smacking his arm. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU WHEN WE GET OUT OF THIS CAR, I SWEAR TO GOD."
Kai slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes watering with laughter. "Your face, oh my gosh, it was precious."
"Go suck a dick," Drew spat.
Kai wiggled his eyebrows, "How bold. Never thought it would be you to suggest such a thing."
Drew choked on air, "Pull the fuck over, I'm walking the rest of the way."
"Okay, okay, okay, I'm sorry, sorry." Kai gave him a puppy dog look.
"Are we there yet?" Drew complained loudly. "You're buying me Starbucks and possibly a new book."
"Yes, dear. Would you like some chocolate with that?"
"Well, if you're offering...."
Kai pulled into the parking lot of the mall. Luckily, he got a decent parking spot close to the entrance of Macy's. Drew popped out of the passenger's seat and half skipped half ran towards the entrance. Kai quickly locked the truck, hitting the lock button until the truck beeped loudly signifying yes, it was locked, thanks very much.
"Hey, wait for me!" Kai called, sprinting to catch up with Drew who had already gotten to the revolving door.
"Holy cow, I love these things!" Drew said excitedly, pushing the revolving door around and around in circles.
Kai had to turn around because the cuteness was actually hurting him.
"C'mon!" Drew grabbed Kai's hand and pulled him into one of the sections in the door. It was a tight squeeze, but Kai could appreciate being so close to Drew. He smelled really good, like lavender. Kai subtly breathed in the sent of Drew's clean, soft hair, resisting the urge to run his hands through Drew's dark tresses.
Once they cleared the door, Drew was off like a rocket. "Okay, first I need to hit the bookstore. I've already finished all my books, and contrary to what my mom believes, I prefer to buy books over borrow them from a library. There's nothing quite like a new, fresh book in your hands, with that new book smell. And you can annotate them too! I love writing notes in my books, helps me think and remember interesting things that connect to the books," Drew rambled. "And after that, let's go to Starbucks, then we can do whatever you want to!"
He paused for a minute in his monolog. "What do you want to do?" He looked horrified. "Wait, did you even want to go to the mall? Did I just drag you here against your will? Am I that selfish? I'm a horrible boyfriend." Somehow he ended up in the corner of the room, just beside the hat display, rocking back and forth. The gloom hanging over him was palpable.
Kai laughed nervously, "Babe, you're not a horrible boyfriend. I wanted to do whatever you wanted to do. I just want you to be happy. That's my job, isn't it? To make you happy? If you're happy, I'm happy."
Drew wiped his nose with his sleeve. "Really?"
"Yes, now can you please come out of the hats? That display woman looks very angry."
Drew laughed and held up his arms. Kai leaned down and picked him up effortlessly.
"Onwards, my trusty steed!" Drew declared, pointing ahead dramatically.
Kai scoffed, "If I'm to be the trusty steed, I at least get to carry you piggy back."
"Very well, trusty steed!" Drew dropped to the ground, scurried around Kai, and when he knelt down, hopped on his back, wrapping his arms around Kai's neck loosely. He didn't want to choke him.
"To the bookstore?" Kai asked, grabbing Drew's thighs to keep him balanced.
"Yes! There's a great Barns and Noble over there," Drew said, pointing. "You can take a shortcut through woman's underwear if your heart can take it."
"Mom made me buy her tampons for most of my driving life. I can handle underwear."
"Ha! I never had to buy tampons! Mama stopped getting her period before I could drive," Drew said smugly.
"You lucky dog."
After a quick trip through the land of bras and some mighty weird looks from the other customers--what? Can't a man get a piggy back ride while traveling through ladies' undergarments?-- they exited Macy's.
Drew jumped down from Kai's back and grabbed his hand. "It's right over here!"
The bookstore was small, but clean and pleasant smelling. By the looks Drew received marching in like he owned the place, Kai figured he was a regular.
"Hi, Marla, how's the ankle?" Drew called to the short lady with blue hair in a pony tail behind the counter.
"Doin' better!" she called back with a southern accent. "Thanks for askin'!"
"Do you have the books I ordered?" Drew asked, putting his elbows down on the counter and resting his head in his palms.
Marla looked under the counter and pulled out a sack of thick books, "Here you are!"
Drew looked over his shoulder and winked at Kai. "He's getting them for me."
Marla turned her piercing green stare onto Kai, "Who's this cutie?"
Drew grabbed Kai's arm, "He's my boyfriend, so you can't have him, okay?"
Marla chuckled, "He's a looker, you got some fine taste there!"
"I know I do," Drew said, pecking Kai on the cheek.
Marla smiled, "Anyways, that'll be $20.34, please." She wrapped the soft covered books in a sheet of paper before putting them in a bag.
Kai pulled out his wallet, "That's rather cheap, there's like, five books there."
"Drew's mom was a teacher and the little dork uses her card to get himself a discount, and he already paid for two of the books, just waiting for the first three in the series to get in," Marla explained as she handed Kai his change.
"Your mom was a teacher?" he asked Drew as he handed him the bag.
"My mama was a lot of things," Drew said vaguely, taking the bag. "Bye Marla!"
"Bye now!"
Drew pulled Kai out of the store. "Isn't she nice? She broke her ankle a couple weeks ago so I stop by every now and then to make sure she's getting better."
It was funny how most of the people at school though Drew was harsh and blunt, Kai thought, when in reality he was one of the kindest people he'd ever met. Rough around the edges, yes, but a truly good person, and how rare are those these days?