“What are you doing tomorrow?” Eli asked me excitedly. We were currently in my driveway, and he had driven me back from school. I looked at him skeptically.
“I’m busy,” I say stiffly, not wanting to tell him what I was doing. Eli snorts, and I look at him confused.
“And what’s that?” he laughs. “Reading Percy Jackson books in a circle of other nerds.” I hit his shoulder, not liking that he was making fun of my mythology obsession. He looks at me and pouts while smiling, rubbing his arm as if I actually hurt him. “Tell me what’s going on.”
I chew on my cheek, not looking at him. I felt kind of embarrassed by the activity the girls were forcing me to interact in, but I really didn’t have a choice. I looked at Eli, and he chuckled while shaking his head.
“You don’t have to be all nervous about it. I have a lot on you that you should be embarrassed of.” I look at him, mouth slightly open in offense.
“I highly doubt that!” I say, crossing my arms across my chest. Eli laughs and holds up his hand.
“Shall I mention my list?” he asks, and continues even though I didn’t say anything. “There’s seeing your beautiful bed head. There’s watching you lose epically at one simple mission in Grand Theft Auto.” He looks up, and laughs loudly. “Oh, and my favorite; seeing you in nothing bu –”
“Ok, ok!” I exclaim, putting a hand over his mouth. “You don’t have to continue with anymore,” I say, feeling my cheeks flame. Eli smiles at me, putting his hand in my hair. He studies it, scrunching up his eyebrows a little while he plays with a strand.
“Why don’t you wear your hair curly?” he asked softly, looking genuinely confused. “I like it.” He digs his hand in deeper, and grabs a handful softly, pulling me closer so that he can have a better look at it. I look up, and he cocks his head to the side, licking his lips. My eyes widen.
“Because I don’t like it,” I say quickly, slapping his hand away. I back away from him, closer to the door, as I tell my heart beat to slow down. “I-I should get going,” I tell Eli, opening the door and dashing out of the car. But I had forgotten that I didn’t take off the seatbelt, so I was forced back into my seat roughly. Eli burst out laughing, not even trying to hide it, as I rub the sore spot. “It’s not funny, Eli!” I exclaim, pouting. Eli smiles at me, putting his hand over mine and looks into my eyes.
“You’ll be alright, I swear.” He unbuckles my seatbelt, and takes his hand off of mine. I quickly got out of the car, and started to walk quickly to my front door. But I turned around and bent down so I could see Eli’s face.
“We’re going dress shopping,” I said quickly before closing the car door, and walking away.
I rubbed my eyes with my hands, getting tired of shopping already. “Seriously, Cassie, how are you a girl if you don’t like shopping? I’ve met guys that like shopping more than you do!” I stick my tongue out at Skylar, and she makes a face at me before shrugging her shoulders and going back to looking at dresses. We were currently at the mall, Skylar, Ava, Lanie, Josie, and I, and I was currently complaining about the time. “I’ll be right back, guys.”
“She’s right, Cassie,” Ava started talking. “You can’t start that when you’ve only been in the store for fifteen minutes.” I shook my head, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to win an argument with these girls; they all loved shopping as much as they loved their families.
I kept going through dresses upon countless dresses, and then sighed before turning around and smiling. Skylar stood in front of us with a small grin on her face. I could tell that she loved the dress already. I pulled my phone out and took a picture. “What do you think, guys?” she asked us quietly, grabbing at the dress.
“I think it looks perfect,” we heard behind us. We all turned around, and saw four boys standing there. In the front, there was a boy with black, shaggy hair who was smirking at Skylar. I looked from him to her, and then back to him and saw him standing there with his hands in his pockets; he must’ve been her date. His facial expression read, to me, ‘You’re lucky that I asked you to prom, but so am I.” Basically, confident but not too much. I smiled, as I realized that these were the girl’s prom dates. I hadn’t even met them, but they knew so much about Eli…
“Tyler?” Skylar asked confused. Her confusion was like a rubber band around the rest of us girls.
Then all of them moved to the sides, two on my left and two on my right, as Eli walked up and stood as the point of this pyramid. I narrowed my eyes at him as he smiled and walked up to me, giving me a hug. “Hey, Cass. How’s dress shopping going?”
“Shouldn’t you be in school?” I asked, ignoring his question and putting my hands on my hips. He smiled as if he won a game or something.
“We couldn’t possibly leave our girls to get dresses alone!” he says, mocking shock in his voice. “Plus, we needed to know that colors so that we could color coordinate.” I glared at him, because he knew I didn’t want to do this, let alone with him here.
“We could’ve texted you the colors,” I said. Eli thinks about it. And then grins down at me.
“Too late now!” he tells me excitedly, walking past me and going through a dress rack. I roll my eyes as we all go back to looking for dresses. The girls’ dates were great. Dylan had asked Josie, and he was the second oldest of all the boys. He was in the same grade as me, 16, and pretty tall, so it worked for Josie, who was also tall for being 15. He had the front of his light brown hair pushed up, keeping it out of his face. He was really adorable, laughing all the time, making one dimple show and squinting his eyes in the process.
Bryce was in 10th grade, the boy who was smack in the middle. He was very playful and silly, which was strange because Lanie was the most serious of all us girls. But he was nice, nonetheless. He definitely enjoyed having a good, keeping his dirty blonde bangs swooped to the side and out of his brown eyes.
Tyler and Owen were the youngest, both in 9th grade and 14. Tyler had dark brown hair, which I had mistaken for black, and brown eyes. He was a little less confident compared to Skylar, but they were really cute together. He talked and laughed a lot, and made the best puns ever. Owen was really quiet, but as long as he was next to Ava, he was very talkative. But he got nervous easily, which I found adorable, and he would always pull at his beanie and grin when he did. I could tell that Eli had taken a quick liking to him, and I sensed more of a big brother relationship happening in the future.
“We’re getting nowhere,” I mumbled as I gave up. None of the other girls had found anything, and it had been 30 minutes. I looked at everyone, frowning. This was why I didn’t like shopping.
“Why don’t we go to another store?” Dylan offered. We all raised our eyebrows, thinking that that was a good idea.
“Ok, but where?” Lanie asked, crossing her arms. All of the boys looked at us as if we were crazy.
“You’re the girls, you should know.” I looked at them, and pursed my lips, thinking.
“Let’s try Forever 21,” I said. We all nodded, and started walking to the door before I put a hand on Eli’s chest, stopping him and everyone else who was behind us. “Wait, how are we all going to get there?” All the boys scoffed, laughing.
“Do you really think we wouldn’t think about that?” Eli asked me, flicking my nose. I made a face at him, slapping the finger away. “We have three cars. Dylan will drive Josie, Tyler, and Skylar. Bryce will drive Lanie, Owen, and Ava. And I, of course,” Eli starts, putting his arm around my shoulders, “will be chauffeuring you.” He smiles down at me, and I try to shake out of his hold, without success as he leads me to the parking lot.
It didn’t take long to get to Forever 21, only 5 minutes or so. We all went in, and Skylar and Tyler split up. Skylar accompanied Ava and Owen, while Lanie and Bryce, and Dylan and Josie went by themselves. We weren’t together at all, and Tyler stayed with Eli and me, trying to help out. They were both holding up dress after dress in front of my body, and then shook their heads.
“We know that red, and grass green doesn’t work for you at all,” Tyler muttered, taking away another dress. I looked at him shocked as Eli cracked up, resulting in me hitting him. Eli spoke up after that.
“I don’t know,” he said thinking. “Maybe you should go with a light blue. Or an aqua!” I looked at him suspiciously.
“And why do you want me to wear that color?” I asked, wondering. He pokes his lips out, not looking at me anymore. He just shakes his head, going through more dresses. I do too, but of course, I don’t think I’m going to find anything here. I scratch the back of my head and turn around to see Ava rubbing her arm.
“I-I don’t think so,” she said shyly as Owen held a pink and white dress. The top was heart shaped with spaghetti straps, and it was sequined. The bottom went from light pink to white and light pink again. It looked very flowy, and I thought it was perfect for Ava.
“You should at least try it on,” I say, smiling at her. She looks at me, and I nod my head excitedly, knowing she’ll have a different opinion once she’s in it. I get my phone ready to take a picture. She came out quickly, playing with her fingers, and smiled sheepishly. I quickly push a button and know that the photo has been saved into my photo stream. “I knew you would love it!”
“Are you sure it’s not too… Revealing or anything?” Ava asked us, unsure. We all laughed, and told her that it was the perfect length. We were all standing outside once she had bought her dress. “Where to next?” I spoke up.
“Actually, can we get something to eat, and then start shopping again?” I asked, looking at Eli. “I’m really hungry.” They all nod their heads, agreeing. “Where should we go?” I asked everyone. They all looked around, and I saw something flicker in the girls’ eyes.
“Since we’re all in different cars, we should just choose by car,” they all offered together. I opened my mouth to oppose that idea, because I knew what they were trying to do, but they grabbed the boys’ arms and lead them away from Eli and me before words could come out. Eli chuckles, shaking his head at me.
“They really need a couple of tips for when it comes to being subtle,” he says, stuffing his hands in his pockets as we started to walk to his car. “So, Taco Bell, I’m guessing?” I only nodded my head in response.
“Do you really think I’ll find a dress, Eli?” I asked, poking out my lips sadly. He laughs at me, as if I had asked a stupid question. I took my head out of my hand and looked at him. He was shaking his head with eyebrows raised.
“Cass, even if you didn’t find a dress,” he starts, “you would find one eventually. Besides Lanie and Josie haven’t found theirs yet, so don’t worry about it.” He sips his large cup of coke, and I look at him like he’s crazy. “You girls and freaking out over the smallest things.” Eli laughs.
“Well… What do you expect?” I asked defensive. “When you ask a girl to prom, they obviously have to find the perfect everything. Even if they don’t act like it.” Eli moves forward, getting closer to me.
“Like you,” he says, flicking my nose. I glare at him playfully. “And you guys only want to find the perfect everything to outdo everyone else.” I open my mouth to protest. “Let me correct myself; everyone else who’s not your friend.” I grin at him sheepishly, and he laughs.
“Don’t get all big-headed because you were right for once,” I say, flicking his nose back.
“Ow!” he says, smiling at me and rubbing his nose as if it actually hurt. I made a face at him as he drinks some more coke.
“You shouldn’t drink so much soda, you could get fat and stuff like that,” I said, looking at the huge cup. Eli snorts, and I look up to see him with his arms raised. I raise an eyebrow at him as he smirks at me.
“Because you totally don’t want this hot bod to go to waste, do you?” he said, and I burst out laughing at his hilarious joke. “I knew you couldn’t resist,” I slapped his arms until he stopped that. People would start to stare. I looked at my phone and saw that I had a text from Skylar. It was a group text, to all of the other girls, and she wanted to know where we were planning on next. I thought about it, and offered Ross and then Khols. I closed my phone when they all agreed.
“Is it time to go?” Eli asked me, and I nodded my head. He got up, throwing away the tray with our trash on it, and refilled his cup of coke before running out the door I was holding open. It took 10 minutes to get to Ross, and the whole drive, Eli was only driving with his left hand, using his right to drink his soda.
“You can’t take that in there,” I kept telling him over and over again.
“And why not?” he asks sassily. I look at him with my lips in a thin line.
“Because there’s a rule or something about not bringing food or drinks into a store,” I say. Eli chuckles, bringing his hand up and rubbing the back of my head. He looks at me, a small smile on his face, and looks me in the eyes.
“Don’t worry about me, Cass,” he says laughing. “I think I will be able to handle it.” His smile falls a bit, not in a bad way, but in a… Curious way, as if he was thinking. He ran his hand through my hair, playing with it and twirling it around and in between his fingers. “You should wear your hair curly more often,” he says softly, looking at me. “I like it that way, and it looks pretty.” I look at his eyes, and notice how big they really are. Eli licks his lips, and I start chewing on my cheek. I cough as my eyes get wide, and I turn my head to see that everyone, Owen, Dylan, Bryce, Tyler, Josie, Skylar, Ava, and Lanie, were all watching us from the store doors. I didn’t even notice we had parked the car.
I cleared my throat, unbuckling as Eli did the same. He didn’t hesitate to grab his huge cup of coke and walk side by side with me to the entrance to Ross. “You shouldn’t take it in,” I say, looking at the ground. I hear Eli laugh before he ruffles my hair, and takes a sip. I shake my head as the girls smirk at me. I give them a look that says ‘don’t say anything or else.’
I cocked my head to the side. It had been ten minutes, and I was still looking through the same dress rack without any success whatsoever. Eli was on the other side, going through everything quickly. I shook my head, taking my time. “I’ve found it!” I hear Eli exclaim. He comes to my side, and holds up a blue dress. I looked down and pushed it away quickly, glaring at Eli. “What?” he asks innocently.
“There’s no way I would wear that, Eli, you know better,” I scold him. He laughs, putting it back in a random spot and he smiling down at me. And then he opens his mouth.
“I was just trying,” he declares, as if he did nothing wrong. I took his coke and took a long sip before pushing it back into his hand as he just watched me.
“Try harder,” I say, and I momentarily see all of the boys come up behind Eli. I turn and start to walk to the dressing rooms, but not before hearing all of the boys burst out in a fit of laughter.
“Shut up!” Eli exclaims, and I feel like I wanted to know what had been said to get that reaction out of him. I walk past a dress rack, and see something that catches my eye.
“Hey, Lanie,” I said, grabbing at the fabric that was a blue green-ish color. It was long and flowly, and I held it up to Lanie’s body to see that it was perfect.
“No way,” she said, shaking her head at me. “This is way too elegant for me. You can’t really expect me to… Cassie!” I had stopped her first sentence, turning her around and pushing her to the dressing rooms while shoving the dress into her hands. “Really?”
“Yes, really! This is absolutely per –” I stopped what I was saying and look to my right. You know where that rack is that has all the clothes that people couldn’t fit or didn’t want? Yeah, I saw a purple dress with pink flowers on it, and it had a high to low bottom. “Josie,” I say, “grab that purple dress.”
“Ook,” she says confused, but does as I say. “Why?” I push both of them into their own stalls, smiling as I put my hands on my hips.
“Because I’m almost certain that I have found the perfect dresses for you two!” I exclaim, clapping my hands. Skylar and Ava shake their heads as we all wait in anticipation. They both come out with huge smiles on their faces, and I take a quick picture of them together and grin. “Am I good, or am I good?” Everyone laughs at me, and we all go out so that Josie and Lanie can buy their new prom dresses.
“Now,” Eli says as we walk out of Ross, “all we need to do is find Cass’s dress.” Everyone quickly runs to their designated car, determination to help me find my dress running through their veins. Once we walked into Khols, everyone split up. No one was with anyone, everyone jogging to a different location. I walked slowly, carefully looking at each dress. I ran my fingers on the different fabrics that were around me.
I walked to the farthest side, and then saw a light dress on the ground. I picked it carefully, looking at it. It was light blue, almost like the color that Eli wanted, and it had thin, spaghetti straps. The top was a very simple, barely noticeable heart shape, and it looked like flower petals were on the whole top of the dress from the front to back. There was a brown belt, that could barely be seen, and under that, the bottom of the dress was really flowly, and ruffled.
I looked around, and didn’t see any one of my friends around, so I sighed and walked into the dressing room alone. I quickly put on the dress, and took down my hair, letting it fall around my shoulders to see how it looked with the dress. I looked in the mirror, even though there were also two on the sides including the one in front of me, pulling and feeling the hem of the dress.
“It’s perfect,” I hear, and I see Eli walk up behind me and wrap his arms around me. He grabs at the fabric, feeling the texture fall through his fingers, and put his chin on my shoulder smiling. “Good length,” he mentions. I smile, looking at it more as I feel my heart beat quicken a bit. “Very soft,” he said, running his hand over the fabric near my waist. He takes a deep breath in, and I feel it fan my face as he lets it out. “And aqua blue.” Eli smiles, “You're perfect for it.”
I quickly turn around, and Eli’s hands stay exactly where they were, the only difference is that they are resting on the bottom of my back, one on top of the other. He smiles down at me, and for sure this time, my heart beat starts to race. I study him as he licks his lips, smiling down at me. I can see why the girls always freaked when it came to Eli. He was a very attractive guy. He had warm, brown eyes, amazingly, soft looking hair, and a perfect, soft face. “You’re perfect,” he mumbles, eyes looking down a bit before coming back up to my eyes. I could hear my heart through my ears, and suddenly got self-concious, knowing that he had to be able to hear it too.
Even though I started chewing on my cheek, I couldn't help but be grateful. I was happy that the girls forced me to look cute that one Tuesday; grateful that I had said yes to him asking me to prom; grateful that he tried to get to know me, practically forcing himself on me even. I was happy that I was an open book to him. It was as if he was the one who was writing some of it instead of me. It was really frustrating, but I found myself not actually caring when it came to Eli.
He started getting closer, and I looked him in the eyes before licking my lips, looking at his. Wow, he had some good lips, I’m not gonna lie; I wouldn’t be a girl if I did. “Absolutely perfect,” he mumbled softly as I smiled a little at his compliment. I closed my eyes slowly, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart. He was getting so close that I could feel his breath fan my whole face. “Per –”
“Cassie?” My eyes widened quickly at the sound of my name. I saw Eli open his eyes slowly, and it was evident that he was annoyed as I saw the emotion pass through his face. “Cassie, are you in here?” I hear Alex ask through the dressing room. I looked at Eli, and he sighed heavily, letting me go and standing beside me, waiting for them to come. I looked up at him, and then saw, out of my peripheral vision, the girls come in.
I guess they could feel the stiffness in the air that was bouncing off from Eli. They looked between me and him questioningly. But I could tell in their eyes they knew that something happened. They knew that they had stopped something from happening, I should say. And they knew that they couldn’t even say anything about it, not wanting to bring the awkwardness into play.
“That’s a beautiful dress, Cassie,” they say smiling at me. Josie pulls out her phone, and takes a picture of Eli and me together as I look at the ground smiling. “I guess we were all lucky today.” I nod my head, knowing that this is the one. I walk back into the stall, changing into my regular clothes quickly and walking up to the cashier. Eli’s behind me as I pull out my card, and I momentarily see the woman look up behind me. I look at her curiously, and her eyes dart to me, smiling before going back to what she was doing. I looked back at Eli, and he was looking at some chocolate that I guess he was thinking of buying.
The cashier gave me my receipt quickly after that, and I got out of the way, looking at the price. My eyes widened at the price, and I momentarily thought that it was a low price for a dress before looking at Eli suspiciously. I watched his lips, and I’m almost certain that he said thank you before nodding his head, smiling widely at the woman. He walked towards me, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me with him quickly out of the door. Eli unlocks his car, and I watch him skeptically as he puts his seatbelt on. I open my mouth, but he doesn’t let anything come out. Instead, he pops a piece of chocolate in my mouth. I glare at him.
“Good chocolate isn’t it, Cass?” he asked me, smirking as he reversed out of the parking lot.
“I’m going to get you for this, Eli,” I said, trying to hold in a little laugh that was trying to come out. He shakes his head, putting his hand on the back of my head rest and looking backwards to make sure no others cars were coming.
“Yeah, sure you will,” he says, chuckling.
A/N: Awww! Lookey here! This was one of my favorite chapters to write, mostly because of the obvious reason, but also because it's shopping, and, like Cassie, I reaaaally don't like shopping that much, so when I finally finished this, I felt very proud of my self. Anyways.... A vote or two would be nice? Maybe? But yeah! Hope you guys enjoyed it! :D