Your POV
You walk into the house and head up to your room. Being with Shayne soothed your anxiety to the point that you weren't even thinking about school. The minute you realized that it was late and you had exams coming is when that pesky anxiety returned. Sitting down at your desk you pull out reviews and notes and study into the early hours of the morning.
As you sit in lecture on Thursday you can't help but notice your classmates staring at your bruises and cuts. Every so often someone looks down at the cast you have on and read what Shayne wrote, they would give you a loaded look and move on. The one thing you hated was being the center of attention, especially when they don't know the details.
Lecture ends and you begin to pack your things into your backpack. One of your classmates is purposely moving slow at her desk, almost waiting for you notice. As the last person walks out she comes your way.
"Hey y/n, before you say anything I just wanted to let you know that I had clinical the night you came into the hospital, and saw you in the Emergency Room. I don't know what happened, or who the people were that were with you but I just hope everything is okay. I know you and I haven't been friends for a while and I know it's because I didn't try to reach out to you when you needed it. I'm sorry our friendship ended that way, but I still wish you the best. You look so much healthier now than you did that night." She gives you a half smile and walks to leave.
"Sam," you call after her and limp over to walk with her. You explain the reasoning behind why you act the way you do when you get frustrated or anxious. "I never meant to put you in a situation that you weren't ready for, I should have told you earlier that I get like that sometimes. I'm sorry for being a bad friend."
"Oh y/n it's fine. I realize that in hindsight we both could have handled the situation better but we're adults here and take responsibility for our actions. Tell me about those guys that were with you though, they were really attractive."
You walk with Sam out of the building and to the parking lot, telling the story about how you met Shayne and Damien. Giving her a hug you part ways and head home to study for the exams tomorrow.
...
Early in the morning you go to the doctors office and get your cast cut off. Your calf has become really small and your ankle is equally slim. All of the work you spent on toning was waisted. Ugh, frustrating. The doctor explains that you have to wear a boot when walking but if you're at home you can leave it off as long as you're careful. (AN: it takes at least 3 weeks for bones to heal so we're fast forwarding here)
Exams went well, for missing class your grades were better than you had expected. Because you just finished exams you had the weekend free of studying, you pull out your phone to text Shayne.
4:16pm you: Survived the end times! Not sure if I have a parent worthy outfit for tomorrow. Care to go shopping with me?
4:23pm Shayne: I'll be done at work in half an hour, meet me at Highland Mall at 5?
4:30pm you: Sounds good! see you then
Driving home made you think about the things you might wear around parents. Jeans? Dress? Tank top? All of my jeans have holes is them and my dresses are way to short. Maybe Shayne can think of something. Pulling into the driveway you get out and head inside to put down your school stuff and change into shorts and a t-shirt. Sophia walks into your room as you brush your hair and sits on your bed.
"Where ya headed?" she tilts her head to the side.
"Well i'm meeting Shaynes parents this weekend and need to find a good outfit. He's meeting me at the mall in a few to help." you smile at her as you put the brush down.
"Oh," she sounds disappointed.
"What is it?" you stop what you're doing and walk over to her, sitting next to her.
"I just don't get to see you that often now that you and Shayne are together. Don't get me wrong I am so happy for you but I miss you." she frowns and leans into your shoulder.
"Come with us! Shayne likes hanging with you, he wouldn't mind you coming along." You smile and turn to look at her.
"Are you sure? I don't want to third wheel with you two." She sits up, placing her chin on her shoulder.
"Promise, you can help me just as much if not more than he can." you laugh and walk back to the bathroom to finish getting ready. "We're leaving in 5 minutes so be ready to go."
She leaves and comes back immediately with her bag. "Ready when you are!"
Sophia drives you to the mall and parks in a parking garage. You call Shayne to see where he's at.
"Hey we just parked, where ya at?" you say.
"I'm in Barnes and Nobles, meet me in the cafe!...We?" he sounds confused.
"Soph came to help, she said it was her turn to spend time with me and you." You chuckle.
"Cool! I'll see you in a few." the phone call ends and the two of you walk to the bookstore.
...
Over the next half hour Shayne and Sophia talked about their favorite books and recommendations for the others as you perused the romance section, their voices loud enough to hear their conversation from across the store.
"This book is amazing, I read it a couple of months ago and I swear you'll love it." Sophia says.
"I have that on my shelf at home! Got it at a half-price book store and haven't read it yet. I'll read it next." He says nicely.
The conversation continued from there. You walk through the isles and wonder how much time was spent writing these love stories. I wonder if any of these are true? Do the authors write stories about their love life? Or what they want them to be? You pull a book of the shelf and read the synopsis, the only line says 'the love she wanted wasn't found by her, but found her instead'. What a concept you think as a pair of strong arms wrap around your waist and a head leans on your shoulder.
"Whatcha reading," Shayne says into your ear.
"Oh just a romance novel, they are my favorite things to read. I would consider myself a hardcore hopeless romantic." you sigh, enjoying the feeling of his arms around you.
"hmmm," he hums, his head leaving your shoulder searching the isle.
His arms let go of you and he walks a few feet, squatting to a lower shelf. He grabs a book with a plain dark blue cover and titled 'The Love You Give'. He walks back and hands it to you. "You would love this then."
Hugging the book to your chest the two of you go to find Sophia talking to a clerk, asking them about their favorite book.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we gotta find me an outfit," you lace your arm into hers and head to checkout.
...
"That'll be $15.49," the cashier says.
You reach into your purse and search for your debit card. You hear the card reader ping and a card being removed. Turning your head, your hand still in your purse, and see Shayne putting his wallet back into his pocket.
"That wasn't necessary," you playfully nudge his arm.
"I know. I recommended it, so I buy it." he smiles and grabs your hand.
...
Shopping with the two of them was impossible. Sophia kept grabbing clothes for Shayne to try on and it became a game to dress him in the most attractive outfit she could find. Store after store she played the game, periodically looking for you. Walking into Hollister Sophia b-lines for the mens section but Shayne notices you stopping in the doorway.
Stores like Hollister never carried sizes high enough for you to wear in anything. You become very self-conscious about the things you look at, not wanting to attempt to try them on only to be disappointed when they don't fit. You never grab anything to try on.
Sophia rounds the corner, arms full of clothes for Shayne.
"Wow, you're fast," he laughs "but we're here for y/n to find something." he turns to you and gives you a soft smile.
"Oh it's okay, I want to see what she grabbed for you." You give a smile, but your face drops after he turns away.
He grabs a room and you sit outside, patiently waiting for him to show what Sophia picked out. A few of the options were nothing special, v-neck t-shirts and floral tops. But the last one was something else. He opens the door and is wearing dark wash jeans and a tight white long-sleeve button-down dress shirt. Taking creative liberties with his outfit, Shayne has decided to keep the dress shirt unbuttoned and looks directly at you when he opens the door. Your mouth drops open and your eyes go wide. No words come to your mouth, only to your mind. I- this is my boyfriend. Like mine. This isn't real, I must be dreaming or be dead. Holy hot lord this man is HOT. Your mind wants to you to do so many things to him.
Sophia interrupts your dirty thoughts. "Maybe we button the shirt," she laughs.
"I think y/n thinks otherwise," he smirks at you, winking.
"No comment," you say through a devilish smile.
"Okay, this is the last store of the 'make shayne hot game'" Sophia says as Shayne shuts the door to change. "Next is about y/n, and i'm officially changing the game to the 'make y/n smokin game'".
...
Next y'all head to (your favorite store), and you immediately leave them to go look for yourself. You push through racks of clothes and don't really see anything that sticks out to you. After 10ish minutes you walk to find Shayne and Soph. You expect to see Sophia piling clothes into Shaynes arms but you see the opposite. Shayne is looking through the racks and pulling things out, Sophia telling him which size to grab. This blows you away. The two see you staring at them and smile.
"To the fitting room!" Sophia yells.
...
Just like you did for Shayne, he patiently sits on a bench outside of the fitting room with Sophia as you change.
The first outfit is a pair of dark wash jeans, a chunky knit white sweater, and a dark green bralette. You open the door and give a dumb smile. Sophia cocks her head to the side and stands to fix your sweater. She tucks the front into your jeans and steps back. Shayne sits there smiling, it gets bigger when you look at him but says nothing. Both gave a thumbs up but you weren't thrilled by it.
A few more came and went, nothing doing anything for you.
The last one was a pair of distressed mom jeans, a maroon scoop-neck t-shirt and a black long line cardigan. The jeans made your butt look good and you felt like tucking the shirt into the jeans. Opening the door both of their eyebrows raised and Shayne shakes his head up and down.
"All I have to say is yes." his eyes never leave you.
"Agreed, you look smoking." Sophia
...
You walk to the parking garage, and it turns out Shayne didn't park too far from you.
"Soph i'll meet you at the car in a sec." you grab Shaynes' arm.
You walk to his car and he leans on the bumper/trunk of the car. You get close to him and whisper into his ear. "I would pay a lot of money to see you in that button down again, but next time I get to take it off." You pull away and bite your lower lip. His mouth is open and curls into a smile.
"Woah, this is a new y/n I haven't met before." He says seductively.
"Oh you'll get to know her soon." you say confidently, wrapping your arms around his neck.
You kiss him goodbye and walk back to the car. As you close the door Sophia drives home.
"Thanks for letting me come! I had so much fun getting to know Shayne when he isn't around his friends. He talks about you like you're his favorite thing, it's really cute. When he was picking out clothes for you he was so excited to see you try them on." she stops at a red light and turns to you.
You grin, "it was fun!" You couldn't help but think about tomorrow. You get lost in your thoughts.
I want to impress them, but I don't want to seem like I'm bragging. I don't know what the plans are and it makes me nervous.
Pulling into the driveway you get out and walk inside. Exhaustion comes over you. You take a quick shower and go to sleep, your thoughts of the things that could go wrong tomorrow give you nightmares.
...