Love, On Read (MxM)

Chapter 11: Friend Date Pt. 2

A/N: sorry for the wait, was struggling to incorporate all the date ideas but hope you enjoy nonetheless, it certainly won't be the last "friend date" they'll have.

Chapter 11: Friend Date Pt. 2

Ollie's POV

"Four hundred dollars?" I gave Haruto a weird look, the ridiculously overpriced shirt slipping through my hands. "What the fuck is it made of?"

He glanced at the tag. "It's the brand."

Gripping the price tag, I covered the last zero. "I wouldn't even pay forty dollars for a shirt like this."

He stuck out his left arm pinching a fold in the denim jacket. "This was actually sixty bucks."

"You're insane."

He huffed before glancing around the store, occasionally touching and feeling a feel of the clothes, gawking at the prices like I was. That was until something caught his eye, his body freezing before whirling around to face me.

"Oh, I forgot I needed a new shirt," he mumbled, stepping closer to me before reaching above my head where a shelf of shirts were.

"Haruto, what are you doing?" I tried to move past him but he didn't move, just fumbled with something on a shelf above me. Trying not to push him away as then I'd technically be touching his chest, I awkwardly stepped into the lower display rack, the coathangers digging into my back as he leaned over me.

"This shirt," he urged. "I think this looks good. What do you think? Salmon not my color?"

I scoffed, my mind all over the place with how close he was standing near me. "Uh, sure?"

"Yeah, I don't know about it, too expensive," he mumbled before glancing over his shoulder. Before I could ask what that was all about, he stepped back, uttering an apology. "I think he's gone."

"Huh?" I tried to look over his shoulder. "Who?"

Blocking my view of most of the store, he scanned the crowd. "That ex-friend of yours."

I blinked. "My what?"

"Mason, was it?" He thrummed and jeered his thumb towards the registers and table of jeans. "I saw him by the jeans over there."

My heart pounded against my chest. He was in here? Sure he was in town but in the same store and the same mall? That was too much of a coincidence to be true. I glanced around until the back of Mason's head appeared by the display Haruto mentioned.

Sure enough, a couple of yards away from him, the person I most desperately did not want to see ever again was holding up a pair of jeans toward Mason.

Benjamin Adams.

The living, breathing reason why my years of trying to "find myself" was a total disaster and shitshow. Just seeing his side profile made my breath come out raggedy, my hands shaking at my side.

"We should leave," he said, holding his arm out toward the door. I didn't argue and left the store, my heart still wracking against my chest. I couldn't imagine having to be caught by those two, especially in a crowded place like a mall. All the onlookers and people gazing at us from just being around Haruto was nerve-wracking alone. Being around those two would only bring the unwanted memories of high school to resurface.

"I am getting hungry; maybe we should get some food," I urged.

He smiled. "Let's go then. The food court?"

The food court was on the other side of the mall; surely running into them would be less likely there. "Sure. Let's just get out of here."

Despite Haruto's excessively long legs, I walked to the other end of the mall so fast that even he was struggling to keep up. Either that, or he was trying to give me space, for which I was grateful. Between seeing those idiots in the Macy's and the curious onlookers who kept staring at us, the persistent itch-like feeling of their scrutinizing was starting to get to me.