The Shy Girl

Gym

"Hey!" Hannah and Sarah greet me as they stand in front of me.

"Hey guys," I say in a not so nice way as I roll my eyes.

"What you doing here?" Sarah asks, looking around to see who I was with.

"Shopping."

"Shop with us." They offer.

"Nah, I'm already shopping wi-" I was interrupted by Brad.

"What's going on?" Brad asks as he puts his arm around my shoulder.

"Oh, you never told me you had a boyfriend. A good looking one at that." Sarah remarks, lifting her eyebrow.

"I don't-" I was interrupted again. "Yeah, I told her not to tell anyone." Brad remarks with a smirk as he looks at me and kisses my forehead.

"Oh, well, we'll leave y'all to it then." Sarah says.

"And if you get bored of her... come find me." Hannah walks off with Sarah after she makes her remark. Typical Hannah.

"Want to explain?" I ask, looking for an answer.

"You looked like you were scared of them." Brad excuses.

"They're my "friends"." I put in quotation marks.

"What do you mean?"

"They're sorta... how do you put it? Friends that are a real pain in the butt. They bully me a lot."

Brad nods his head, even though I could tell he wanted to learn more.

"So, those are the shoes?" I ask.

Brad lifts up Nike tennis shoes that are bright pink neon with the check mark on the side.

The shoes were perfect but then, I saw the price tag. I check it again, this time looking at it more deeply.

Have you ever saw how much something that you want was and you put it in the light, expecting it to change? That's exactly what I did.

I yanked the expensive neon shoes out of Brad's hands and put it above me while I look at the price tag yet again.

"No... these are way to expensive."

"They'll last a long time." Brad begins to give me the pros of the shoes.

"Plus, I have an app on my phone that will take off 10% of anything that is the brand of Nike."

"That's still a lot." I blurt.

"Well, you're gonna get these no matter what."

This was the first time I had a fight with anyone about I didn't want something.

It felt weird. I mean, I usually argue with my mom or someone that I want something. Not in this case, though.

I give in and let Brad buy the overpriced clothing, since he was so "polite" about it.

~

I wipe the sweat off of my forehead and stop the running treadmill that leads to nowhere.

"Done already?" Brad asks in shock.

"Brad, we've been at the gym for at least two hours."

"Man, I come here longer than that." Brad quickly puts the weights down and hurries to my side as I open the door to leave.

"No, no, no, no, not yet." He slams the door shut. Why?" I plead with a impatient voice.

"Need to change clothes. Duh," Brad thumps my forehead and jumps back, expecting me to flick his head.

"You scared?" I tease.

Brad shakes his head and begins to laugh.
He then starts moving like a wrestler does when he and his opponent are in the boxing range and he's moving in circles, fists ready to launch, ready to sneak in a surprise attack.

Which Brad did; he dived right on top of me and pinned me to the floor that luckily had mats.

"Dude, stop." I demand in a demanding voice, but inside I wanted to laugh and fight back.

"Why?" Brad gets close to my face like a bully does to someone who stands up for the victim.

"Because thes-" I wasn't able to finish my sentence. A deep voice interrupted me.