Chlaughan

Sweaty

CHIARA

Sunday, 10:00am

Ella and I race out to my car and hop in; me in the passenger's seat per usual. If someone else is with me, there's no way I'm driving. Plus, the passenger gets the aux cord. I scroll through my music until I come to the conclusion that there is nothing good to play. So, I go on Spotify and look at Avery's playlists because her's are always the best. I choose "SMK's rave/jams" and we get on the road.

"Okay, where should we go first?" Ella says, her eyes on the road.

"Mmm... thrift store?" I suggest.

"You read my mind."

We sing along and talk about the usual until we get close to the Goodwill.

"Did you see how weird Liam and Vaughan were being this morning?" Ella asks, and I shake my head,"Something was just off with them... I could tell."

"Weird." I say.

"They kept looking at each other in this way. It-it's hard to describe." Ella pushes on, pulling into the parking space.

"I'm sure it's nothing. They are generally weird people."

Ella laughs and puts the car in park. My nerves settle and we hop out. We haven't been here in a few weeks, which is extremely unusual knowing that we thrift most of our clothes. The workers love us here. In fact, one time, a few months ago we came here looking for some new accessories, when the manager came out from the back room with cupcakes. Ella couldn't eat one, but she accepted it out of respect. I felt bad, but on the bright side, I got to eat two cupcakes.

We walk inside to the familiar building and are instantly greeted by Jenna, the cashier. She looks over her shoulder and calls out to the others.

"Look who's back!"

The employees from all over the store look over. The amount of eye contact I made was scary, but it was kinda comforting at the same time.

"Hey, Jenna!" I laugh as she pulls me into a hug.

"It's been too long, girls!" She says, wrapping Ella in her arms. She has always been a hugger. I expected to get bear hugged by her at some point today.

"I know. We haven't had much time. Especially with Ella moving; it probably isn't the best idea to buy a bunch of clothes before having to pack it all up and ship it across the country." I explain.

"Yet here you are, buying a bunch of clothes before having to pack it up and ship it across the country." Jenna laughs.

I smile and Jenna backs away, signalling to go ahead and shop. Ella and I like to go row by row, starting in the men's section. You can usually find good stuff in there. Ella pulls out a red and blue flannel and holds it up to her chest.

I shake my head no, and she puts it back. We continue in the section until we finish scanning every section. I've compiled four tops, two pairs of pants, and a pair of sandals. Ella has one pair of jeans, a skirt, and two tops. The only section we have left to search through is the knick-knacks and music section.

Ella and I walk over to the side of the store and browse around. Immediately, Ella catches her eye on a small tea-set with fairies on each cup. She drifts away to get a better look, so I head over to the CDs and records. I look through the alphabetized shelf and bend down to the ground to look at the bottom shelves. They have all kinds of music, but I'm not interested in any of it. I found Pitbull's album "Dale," one of my favorite albums of all time, but I passed up on it. I dust off my knees and stand back up where I am greeted by the presence of a tall brunette boy with dark green eyes, distracting me from his bright blue Nike shoes.

I jump back a little bit to widen the space between us. We make slightly awkward eye contact for a few seconds before he breaks the silence.

"Pitbull, huh?" He says with a raised eyebrow and a side smile.

"Yeah... guilty pleasure." I laugh and look down at my feet. "The Lemonade Mouth soundtrack, huh?" I shoot back, glancing at the CD in his hand.

"Guilty pleasure," He laughs, setting it back on the shelf, "Aiden." He throws in, whilst sticking out his hand.

"Chiara," I say, shaking his hand, "Oh, I'm sorry if my hands are sweaty; they always are. My friends tell me it's gross and I try to explain to them that it's because of my hyperhidrosis, but they still think it's gross which sucks because I can't control it, and... I'm realizing that I'm blabbering... sorry."

The smile on his face is the most smug look I think I've ever seen. His eyes are lit up, and it's almost like they've turned to a lighter green. I must have been staring at him for a while, otherwise, I wouldn't be hearing Ella call out my name over and over.

"CHIARA!!" She practically yells.

I snap out of it and let go of Aiden's hand. Ella waved her hand at me and shook her head.

"I'll see you around, sweaty- I mean, Chiara."

I smile and turn around, jogging up to Ella. She tries to start to whisper something in my ear, but I nudge her with my elbow to tell her not to say anything until we leave.

We check out at the register and say goodbye to all of the employees. Ella spent more time saying goodbye since this is most likely her last time coming in here. It didn't hit me that this would be our last time going to one of our favorite places together until we were about to leave.

We head back out to the car and shove the bags of clothes into the trunk.

"So," Ella starts, hopping in and closing the door, "meet anyone new in there?"

I shuffle into the passenger's seat and buckle up. "Nope."

"Chiara, I'm not blind."

"Okay fine. His name is Aiden, and he likes 'Lemonade Mouth.' He isn't grossed out by my sweaty hands, and he has pretty green eyes and-"

"Okay, I get it! Why don't you text him if you like him so much?" Ella suggests.

"Yeah... yeah I'll do that. Right," I agree.

Ella starts the car and gets on the road. I pull out my phone and open up the Messenger app. My eyes widen and I look to my left, to Ella.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asks.

I don't say anything but I think my eyes say it all.

"You forgot to ask for his number didn't you?"

"Yep." I say with a sigh. I turn my phone off and look out the window. "I can't believe I did that."

"Do you want me to turn around?"

"No, it's probably too late now."

We drive home quietly with only the faint sound of music playing from the radio. I can't stop thinking about him. It's not that I like him like that... I mean, I've only met him once and it was only for a few minutes, but I like meeting new people; especially when they have dreamy green eyes and perfect hair.

It would have been nice to get his number and get to know him better, but I've got my heart set on someone else.