Lightweight

Chapter Nineteen

Once Annie had gotten directions from Natasha to the nearest mall, she, Eleanor, and Danielle departed to the place that was sure to be Annie's own personal hell. Sadly, Natasha wasn't going with them, having made prior commitments with Grandpa at the golf course. Annie felt so bad, she hadn't had dinner with Grandpa in almost a week and the last time she had seen him was back on the roof, and there Natasha was going to play a round of golf with him. That just left the "girlfriend club" to scour the mall in hopes of finding an outfit that would make Annie presentable in the eyes of not only Niall's management team but the world as well. Yeah, good luck with that.

Pulling into a parking spot at a reckless speed and finally stopping the car, Annie could see out of the corner of her eye Eleanor's tense fingers unclenching from around the leather seats of the borrowed hotel car and her face slowly begin to relax. Annie tried her hardest not to laugh at her but the smile on her face was unavoidable. She couldn't understand why people were so afraid of her driving.

When Annie looked to the entrance of the mall an audible groan escaped from her mouth and not solely because she was about to be forced to go shopping and try on a bunch of stupid dresses. There were probably a couple dozen girls standing around the front doors waiting for, who only Annie could assume was, them. How they even found out about the last minute decision to go the mall was beyond Annie's intelligence. After Niall had told Annie about the movie premier tomorrow night he asked Eleanor and Danielle to help Annie in the clothing department, knowing all too well that Annie would just as likely show up in jeans and a hoodie if there wasn't some serious intervention done prior to the event. That was all Eleanor needed to be asked and she shot up out of the sand where she was still tanning and dragged the two girls inside to change and leave.

Surprisingly they fans weren't aggressive, only asking for a few pictures that Danielle and Eleanor complied to before going inside the first store they saw after entering the mall.

"Do you guys always have to have the stores closed when you go shopping?" Annie wondered once they were in the safety of the store as she eyeballed the man standing in front of the glass doors holding back the forty or so girls trying to catch a glimpse of the trio and taking as many pictures as they could.

"Sometimes," Eleanor shrugged and took a pink dress off of the rack to hold up to Annie's body only to make a face at the pairing and replace it thankfully.

"I'm really sorry you guys had to leave the beach to help me with this," Annie apologized, feeling terrible. The last thing in the world she would want was somebody dragging her away from the sheer amazingness of the beach only to go shopping.

"It's fine with me," Eleanor assured with a laugh.

"She has a bit of a problem," Danielle informed and Eleanor stuck her tongue out at her.

"Well, thank you," Annie mustered out.

"Really, anything to help you and Niall. It's not fair what those bastards are trying to do with the two of you. Who are they to tell you guys not to be together. Louis told me all about it and it is just awful what you two are having to go through. We are gonna make you look smoking hot and show them, mark my words," Eleanor rambled on.

"Good luck with that," Annie laughed.

"You'll see," Eleanor laughed and took off down the racks in search for THE dress, leaving Danielle and Annie alone.

It wasn't hard being around the two girls like Annie had originally expected it to be. For some reason she didn't feel the need to pretend she was some big bad tough chick like she did with the outside world that she didn't know very well. Perhaps it was because the two girls she was in the presence of were so absolutely perfect and confident that the need Annie usually felt to put up her front seemed useless, she couldn't compete in the slightest and for once it seemed refreshing.