Freedom

Leather

{Chapter 10}

I cringed when I heard the voice and grabbed Redd's hand. I started to run, but was pulled back by Redd.

"Come on!" I said quietly.

"Why?"

"I'll tell you if you just follow me. Now come on!" I pulled him through crowds of people and into a nearby store. Abercrombie & Fitch, sizes 1, 0, 00, and super thin. Gosh, she'd probably come in here. I pulled him through the other exit and we went into a sports store, stopping in there.

"Okay, now would you mind telling me what that was all about?"

I sighed. "There was a girl back there. She bullied me and I didn't want her to see me, especially with you because I didn't want her to get to you either." I shrugged and hung my head down. It sounded better in my head, but out loud it sounded stupid.

"Hey, that's alright. I wouldn't want any of my bullies taking anything out on you either." He tilted my head up with his index finger so I'd be looking at him. Our faces were so close that I could see how perfect his eyes were. "I want you to be safe."

"Thank you Travis." I smiled at him. I'd be an idiot to say that he didn't like me, because he really did. I wasn't one of those girls who had to be hit upside the head with a brick and screamed at by a sumo wrestler to realize he liked me. I just hoped that he could see how much I liked him.

"Do you mind if we go into Jaggy's? I wanted to get a shirt or two. Oh and a new belt. Don't worry, they have female apparel as well."

"Okay, let's go." We started walking with the flow of people and made our way to Jaggy's. When we walked into the store, the scent of bayberries filled my nose. Not many people recognized it, but I did because...

"No, no, no." Redd held onto My arm tightly. He started patting my arm and looked at me with eyes flooded with emotions. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was having a flashback, or at least an episode. I clung onto his arms and held him tight.

"It's okay, it will be over soon. You'll be okay Travis. I've got you." His eyes cleared and he looked at me.

"I'm so sorry. I, just, the scent. It triggered my panic attack. I'm so sorry Persephone." His voice trailed. I knew what he was talking about. When I had panic attacks, they were the scariest things and made me go completely insane for a few seconds. Last one I had was triggered by a text. I laid in the fetal position and cried. It was extremely scary.

"It's okay Redd. Let's just pretend nothing happened?" He nodded. Nobody had noticed us and we drove ourselves deeper into the shop. We decided to split ways and look for what we wanted to save time, although I'd love to be with him.

I walked myself over to the Clearance section and started prodding through the racks. I loved a good deal as well as any other normal teenage girl. I stopped at a pair of floral shorts. I wish I could wear shorts. Too bad I have scars. I pulled them out anyways. I might as well try them on. I kept panning through the rack and stopped at a dress.

This dress was amazing. The straps were beaded as well as the midsection. The bottom had beadwork as well. It was marked down so low due to a broken zipper. The yellow dress before me was perfect other than that.

"You should try that on." I jumped at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. I turned around to see a smirking boy in a leather jacket behind me. He winked at me. I fumbled with my thoughts trying to find some words to come up with, but all I could say was,

"Oh."

That's when I saw Travis' red locks coming towards us. Thank you God for sending this boy. Redd came over and looked at the boy, but the boy didn't see him. He was just looking at my chest. Redd stepped towards me and put his arms around my waist and kissed my cheek.

"Are you going to get those shorts, love?" Redd said this with a British accent which had made me blush and winked at me.

"Oh yes, I was planning on it, but this young fellow here thought I should try this dress on as well." I pointed my hand in the direction of the leather jacket boy.

"Oh I think you'd look lovely in it, dear." He said this continuing with the accent. "Thank you for the suggestion, mate."

"Oh, yeah, uh, no problem." He turned around and presumably walked out of the doors.

"Well, you would look good in that dress, love." Redd still had his arms around my waist which I was surprisingly comfortable with.

"Well I guess I'll go try it on then. Shall we?" I held out my hand even though it was kind of awkward with his arms around my waist.

"We shall." He took my hand and I led him to the dressing room.

***

"Well, what do you think?" I'd managed to get the dress's zipper fixed while in the changing room. All of my scars were showing, but I couldn't care less. I was outside the changing room now and did a little spin in front of Redd. Gosh, I was getting cheesy.

"You look... Beautiful." I could tell this was sincere based on Redd's facial expression.

"Well then, I'm getting it!" With that I walked back in the changing room.

***

After stopping at a few other stores to pass the time, we made our way into the food court to find Jake and Parker. Jake had already texted me, telling me he was in the food court. Redd and I had been holding hands since the incident in Jaggy's. After finally finding Jake and Parker we walked out of the mall and made our way to the car.

I unlocked the trunk and loaded all of our stuff into it. Everything took up a lot more room than what I'd expected. I got into the drivers seat and put the car into gear. I backed up the car and pulled out to the stop sign. I looked both ways and pulled out onto to highway. I at least attempted to.

As I was pulling out, a car came speeding towards ours. I looked at Redd and waited for it to make impact with my door, because that was right where it was headed.