Best Friend's Brother

Chapter 5

We arrived at the mall and I clambered out of the car, Joe close behind. I tripped on the uneven concrete and nearly fell flat on my face. Luckily, I felt Joe arms circle my waist and pull me back upright. I smiled at him gratefully and thanked him.

"Careful now," he grinned at me, winking. I blushed. What the heck? Zoe shouted, "Come on guys!" I turned and saw that Jim, Tan, and Zoe were all ahead; Joe and I were the only ones left in the car park. Joe grabbed my wrist and pulled me along. We finally caught up and Joe released my arm. My wrist felt cold at the sudden absence of his touch. I shivered. We entered the mall and Zoe set her sights on the nearest shop, dragging the closest of us with her (Tanya and Jim, the poor victims of Zoe's shopping vice grip). Joe and I followed, laughing uncontrollably at Jim's helpless face. Zoe shouted my name, calling me over.

"Ohmygod you HAVE to wear this dress for the premiere next week!" she squealed excitedly. We had all been invited to the exclusive premiere of the new Peter Pan movie. That's why Zoe and I had been dying to shop together for ages. I scrunched my nose at the little navy blue dress.

"I dunno, Zo" I said hesitantly, "I think it's a bit too tight. Maybe it would fit you a bit better?" She rolled her eyes at me, exasperated. "You're the exact same size as me, just try it on?" she pleaded. She was right, we were the same exact size. In fact, we borrowed each others clothes quite often. I didn't like to wear clothes that showed off my figure though, and Zoe was always begging me to try on dresses and pencil skirts. "All right, then" I gave in, seeing Zoe's wide eyes. She grinned with victory, ushering me into the fitting room. I slipped the dress on and gazed at myself in the mirror. Well, it's alright, it could be worse. I turned round to look at the back. Woah my bum actually looks quite good! I giggled.

"What's going on in there, come out!" Zoe called to me. I walked out of the fitting room and presented myself to her. Her eyes widened.

"You have DEFINITELY got to get that dress! You look SOOO amazing!" she gushed. My face turned red and at that moment, Joe walked in.

"Hey, Zo, what do you think of th—" his eyes fell on me and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor. "(y/n)! You look....I....you...um. Good. Really good." he stammered. I blushed hard and hid my face in my hands. Zoe looked at the both of us strangely and announced "Okay, Joe, don't you have a tie in the same color as that dress? You should wear it to the premiere!"

He stammered, "I, uh, yeah, um, okay." Zoe pushed him out of the fitting room while calling back to me "Get changed (y/n), I'm going to help Joe find something, and then we'll go buy that dress okay?" I nodded my head, speechless. What just happened? I laughed to myself and shook my head as I headed back into the changing room to change back into my clothes.

I emerged from the fitting room area with the dress slung on my arm and managed to find Zoe and Tanya whispering fiercely by the shoes. Joe and Jim were nowhere to be found. I walked up and Zoe and Tanya suddenly straightened up and Tanya said "Hey, girl! I heard you look stunning in that dress!" She winked. I nodded, unable to say anything comprehensible.

"It's true" said a familiar voice near my ear. I spun around to find Joe standing very close to me, smiling down at me. He seems to have collected himself. I smirked at him and he wrinkled his nose at me, knowing exactly what I was thinking about. I giggled and Jim interrupted the moment saying, "Let's go pay, shall we? Alfie and Caspar are bound to be done with the movie by now." He had a pair of shoes in his hand. I agreed, " Yeah okay, let's go pay for our stuff."

I bought the dress, Jim got his shoes, and Zoe ended up getting a very pretty necklace. I was smiling happily as we walked back to the car park. Joe poked me in the ribs and whispered in my ear, "What's up with you? You look like you just found out that there were 50 puppies waiting for you back at your flat." I turned to look at him. "What kind of analogy is that? That's so random." I laughed at him, punching him back teasingly.

"Well, you never know what's going to happen." he said defensively. I grinned at his facial expression. He looked like a pouting little boy. We teased each other the whole car ride home.
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Okay, kind of a crappy ending but I didn't really know how to end the chapter hahaha. The next chapter is full of surprises though. Stay tuned! ;)