Dark and Light: The Island

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Location: District 19, The Island

The first thing that I thought was that maybe asking Chloe what she wanted to do was a bad idea. She wanted to go to town and go clothes shopping.

Okay, so Nathaniel was giving me a pitying glance every time she began to talk and I felt very sorry for myself while punching him in the arm every time that Chloe wasn't looking. He was enjoying lording it over me that we would be going shopping.

I hated shopping. I so wasn't a girly girl. Nate knew this, and he was only having a good time following Chloe everywhere that she went because it meant that he could tease me about what a terrible time I was having.

It was different shopping with Nate the day before; he wasn't a girl, and therefore didn't need to stop at every single stall, deliberate over what he wanted to buy, and then end up going back an hour later. He just found what he needed, bought it, and left. But do you think that Chloe could do that? Of course she couldn't. And that was why, at nearly seven o'clock in the evening, we were still packed into the market in the freezing late January air.

"This is hell," I muttered to Nate when Chloe rushed off to look at a cardigan.

"I'm having a great time."

"Yeah, I just bet you are. Having a great time taking the piss out of me, I bet." I retorted quietly.

"Oh, Laurel, you're a girl. Girls are supposed to enjoy shopping. Why don't you like shopping?" Stupid, smug bastard was really getting into it now. I glared at him.

"I hate shopping. I'm an efficient shopper, okay?! I shop like a guy!"

"Oh, right, okay then. Whatever you say."

"Shut up before I hit you!" I whispered at him furiously as Chloe skipped back up to us, swinging a few bags from her arms.

"What's up, you guys?" she chirped, looking between Nathaniel's amused expression and my murderous one.

"It's cold," I whined, clutching my leather jacket around me. "And it's late. Don't we need to be back in our houses by ten?"

"We can stay until eight and still make it back with plenty of time!" Chloe sang. I groaned inwardly.

"I think we're hungry and cold and tired. Our housemates ended up keeping us awake all night by drinking two bottles of whiskey and shouting," Nathaniel defended. Oh, it sure was nice for him to suddenly develop a heart. "I think we should get back, if you bought everything you wanted?"

Chloe sighed and all of the excitement suddenly huffed out of her. "Okay, then. But I'm coming round to wherever you guys live tomorrow!"

"What happened to keeping a low profile?" I questioned ten minutes later when we were on our way back to our houses. "I thought you wanted to lay low for a while so that you didn't draw attention to yourself."

"I was doing that!" Chloe exclaimed. "Until you let me go shopping. Shopping always makes me hyper. I am amazed that you didn't already know that."

"We knew each other for a few days in the Detention Centre," I reminded her calmly. "How could I have known that? There wasn't exactly much of a chance to get out and shop there."

"Shut up," she snapped at me, behaving much like her usual bitchy self. More like the Chloe I knew.

I grinned and we soon got back to our houses. By this time, I was so hungry that I would have eaten anything - even the disgusting stuff that the Detention Centre served. I was that desperate that I would risk contracting some sort of disease from food, as long as it was edible.