Loved & Loyal | 1

xxv

After five minutes, Abby was good to go. In those five minutes, however, she had changed her clothes twice and had put more makeup on than paint on the Mona Lisa.  I thought she was beautiful when she woke up beside me in the mornings with no makeup on, wearing my clothes - even though I couldn't kiss her like I so badly wanted to.

We left her house and got in her car because I couldn't get mine back for another few weeks.

"So, where do you want to go in the mall?" I asked Abby, trying to fill the comfortable silence.

"I need to go to SwimCo and Garage, and I wouldn't mind stopping at Boathouse, either. Hollister might be good so we can go there, too."

"Great," I said with feigned enthusiasm.

"Hey, we're going to Greece. Get excited, you stick-in-the-mud." I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Well, I wanna go to EBGames, West49, SportChek, and Footlocker." I crossed my arms at a stop light, determined to hold my ground.

"Ben!" Abby squealed, "Drive!"

I pressed down on the accelerator as the light turned green and we were off again, arguing over which stores to go to first. We had settled on SwimCo first because it's near the entrance and we both need new swimsuits.

After about an hour of shopping, we headed to the food court with our arms (mostly Abby's) full of bags. We picked our favourite place to eat, Thai Express, and sat down at a table to unload our arms and eat.

We chatted about random, normal things like who was dating who, who has had the best party so far, who will have the next one, and what's going on with our lives away from each other. Abby told me that Katelyn and her cousin broke up but are on okay terms, and I told her that Jake's still fucking around.

"God, he can be such a pig sometimes."

"Actually, he's a pretty decent guy. He's just... troubled." I shrugged at this, failing to come up with a  better adjective.

We finished our lunch and picked our bags up again, preparing to shop for another hour before heading home. We stopped in Ardene's, and Abby found a pair of sunglasses, a bikini, a sun hat, and a summer dress.

Then, we finally stopped at SportChek and I got a pair of board shorts, an athletic tank top, and some flip-flops.

We got back in the car after dumping all our bags in the boot, and she drove us home because I drove her car on the way there.

We parked in her driveway and I helped her take her bags in to her room before leaving her there to take mine to my own house before coming back. She was right where I left her, sitting in the middle of her bed criss-cross applesauce, going through all of her new purchases.

"Bear, come help me put these things away. You can start with that pile." She pointed to a heap of clothes at the end of her bed and I started putting them away.

When I had put her hat on the little coat hanger she had in the corner of her room, I turned back to grab the next thing from the pile - a small bikini. And when I say small, I mean teeny, and blue. I could feel myself start to get 'excited' just thinking of her with it on.

I turned to her with the small top hanging by a string on my finger, smirking. "I didn't know you got this. Are you sure it's for you and not the nine year old down the street. It might fit her better."

She gasped when she saw what I was talking about and jumped up off the bed, trying to snatch it out of my hands. "Give that back, twat." I just laughed at her.

I held it above my head and she jumped trying to get it, but she stumbled and fell into my chest, my arms coming to wrap around her waist instantly. This put our bodies entirely too close and I could feel every inch of her body that was pressed to mine, and there was a lot of them.