Rebound Issues k.a.

Chapter 9

"Brandon?" My jaw drops.

"Nagely?" He mocks me then laughs. "Long time no see. Wow, you look amazing." He looks me up and down. "And I thought you were gonna be a trainwreck after our breakup." We both laugh but mine was forced. "So how've you been?"

"Great, you?" I nervously dart my eyes around.

"Good. So how about we ha-"

"Nagely, that looks so good on you. We're buying that. Try these t...Who's this?" Shari hands me two more dresses then turns to Brandon.

"I'm Brandon, her ex." He nonchalantly sticks out his hand. Shari shakes it with a plastered smile.

"I'm Shari, her future sister-in-law."

"Oh really?" He raises his eyebrows and Shari nods. "Then I can't wait to meet him." Shari's phone vibrates and she's distracted from the conversation. "Here comes Elena. She's my new girlfriend." A girl walks towards us with a few clothes in her hands.

"Hi, you're Nagely, right?" I nod. "I've heard a lot about you." She widens her eyes and pokes out her bottom lip.

"Oh." I can't help but glance at Brandon and he seems to have a satisfied smile on his face.

"Nagely!" Three people yell. Kevin, Devin, and Daniel all run up into the store. "What's good, babygirl?" He puts an arm around my shoulder.

"Here's Kevin, her boyfriend." Shari stares at us as if she's sending mind messages.

"Uh yep, I'm Nagely's boyfriend. You must be Bernardo, her ex." Kevin pulls me closer.

"Brandon." He looks in shock at Kevin.

"We should hang out, like eat at the food court." Kevin suggests.

"No, we're good." Brandon squeezes Elena's hand and she stops drooling over Kevin.

"You sure?"

"Yep, we're gonna leave now." Brandon drags her away but she kept glancing back.

"Aye, ok Kev!" Devin shakes him.

"That was some A-one acting." Daniel pats Kevin on the back.

"It wasn't a hard part to play." Kevin winks at me. "And by the way, damn ma, you look smoochie in that dress. Shari, you're buying her that, right?"

"Uh of course." She says as if he's stupid.

"So I'm gonna go change now." I inch away from the conversation.

"And try on the other dresses." Shari adds one more to my arm. "Stop staring at her ass so much." Shari tried to whispers then laughs. I've learned, well realized, that Shari can't whisper very well, like she's really bad. I pray for all those people she's embarrassed by failing at whispering.

• • • • • 20 minutes later

Shari bought me a boat load of clothes. Half the things she bought was for me to match her because she had similar things and wanted to be twins.

"It was a nice little runway fashion whatever Shari put on with Nagely the model, but I'm starving." Daniel says.

"So Shari, stop picking out clothes," Devin puts the jeans she just got back on the rack. "and let's go eat."

"I'll wait for Nagely." She says.

"No, because if we leave you, you'll never show up because you'll still be shopping. I'll wait with Nagely." Kevin says and sits on the bench by the room I went to change in. I go inside and try to unzip the dress but the zipper gets stuck. Are you kidding me?

"Kevin?" I call out.

"Yeah?"

"I need your, uh, help with my zipper." I open the door and he walks in trying not to smile but you can still see it on his face. I move my hair out the way and he tries to zip it down but it won't budge.

"This thing's really stuck, huh?" He tugs harder.

"Be careful, before you r-" But it was too late. We both froze at the sound of a long tear. "Kevin!" I turn around and feel the tear. He has his mouth dropped into a smile.

"That's some cute underwear you got there."

"Stop, be serious." I try not to laugh. "What do we do?" I follow his eyes and see that he's staring at my cleavage. I pull up the dress and he stops staring.

"Oh sorry, it was just kinda there and I couldn't help-"

"Just what do we do?"

"Ok umm, take off the dress and sneak it back on a rack." He walks out and closes the door. I quickly undress and put back on my clothes. I peek out and he's distracting the clerk person. I put it back on the rack and try to casually walk out.

"Mission accomplished." Kevin sticks a hand out so I unwillingly high five him. "I gotta story."

"Have at it."

"I was seven and you were six. Your mom took us to the beauty supply store. You know how the carts have the bottom thing, so the whole time while she was shopping we kept putting random things at the bottom. Your mom paid for all things in the cart but she didn't know we were filling up the bottom. When we were leaving the alarm beeped but your mom went there a lot so the person was cool with her and just let her go." We laugh. "When we got to the car and your mom saw it, she just decided to keep everything and threw it in the trunk."

"Partners in crime." I nudge him in the arm.

"Yup." He smiles.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Season one, done." Kevin says. It's like three in the morning.

"This show dope." Daniel yawns.

"Hmm." Devin's on the verge of falling asleep. I lay down and feel Kevin scoot closer behind me.

"I'm gonna hold you now." He says then hesitantly puts an arm around my waist. I don't move but just let it happen. "Goodnight Nag." He whispers.

"Night, Kev."