Spade

The Mall

"Come on, Mel! Just look at all these stores! I think we should start at Forever 21 and..."

Oh goodie, I thought as I allowed Liz to drag me through the mall entrance. Almost as soon as I ate and dressed I was pushed out the door. Benny was the lucky one and stayed home playing Xbox.

Mom was there when I woke up and was back to acting normal. Which basically meant she was sitting in the kitchen reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. A shiver ran through me as I thought about what she said last night.

"What do you think of this dress?" 

My attention was pulled back to the present as Liz held up a bright purple dress with sparkles.

"Um, am I missing something?" I asked.

"Mel, prom is next month. And although I love to shop, I am not fighting with other teenage girls for a dress," she said, exasperated.

"Okay, okay. I like that dress but I think you would look better in a floor length dress. And less sparkles," I commented as I re-examined the dress she held. I may not like shopping all that much but I am pretty good with advice.

"Thank ya darlin'. You need to look, too," Liz sang as she put the dress back and continued looking.

"Ugh! Fine. You look for me and I'll look for you. Meet me at the dressing rooms in ten minutes."

"Twenty. You can't rush the process," Liz complained.

"Okay, okay. Twenty."

<><><><><><><>

"Man, this is too good," David exclaimed as he drank from his Starbucks.

"It's overpriced ice with coffee," Jason deadpanned.

"Whatever. It keeps me awake and HQ is paying for it," David shrugged, taking a seat on a bench.

Jason agreed but kept silent. They hadn't slept in what felt like forever and if this kept them awake, so be it.

"How long have they been in there?" David asked, looking at Forever 21, which was across from us.

He'd been in a talkative mood ever since his first sip and Jason was slowly losing his patience.

"About an hour."

"Ugh." 

<><><><><><>

"Ugh!" I shrieked, looking at the abomination I was currently trying on.

"Yellow, Liz? I look like a wanna-be flower girl ten years too late!" I complained, immediately returning to the dressing room to take off the knee length silk and white lace. Bleh.

"I know," she said with a smirk.

"That one was just for fun."

We didn't have any success at Forever 21. Or Macys, Dillards, or JcPenny. We were currently at a dress shop in the mall and it made me wonder why we hadn't started there in the first place. 

"Try on the navy one next!" she called out.

Unlike me, Liz already found the dress she wanted (obviously one of my choices, mind you), but I still had no luck.

My stomach grumbled unhappily and I looked at my phone.

"Liz! It's already two o'clock! We need lunch!" 

"Fine, but just one more!"she said grumpily. 

"Okay. But I'm going to try on the burgundy one."

I grabbed the dress that had caught my eye all this time and pulled it on. It was floor length burgundy. It had a long sleeved top of burgundy lace with a small oval cutout on the back. From the waist down was more burgundy material. The sleeves went all the way down my arms and towards the bottom of the dress it hang loosely.

When I was done, I stepped out of the room and immediately knew by Liz' reaction that she liked that dress.

I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself from all angles.

"Ohhhhhhhh," Liz breathed.

"You have to get that."

A smile lit up my face. 

"I think so, too." 

"Okay so you'll need black heels, a gold necklace and you're so going to let me curl your hair and you'll wear dark red lipstick- OH! This is so much fun!" Liz gushed.

I laughed along and just nodded my head. I would just let Liz handle it because my ideas wouldn't even come close.

"And we'll look so good together! Look!"

Liz rushed to my side and held her own dress in front of her.

She also picked a floor length dress, in black. At first she wasn't sure the color fit her personality, but the sparkles on the dress soon changed her mind. It was a sleeveless halter neck with an oval cutout on the front and there were silver crystals that began by her neck and ombre'd down to the waist.

"Definitely! Let me go change and we can go."

When I came out we immediately checked out and headed to the food court. We actually got great prices on our dresses because Liz is a coupon master. She 'just so happened to have brought them with her,' but I was pretty sure she had this all planned. I wasn't going to call her out on it though because I'm glad we had our dresses. It was one less thing to have to think about.

"Let's get Steak and Shake! I haven't had a milkshake in forever and it's taking a toll on my poor tummy," Liz whined, rubbing said 'poor tummy'. 

"I'm down."

<><><><><><>

"Dude, those girls looked smoking in those dresses. Does the blonde have a boyfriend?" David asked, all but drooling as Melissa and Liz passed. They didn't see us because they were too distracted. 

"Which one?" Jason asked, a little irritated. It was one thing to get close to the Target but for David to...

"The one jumping around so much and dragging the Target."

"Oh. No, I don't think so," Jason said. He'd thought David was talking about Melissa but that was just crazy talk.

"You thought I was talking about the other one. Jace, come on. It's not my job to get close to her." David smirked.

"What are you saying?" Jason asked, startled.

"I'm saying that if you want to get the most information and trust out of Melissa, you might have to be a little more than the guy friend."

Great.

<><><><><><><>

Liz was finally content with her food and was sitting quiet for the time being. 

We'd both ended up with burgers, fries and m&m milkshakes.

"Do you want to go to Sephora next? We need that red lipstick," Liz asked, watching everyone that passed.

A cute boy walked by and smiled when he saw her watching. 

With her signature smirk, Liz let out a low wolf whistle and waved. It didn't bother me that much because I was used to her eccentric behavior by now.

"Sure. Then we can finally go home. Unless you're leaving with him," I laughed, trying to get her attention back as I mentioned the guy she was still drooling over.

She snapped back to attention and let out a chuckle. 

"Uh-uh. Liz looks, not does!"