Never Have I Ever

Chapter 16

“Alright… how is this?”  

            I held up a dress without looking at it too much. When I glanced down, I almost laughed. It’s color resembled puke. Nash made a face but covered it quickly with a fake smile.

            “That’s…nice.”

            I groaned, frustrated. “You’ve said that for the past like, ten dresses. This is disgusting!”

            He rolled his eyes, “Then why’d you even pick it up?”

            I ignored him, flipping through articles of clothes again. For at least the tenth time that day, I missed my best friend. I would’ve had an outfit for the party in five seconds flat if Anna had been here. I was looking through the sales rack, because well, I was broke.

I’d realized Nash was a very patient person, unlike Scott, while shopping. He didn’t even complain once. He was leaning on a wall next to me while I searched, unknowingly gathering the attention from most girls in the store. My insides warmed at the thought that he was here with me. I picked up a light purple dress that was cheap, on the sale rack of course, and held it up in front of me.

He barely glanced at it, “Looks good,” he said.

I gave him a blank stare. “You didn’t even look at it.”

He made a point to grab it from my hands and scam it very closely. He shoved it back into my hands, “It’s wonderful.”

I sighed. “Whatever,” I muttered.

“Can’t you just… call her or something? I mean, you guys are fighting for no reason.”

I glared at him, “It’s not for no reason! She purposely tried to ruin…” I cut myself off when I realized I was about to say ‘relationship.’ I bit my lip. Would that scare him away? Didn’t he say a while ago that he just wanted to be friends? I almost groaned out loud. Then why did he give such mixed signals! Didn’t he understand that girls overanalyze everything?

I cleared my throat, “No I can’t just call her, okay? And anyways, I’m waiting for her to apologize to me first, since I did nothing wrong.”

He shrugged, “Fine.”

“Fine.”

I went back to searching. My shoulders slumped. I didn’t even like to wear dresses! I’d rather just wear jeans.

            “What about this?”

            I turned to Nash, my eyebrows raised, curious as to what could have caught his attention. I snorted. “No. No way.”

The dress he deemed suitable was a black dress that was short, and much like the one I had been wearing when I first met him.

            “Why?” he asked, shaking it in front of my face.

            “It looks like it could be a shirt!” I hissed, grabbing it from him.

            “I was just trying to help,” he said innocently, a smirk tugging at his lips.

            “Perv,” I muttered, grabbing the dress from him. I looked at the price tag discreetly. It was eleven dollars. My eyes widened. I could afford this! And he did say he liked it…

I looked up at him. He was already staring at me. Blushing, I quickly looked away again.

            “Fine, I’ll get it. Only because it’s the cheapest dress I’ve found yet.”