Lonely

Chapter 19, Hanger

Sadie stopped walking and leaned against the tree, stretching her arms over head and sighing. She yawned and looked over at me with half closed eyes. "I'm tired." She stated. "I see that." I answered. I looked around. Still in the forest. We had only crossed a few roads, but for the most part we stayed in the woods. It was just past ten, and we were exhausted. I decided we could probably sleep at the same time. I doubted the monsters would come in the day time. Leaning against the tree, her eyes closed, face tilted up the light filtering through the leaves, I couldn't help but think how pretty Sadie was, really. I wanted to pinch my self. That wasn't supposed to happen. She seemed to sense me watching her and opened her eyes.

"What?" she mumbled, tossing her brown hair. I shook my head. "Nothing. We can sleep here, for a while, I guess." I said wearily, looking around again. She looked so grateful I thought she was going to hug me again. As if he heard his name called, Rex appeared out of no where and sat down next to Sadie as she sat down on the ground. Within seconds, she was asleep. I sat down next to her and shut my eyes, drifting to a restless sleep, the sun shining on my face.

When I opened my eyes, I knew I hadn't been asleep for more than forty five minutes. I looked down. Sadie had her head resting on my shoulder, her lips slightly parted, the sun glimmering in her mahogany hair. Not wanting to wake her, I sat perfectly still, letting her sleep. She smiled in her sleep, and said my name so clearly I thought she was awake. I stiffened, but she didn't move, and I realized she was still asleep. I didn't really understand her. She was stubborn, and secretive, and hard and soft at the same time. I expected her to run off screaming at any moment, and the thought made me feel sick. I shook my head. For goodness sakes, I'd only known her for five days.

I heaved a sigh, and I felt her move next to me. Her eye lids fluttered open and she looked around. When she realized the position she was, she sat up and looked embarrassed. She laced her fingers together and reached her hands over her head, arching her back in a stretch that made my stomach clench.

"How long have I been out?" she asked, standing up. I stood up also and glanced down at her watch. She never used it. "Not long. An hour?" I guessed. She grimaced. "God. I need more sleep than an hour." I opened my mouth to tell her she could sleep again, but she held up a hand. "No, no. I'm not tired any more. We should keep going." She said and picked up her bag. "Where's Rex?" she asked as we started walking. I shrugged. Frankly, I didn't care. The little beast could stay away all day for all I cared.

After a while, we came to a large highway with a big shopping complex on the other side. Sadie's eyes brightened. "oh, good. We can get you knew clothes now." She said cheerily, taking my hand and dragging me across the road when there was a break in the traffic. I couldn't help but notice that books made the Earth sound so much more beautiful. She dragged me to the door of the nearest clothing store and handed me a wad of cash. "Go shop. Nothing weird, or ugly." She admonished. Shoving me through the glass doors, and trotting off to go somewhere else. Uh oh. How did this all work out? I didn't need her to show me the way like a child, I reminded myself and looked up. There were signs hanging from the ceiling, and I headed toward the one that was the "men's" section.

I had never seen so many different pairs of clothes in one place. I looked around at all the bright colors, and found myself rather lost in it all. I frowned and stepped to the closest rack to me, one with all sorts of jeans on it. Everything had bright colors, and it didn't really do much for me. Bright colors brought attention to you, and that was the one thing I had been avoiding for the past eleven years. Girls walked past, chatting and laughing with each other. I wondered of that was the normal thing. Sadie wasn't like that. I found myself glad. I didn't think I could handle the chatty-Cathy type of girl for long.

I heaved a sigh. This was useless. I looked down at my black t-shirt, black jeans, and the once white tips of my black converse sticking out at the bottom. They weren't that bad. I turned around to leave and almost bumped into a small, red headed girl about my age. She was wearing a red vest over her regular shirt that said her name was Ashley. She blinked up at me with eyes caked with dark make up.

"Can I help you?" she asked in a high pitched, girly voice. I didn't know what to say. Help with what? I was about to say something, most likely something stupid, when I felt some one lay there hand on my arm. I looked down to see Sadie smiling at the girl, who glanced at Sadie, looking, oddly enough irritated, as if Sadie had just broken in on some important conversation.

"It's alright. We can handle it." She said with a dazzling smile. The other girl pouted and ignored Sadie, turning her attention back to me. "Are you sure you have everything under control? I can help you find a new wardrobe. There are some great new clothes for your, er, build over there." She said, pointing past me. I choked up, unable to think of something to say, Sadie squeezed my arm. "Uh, yeah. Its fine, but thanks." I said awkwardly. The girl looked disappointed, and sulked off to the counter where her friend was.

Sadie snickered, and I looked down at her. "What?" I asked. She looked up at me and tried to smother her laughter. "Oh, nothing at all." She said. She tugged on my arm for me to follow her. She lead me to a shelf with all sorts of jeans on it and pulled off a pair of regular dark blue jeans. "Now, I'm going out on a limb here and assuming you're probably going to want dark colors." She said, handing the pants to me, then walked off to another rack with different color t-shirts and pulled a plain black one off, heaving a heavy sigh. "Boring, but it'll have to do." She said, tossing it to me. "Now for the shoes." She said with a smile. I shook my head.

"I like these ones. They're not even beat up." I said. She pursed her lips. "We can get you another pair, just like those." When I shook my head, she looked exasperated. "Why not?"

"These have sentimental value."

She shook her head and held up her hands in defeat. "Whatever. Let's go." She said, walking towards the register. Suddenly she spun around, almost slamming into. "Damn it, Hanger. Why can't you make some noise?" she said, but I saw a smile playing around her mouth. "Go get...whatever it is that guys get." She said. I waited for her to start walking. She waved her hand. "Go on. Believe me, you do not need me for this." She said and turned me around to go the other direction.