Azalea

On-The-Run Shopping

**AZALEA**

   The car smells exactly the same as it did two years ago, the last time I actually was in a car. It smells of cheap perfume and pine trees, probably because of the air freshener. It's fairly clean, just crumpled receipts and some fast food wrappers on the floorboards. She has the radio on, tuned to some pop station, and she sings along. Hope and longing, feelings I had forgotten, ring in my heart. To me, Sarah was the only person that treated me like human, aside from my dad. Of course, my father treated me human, he just wasn't considerate. Not like Sarah. She treated everything around her like it mattered, and she always made the best choices revolving around emotions and safety. Sure, she was a little reckless and fun, that's what made her special. And in Point Place, a place of nothing, special was everything. Sarah turned the radio down as she pulled into a parking lot of a store called Just4U, the sign colored with neon pinks and blues and greens. This was Sarah's favorite store, she claimed they had everything from goth to cute. She opened the car door, grinning at me as I did the same. When we walked in, we were greeted by the clerk, who was checking the most gothic looking boy I've ever seen in my life. Sarah pays no attention to the people, and instead turns to me.
"Purple has never been your color, sweetheart. You're more, let's see, green." She decides. She leads me over to the cute section, looking through some dresses. Ew. I hate dresses, they make me feel all weird. Sarah sees me cringe and starts to laugh. She moves away from the dresses and into the shorts section. Shorts are okay, I still feel exposed in them though. She pulls a pair of Capri looking jeans off of the rack. They're normal blue jeans, but they look comfy. I nod in approval. Sarah smiles and puts it over her arm, moving on to the t-shirt section. She ignores all of the vibrant colors, pulling rich blue shirts and olive green shirts off of the rack, turning to me to make sure I approve. The shirts are plain, but also a little dressy, so the made up for being boring at first. My fave so far was the royal blue shirt, it had a button up collar, and see through shoulders, a shirt that would violate the school requirements, but technically wasn't at the same time. Sarah went down the line, pulling pinks and yellows and even a maroon off the rack. I thought about how my dad would feel if I wore maroon. He'd love it. I wondered if they were out looking for me now. Surely, they would, but knowing my dad... well, they were probably watching tv now. Sarah moved into skirts, and I decided that I could maybe try them this year. The bell from the front of the store rang, and I turned to see who had entered. Three boys started looking around the store, almost scanning, before their eyes landed on me. Their expressions... it almost looked like relief, if that made any sense. The one in the front was brunette, with slightly shaggy hair, just long enough it nearly reached his eyes when it came down across his face. He was thin, though he had to be strong. The way he held himself, the way he lifted his hand to brush his hair back... he had muscle there. He was wearing blue faded jeans and a dark red T-shirt. On one side of his face, he had a scar. Not very deep, but deep enough that it had to have hurt really bad when it had happened, however it happened. I put my hand over my stomach, feeling the scar and wondering how he got his. The boy standing to the right of him winced in pain, and my eyes turned on him. He was taller than the others, which was saying a lot because all of them were tall. He had short hair everywhere but the top of his head, which was long enough to be slicked back. I could see his eyes from here, even though it was hard to see the others. They were dark, so blue was out of the question, but they looked too dark to be brown. He was big in mass, and there was no questioning how strong he was. He was wearing dark pants and sneakers, with a jacket that wen from black to red getting closer to the bottom.he was looking me up and down and he didn't look away once, as if afraid if he did, I'd vanish. The boy on the far right was about as tall as me, so he looked really short next to the others. He was blonde, with long hair that touched the tops of his ears. He was scrawny and fidgety, messing with the bottom of his jacket, which was dark blue, darker than his jeans. He grinned, reminding me of all the mischievous kids at the school. Sarah coughed, and I looked at her. She gave me a pointed look.
   "It's a little early to be checking out boys, isn't it?" She said with a smile. Blood rose to my face.
   "I wasn't checking them out!" I exclaimed, my voice somehow an octave higher than normal. Sarah laughed, walking past me to the dressing room area. I followed, careful not to look at the boys. I could hear their voices, speaking low, too far away to make out. Sarah pushed me into a room with mirrors on every wall and put all of the clothes in my arms. I nearly dropped the load, but Sarah didn't seem to mind.
   "Try not to be so judgmental dear, I want to see every outfit, alright?" She said, walking out of the room. She looked back, and I nodded. She closed the door, and I locked it behind her. I put the clothes on the bench and started trying them on. I tried on the blue collar shirt with the scandalous shoulder design on first, along with the capris. I stepped out, spinning around for Sarah. She was sitting on one of the chairs, which was hardly big enough for her, reading a magazine. She clapped, giving me a thumbs up. God I missed this. Sarah always found a way to make me feel beautiful. See, Sarah has this aura that surrounds her that's just filled with happiness and confidence, and just standing next to her made me feel ten times better. I kept trying on outfits on, and she'd be honest. Pink and yellow had to go, they didn't compliment my frame, whatever that was. All of the skirts were comfortable and looked great on me, and I got the blue, green and both the red shirts she had picked out for me. As I changed back into my regular clothes, Sarah checked out and told me she'd be in the car. I was putting my shoes back on when an angry knock came from the dressing room door.
   "Azalea? Get out. Now!" I froze. My father. How did he find me? Oooooh no no no, the security cameras. The last time I snuck out, my father had put cameras outside my window and the front door, along with the back way out, in case of fires. He must've seen the direction I went in and asked around. I looked around, flinching at the knocks. Escape plan, escape plan... under the stalls. There was enough room for someone to crawl under the stall walls. I looked under the stalls. All of them were empty, so no one would have a surprise little visit. I started crawling, just as my dad demanded the clerk come and unlock the door. I got three stall away and I was out, right next to the doors. I snuck out, making sure the bell didn't ring. I turned back to see the clerk reluctantly opening the stall door, then I jumped into the car. Sarah had it started up, and smiled. She had no idea that I was on the run. She pulled out of the parking lot, and I turned back to see three boys run out of the store, getting into a blue car, all the windows down, with music blasting. Wasn't that the car that had driven past me earlier today?