Down But Not Out

Chapter 2

"I swear, if you do that screaming thing that you usually do I'm disowning you" Summer said as we walked through the open doors and into the new 'Down But Not Out' shop.

I had no idea that the owners had decided to open up a shop, since you could only buy the clothes from online. That's saying something considering they have their own Twitter page that I check quite often. And of all the places to have it, the shop was located in the backend of the Birmingham Bullring. I would've thought that the owners would've opened it somewhere in London. Oh well, it was good news for me anyway.

"Yeah fine, you do that then Sum" I grinned at her as my eyes adjusted to the dimness, since it was bright outside. She rolled her eyes at me and walked over to the women's section.

I glanced around and saw that the layout of the shop was interesting. On the wall to my right were racks of clothes, all for the male gender, while the wall opposite the door hung racks of clothes for females. In between the cluster of clothes stood three changing rooms, which were just basically made out of a curtain covering the opening to each one. On my left stood the counter with two tills and I could see that there was a guy standing behind the one till. He shot me a smile and I returned it while walking forwards to look at the clothes on racks in the middle of the room, as these were the Unisex clothes.

Even though I'm a woman I'm not keen on the female clothes. It's not because of the designs, because the designs are the same across all of the genders, it's just the fact that the tees are more fitted than the men's or the Unisex clothes. Plus there's the fact that I have a large chest and so sometimes the t-shirts don't fit. Usually I buy the Unisex stuff, with the occasional guy's top if I love the design enough.

I looked through the tops closest to me as Summer wandered back over to me.

"You know, the designs aren't bad" she said and I grinned at her.

"Told you so. What happened to the whole, 'yuk you wouldn't catch me dead in that' attitude you had to my newest top last week?" I asked her. I'd recently bought a black top with the name and logo etched in gold. My friend shrugged at me and I smiled, since I had a feeling that I knew which top she liked as it was pink and designed for women.

"Hey, do you need any help?" a male voice said from my left and I looked up to see that it was the guy who had been standing behind the counter. I smiled at him and shook my head, but it was kind of hard not to notice the fact that he had his face covered up.

"No thanks, we're just looking at the moment" I replied and he nodded.

"Although I'm betting we'll be coming back tomorrow" Summer sighed from where she was standing opposite me. I looked up and smiled at her.

"Don't moan woman, I shopped with you all day today, it's not like I'm asking you to go music shopping with me" I grinned and she groaned.

"Yeah don't get any ideas. I'm never going with you to shop for CD's again" I giggled at this and looked up to see the guy smiling. He nodded at me and walked off.

Summer had a point about that actually. A month ago I'd decided that I needed to update my music library as there were new CD's that had come out, so I'd dragged Summer along with me. I think we'd spent about three hours in HMV- just looking at the music section because I couldn't decide what to buy. It was my fault I suppose since I'd limited myself to a budget. Summer had complained after about an hour that her feet were hurting, even though she was looking at music herself. Apparently if we'd had a car she would've gone back and fell asleep in there while I shopped. It had been funny though, except Summer swore she would never go shopping with me again, unless it was for clothes.

I heard Summer make a noise in her throat and I looked up to see that she was looking at the guy, as he was walking back to the counter. I cocked my head to the side and found that I was watching him walk away. Those jeans looked good on him. I groaned and rolled my eyes at myself before shaking my head. What was I thinking? I heard my friend giggle and looked up to see that she was looking at me. I laughed along with her.

"I have to say that is some fine ass" she said and I felt my eyes go wide. She hadn't exactly said it quietly. We both glanced at the guy to see that he was sitting down behind the counter reading a magazine. I sighed since it was obvious that he hadn't heard what Summer had said. If he had I was pretty sure Summer would blame me.

"Jeez Summer, you have such a big mouth" I replied, trying my best not to laugh at the fact that she was still checking him out. She sighed and walked back over to me and I pointed out a couple of things that I liked, she nodded, guessing we would be back tomorrow.

She linked her arm in mine while handing me a couple of bags to carry. I accepted, since I had made a deal with her. She blinked at me innocently.

"You know that's why we get on so well, because we're both outspoken" she said and I shook my head at her.

"That's partly true"

"Not really, you may be a shy person Liz but you know how to stick up for your friends" I had to agree with that.

I hated confrontation, unless that was the only way to get rid of someone, especially if that person was messing with me or my friends. I'm the kind of girl that won't let anyone give me or my friends any shit, especially if they are arguing over something that I believe in.

"Yeah you have a point" was my reply and she hummed in agreement.

"Except for the fact that you were perving on some poor unsuspecting guy" I continued and we both laughed as we walked out of the shop. I glanced back to see that he was watching us, so I waved at him over my shoulder. He waved back and continued reading his magazine.

"What? He was cute?" she said and I looked at my friend in an 'are you serious?' sort of way. She frowned questioningly.

"Sum you couldn't see him, his face was covered by sunglasses, and he had a beanie on his head" I frowned at her and she wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"That's exactly why he was cute. He was mysterious in a sexy sort of way" I giggled, Summer didn't care what she said as long as she said what was on her mind. That wasn't a good thing though, that mouth of hers had gotten the both of us in some trouble through the years. Luckily I was the sensible, rational one and could usually get us out of any jam.

"Not a good thing. He's obviously hiding something. Oh my gosh Sum, what if he's a serial killer?" I exclaimed, faking horror. She pinched my arm so I pinched her back.

"Woman up will ya? I'm sure he's not a serial killer. He wouldn't be working in a public place if he was." I rolled my eyes at her, for a smart person she was slow.

"Yeah and child molesters shouldn't be working with children, but unfortunately that happens sometimes" was my reply and I saw that my friend looked thoughtful.

"Touché" she shrugged. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Anyway why are you perving on that poor sales guy? Don't you have a boyfriend?" I asked and she winced slightly. I frowned at her, but she was looking at a pair of shoes in the window next to us as we walked past on our way to the bus stop to catch the bus back to our apartment. I felt Summer shrug.

"Just because I have a boyfriend, doesn't mean I can't look at other guys. No one's perfect Liz, not even me" she said and I frowned at her response, but didn't push any further. I wonder what she meant by that. I was merely joking around and then she goes all serious on me. Of course no one's perfect, no matter how they look on the outside, there is always something happening on the inside. I bit my lip but didn't say anything. Apparently Summer was deep in thought because she didn't say anything for the rest of the journey home.