Broken

Chapter 3

"LOOK LOOK!" I practically scream, "THAT PERSON IS BACKING OUT!"

"Calm down, I see it," Odessa flies to the spot, which is the closer to the door than any of the others. Suddenly, she busts out laughing. "LOOK!" She just points, unable to say anything. I'm genuinely concerned about whether she can breath or not, to be honest. I look to where she's pointing, and I see a very frustrated May, driving by in her dad's old pickup truck.

"Well, she deserves it. I'm so tired of her. She's always so jealous of the fact that me and Gabe are friends. She thinks I like him or something. She's absolutely OBSESSED with him, and it's disgusting. Why can't she just wait for her clock?"

"I know, I'm tired of her too. She look SOOOOOO mad when we took that spot." We both laughed. We hopped out of the car and headed to the door, which was only about 70 feet away, due to the close parking. We enter, step up onto the escalator, and go up to floor three, where the Urban Outfitters is.

After looking for a few minutes, Odessa holds up a pink romper with white polka-dots and puffy sleeves. "Do you think this is cute?" She asks me, laughing

"Ess, that's completely hideous! Where did you even find it?"

"The clearance rack," she replies, giggling.

We wander around a little more, each going to different parts of the store, and then I hear a gasp. "Tira, come look at this!"

I walk over to where she's at. "What, is it another clown suit?" Then I see it - the perfect outfit.

"Look, I know I said I wasn't going to help you with your outfit, but this thing was practically made for you! You need it."

It is gorgeous. It's more than gorgeous, it's absolutely stunning. It's a bluish greenish grey two-piece set with white pinstripes. The color (save the white) matched my eyes perfectly. The top was a crop top that tied at the bottom of the bust and had a lace trim with tiny white cotton balls on strings lining it. The bottoms are baggy and short and have the same lace and cotton ball lining as the top. I have to have it.

Without me even saying a word, she already knew I loved it. That's a power we both have; we can tell exactly what the other is thinking right as they experience the emotion. We've been able to do it since we were young. I suppose it's because we're so close.

She straight-up RUNS to the checkout counter with me tailing behind her, and thrusts the outfit into the woman's hands. The cashier looks slightly concerned and amused, but then somehow regains her composure.

"How much is this?" Odessa asks, panting from her sudden sprint.

The woman scans the item, "$59"

"Oh," I reply. Damn, it was perfect, but way too expensive. "Nevermind. I'm sorry"

"Tira, you NEED it! It's perfect!"

"I can't afford it. It's way too much. I don't even know why we chose to look in here. Everything in this store is overpriced.

"I'll pay-"

"No." I hate borrowing money and letting people pay for me. It makes me feel weak and dependent. I like doing things on my own. No matter how much I love this set, I hate borrowing money even more.

"You sure?"

"Positive. Let's go look in another store."

"Okay, but give me a minute. I saw a cute pair of shoes in there."

I sigh, but reluctantly agree. A couple minutes later, Odessa walks out again.

"Where to now?" I ask.

"Let's try Forever 21"

********************

Eight stores later, and we still haven't found a single outfit anywhere near as good as the first one. I feel like I'm about to cry. Just the weight of all this stress, and the fact that I can't seem to find anything to wear is just too much at this point. I get pretty emotional when life goes wrong. I never cry in front of people, though. No matter how worked up I get, I never let people see me cry. It makes me feel vulnerable.

"Hey, let's stop at the food court. I'm getting really from all this shopping." That was a lie. I'm only telling her that so I can sit down for a minute. I haven't been hungry for days. I go through these depressive periods of time every now and then where I have trouble sleeping, I can't eat, I'm always tired, and I have lots of depressing thoughts. I'm going through one right now and it's awful.

We make our way up to the fifth level, and then head to Panda Express for some egg rolls, ramen, and fortune cookies. As soon as we get to the table, Odessa asks what's wrong. I slam my food down on the table, and sigh deeply. I'm shaking right now I'm so stressed.

"Hey, I know you're really anxious about meeting him, but you'll be fine. I'm sure we'll find something to wear, we're just not looking in the right place. And even if we don't find something, you and I both know that he'll love you no matter what, new clothes or not."

"But-"

"No buts. Why don't we go home after we eat, and try again tomorrow at a different place? We could go to a few thrift stores and strip malls."

"I guess..." I'm still pretty disappointed that we didn't find anything, but what she said did make sense. The mall is too expensive anyways.