Gilded

Chapter 2.

"So what's Aaron doing today?" my friend Eric Wong asked me. Eric was a family friend that I grew up with, and lived on the same street as me. It was a beautiful Friday in early June. Summer was in full swing and we had met up for a bubble tea at the mall. Now we were just wandering around doing some window shopping.

"Playing basketball with some friends," I replied as we headed into a shoe store. I heard my phone ping and took out my phone to check the message. It was Aaron.

Where are you? he texted.

I'm shopping. Are you guys still playing? I replied back.

Yeah. Who are you shopping with? Aaron texted.

Eric, I replied, and then eyed some pretty sandals.

My phone rang, and it was Aaron. "Hey you," I said.

"Is there a group of you, or just Eric?" he asked.

"Just Eric," I replied, checking the price tag on the bottom of the sandals, widened my eyes and put them back.

Silence. I thought the call had dropped and then Aaron spoke again. "I thought Amelia was with you."

"She was, but she just left because her mom needed her back home," I replied.

"When are you going to be home?"

"Tonight sometime. Eric and I will probably have dinner here," I said.

"Well, give me a call when you get back home," Aaron said. "Love you. Talk to you later."

"Was that Aaron?" Eric asked when he saw me put my phone back in my purse. "Well, speak of the devil. Was he checking up on you?" he teased.

"No!" I exclaimed, a little more defensively then I had anticipated. "He was just calling to say hi. That's what good boyfriends do. Maybe if you were nicer, you'd have a girlfriend," I said to Eric, sticking my tongue out at him.

Eric bumped me in the shoulder, knowing that I was just kidding. "Yeah, maybe that's all I need to do."

After a dinner of pub food at one of the restaurants in the mall, Eric dropped me off at home. While we were eating dinner, we had a good time rehashing over some junior high memories and the shenanigans that Eric had gotten into. I was a perfect angel of course, or a 'goody-two shoes' as Eric had described me. On our way home, we belted out in song in the car, listening to one of Eric's lists of songs from our junior high era.

"Later Alligator," he said once he stopped on my driveway. It was his customary goodbye since we were ten years old.

"After a while Crocodile," I said, closing the car door.

I headed into my room when I got home and checked my phone. Aaron had texted a few times and I must have missed them over our karaoke in the car. I called Aaron's phone.

"Sabrina, I texted you a bunch of times! I was starting to get worried," Aaron said.

"Sorry, I didn't see them until now," I apologized. "And seriously, worried? I was just with Eric at the mall."

"Why do you always hang out with Eric?" Aaron asked.

"Aaron, we've been through this, you know he's one of my best friends," I replied.

"Well, I don't like it," Aaron said harshly. Then he apologized. "It's just that I get jealous when I think of the two of you together. You know I don't want to lose you."

"Don't worry silly," I said. "You know he's like a brother to me, our families are good friends. I've known him forever. Besides, you have a lot of girl friends. And you hang out with them when I'm not around."

"That's different, they know I have a girlfriend," Aaron said. "And guys think differently. Anyways, are you working tomorrow?"

"Nope, I'm free, do you want to go out? What do you want to do?"

"Well, I'm thinking we'll have lunch, go to a movie, and then hang out at my place."

"Sounds good," I agreed. "Ooh, can we see that new rom-com? Nicole and Amelia saw it the other day. I didn't go with them because I thought we could go together."

"Really, you want to see that?" Aaron said. "I was thinking of the new action movie. Maybe next time we can see the rom-com."

"Oh okay, sure," I said with a shrug. But a little voice was telling me that he never lets me choose the movie. Hush, I told the voice, it didn't matter anyways because I'm just easy going and I'm up for watching anything.