“Elaina, you really should let me shop for you.” My best
friend, Robin, shook her head as I tried to pick out clothes from a boutique in
the mall. With record high temperatures and Cameron working, I found myself in
the air-conditioned mall with my completely opposite and oldest friend.
By completely opposite I mean there’s no reason we should
get along at all let alone be best friends. We first met at freshman
orientation four years ago because we were in the same advising group. I was
never a shy girl, but I didn’t just randomly talk to strangers like she did. First
she asked our advisor if different grades could have the same lunch, the next
thing I know she’s turning to me asking if I know any cute seniors. I mean
seriously who does that? Anyway, she must have enjoyed my presence because the
first day of freshman year she found me in the lunchroom and the rest went from
there.
Here at the mall she somehow convinced me to get pedicures.
She’s the type of girl that gets her nails done habitually, along with
maintaining her professionally highlighted hair regularly and never leaving the
house without a perfectly coordinated outfit. How she and I, the
give-me-jeans-and-a-tshirt-and-I’m-happy tomboy, have made it this long with a
relatively peaceful friendship is beyond me.
Robin looked at the clothes I had in my hand “It’s the
hottest day of the year so far and you’re picking out jeans?”
“The summer is the best time to find jeans, high supply, low
demand,” I counter. She must have thought I was joking because when I started
looking at long sleeved shirts she drags me away, throwing the jeans behind her,
not caring where they fall.
“Hey! I was going to by those!”
“No you weren’t,” she said “You were going to try them on
and then complain that the thread on the hem was loose, or the rhinestones on
the pocket were tacky and would fall off in two washes, and then you’d put them
back and scowl until we left the store.”
She dragged me along while she went through more racks of
clothing. The next thing I knew, I had a maxi skirt and a peasant blouse in my
arms and was being shoved back towards the dressing rooms. “You’re trying these
on, and I’m going to see you in them, and that’s that.”
I rolled my eyes and shut the door, mildly amused at her
insistence. Because I knew there’s no way out of it, I took off my jean capris
and blue cotton tshirt and put on the clothes she chose. I stepped out without
looking in the mirror and turned to Robin.
She stared at me for two seconds and then nods. “Yep. You’re
getting those.”
I go over to the 180-mirror and take a look. The skirt hugs my
hips and flows straight down, stopping less than an inch to the floor. The
shirt makes my athletic body look more feminine than I’ve ever succeeded in
making it, by making my boobs look big and stomach look small.
Self-consciously, I take my hair out of its ponytail and watch it tumble onto
my shoulders, blond waves cascading to the small of my back. Whoa.
I feel a pinch at my shoulder and hip, and when I turn, I
see Robin running away with the tags in her hand. “I’m buying these before you
can change your mind. Don’t change out of those if you value your life!” She
blows a kiss at me and continues towards the cashier. I roll my eyes but look
at my reflection again. I certainly can’t complain with the end results. I put
on my sandals and start folding my old clothes. My mind drifts back to last
night.
Despite how suave he had been that morning or in his text,
he seemed visibly relieved when I came to his window. It was the encouragement
I needed to climb through, this isn’t
just about me. He was playing a game on his Xbox so I sat on his bed with
my legs crossed. He got back on the bed and lay on his stomach; his shoulder
and my knee were touching.
I’m not sure what the game is, but he is shooting wormhole
entry points and exit points with a gun and then going through them. Boys and their toys, I think, never
having gotten the hang of Xbox myself.
“You wanna talk about dinner?” Cameron asks me without
taking his eyes off the screen.
“Not really. You wanna talk about your sister?” I say in the
same tone he used with me.
He paused his game and looked me in the eye. “No.” I
resisted the sudden urge to cry but broke the eye contact. It’s hard to see
pain etched in someone when you know it’s reflected in yourself. After a couple
moments he went back to his game. I uncrossed my legs and lay down with my head
on his pillow, putting my feet by his head. “Hey now,” he started “what did I
do to you? Get your smelly feet away from me”.
He pushes at my feet and I push them towards his face,
making us both laugh. Incidentally, he lost concentration and died somehow in his
game, putting him back at his last checkpoint. “Check this out” he said as his
character went to a narrow hallway and made a wormhole entry and exit right
across from each other. Holstering the gun, his character extended his hands
into each hole. He was holding hands with himself, in an infinite loop of his
character. “That’s one way to never be alone.” He shut off his game and Xbox
and joined me at the top of his bed. “Amanda called today.”
“Oh really?” I ask nonchalantly. “And how did that go?”
“She was going on about how we broke up rashly, how we could
make things work, and how I could transfer down to New Mexico…” he trailed off
and looked at me and I did my best to keep a blank face. “Could she be anymore
selfish?”
I released the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I’m
glad he said it and not me. “Looks like you’ll have to keep breaking hearts,
then.”
He put his arm around me and turned me on my side facing
him. “Here’s what we need: A watch that instead of telling time, it tells you
how much time until you meet your true love. Then, all you have to do is wait
until it ticks down to zero and let fate do all the rest.”
I have to keep myself from chiding a sarcastic remark back.
While I personally didn’t care for Amanda, I know he did. “Isn’t that basically
what we’re doing? The only thing is that there’s no watch. You’re still waiting
for fate to do all the dirty work”
“Yeah, I guess.” He looks down at me and pulls me closer so
that my head is on his chest. “But isn’t knowing half the fun?”
His tshirt is soft against my cheek. Rhythmically rubbing my
back, he’s chasing the demons from earlier this evening away. “If I knew who
mine was, I’d feel badly for knowing I’d mess it up somehow.”
Cameron laughed sleepily “It’d be because of your smelly
feet.” One last squeeze and I know he’s drifting off to dreamland, while I
relaxed and tried to sleep, but kept thinking about soul mates and how much
Cameron deserves to meet his.
