And Here's To You - Chapter 5

“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.