He's Dying to Get Inside

Lisa opened up the door and smiled when she found Alex, she covered her face with one of her hands, because she didn't like people to see her without her makeup. She told him to wait by the door and that she'd be right back, but once she got to the hallway of the tiny apartment, he went after her.

"I don't care what you look like, Lees."

"But I'm-"

"You look fine, but that's not why I'm here."

"I'm so glad you finally came to your senses," she put her arms around his neck and pressed their lips together, when he pushed her away she continued to speak, "What?"

"I came here to ask you to leave Raylee alone. I don't want to go out with you anymore Lisa, I know that half of the time we were together you were with someone else anyway, it wouldn't kill you to pick one of those guys. I'm not the same person, you won't like the new me; I don't like you right now, maybe if you changed? But right now it's a no."

"You came here to re-dump me?"

"No. I came here to scold you for killing her dog."

"I didn't do it, Manny did, he was smashed and the dog ran out of her hands. She couldn't grab the leash before our tiers made contact."

"He didn't try to stop, did he?"

"Like I said, he was smashed."

"I want you and Manny to stay away, got it?"

Lisa's eyes grew watery, "You know I can't tell him what to do, he'll beat me. Mom and dad haven't been home for months, Alex, I don't like you anymore, I haven't for awhile... but Manny wants us to be together."

"I don't care what your recently out of jail brother has to say, why can't you go back to the girl you were in middle school."

"Because," she scratched her cheek nervously, "what he did changed me."

"I'm sorry he raped you, but by acting out, you're giving him a level of satisfaction. Get a job, get away from him."

"Please don't leave so soon," she grabbed his arm as he headed for the door, "he'll be mad, can't you just save me one beating? I'm not here asking you to pretend that we're together again, I just need him to think that we're on okay terms. Manny likes you, he's afraid of what other guys could do to me."

"He should just be afraid of what he can do to you, he should fix himself before he gives out that lecture."

~x~

"Sorry I flipped out on you," Raylee said as soon as she got into the backseat with Kara, "I'm just so testy sometimes."

"It's okay. I hope you don't mind if we're out for awhile. My brothers will drop us off at the mall and pick us up after their movie."

"Sounds good."

The girls got out of the car, walking into the first store with dresses that they saw. Raylee nervously ran her fingers over the bracelet Alex had given her when they first started hanging out as a thank you, it was just a blend of colored string braided together and tied around her wrist. He explained to her that he researched the colors' meaning and gave her the ones that fit her, or the ones that would being good fortune.

"What kind do you want?"

"I don't know Kar, I only wore one dress in my life, when I grew out of it my mom never made me wear one again. I was like five, I don't want one of the kids ones."

"I think you should get a V-cut."

She looked down, "Yeah, let's show off the chest I don't have."

"You could get--" the tall her stopped talking when she saw the look on her friend's face, "okay, so a modest cut, but it can't go past your knees, since it's a party dress. What colors do you like? I think you'd look good in an emerald or a purple."

"Emerald."

"We'll get the closest thing we can find, I want a deep blue. I like this one," she ran her hand over a random dress on the wrack she'd been searching the whole time she'd been talking.

"Too short."

"Raylee, show off those legs, they're short but slender."

The curly haired girl walked to a wrack across from the one Kara was looking at. When her fingers brushed a soft material, she took it off metal bar and held it up to look at it. It was a pale gray dress with a slight dip in the chest area, the skirt would fall to her knees if she put it on, the material was bunched in various areas to give it texture.

"Kara?"

The honey eyed girl walked over and looked at it, "It's very simple, but it's a good dress to start off with. I think you'll look good in it. Now help me find mine, it has to be perfect!"

~x~

The girls walked into one of the shoe stores with their bags of accessories and their dresses on their arms. They walked past the kids section and set their bags down on one of the chairs, looking at the shoes that lined the top row.

"These heels are cute, they'd fit perfectly with your dress."

"I can't walk in heels."

"Well, you've got a week to learn because I'm buying them for you. Try them on."

With a sigh, Raylee did as she was told. She stood up in them and grabbed hold of her friend's shoulder, looking at her leg in the mirror.

"Wow."

"Alex is going to sweep you off of your feet."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, "Stop, we're just friends. I don't care what you have to say about it."

"He asked you out and you accepted, this is a date I don't care what you want to call it, Alex sees it the way I am, so ha!"

Raylee took the heels off and slipped on her converses, frowning as she looked at the growing tear in the rubber, "Don't make me change my mind about going with him."

"Why don't you like him, he's such a sweetheart now. If I wasn't with Rian, I would probably be after him right now, but I love my Riri."

"Maybe in time, once I'm over Derek."

"I know how we can do that."

"How?"

"While we're at the mall we can check out hot boys, and give them amazing personalities; we'll get junk food, we'll watch sad movies and complain about him all night."

"This sounds like fun."

"It is, I've done it with others before, Rian was my first boyfriend, and hopefully my last."

"I know you'll end up together, you're too perfect not to."