A Battle for Love

“Melissa, you were totally trippin’ over Mitch,” I teased Melissa about Paul’s friend.

“Whatever,” she defended. “What about you and Paul? You two were having a nice little mental conversation.”

I laughed out loud. “I bet it wasn’t as nearly as interesting as your chat with Mitch. So you’re coming with us right?”

“Yeah,” she answered. “I’ll come. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to hang with Mitch some more.”

When we left, I thought about how I was going to do this. I’d have to sneak out. I’ve done it before. So it was no problem. I made my way to Science and put my books on the farthest desk in the back. Paul entered as I sat down. He smiled and, as yesterday, sat beside me.

“Hey, Kendra,” Paul looked at me with smiling eyes. I couldn’t help but return the favor.

“We meet again.”

“Yes. Ironic isn’t it?” He asked.

“Mmm. What time were you planning for us to go,” I asked.

He seemed to think; his dark eyebrows forming a straight line. "I'll come around 7."

"Okay then. I'll tell Mel 3 hours before. She may want to get all dressy for Mitch," I smiled.

He laughed. It was a very nice, sexy laugh. Class started and we listened to the teacher but Paul kept poking me in my side making me laugh. Eventually, I would give him what he wanted and hit him in the leg under the desk. After Mr. Connie gave us our work, the bell rang.

We had a test in third period on basketball. I aced it, making a 97%. The girls did well; half of them, and the boys aced theirs too. Even Paul. He made a 95%.

“I’m proud of you,” I say sarcastically.

“’I’m proud of you,’ shut up.” Paul pushed me gently and I laughed. He met me again outside the girls’ locker and walked me to the end of the hallway. His class was down Third Hall.

We split up to our classes.

***

When Saturday came, I got up early and cooked dinner for my ‘parents’. I went to my room and didn’t come out. To pass the time, I worked on a history project and worked on hiding my scars. Since a bathroom was in my room, I took a shower and fixed my hair in its usual thin one layer around my shoulders. I put on a purple shirt and some black skinny jeans- nothing special.

I couldn’t jump out of the window so I went through the front. There was a black 69’ Mustang pulling up by the house. I rushed to it and opened the door.

“Hey girl, you okay,” Melissa reached up behind me and patted my shoulder. I did a nervous smile and nodded my head.

“You never did that before, have you,” Mitch asked with a handsome smile.

“Yeah I have once or twice." I stated.

“See, Paul? I told you she was a bad girl,” He smiled a face full of triumph at Paul in the driver's seat.

“Mitch, stop being a prick.” Paul chuckled. “So, you want mall or movies?”

I gave him a joking hard stare. “Movies sound like a date, my friend. And what did we discuss about that?” I smiled and pointed a finger at his face.

Paul laughed and looked back to the road. “Mall it is.”

When we pulled up, people were entering and leaving the sliding doors of the mall. After about 30 minutes of walking around and buying food, Melissa and Mitch drifted off to another part and left me with Paul.

“Looks like you have me alone again,” He teased.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes.”

“Want to go shopping?” He asked. I was shocked.

“A boy going shopping with a girl?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ll be your Ken. And you’ll be my Barbie. You dress me, and I’ll dress you.” Paul explained.

My eyes narrowed. “You’re serious aren’t you?”

“Ja.”

I laughed but faced him again. “How do I know you won’t dress me in something skanky.” I asked skeptically.

“You have my word.” He grabbed my hand and drug me to the nearest boutique. I stopped him.

“Wait! Let me do you first.”

Of course he took that the wrong way. “Do me you say? Mmm… We barley know each other, but okay.”

I slapped him in the chest. “You know what I meant! Come on!” We ended up in a Men’s store.

One outfit I picked out was a pair of baggy blue jeans and a red basketball jersey with the number 69 written on the front and back. I made him wear it over a white shirt that was larger than the jersey. We had found a hat hanging on the back wall of the store and he let me pick one.

After I’d placed him in 3 other ridiculous looking outfits, we were headed to Francine’s. Paul had instructed me to wait in front of the dressing rooms in one of the cushioned chairs. It took him five minutes as I sat and watched him scramble around the store with shirts and dresses and jeans in his arms. When he finally came up to me again, I could tell he had about at least 20 outfits in his pile. This included the dresses.

I stood up and stared surprisingly at the heap. “What is this?”

Paul sighed and looked at it also. “These are the clothes that I want to dress you in.”

“And you’re sure I won’t find any thongs with no shirt in this pile, right?” I teased.

“Oh, there were some back there… If you want to, you know, show a little somethin’ for daddy…” He licked his lips in a way that made my heart jump. To keep him from noticing, I picked up the first thing that lay on top of the clothes.

It was a pair of brown army pants. One pant leg stopped just below the knee and the left pant leg went all the way down the leg. Below those pants was a white shirt with one long sleeve and a bow tied at the shoulder. The other shoulder was left uncovered.

Paul flashed me a smile and shoved me in a dressing room.

“What do you think about this one?” I stood in front of Paul with one of the dresses on that he’d picked for me. It hugged my body and ran over my curves nicely. The green sequined dress stopped around my knees and it had no shoulders, just a white puffy Shaw that went with it.

When I turned around away from the mirror, Paul was in the chair with his mouth hanging open. His eyes weren’t blinking but I could see they were about to pop out of their sockets.

“I take that as a ‘no’.” I turned to go change out of it but he grabbed my hand. My breath cut short when I saw how close he was to me. I stood right at his lips.

“It looks very nice on you, Kendra.” Paul whispered. His lips barely moved and his voice sent shivers down my spine. Paul still hadn’t let go of my hand.

“You can let go of my hand now.” I said barely above a whisper.

“Really?” He asked.

Before I had a heart attack, I snatched it away and went to go change back into my regular clothes.