Everyday Combat

"Prom tonight! Do-do-do-de-do! Prom tonight!!" I sang, leaning over the middle seat of Jimmy's moms' car and singing it right in Zack's ear. It wasn't actually our prom tonight, but I'd been watching Not Another Teen Movie the night before and mom had sent me shopping for my dress today.

Making Zack come with me. And when he'd moaned that he had to go with me to the mall Jimmy had jumped at the chance to join us. Fucking pervert. Then again it didn't matter whether it was Jimmy, Matt, Brian, Johnny or one of the Berry's because they were all perverted little shits.

And man did I love them.

"So how much money has mom actually given you anyways?" Zack asked as we left Mrs Sullivan to her own devices and made our way to the first shop.

I dug my fingers into my pocket to pull the roll of dollars out but since I insisted on wearing skin tight jeans that meant getting things in and out of my pockets became harder. Finally I did manage to pull them out though and I flipped through them, counting how much had been entrusted to me.

"$250." I grinned, rolling them back up and stuffing them into my pocket safely. "But some of it is for us to get food with - not including you Jimmy, sorry - and for me to buy shoes and stuff with so it's not all for my dress. Even though half of it is my pocket money."

I had no idea what I wanted. I just knew I couldn't wear anything slinky because I was short and it would look weird. And I couldn't wear orange because my skin was already tanned enough and it only made me look even more orange. Oh, and I refused to wear brown because I don't like brown.

Jimmy picked out all the wrong dresses but I don't think he was being serious. Brian - who had escaped his moms clutches elsewhere in the mall - wasn't even looking and was trying to tell us about something stupid his brother had got caught doing the night before which resulted in him being grounded all summer (or so Brian said).

Zack was looking though.

I grinned, finding a nice little black number with shoe string straps, which, although was low cut, was really pretty and would suit my height. I turned to the guys and held it up to myself. Jimmy whistled. Brian grinned. Zack...

"You are not wearing that," he frowned, grabbing it from my hands and shoving it back on the rack.

"Why not?" I retorted.

"Too much chest would be on show," he frowned, pulling me away from the dress as if it was a bad influence on me. I glanced back at Jimmy and Brian, who were giggling, and rolled my eyes.

When he stopped moving and finally let me go I began to root some more. I stopped however and glanced over the racks to Jimmy and Brian who - I think they thought nobody was looking - were being idiots and holding dresses up to themselves. I snorted a laugh and hit Zack who whined at me but stopped when he saw them and burst out into a fit of giggles.

Which made them stop when they realised they had been busted. "Dudes!" I grinned. "What the hell was that?"

They shrugged.

"You're lucky we didn't have anything to record that on," Zack giggled.

"Anyway, Brian you're taking me to this prom aren't you?" I asked. He had told me he was taking me whether I liked it or not when they first announced the formal but he hadn't said anything about it since then and that was a while ago so I was just checking.

He nodded. "It would be my pleasure Miss Baker," he said putting on a really bad Sean Connery James Bond accent which made Zack laugh even more.

"What colour will you be wearing Mr Bond? I mean Mr Haner?" I said putting on my best James-Bonds-slut voice.

"Black and white, Miss Baker."

"Good," I said pulling out yet another dress that was white with black embroidery all over the strapless bodice - which actually covered all of my boobs - and was really short.

"I demand you wear that!" Jimmy half-yelled pointing at it. "I'm in love already, go try it on right this-"

"Oh hell no!" Zack had obviously stopped laughing now as he grabbed the dress away and hung it back up once more.

"That dress is perfectly fine!" I yelled back at him, throwing my arm out to point at it.

"Not when you may as well only wear a belt with it!" He snapped back. "Faith, you wear those dresses and all the fucking perverts will try it on and I will not let anyone hurt my sister! You may as well wear a Playboy Bunny outfit for fucks sake!"

"Maybe I will then," I retorted defiantly, folding my arms across my chest and staring him out. "Besides you'll be too busy with Sarah to notice who's trying to get their hand up my skirt or down my top."

"You know what?" Zack now held his hands up at me. "Wear whatever the fuck you want but when some stupid fucking horn dog of a jock hits on you don't expect me to care Faith because I won't, alright?"

I chewed on my lip before kicking his shin - I don't know why I just felt like kicking him instead of screaming anything back at him - and stalking off indignantly. See if I cared he wasn't going to care on prom night. Fuck it, there's no point in me lying about it because everyone - except for Zack obviously - knows I care.

Everyone, except for Zack, knows that Zack is my weak spot.

Angry at him, and fighting my tears I left the store and entered another to begin rooting for a dress. I found out Jimmy and Brian had followed me when I stepped out of a changing room to see the mirror and they were sat on the red leather benches, waiting for me.

"Just answer me this," I began before actually using the mirror and before they could even talk. "If you had a twin sister, would you practically accuse her of being a whore?"

"Zack wasn't accusing you of being a whore, he was just trying to protect you from the...man-whores," Jimmy answered.

"Why the fuck are you taking his side?!" I hissed as some other woman came out of her changing room.

Jimmy came to his feet and stared down at me. "I'm not saying what he said was right and what he's been doing is right, but his intentions are Faith," he informed me and I instantly looked to Brian for confirmation who nodded. "Now that dress, Miss Baker, is absolutely fine now go get changed so I can go eat."

I looked down at the strapless black dress covered in white polka dots with the red ribbon around it. It didn't show my cleavage and it stopped just above my knees. Surely that would suit him. I can't believe I'm stooping to his level just to suit what he wants.

Even though the dress is totally adorable, I'm totally breaking principle.