Status: This story may act as a trigger if you suffer from depression.

Therapy

Six

Bella pulled into the parking lot of the shopping mall and they got out and ran towards the shops, Bella slowly dragging herself along as she felt quite queasy. She did not need heat stroke at this very moment. She was too excited to go shopping. She followed Paige around every single clothes store that they could find. The rent from her tenant back in her own country had come through, and considering she'd saved quite a lot of money up from the previous months as well, she had a nice balance. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to spend it all in one go, made her quite happy.

Bella took control of the shopping situation and dragged Paige into the drugstore, calling her over to all the new makeup that had been put out on display. They played around with the testers and tried to decide which items they liked the most. It was the way they liked to shop; they would walk out of the house with minimal makeup on and go home looking completely dolled up. They threw various items into their basket, having tested a high amount of them and eventually making their minds up on which ones they wanted to buy.

Paige remained standing at the display counter, convinced she hadn't picked out quite enough makeup yet. After all, the clear out had consisted of a lot of beauty products that were either very outdated or they just didn't want anymore. Bella left Paige to her own devices and carried on walking around the drugstore. One aisle caught her eye, one shelf in particular. She walked up to it and scanned all of the boxes carefully, looking at all of the prices and trying to calculate in her head just which box was better value for money. She decided on a box and picked it up, reading the information on the back and chewing her lip as she placed it in the basket. Bella picked up the beauty products that she'd put in the basket and checked them all over, making sure she still wanted them.

She hurried herself along to the perfume aisle and found herself staring in amazement at the range of perfumes they had on offer. Bella picked up a boxed perfume for herself and decided to focus on treating the boys for when they got back, a way of saying 'thank you and well done'. She liked to treat people. Bella stared at the different boxes and tried to remember which aftershave each boy liked the best. She knew Alex's off by heart. In fact, she could still smell it on her. He'd obviously rubbed off on her skin when he hugged. Tightly, she thought.

Bella missed him already. And she knew Paige was missing Zack too.

She found the boxes she was looking for, and scooped four different ones into the basket, picking out a fifth box of perfume for Paige. She carried on walking around and bumped into Paige, who had another handful of makeup.

"You just don't stop, do you?" Bella teased as she held the basket out for Paige.

"Fucking hell. You feeding an army with smell?"

"No. Maybe. Yes. Well, the boys anyway. They're gonna be all sweaty when they get back from tour, so y'know." She winked as the two of them walked up to the till. Bella placed the basket on the counter and watched as the cashier took the items out one by one and scanned them. Her eyes widened. "Oh, Paige! Could you do me a massive favour?"

"What?" Paige looked round from the magazine stall.

"Could you go fetch me a bottle of shampoo and conditioner, please? I'm running out and I meant to grab one but forgot!" She watched as Paige skittered off down the aisles, searching for the shampoo and conditioner that she knew Paige would take ages to find. Bella whispered to cashier. "Could you scan that one next please? It's a secret." She pointed to one of the many boxes in the basket and the cashier caught her drift, picking it up, scanning it and placing it in a bag of its own, as Bella dropped it in her handbag.

The cashier finished scanning everything and they both waited for Paige to come back, watching as she fumbled with the two bottles in her hands. "I'm afraid they only had the big bottles.." Paige said with a wary look on her face, as she checked out the number on the screen.

"That's fine. Thankyou." Bella smiled as she took the shampoo and conditioner from Paige, and handed them to the cashier.

"Okay, where do you wanna go next? Because you have to let me pay this time." Paige winced as the figure on screen increased. "I'm quite peckish. Do you fancy going for some food?"

"Yeah, that suits me fine. Can we go and drop these bags off first though, please? My arms are killing me. I know I said I wanted to get fit and get rid of this podge that all the junk food out here has given me, but this was not what I had in mind." Bella giggled as she lifted her arms, pretending to weight lift.