Who Will Fix Me Now?

After stopping at Xavier’s house and allowing him to change into some cleaner clothes, he calls one of his friends to give us a ride to the mall. His friend was very intimidating and I felt awkward during the ride to the mall, but thankfully, the mall wasn’t too far from Xavier’s house.

“So, what store do you wanna go to?” Xavier asks as we enter the mall, which was more crowded than usual.

“I don’t care. I don’t have my money anyways,” I tell him with a shrug.

He only smiles and shrugs himself, “I can pay for you and if you want to.”

“You sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

“Well, then in that case, I don’t really care where we go, as long as we go to the vans store and Hot Topic before we leave.”

“Uh, I think the vans store is closer, so we’ll go there first?”

I nod. He smiles again and we walk to my favorite shoe store and thankfully, there’s not too many people inside. As soon as we step inside, Xavier leaves my side to look at the shoes on display along the walls of the room. I look around myself, stopping to look at a pair of gray and white vans.

“OLI! TRY THESE ON!” Xavier shouts from the other side of the store, shocking everyone into silence. I tense up as I feel multiple pairs of eyes on me.

Jesus fucking Christ, Xavier…

Xavier is by my side in a second, thrusting a pair of shoes in my face. I take the shoe from him, noticing the floral design on it. He grabs me by my hoodie and guides me to one of the seats provided to shoppers here and forces me onto it.

“Did you really have to cause a scene over a pair of shoes?” I mumble shamefully as I untie my vans and set them on the floor by my feet.

“I love pastel designs!” Xavier chirps happily, ignoring my question. I can’t help but smile anyway as I pull the vans onto my feet. I kinda liked the shoes though, not that I’d actually tell anyone though.

“I’m pretty sure these might be for girls,” I tell him.

“But they look good on you!”

“They’re not my style.”

“Oh. I’ll get them for myself,” he says as I start taking them off. “Did you see anything you wanna buy in here?”

“Uh…” I start to contemplate whether or not I want the shoes I was inspecting before. I decide to pass on the shoes. “No, no.”

“Okay. I’m gonna buy these shoes and I’m gonna rock them so hard and everyone’s gonna be like ‘ooh, look at that bae! He looks so hot in those shoes! Yaaaas!’”

I laugh and shake my head as I hand the floral shoes to Xavier, who takes them away to buy them. I pull my own vans on and wait for Xavier outside the store. Minutes later, he prances out with his new shoes on his feet, the shoes he was wearing before in the shoe box in a bag.

“Hot Topic next?”

“Yeah.”

<><><>

“Woah, this place is really cool!” Xavier breathes, looking around like a kid in a candy store. “Why haven’t I come here before?”

“Good question. Maybe you should reevaluate your life,” I joke before checking out the long sleeved shirts. Xavier follows me and stands by my side.

“That’s no way to talk to your father, young man!” Xavier jokes, and I playfully roll my eyes.

“Sorry, Dad,” I play along as I grab a long sleeved Linkin Park shirt that’s my size. I hold it up to myself and turn to Xavier, who frowns at the shirt.

“What’s Linkin Park?”

“Oh my fucking god, how do you not know? I listen to them all the time.”

“Oh, really?”

“Really.”

“Oh. Well it’s a nice shirt, by the way,” he smiles as he looks through the shirts, pulling out a shirt that advertised a band I didn’t recognize. The letters on the logo were so deformed that I couldn’t even make out what it said.

“What band is that?”

“Uh… I don’t know…”

“Oh…”

“I’m not buying it, I listen to the bands on my shirts, I just like the image on it,” he laughs as he gives the shirt one last glance before putting it back on the rack.

<><><>

After picking out a few shirts with longer sleeves, Xavier pays for our stuff and leads me out of the store. He's excitedly bragging about how one of the girls was "totally checking him out" in his new shoes, but really, she was raising a concerned eyebrow at a strange outburst of his. I don't tell him that though.

"What store are we going to next?" I ask him.

"Well... I'm kinda out of money now..." Xavier laughs awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

"That's alright. Thanks for paying for me, I'll pay you back."

He only giggles at me, and I give him a questioning look.

"Oli, you don't have a job and you live with your mom!"

I roll my eyes at him and start to lead him towards the exit, not having a comeback to defend myself this time.

<><><>

"Hey, is that Tanner?!" Xavier asks excitedly, pointing down the hall we're in.

"Stop pointing," I lecture as I follow his gaze, finding Xavier leaning against the wall, tapping away at his phone. "And yes, it is."

Xavier smiles brightly and calls our friend's name, gaining his attention. Tanner notices the two of us and starts approaching. He greets the two of us when he does.

"Tanner, do you like my new shoes?" Xavier asks happily, motioning towards his pastel floral shoes. Tanner's eyes widen, and what he does doesn't even surprise me.

"WHAT ARE THOOOOOOOSE?!" he shouts loudly, pointing at Xavier's shoes. Some of the other shoppers nearby laugh and I can feel my face heat up with embarrassment.

"My fucking awesome shoes!" Xavier playfully retorts, placing his hands on his hips.

"They're fug, man!"

"You're just mad because you're not rocking these babies like me!"

"Lol no."

"That's it! I want a divorce!!" This outburst was rather loud and dramatic and gathered a small audience. This didn't seem to bother my idiotic friends at all. In fact, it just encouraged them to carry out their little act.

"You can't leave me!! What about the kids?!"

"I'm taking them, and our favorite son!" Xavier yells as he grabs onto my arm. I'm literally red from embarrassment and want to cry, but crying will make this even more embarrassing, so I drop my head to hide my face with my hair with a mumbled “I swear to God…”

"No!!" Tanner shouts, faking a sob as Xavier starts to guide me to the exit again. "I thought what we had was SPECIAL!!"

Tanner fakes the ugliest sobs I've ever heard as we walk through the doors. Xavier starts to laugh as we both sit down at a bench.

"That was great! You looked so uncomfortable so it was more believable," Xavier giggles, and Tanner walks out. He laughs a bit and walks over to us.

"You guys are so fucking embarrassing," I whine, then turn to Xavier. "You embarrassed me three times."

Xavier mocks offense, holding his hand over his heart. Tanner just smirks, digging his car keys out of his pocket.

"So, you guys wanna come over? I'm babysitting Celeste's cousin again," Tanner offers, and Xavier gasps excitedly.

"Squishy?!"

I raise an eyebrow, not knowing what the fuck's going on or what’s squishy (I’m not sure I even want to know) as Tanner nods, causing Xavier to nod eagerly. Tanner starts heading towards his car that isn't parked too far away and Xavier drags me along.

Tanner gets into the drivers seat and Xavier calls dibs on shotgun so I'm left alone in the back of the car after putting all the bags in the trunk. Tanner says that Celeste is on her way to drop off Squishy, who I now know is apparently a person. I vaguely remember hearing the name Celeste from somewhere a few times but I'm not too sure who this Celeste person is. I ask my friends, and they tell me that she went to our school and that she was friends with both Tanner and Rachelle.

Speaking of Rachelle, I haven't talked to her in a while...

I pull my phone out of my pocket and go to her contact, sending her a simple text,

me: Hey

I lean back in my seat and wait for her reply, enjoying the ride to our friend's house.