Chapter Seven
“So what’s the plan for the day?” I ask Laynie as she’s putting her hair up in the bathroom.
“We. Are taking a girl day to ourselves. No boys. Just us. We’re going shopping.”
I snarled. “Shopping?”
“Tide, don’t you dare pull that face on me. You may hate shopping with anyone else, but you’ve yet to go shopping Laynie style.” She smiled happily and applied her mascara liberally.
Laynie’s phone went off and she threw it at me. “Jonah.” She said.
“Hello?” I picked up.
“Hey.” He said, I could imagine him sitting at his desk, swiveling his chair back and forth. “What are you two up to today?” he asked.
I growled. “Shopping.”
Laynie turned around scowling at me.
“Sounds fun.” He laughed.
“Loads.” I said blankly.
“I was just calling to see if you guys wanted to have a painting day or something tomorrow. My mom got me a whole bunch of new canvases while they were out last night, so I thought I could bring them to Laynie’s tomorrow and we could work on stuff together.”
“Sounds good, come over at noon!” Laynie offered from where she was standing in the bathroom.
“Okay then.” Jonah said. “Well I have to go, my dad’s complaining that the chickens are in the garage, they’re in his way.”
I laughed. “So you are a professional chicken chaser.” I teased.
“Maybe so. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said, and we hung up.
“I’m ready!” Laynie said from the bathroom.
We climbed into Chum Buggy and made our way to Iowa City.
“What is this place?” I asked. “Remind me next time we come here that I need a hamburger phone.”
“It’s called Ragstock. It has everything.” She says, flipping through a rack of clothes. “This. Is cute. You need this.” Laynie says while pushing me into the direction of the fitting room.
“I think you’re forgetting that I don’t have money on me right now. My wallet is back at your place.” I tell her as she closes the door with me inside. She tosses what she had found over the door.
“You’re forgetting that I have my mother’s credit card.” She said. “Now you stay in here and try that on while I go find jeans to match it. Jonah is going to love this.” She shrieks and I hear her clipping away, her flip flops flapping against the linoleum floor.
I look at what she had thrown at me. I would have to give her props, she had a strange way of fishing out every single article of clothing that was sure to make me feel uncomfortable. It was pretty, but it was quite the jump from my normal t-shirt and jeans. I read the tag. Forest Green Loose Knit Cardigan. It felt as if I was jumping over mountains without so much as a safety harness.
“Wait! Put this on under it, I think the one I gave you has an open neck. Make sure to make sure it hangs off of one shoulder too. Here’s a tank top and a pair of jeans.” She threw them at me. I yelped.
I shimmied out of the clothes I had worn and slipped on the clothes as Laynie had instructed me. I pulled up the jeans and zipped up.
“Owe!” I yelped as a pair of shoes hit me in the head and fell to the floor.
“Sorry! You needed a pair of shoes to go with.” Laynie said, laughing quietly to herself.
I groaned and slid the silver flats onto my feet. I’m going to look ridiculous. I want my t-shirt back and my ratty old sneakers.
I opened the door and glared at Laynie, who was sitting on a chair waiting.
“Oh. My. God.” She said, her draw dropping.
“Don’t do that.” I whined. “Is it that bad?”
“No! No no no. You look amazing. Go look!” she said, and steered me to the nearest mirror.
I approached the mirror in awe. It didn’t even look like me. I reached out my hands to the mirror, surprised that the reflection moved with me. I ran my hands down my sides to my waist. The ensemble was surprising. The tank top that Laynie had thrown at my head was cream colored, the straps showing on one of my shoulders. The jeans were a dark wash with golden accent threads. I wiggled my feet, looking myself up and down a few times.
“You. Are wearing that the next time you and Jonah hang out.” She said, still in awe just as much as I was.
“I can’t.” I said mutely. “I can’t let you buy me this.”
“Yes, you can. I have a membership here, and it was all on clearance.” She smiled happily. “And since the clearance here is half off and the membership takes off an additional twenty percent, I do believe I’ll only be spending roughly… twenty dollars on the entire ensemble.” She said.
“I hate your math skills.” I stuck my tongue out.
“You can hate them all you want. But now it’s my turn. I have a date with Bryce the day after tomorrow.”
“What?” I shrieked.
She grinned happily and shuffled her feet. “Yea. He asked me out the other day. He came into the grocery store and we talked for a little while.”
I shoved her in the shoulder teasingly.
“Let’s go find you that outfit then.” I told her and we went our separate ways to rummage through the shelves and racks.
