SOMEHOW I'd found myself standing in front of the change room with a heap of clothing in my arms, all of Reese's pickings, with only one lacy dress that I managed to swipe at last minute in between. There were a lot of patterns and a lot of textures and terrifyingly a lot of cut-outs from what little I was able to see before he'd thrust them into my arms, and when he pushed me into the change room with a grin that looked devilish at best, I swallowed.

I was pretty sure Reese thought getting Tyler's attention meant a lot of side-boob and a lot of side-boob was not something I, admittedly, was too familiar with.

Rummaging through the fabric, I slowly lifted a stray string in bewilderment to find it was attached to very, excrutiatingly little fabric. "Hey Reese, I think you forgot the rest of the dress, here."

"I think you forgot that you can't have any opinions from here on out. Put the dress on."

I scrunched my nose. "Feminism has come so far for us."

"Sounds like opinions are happening! Less talking, more dressing!" Reese called from outside the door.

"You don't have to put on anything you're not comfortable with," Tyler reassured me, and I snorted under my breath, practically feeling the eyeroll that I knew Reese was doing next to him.

With a deep, begrudging breath, I managed to slide myself into the very, very breathable navy blue dress, with spaghetti straps, threatening side cut-outs, an exposed back and the length that would probably fit a toddler. Maybe a small child. Definitely not a seventeen year old.

I huffed, giving myself a once over in the mirror. "I look like a baby prostitute."

"That sounds like you've put it on, come out! Come out!"

A groan climbed up my throat. At least I'd shaved my legs, if anything.

With every muscle in my body protesting, and an uncomfortable breeze touching my skin in more places than I would've liked, I peeked my head out to see Reese and Tyler waiting patiently for me. Or in Reese's case, not so patiently, as he shot up and bounded up next to me, a disturbing glint in his eyes.

"All right, let's see!"

I cleared me throat, making a sweeping arm gesture to my body, still hidden behind the door. "Voilà. Please, try not to swoon."

He shot me a deadpan look and pulled my arm, causing me to stumble out, unfortunately. Immediately I felt way too exposed to be out in public, even changing room public, and especially in front of Tyler public.

This was a terrible idea.

Reese's eyes widened. "Yes."

I squirmed, crossing my arms over my chest, if only to keep anything from spilling out. "No."

"Yes."

My jaw clenched. "No."

"She should wear whatever makes her comfortable," Tyler interjected, our eyes locking in camaraderie as he nodded at me, which I was incredibly thankful for.

I grinned, pointing over to him. "See! See! Tyler says it's okay!"

"Aw, c'mon," Reese said, coming up behind me, his hands hovering dangerously close to my body. "Isn't it nicer when she accentuates her assets?"

When his waved towards my chest, I gasped, immediately jumping away from with my arms poised defensively in front of me. "What are you doing!?"

He blinked, the ghost of a smirk on his face. "Sandavol, it's for the assets."

My mouth pursed bitterly and my eyes narrowed in a death glare. "Try and touch me again and you'll have your assets ripped off with my bare hands," I threatened, pointedly looking at his precious family jewels.

I stalked back into the room, making sure to give him a hearty thump on the shoulder on my way in, brows still furrowed. When he whined, I smirked a little from satisfaction. Still, it did little to calm the furious blush that was burning on my cheeks.

I knew there was a reason why I didn't want him to come. Salvaging any shred of dignity I had, was one.

Sometimes I wondered if Reese forgot that he was actually supposed to be helping me get Tyler's attention, not make sure that I looked like an idiot in front of him, like Reese appeared to have a keen talent for doing. While my gangly limbs and lack of filter wasn't necessarily much to work with, Reese's help wasn't exactly making a positive difference so far.

Sifting through the rest of the dresses Reese had delusionally thought I would ever put on (spoiler alert: I would not), I picked through what poor excuses for dresses appeared more string than fabric, and then threw them over the door.

"Put those back where you found them, or so help me, Reese, all of these white dresses are gonna turn red a lot quicker than you think."

Reese chuckled. "If it was your time of the month, you should've told me, Stella."

"Really, Reese?" I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Period jokes, we've fallen this low?"

"Tyler laughed!" Reese accused.

"No I didn't! Reese, you're lying!" Tyler protested, but was easily drowned out by the fresh round of laughter that was pouring out of Reese.

There were a couple of okay dresses in between, but none that really caught my interest. Reese kept finding ridiculous hats to put on me, as if they'd help. They did not. But I didn't think he really wanted them to either. I'd caught on when he started towards the obnoxious feather route.

Finally I brushed my fingers along the burgundy dress I'd swiped before, the only reasonable dress I would've ever even considered walking out of the store with. The lacy sleeves were three-quarter length, and when I smoothed it down, it fell a little bit above the knee. Probably an automatic no from Reese, but I felt comfortable, and pretty, and it looked nice with my hair, and I couldn't even fight the grin that found my face when I sized myself up in the mirror.

I looked really good.

Tyler said that comfort is what looked nice to him, and maybe (most definitely) Reese was going about everything all the wrong way. I couldn't find the point of putting on my best porn-start pout when it was literally the most uncomfortable thing I ever did.

Although, Reese did have a lot more knowledge about these things than I did. Maybe cleavage and cut-outs were the way to Tyler's heart. Still, the dress was a nice hope.

Drawing in a deep breath, I stepped out again, this time bringing my entire body with me. Tyler and Reese both paused their conversation from the couch, eyes snapping to me in a way that suddenly made me very aware of every nerve in my body.

I made a sweeping hand gesture, an unsure, shaky smile on my face. "Err, voilà?"

"You look really nice," Tyler said, grinning up at me. "Much better than the other ones. It's definitely my favourite!"

A burst of warmth blossomed within me, and suddenly my muscles felt a little more sure in my body. My back straightened. "Aw, well, thank you." I smiled.

"Well I think-"

I sighed, eyelids dropping. "Let me guess, Reese. I look like a PTA mom. No, wait, grandma when you take her to Olive Garden. No, wait, even better, maybe grandma-"

"I like it," Reese interrupted, causing me to immediately swallow the rest of my sentence in shock. "Seriously, it looks nice."

I blinked, my gaze swimming in skepticism as I eyed Reese up, brows knitted. "Nice for-"

"It looks nice, Stella, just take the compliment." The amber in his eyes were devoid of the usual mischief playing behind them.

I swallowed, my nerves still blaring at me in shock as I continued to study Reese's face, making sure that he hadn't actually been abducted by aliens. Maybe this was a Reese clone. And all of this had happened in the five minutes when I was changing.

Probably would've believed that before an actual compliment coming out of his mouth.

"I agree, you look great. The burgundy is really your colour," Tyler chimed in, but I couldn't quite say if the flush seizing my cheeks had already been there.

I scratched the back of my neck. "Well, uh, thanks guys, really." A shy smile found my face.

When I turned my back, thoughts still muddled in confusion, Reese's laughter rang out in a sharp burst. My brows immediately furrowing, I spun around with an accusing finger. "I knew it! I knew you had some smart ass remark!"

Reese was shaking his hands in front of him, crumbling in laughter. Tyler next to him was, unfortuantly, trying and failing to conceal his own betraying chuckles. I felt my mood dip, considering I actually really did like the dress, but I kept my face hard. Both my knuckles were poised at my hip.

"What? Tell me!"

Reese snorted. "No, no, trust me, you look great, Hot Stuff."

As the words left his mouth, immediately I felt myself pale. My eyes widened in terrifying shock as my heart plummeted down to the darkest depths of the earth, which was exactly where I wanted to crawl into. Quick as lightning, I flew back into the change room and slammed the door shut, my face engulfed in flames and my dignity all but dissipating in the ridiculously loud laughter of Reese, ringing in my ears.

Swallowing, hard, I reluctantly peered into the mirror, feeling a fresh wave of shame crash over me. There, glaring back at me was my underwear, which the back of the dress had gotten stuck in, revealing the hot-pink atrocity with the words Hot Stuff written across that Eva had gotten me as a joke, and were the tell-tale sign of laundry day, which had been that day.

Fuck.

Taking a deep breath, I placed my hand against the change room wall, feeling cool to the touch. Well, this was my life now. I was going to forever hermit between these four walls. This was now home.

I was going to become an urban legend. The girl who lived in the change room. I was never going to leave.

It took ten minutes, a lot of cursing and a lot of food bribery before either of them could coax me out, as I'd been sitting fetal position on the little bench inside and ignoring everything they said. Mostly just drowning in my own shame, and wondering if I could even remember life before that moment, before my life had crumbled before my eyes.

It wasn't until they mentioned Taco Bell did I eventually start giving hesitant replies.

Tyler had already gotten his dress shirt, not even having to try them on, and was ringing them through while Reese still continued to chuckle to himself. I pointedly ignored him, holding the dress and roughly digging my fingers into the fabric, the alternative to slapping him upside the head.

Although, the more he laughed, the more appealing that thought was.

"How's your stomach, Reese? Any poops coming on? You feel any sort of fecal activity? Let us know!"

Reese's grin never faltered. "Don't worry about it, I'll keep you updated, Hot Stuff." He winked.

A part of me wanted to burrow deep, deep down and another part of me wanted to rip out his vocal chords but neither were a possibility as the cashier lady stared me down expectantly, and I placed the dress on the counter.

Not today, Satan. But tomorrow, well, that was a new day.

The Taco Bell bribery was not filled with lies, however, as I half-expect anything that comes out of Reese's mouth. I found myself sitting next to Reese and across from Tyler in the food court, with soft taco and soft drink and broken dignity in hand, although the grease really did help. As it did with most of my problems.

bWho needed therapy when you had access to the terrible excuse for Mexican food?

"Are you excited for next weekend though? Sorry for inviting you, I didn't really think that you might want to go with Savannah, I mean, since it really is her date," Tyler said, pushing his fries around with his fork.

"Oh no, Savannah has way too many clothes as it is, it'd probably only enable her addiction if I took her to the mall," I reassured him, for my conscious more than his. "We definitely dodged a bullet there."

"It's nice of you to go on a double-date with her because she's nervous, though," Tyler added, digging that dagger deeper into my heart. "I mean, it's really nice of you. Dates can always be a little awkward It takes a good friend to go on one with her."

I hoped I wasn't cringing on the outside as much as I was on the inside.

"Yeah, well, I still have many, many reservations about leaving her alone with Reese for longer than two seconds," I said, pointedly looking at Reese for this. "Even one second seems a little too long."

Reese shrugged with a mouth full of burger. "I plead the fifth, you have no proof, talk to my lawyer."

Tyler laughed, shaking his head. "Well, still, it should be fun. We'll make sure Reese is on his best behaviour, yeah?"

When Tyler caught my eye, involuntarily a smile curved on my mouth, and I nodded. A warmth simmered behind my lungs, brought on as soon as his blue eyes met mine.

"Can do, captain!" I beamed.

Just as Reese opened his mouth, his cellphone began to vibrate against the table, gathering all of our attention. I watched with curiosity as he brought it to his ear, wondering if he'd actually set up a getaway plan to leave Tyler and I alone. I'd almost forgotten the fact that he was supposed to be disappearing.

"Hello?"

My attention was immediately broken from this as Tyler mentioned something about going to another store for a necklace, and I was nodding and agreeing, and suddenly Reese was standing up. I turned, arching an eyebrow at the boy, who was now inexplicably waving at us.

"Gotta go, sorry, see you later."

Just as I opened my mouth to say something, his back was turned and he was gone, leaving only fries and confusion in his wake. I paused for a moment, wondering if maybe it was just my imagination that his voice was a little clipped, but figured that it probably was. He did say that he was going peace out mid-way anyway, I guessed Wyatt was ordered to call for the getaway.

"I'm eating your fries!" I called out, not caring if he heard, and popped a fry in my mouth.

"Did you still want to find a necklace, then?" Tyler asked, his dark hair brushing into his eyes.

I grinned, nodding my head. "Sounds good! Also, you wouldn't mind, could we hit up the candle store?"

"Yeah, no problem, candles seem fun."

That was when I knew it was true love.

***

First, I know you're like why are you posting these as 2 chapters at the same time? Mostly because they would be hella long as one, and I'm trying to be kind to mobile readers, so hopefully this is easier for you guys to read and stuff. I'M BEING CORTEOUS. I HOPE YOU LIKE. Also it's supposed to be a double update kind of to lessen the exterme guilt that is eating away at me.

Also, Mean Girls.

Whaaaat? Okay, I know, this chapter was like a million years too late. It was like, I wrote most of it on my phone, and then I dropped my phone in the toilet, and then school decided to thoroughly kick my ass, and then I got like a ridiculous amount of internship interviews all at once, and it was like life was like DID YOU WANT FREE TIME? DID YOU WANT THINGS TO GO WELL? HAHAHAHA.

I should be back on track for updating, I already have the next couple chapters all planned out?

I hope you guys are still sticking around for this story, because next chapter is HELLA INTENSE. These were kind of like a nice aha cute and then next chapter will be BAM. STUFF. FEELINGS? WHO KNOWS?

This author's note is like a million years long so seriously, thank you guys so, so much for reading and voting and commenting and sticking with this story! 40K is like, mind-blowing to me and to log in and see all of you guys reading this story is like YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST AND I DO NOT DESERVE YOU AS READERS GOODBYE I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS. c: