Shopping

The hard jostle of the car woke me up, rubbing my eyes, I looked around at the world and noticed it was covered in snow, I assumed we were close. I continued to rub my eyes and reach for Brandon's arm.

"Pull over, I'll drive." I felt a hand grab mine and I smiled. I finished rubbing my eyes and looked at the driver.

It was Trey… my attention shot to the backseat where Brandon was stretched out and sleeping my heart was beating a million miles a minute. I didn't want to be rude and pull away too fast, so I let him hold my hand.

Moments later he stopped at a stoplight and gave me the sweetest smile I blushed and looked away only for my attention to snap back when I felt his lips kiss my hand

"Thank you." He then released my hand and started to drive when the light turned green. My mind was on everything and nothing at the same time. All I could think about was how soft his lips were and wondered why he thanked me.

"No problem." I giggled. Trey just stared at me longer than he probably should have with a soft expression on his face.

A little while later Brandon woke up, and 10 minutes after that we arrived at our first stop… JCPenney's.

Brandon explained why we were here

"We rushed to leave campus without getting to pack some important things like extra clothes, boots, jackets, and shower stuff. So, we're here to buy those things. We’ll probably go into the mall and get something to eat and then be on our way to the resort."

I gently gripped Brandon's arm in an effort to get his attention, when he looked at me I smiled sweetly.

"Is there anything else we’re here for? Well… besides jackets and other stuff." As if he was uncomfortable Brandon slipped his arm awkwardly out of my hands, he did it in a way that felt like he was saying "yeah don't touch me" I brushed it off and stood there awkwardly waiting for a response.

"I don't know… camping stuff? A sled? I'll leave that part to you."

"Okay. if we all get split up just meet up at the bottom of that escalator," I pointed out the only visible escalator only to notice that it was bringing people up. I mentally cursed and quickly added. "Just try not to crowd the bottom of the escalator."

"Right, I'm paying but that doesn't mean pick up senseless random shit." he stared straight at Trey when he said that. Trey looked like he took that as a challenge.

Oh no.

Everyone started making their way to get their clothes. Mine was on this floor, but Brandon started to drag me with him, by the arm. I wriggled free from his uncomfortably tight grip and reached for his hand to which he dodged and slung his heavy muscular arm over my shoulder. Instead of letting his hand hang free, he went out of his way to grab my boob and once the escalator dropped us off at the top, he picked up some random shirt and started making his way to the closest changing room. I looked around and noticed there wasn't going to be much intervention. Curious about the lack of people, I checked the weather and saw that it was snowing. The weather called for a blizzard, just my luck. I sucked my teeth and ducked out from under his arm.

He stopped but didn't even bother to turn and face me. I looked around and found Trey pretending to mind his business. I took a dark blue T-shirt off of the metal rack and threw it at Brandon.

"Put that ugly shirt away and try that one on. It looks much better." Brandon pulled the shirt off of his head, turned slightly and looked over his shoulder with a blank emotionless look, and then strolled into the changing room. No protest, no argument. I stood there alone with the urge to run in and apologize but I fought that urge and turned my back to the men's department descending the escalator.

Once down the escalator I navigated towards the coats and pulled a long black peacoat out of the rack and quickly tried it on. Then I auto-piloted to the shoes where I pulled out some brown calf high-heeled boots and threw them into a nearby cart. I looked down at my pants and debated getting a new pair and decided to get one… just in case.

Now with the camping supplies.

I was mentally debating the color of the tents when I felt like someone was looming over my shoulder. I tensed and turned around… there was no one there.

I returned to what I was doing but this time, I heard a shift behind me. My heart sped up but when I turned it was too late.

"Boo!" I started tearing up as I screamed. Trey screamed and wrapped me up in a bear hug so I could attack him by accident. His chin resting on my shoulder and his breaths tickling my neck. I squirmed, more so to get him away from my neck then get out of his arms. I screamed so loud the workers made every excuse to come and check the camping area and see if everything was alright.

“Are you finding everything okay?” and “Is there anything I can help you with today?” was what we constantly got as we continued to shop in the area.

Of course Trey was too busy laughing the whole time so I had to personally tell several employees that I was fine and we didn't need help. In between each “visit” I would beat Trey up playfully. He released me and joined me in gathering materials. Mini solar powered lantern, metal fire starters two to be exact… just in case… the tent. I also got three sleeping bags and was debating the multi tool I found. Trey was too busy getting the most expensive versions of everything he picked up. He then found a huge tent and replaced the one I picked with it. I rolled my eyes at him and returned to my debate. Mid debate against picking the tool Trey took the multi tool and threw it into the cart.

"Trey!" I gave him a look that said, "what are you doing?" and shook my head at him. I went to put it back but caught sight of the 20 person tent in the cart and shot Trey another look.

"What?!  You want the blue one?" Astonished at how oblivious he was acting, I bent to retrieve the tent and held the heavy box in my arms. Placing it on the closest shelf.

"This is a 20-person tent, why would we need this?"

"Fine, what about the 10 person one. Look there's even a blue one." I rolled my eyes and smiled.

"Fine, but I'm going to beat you up I swear." he replaced the tent and closed the distance between us. stopping a foot away with a smirk on his face.

"Oh yeah?" I smirked and stepped closer to him fully accepting the challenge.

"Yeah, what are you going to do about it?" his eyes widened for a moment before he chuckled deeply and leaned down but stopped and stood up straight, his smirk less prominent but still there. I took a step forward, but something made me look to my left and there was Brandon sitting on one of the wooden shirt racks nearby

"You done shopping?" my body went cold, and my brain went blank

"Ye-yeah, sorry." something was wrong, and he was trying to hide it that tends to be worse than him immediately expressing how he feels

Was he still upset?

I stood up straight, but I didn't move fast enough. Trey looked like he got slammed from behind. Obviously not prepared to be crashed into from behind. His body came shooting forward and knocked me to the ground. He had time to catch himself as he fell forward and did just that. I on the other hand had no time to react and connected with the ground hard. Trey helped me up first, Brandon got to his feet and seized the man who was standing behind Trey.

"What are you doing? What are you trying to pick a fight with?"

"No! No! Please I got cologne in my eye. I didn't see anyone." Brandon dragged him over to where I was now standing.

"Apologize… Now!"

"I'm sorry Miss. Please forgive me. I'm sorry." I stared into his eyes and noticed that they were very irritated.

"You're fine. What I want you to do is go to the bathroom in the back and wash your eyes out, and if you have any contacts I'm afraid to tell you, but you need to remove those as well, or they will prolong the irritation and possibly injure your eyes permanently.

"Yes… of course! I will." Brandon roughly released him in the direction of the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" I just answered Trey with a nod. Then Brandon wrapped me up in his arms blocking Trey from my view, his hand reaching down to rub my butt.

"Are you alright babe? Did it hurt when you landed?" I took hold of his hand and slid it to my hips.

"I mean yeah it hurts where I fell, but I'm not sore or bruised or anything so I'm fine." I placed a kiss on his lips and smiled sweetly at him.

"Thank you though." My kiss must've made everything better because his bad mood disappeared entirely.

"Yeah. Of course!" I took his hand and led him to the cart.

"Coming?" Trey nodded and followed close behind us as we made our way to the cash register. It was Trey who is now upset.

Brandon happily paid and he and Trey took all the bags, I didn't mind but at the same time I wanted to help too. We made our way to the door we entered through and was met with a view of the full force blizzard. Trey called shotgun and ran… no sprinting towards the car normally Brandon wouldn't care but I was the driver for the remainder of the ride, and he was in a good mood, so he sped off after him. Let's see who's faster: a tornado or a hurricane. I'll see when I get in the car.

The blizzard was thick. I couldn't see that far in front of me, and I was cold. I should've put on my coat… I was going to make my way towards the car but then I heard what sounded like puking. Concerned, I walked over and saw two women, one supporting herself with the wall while she heaved her Break Time lunch, the other was rubbing her back while her back was to the sick one.

"Is everyone all right?" I slowly and cautiously walked forward to visually assess the situation the upright woman was first to respond

"She's just a bit sick. I'll take care of her, don't worry. I'll be driving anyway."

"Are you sure? I can help, I'm a Doctor…"

…In training.

The woman nodded and readjusted her jacket and then returned to rubbing the sick ones back.

"Yes. You go get yourself warm, it's snowing out."

"All right… Be careful out there." I turned around and try to make my way to the car but after a few minutes of shivering and not seeing anything familiar I started to panic, storms always made me feel uncomfortable ever since I was small, and this was no different

"Brandon? Trey? Guys?" I started screaming for either one or even both. I was just lost and scared… then I heard it.