Four

            I woke up Sunday morning, and discovered someone had placed a blanket over me while I slept. I’d assumed it was Ray, since it was his blanket. I carried it into the kitchen and placed it in front of him on the table. I ignored the fact that Ethan was sitting right there beside him.

            “Thanks for this” I said to Ray.

            He stared at the blanket for a moment, then tipped his head towards Ethan. My gaze followed and I looked at Ethan.

            “You, um… You looked cold,” Ethan said, shrugging and smiling sheepishly.

            “Oh.” I turned around and began walking away, keeping my voice formal. “Thank you.”

            I grabbed the phone on the way out of the kitchen, and sat down on the stairwell. I turned it on and dialed Angela’s number. She answered on the fourth ring, her voice groggy.

            “Hello?”

            “Hey, Ang. Did I wake you?” I asked.

            “Yeah, but that’s okay. It’s almost eleven. My mom would’ve been up here any minute, yanking the blankets off me and forcing me out of bed.” She laughed. “So what’s up?”

            “I was just thinking, we haven’t been to the mall in a while, and I really need to get out of the house,” I said, peeking around the corner and catching a glimpse of Ethan as he passed through the kitchen doorframe. I lowered my voice. “If you want, I can pick you and Dallas up and we can spend the day there.”

            “Sounds good to me,” replied Angela. “Pick me up in an hour?”

            “Alright, an hour it is. I’ll just text Dallas and see if he’s up for it.”

            After I hung up the phone, texted Dallas and got ready, I went down the back stairwell"avoiding Ray’s room where Ethan could’ve possibly been"and out into the garage. I hopped into my purple Chrysler Neon"which I’d bought used, with my own money"and backed out of the garage, in the direction of Angela’s house.

 

{   -   -   -   }

 

            When the three of us finally reached the mall, we headed straight to our favorite smoothie stand. I bought my usual Strawberry-Banana, while Angela and Dallas stuck to their exotic, tropical smoothies. They teased me because I always stuck to the same simple smoothie, but I didn’t mind. I knew what I liked and at the moment, I was satisfied with just that. I wasn’t up for trying anything new and ecstatic just yet; whether it came to smoothies or opening myself up to another guy.

            Afterwards, we shopped around a bit. Dallas followed dutifully, giving his honest opinion as we tried on clothes and modeled them for him. “That shirt is too bulgy at the shoulders. Those jeans make your hips look big. That color doesn’t look good on you.”

            This went on for about an hour, and I finally snapped. “Dallas! Don’t you have anything nice to say? Do all clothes look revolting on us?!”

            He pursed his lips in thought, then disappeared behind a rack of clothes. I turned to Angela and gave her a disbelieving look. Then I went back into the changing room and yanked off the sparkly tank top I’d had on.

            Suddenly, a colorful piece of clothing was placed on the top of my dressing room door. I picked it up curiously and examined it. It was a short, velvety sundress covered in different shades of blues, greens, yellows and purples. The design looked abstract, just adding to the beauty and originality of the spaghetti-strap dress. I stared at it for a long time before finally sliding it down over my head.

            I emerged from the dressing room to see Dallas and Angela sitting on the aligned couches, chatting away. As I approached them, I did a tiny twirl and caught Dallas’s gaping expression from the corner of my eye. I turned to look at myself in the mirror, and saw my mouth fall open a little. I looked… stunning"at least that was the first word to come to mind. I had no idea how such a little piece of material could make someone look like a completely different person, but that’s what it had done to me. I usually didn’t wear such fine clothes, but it sure made an improvement.

            Dallas walked over to me and stood beside me, staring at my reflection in the mirror. “Wow, Heidi. That looks amazing on you. See, I have good taste in clothes.”

            “You picked this out?” I asked, surprised.

            He nodded, smiling proudly. “Are you going to buy it?”

            I took one last look at myself in the mirror, catching a glimpse of Angela in the process. She still sat on the couch behind me, but her expression and posture had changed completely. She sat there, hunched over with her arms folded across her chest, staring angrily at the ground, looking like she was close to tears.

            I called her name and she looked up at me. “You okay?” I asked.

            She forced a smile. “I’m great.”

            I shrugged it off, assuming that maybe she was just jealous because Dallas found such a gorgeous dress for me, but nothing for her.

            After I took off the dress and paid for it, we went to the food court. Dallas told us to get a table before it got too busy, and he would grab us some burgers and fries. Angela and I obeyed and sat down at a nearby table. I tried to start up a conversation, but Angela wouldn’t meet my eyes, and she kept cutting the conversation short. I eventually gave up and sat back in my seat, waiting for Dallas with the food.

            Five minutes later, Dallas showed up carrying a tray of food. He set it down on the table in front of us, and we all grabbed our burgers, fries and drinks. Angela and I thanked Dallas for buying us the late lunch, and we drifted back into an uncomfortable silence.

            “Okay, what’s going on? The tension in the air is so thick, I can practically slice it with a knife,” Dallas said, setting down his burger and taking a sip of his drink.

            “I don’t know,” I replied, lifting my head to stare at Angela. “What’s wrong?”

            She shrugged and looked away. “Nothing’s wrong.”

            I kept my eyes on Angela, but she still wouldn’t meet my gaze, so I eventually went back to my fries. I obviously knew something was wrong; she was upset about something. But clearly she didn’t want to talk about it, and I wasn’t going to try and force it out of her"that would probably just start a fight. When she was ready to talk to me about it, I knew she would.

            Keeping this in mind, I turned my attention back to Dallas and we began talking about the party that was happening just before Christmas. I was excited because I knew for a fact that Brent wasn’t going to be there. He was going up to his trailer that weekend to close it up for the winter. So, if Brent wasn’t going, neither were any of his friends. Double whammy.

            We spent the rest of the day in and out of stores, trying on different clothes, shoes and jewelry. Angela’s mood stayed the same, and I couldn’t figure out what had gotten her upset. Dallas seemed to forget about the tension between Angela and me, so I stuck to chatting it up with him.

            Eventually we wandered out into the parking lot and got into my car. I drove Dallas home and headed back to my house.

            “Where are we going?” Angela asked, looking around from her spot in the passenger seat.

            “We’re going back to my house,” I answered sternly.

            “I have to go home, Heidi. My dinner is always at five, you know that.”

            “Well, we have to talk.”

            She crossed her arms defiantly. “Then talk on the way to my house.”

            I sighed and said, “Fine, we won’t go all the way to my house. We’ll talk right here.”

            We were driving down a back country road to avoid traffic. There were no cars coming either way, so I pulled over onto the side of the road, listening to the sound of the broken up gravel crunching under the weight of the tires.

            “What’s the matter with you?” I asked, shifting my whole body so I was facing Angela completely.

            “What do you mean?” she asked innocently.

            “Don’t even pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. I know you, Ang. You’re obviously upset about something, and I want to know what’s wrong.”

            “You obviously don’t know me that well if you can’t see it,” she snapped.

            “Okay,” I said slowly. “If I can’t see it, then why not just tell me.”

            She shook her head, looking away. “It will change everything.”

            I leaned down into her line vision so she had to look at me. “Angela, come on. I’m your best friend. Nothing you say will ever change that.”

            She gave a defeated sigh. “I"I like Dallas. A lot. But whenever you’re around, I’m completely invisible to him. He adores you. I can’t even compete with you and the feelings he has for you.”

            I just sat there, completely shocked with her confession. “Angela… I had no idea! I feel so stupid. And careless!”

            “It’s okay. You didn’t know. And there’s not much anyone can do. He loves you, not me.”

            “But"but I don’t think I could ever feel that way about him,” I said quietly.

            Angela was silent for a moment. “Does he know that?”