You&Me: Book 4

Chapter 28: Shopping (Saigon)

I had a second shadow. Archer wouldn't let me out of his sight. I smiled to myself as I looked through the clothes rack. A woman needed to get past us with her cart. Archer hugged into my side so she could get through.

"How much longer?" he whispered.

I shrugged. "We're shopping for you, not me." I held up a t-shirt. "Do you like this one?"

"Sure." He took it from me. "Let's go."

"You need more than one shirt."

"There's some in the cart."

I faced him. "Fine more than three shirts. Besides, you need to try it on. I don't know if this is the right size or not."

"Get whatever size you wear."

"We're here because my clothes are too big for you, remember?"

Archer frowned at the clothes rack. "Get a size smaller then."

Shaking my head, I let out a sigh and grabbed a few other options. Taking him by the wrist, I walked him to the dressing room, feeling more like his mother than a boyfriend. I placed him in a dressing room and handed him the stack.

"Do I have to try them all on?" he groaned.

"Yep." I nudged him inside and closed the door. "Not afraid of humans, my ass," I muttered as I went to sit on the bench outside.

The man was borderline helpless. The only humans shopping were women with small children. Who was there to be afraid of, the one scrawny man folding shirts in the corner? My phone buzzed and I took it out of my pocket.

I pressed answer. "Hey?"

"Hey, what are you up to?" asked Cyrus.

"Shopping."

"Shopping? Why?"

"Archer needed clothes."

"Oh, yeah," he laughed. "I forgot you have a packmate staying with you."

"He's doing more than staying with him," said another voice.

"I'm trying not to be nosy," Cyrus said in a muffled voice.

Their conversation wasn't helping my mood.

"What was it that you needed?" I laid my head back against the wall.

"Liam needs help studying for an upcoming test."

I glanced at the dressing room. "I can't ditch Archer. He's still getting used to being here."

"We could come to your house. Liam and I want to meet him, anyway and we are also you-know-whats, so he won't have to be on edge with us around."

"Hmm..." I checked to make sure Archer was still in the dressing room. "If I let you come, you have to not let Archer know I told you about his fear of humans," I whispered.

"Great! We'll be over around six, and we'll bring dinner as well. Does pizza or hamburgers sound good to you?"

I thought for a moment. "Hamburgers are fine. We've been having pizza quite a bit lately since school has been kicking my ass."

Cyrus laughed. "More like you have a distraction now."

"I'm dangerously close to changing my mind," I breathed.

Cyrus yipped. "That hurt. Why did you hit me?"

"I need his help," said Liam. "Don't ruin it."

I smiled to myself. "I'll see you two tonight. Bye."

"Sounds good. See you around six."

The call ended and I peered off across the clothing section. It might be too soon to introduce Archer to Liam and Cyrus. They were werewolves, though. Maybe it would help him relax if he had other people to hang out with then just me. I sucked in my lips. He'd been living with me for over a week, and I hadn't kissed him on the lips since the first day. It was starting to worry me.

Archer trudged out and dumped the clothes on my lap. "Those will work."

I looked through them and saw a few things missing. So he did have some fashion taste. "Do you want to look at anything else?"

"Nope. I want to leave."

Standing, I put the things in the cart and looked at his feet. "Shoes, maybe?"

His sneakers were close to falling apart.

"Fine." He marched off toward the section. "After that, I want to go home."

I followed behind him with the cart. "We still need to go grocery shopping."

"You can do it. I'll wait in the car."

Laughing to myself, I glanced through the shirts he had picked out. I smiled to myself. He was going to look hot in these.

***

(Archer)

He invited people over. I thought it was pretty clear that I was struggling to adjust to living around humans. They might be werewolves but it only meant they'd catch on to how uptight I was feeling. I broke off the clothing tag and put it in the pile with the others. Holding up the shirts, I really liked the picture on the front. We didn't get anything like this back home. All the clothes were very plain and worn in since clothes were simply past onto the next pack member once they were outgrown. Taking off the one I was wearing, I put on the new shirt. It was surprisingly soft against my skin. I smoothed it out. It fit a lot better than Saigon's shirts that I had been wearing. At least, I didn't have to worry about him wearing my clothes and stinking them up since they would be too small.

Leaving my room, I wandered downstairs. Saigon was at the table doing his homework.

He smiled at me. "Is that one of the new shirts?"

I nodded.

"It looks good."

"Thanks." I sat down beside him.

"Do you feel better now that we're home?"

Sucking in my cheek, I peered across the room. "It's stupid and I know it's stupid. Maybe being here will help desensitize me to humans."

Saigon grinned. "I thought you did great." He leaned in.

I didn't turn my face and let him kiss my cheek. He did so.

"Archer?"

I picked at the table.

"Do I make you feel uncomfortable?"

"No." I shook my head. "Why?"

"You won't let me kiss you."

I sighed. "I'm trying to wrap my head around things. It's not you. It's Willow shit." I pulled at my hair. "I wish she'd get out of my mind. I'm tired of thinking about it."

Saigon grew still and tapped his pen on his notebook. I leaned over and kissed his cheek. He perked up a little.

"Give me time." I placed my forehead on his shoulder.

"I waited two years. I can handle a few weeks or even months," he chuckled, though it didn't sound sincere.

I turned his head to me and gave him a proper kiss. "I'm going to try and be better. We are going out, right?"

Saigon grinned and gave me a peck. "Yeah, I already told Liam and Cyrus you're sorta my boyfriend, so I'm glad you confirmed it."

Messing up his hair, I stood before going to the fridge. It was probably a good thing we confirmed that before his friends arrived. Having people over was going to be awkward enough without relationship status issues.