What Are Friends For?

Chapter One

I squinted at the crooked display of underwear in front of me, the colors and patterns making my eyes ache. The tier had been picked over by the hordes of people milling about, the midwinter half-off sale drawing in the crazies desperate for a good deal. Crazies like me, apparently.

I lifted two pairs of panties in each hand, holding them side by side and inspecting them closely. They were the same price, both floral, both the cotton boyshort style that I loved. However, one pair was blue with daisies, the other purple with lace accents and sunflowers, and I couldn't decide which I liked best.

Life-or-death decisions were made in the underwear store.

"Okay, you choose." I turned around to face the boy behind me and lifted the pairs of underwear, shaking them to catch his attention. His gaze, however, looked over my shoulder at the wall, unfocused. "Earth to Eli."

His dark eyes snapped to mine. They were brown—not hazel, not chocolate, just brown. As dark as the morning coffee he drank, but depthless. "What?"

"Pick: blue daisies or purple sunflowers with a lace band?"

"Oh." Elijah looked between the two panties, analyzing them. "Isn't the lace itchy?"

I smiled, placing the purple pair back. "See, this is why I bring you. You think about the logistics of shopping more than Eloise. She just goes 'oh, that's cute' and adds it to her pile."

Elijah's eyes roamed over the tiers of lacy clothing items without fixating on one place for more than a few seconds. Our winter jackets were thrown over his arm, my puffy red mixing with his denim, allowing me an unobstructed shopping experience. What a gentleman. "Please do not try to tell me I have better taste in women's underwear than your best friend."

"You do. You should put it on your résumé. And anyway, you are my best friend," I told him seriously, nudging his shoulder. "My list goes chronologically. I've known you way longer than her."

Elijah Greybeck and I had been best friends since third grade when his parents packed him and his brother up and hauled them nearly 200 miles across the country. The best decision of the Greybecks' lives. It was, at least, the best thing that had happened to mine.

Cue the aww sound effect.

"And you need to say it," I said, lifting my eyes to his. "Panties."

"Never. I'm never going to say it." He mock-shuddered, following me as I moved to the next tier of clothing. I opened one of the drawers that held bralettes and sifted through the different patterns. One had a smattering of pink polka dots on a white background, and I added it to the pile I'd started, balanced in one hand. "You know, it was fine walking around with you when we were in the activewear section. But looking at underwear with you is a little freaky, Remi."

"It's not freaky," I told him, tilting my head at the tier. "Just pretend that I'm looking at bathing suits. Or just close your eyes."

In all honesty, I couldn't explain why I liked it when Elijah came with me to the store. Maybe because I liked torturing him, my best friend since childhood. I liked watching him squirm. Or hey, maybe because carting him around with me made it seem like I had a boyfriend, even though I was as single as the last cookie in the cookie jar.