From American Eagle to Charming Charlie and now to Bath & Body Works, Snow looked through all the displays. If truth were to be told, she wasn't much of an enthusiastic shopper like how most girls would. She'd only go out if she really chose to or there was something that caught her interest, which frankly nothing did, especially when it came with a price tag too much for her liking.

Since today she'd try out this couple activity of shopping together (or more so window shopping) with Casey, this was a little bit new for her. She wasn't sure where to look or where to go, but it was just normal to browse, wouldn't it be?

Casey moved his head all around. The store mainly consisted of females, and he was the only guy here. At the way he stood there uninterested, she thought it might be awkward for him.

Snow wondered if Casey liked the smell of anything. What would be his preferred smell?

She scanned around the area and shifted when something looked fascinating to her. Picking up the free sample bottle, she'd sprayed it toward her wrist and sniffed the scent. "Smells like orange," she commented.

"Do you want to try some?" Snow asked Casey.

He stayed motionless with his face, as silence was what she'd get from him.

"Come on. You might need a smell of orange to lighten up," she said, her voice in persuasion.

When he wouldn't say anything, she grabbed his forearm, and sprayed a spritz of orange-scented on the back of his hand. She brought his hand closer to his nose. "Try smelling it."

Casey narrowed his eyes at her, but she nodded at him. When he sniffed the scent, she tilted her head. "How is it?"

"It smells just like an orange," he said dully.

"Do you like oranges or anything fruity scent? Or maybe the scent of forests or beaches?" Snow asked, flicking through her gaze at more bottles on the shelves and counters.

"Come on, what do you like?" She picked up another bottle, but it was hand lotion. She squeezed the bottle lightly until the small drop of filling landed on top of her palms then she rubbed them together. "Ooh, I like this one."

"How would I know?" Casey said, averting his sight on to random products.

"Well, isn't there a scent that would make you happy? It doesn't have to be complicated. You can even like the smell of apple pie."

Snow oohed at the next bottle, spraying it onto another free area. It had smelled like vanilla and some other flowers.

It looked like Casey thought about it, but he wouldn't say anything. As she went around through different products and testing them out, Casey endured the smells from her whenever she'd get him to try it.

Snow sprayed the fragrance on the testing strips. The smell became heavenly and almost amazing. "Casey. Smell this. Isn't this one great?" She used another strip and passed it to him.

Casey took a whiff, and then he paused. Slowly he put down the strip on the counter. "When you're done, I'll be waiting out," he said, walking away quickly.

Huh? What happened?

She became confused. Glancing back at the bottle, it was the scent of Jasmine.

Snow got a fragrance mist, hand cream, and hand lotion. Secretly she got him a little something as well. Maybe it was because, for whatever reason, she felt bad for when he walked away. She wouldn't give it to him right away, however.

She moved to him when she was done. "Are you ready to look at something else?"

They walked to a shoe store. The racks were holding them up in lines, and there was a mountain of displays going on. Snow glanced at Casey as he uninterestedly glanced at the shoes. She came closer by his side.

"Do you like any shoes here?" she asked.

Casey went to the other section, looking over at other shoes, and shrugged. "I have enough shoes at home."

"How many?"

"Five."

Five pairs of shoes? That was a pretty small amount, she had thought.

"Should I buy you a new pair of shoes?" Snow offered.

"What?" Casey looked at her unbelievably. "No, that's not necessary."

"I could," she said. "You might like walking around with them."

He shook his head, refusing.

"I mean, I wouldn't mind. What shoe size are you?" She picked up a shoe and held it up to him. "Do you like this style?"

"Put it back. I don't need another pair of shoes."

"Why not? I would love to have a pair of shoes like it's a brand new dress."

Speaking of dresses, she remembered she had mentioned to her mom that she would need to go thrift shopping because her wardrobe needed updating.

Since Casey refused, she put back the shoe to where it was. Even though he said he didn't want a pair, his eyes looked anyway.

"You sure you don't want any shoes?" she questioned.

"I'm just looking," he said.

Snow gazed at everything all around, and Casey wanted to be done with this trip. Every once and a while, she had tried her best to cheer him with small things and get him to talk about shopping or what items he'd like to see. Currently, they stopped at one store that had many varieties of clothes around, and she'd tried to get him to look at it with her.

Although, without luck, he wasn't into it.

"I guess you're not a shopper? Me neither, but I don't really go out much like malls, so when I do, I like to see what's around," Snow said, moving through a round clothing rack and pushing the tops.

"I'm bored, okay? There's nothing for me here," Casey grumbled.

"If you're bored, feel free to look around for a little bit. I'll come to you soon, and then we can sit down and eat. How about that?" she reasoned.

"Okay," he said then strolled, but he was still keeping within a close distance.

Where was he in his mind? She wanted to get closer to him, but so far she couldn't keep him a tiny bit happy. He's still grieving... she told herself.

If he wasn't feeling the greatest, maybe she could give him a couple of minutes for the time to breathe. A time to breathe and step out was what everyone needed, and he looked like he needed that as well, so she nodded to herself. He'd be okay, she would say.

She pushed through other tops and then heard giggling nearby. Her head turned toward the source, and she had found two girls talking to Casey while he looked at them. Their appearances caught her attention.

The first was ginger with wavy hair with her hair length past the shoulder but had more inches than her own. She just placed a hand on her hip, and her hair slightly bounced. She had a warm skin glow to it that even from this distance, she could notice from here. She wore a white tank top with a green stripe on top and a pair of faded gray shorts that showed off her beautifully perfect thighs.

The second had long black curly hair, and it was radiantly shining. She had beautiful umber skin, and from the way her bold eyelashes stared at him, she was taking her best shot. Her jewelry pieces on her: large hoop earrings, golden necklace, and bracelets on both wrists; she was fashionable. She's confident too, with her white crop top and Rose gold silk joggers.

They were both beautiful, and she looked nothing like them.

Snow became meek, falling into her lack of self-confidence. With a look of confusion as her eyes looked less cheerfully, her lips pressed together, and her shoulders slumped in the way the guys told her not to. She didn't know why she would get like this even though they had nothing to do with her.

"Do you want to call or hang sometimes?"

"Yeah, we'd love to get to know you better."

She frowned; she didn't know whether she should step up or let him deal with it. After all, it would be out of character to do something she wasn't brave enough so.

"Sorry, I'm already seeing someone," she heard Casey's voice spoke.

By their expression that had fallen into disappointments and sighs, she saw them walk away. Snow looked away from it. What was that? He had to mean her? Who else around here but her?

She came up to Casey quietly right after a while. "Hey, I'm ready to go now."

He nodded his head. "Okay."

Strolling the mall looked leisurely if she were anyone else but herself right now. Even though she was walking right next to him, he looked far away.

"So earlier," she said, as he glanced at her way. "Was that for me?"

Casey would've had a question mark above his head now, so she elaborated. "Those girls I saw. You turn them down, didn't you?"

"Oh." He realized. "Just so they can go away."

So she may have thought; she nodded. "Do girls come to you normally?"

"Not really."

"At least they find you attractive."

When they stopped at the food court, as Snow mentioned, she took him for Ice Cream and one big pretzel to share. They'd sat at the table and ate their ice cream in a cup. She had Butter Pecan, and he had Chocolate Fudge Brownie.

It was difficult being around him when he hadn't even smiled once. He stayed stoic the whole time. She knew there was a soft heart somewhere, but he wasn't willing to show that side to her. Even though she knew it wasn't going to be easy, she tried to think how can you cure a broken heart with the heart of another? His heart was wounded and locked away, and she wanted to tell him again, it's going to be all right.

His eyes stayed on the ice cream as he slowly picked up a piece to his mouth.

It was saddening for her to watch. She could comment on how this window shopping was like being accompanied by a silent bodyguard. This had only been the third day of their relationship mark. Calm down, she thought. You couldn't burn an image of another person in their mind like that.

"This was fun, right?" Snow asked.

"If you meant window shopping, it's not my scene," Casey said.

She shook her head. "No, not that. You and I hanging out together."

Casey's eyes stared at her unknowingly, and she waited nervously. The three dotted periods rose above their head for a bit until he finally answered, ending the suspense. "I'm not sure yet."

Snow could feel her face wanting to drop to the table to slam against it. She looked at him wistfully. "I do hope you can think of letting me know of your thoughts sometimes. I can't read you with your vague responses."

He just eyed at her.

"Let's talk about feelings, hmm?"

Casey reached out to the pretzel on the tray between them and snapped a piece. As if feelings could hurt him. No harm done with wanting to talk, she had to make that clear.

"I really want to make this work. I do. I hope you're on the same page as me."

Casey chewed but listened intently.

Snow took a bite of her ice cream, thinking about how she should say it. She needed him to understand that he should be a little more transparent with himself so that they could have a better striving relationship. He was a code to crack when he was private and reserved about his own life.

Couldn't he read her that she needed him to look at her? To communicate with her the same way she'd do with him?

"Tell me what's on your mind first thing," Snow said.

Feeling the taste in his mouth, he said, "These pretzels are really salty."

She paused as she went poker-faced. "Not really what I was expecting."

Snow shook her head and sighed. "Be honest with me. What's your progress with your feelings? Are you still feeling the same?"

"I'm the same person. Do my feelings need to change?" Casey asked.

"No, but you're clearly hurting, right? I'm not here to try to remove that hurt. You still need time. I want you to be more open around me. I'm asking for that." She sighed softly, feeling like she was repeating herself from the other day. "If it's bothering you, shoulder that onto me."

He raised an eyebrow.

"For example, back in Bath & Body Works, you took off after that particular scent. Why?"

The taste of Butter Pecan couldn't help calm her down like she did something that may upset him in that moment or off-putting. Was it too insensitive to ask this? Was she demanding a little bit too much from the beginning? Would he get mad at her from trying to understand where he was coming from?

"She... wears the fragrance of Jasmine." Casey looked away.

She felt something in her dropped. That's why. It must have brought back memories of her that she couldn't understand. "I'm... sorry..."

It was more visible to her that Casey missed her, and Snow was just watching him endured his own problem.

Noted. Don't carry the scent of Jasmine around him.

"See this? This is what I like. Knowing what's on your mind. You can just tell me the little things," she said, smiling. It was a kind of smiling of a sad smile of hers that looked sorry.

Her life advice wouldn't assist him in any way, but if she could ease a little bit of his heartache one day at a time. Maybe she could do it.

Casey had a pitiful look—almost defeated—stained on his face. "I'm unfair, aren't I? I can't hold a firm grip on myself."

He needed comforting words. Something that would tell him that his problem wasn't a bother or ugly. Although she tried earlier to tell him it was fine, maybe those words had shot him like he needed to already get a grip. Moving on wasn't easy, and he didn't want to accept that this was his reality, a place that he was without his lover, without his pride, without his joy.

Stranded with nowhere to go and even if directions were leading him, he would rather go back to where he was than start a new path ahead of him. Of course, you couldn't tell a person to give up something that meant a lot to them.

It was going to be a lot of work just trying to get through this month not only in convincing Casey time would heal him, but to get him to pay attention to what was going on currently between them.

"No, you're not. You'll be stronger, and I'll be right there along with you." Snow held these words to her chest.   

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Yes, I found a way to bring back something significant to slightly trigger Casey. I hope that's good? Some people may feel if they see something or anything, particularly that just reminds someone of that person. I hope you got that feel like... in that moment of pause, he just... need to step outside. Some people are just not good at properly feeling or going through things so I hope I truly write him out like how a heartbroken person should be. 

Also, I just feel like writing this for my own sake. Especially if you got this far and not seeing any connection yet. While it may look like it's not really a relationship in terms of being romantic and they don't look like a couple, that's really the point. They're not really actually being lovers. They're just doing couple things and think about the perspective of their partner as if they were a lover to another. You have to learn from the other person and figure out to get through them. It's a growing friendship in a relationship based. And I believe in a relationship, you need a friendship so yes they're just being themselves. That's like... a proper thing. The theme is kind of like what I just got is a girl healing a boy.

I think it's interesting just because you usually read similar stories about a boy healing a girl, and I just... didn't think about it until I got into writing out the chapters more... What a base, aha. The dates are just there to grow each of them. I hope I'm making sense of that.

Please vote and comment as it means the world to me.