nine.  she's pretty cool !
real life...

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CHRIS HAS BEEN SHOPPING WITH eden and his friends all day. it was currently four in the afternoon, and they started a little bit before noon. so to say that he was exhausted was an understatement. all they really did was look at dresses and different kinds of shoes. there were a few times when the guys would go into a store next to the dress-filled one, but other than that, all he'd seen was dress after dress.

it was the last store of the day, which is what the girls had promised but that's what they said about the last three stores, so he wasn't so sure of that one.

"i can like feel it, eden. your dress is in here!" genevieve attempted to fill eden's thoughts with pure optimism despite the constant disappointment from the other dress stores. eden would find a perfect dress but then never find it in her size, and then she'd find another and it was over two hundred dollars. she went on about how she couldn't drop that much on a dress for a winter dance. chris agreed because honestly these dances were too hyped up at their school. he actually knew of girls that would spend that much money on a dance like this.

"i really hope so," she said, opening the door and walking through.

the girly aroma of flowers and new shoes filled his nostrils. it smelt good and bad at the same time. maybe it was just the fact that he wanted to go home and he's already been in at least twenty stores that smelt exactly of this.

"me too," nick added on, looking like he was tired too. yeah, he found the shopping aspect of it exciting but there's a point when you don't want to watch someone try on almost the same dress over and over again and expect them to change their answer. he needed to find something different for her this time.

eden has had one thing in common with most of her dresses, they were almost all purple, so when chris spotted a purple fabric hidden in one of the racks, he knew that he had to pull it out and show it to nick. "nick, what about this one?"

"wait, what the fuck chris? this is actually so cute!" he checked the tag immediately, a shocked expression on his face before adding with excitement, "and it's her size?!"

chris followed when he walked around to the opposite side of the store where eden was looking through the dresses with frustration. "eden! look what chris found!" he held up the dress for her to get a good look at it, and her jaw dropped.

"that's my size?" it was like she was in disbelief.

nick nodded his head proudly, even though he wasn't the one who found it. it was all chris.

"i told you!" genevieve told eden, gesturing to follow her into the fitting rooms. they didn't even try to look for other dresses in the store.

when she came out of the fitting room, she immediately ran over to nick, exclaiming, "this is the one! oh my gosh it's so cute! and it fits me perfectly! it's perfect! and it's not that expensive!"  she moved towards chris to ask, "how the hell did you find this?"

"it was just there, i don't know. it looks really beautiful though."

"thank you!" she smiled at the compliment and a returning smile spread across his face, noting how happy she looked in the dress. she kept looking back in the mirror to see herself in it. and if he was being honest, he couldn't stop looking at her either.

genevieve walked up to her, looking at her through the mirror. "so... is this the one?" she asked, knowing she loved the dress almost as much as eden seemed to.

"umm... i think so!" eden did a small twirl before walking back into the fitting rooms to change back into her normal clothes.

chris wasn't ready to watch the excitement from the dress leave her face. he couldn't even explain how it made him feel knowing that the dress he picked out was able to put such a smile on her face.

after a few seconds of eden's absence, nate was the first to mention how chris wasn't able to take his eyes off of her the whole time, whispering to him once she was out of sight, "you got a crush on her or something?"

"what?" was all chris was able to say, as he avoided showing any kind of interest in the conversation. a sheer sign to nate that he wasn't going to want to speak much on the topic.

he still attempted to get an answer out of him, "you heard me. it's like she's got you in a trance or something. matt for real asked you a question and you couldn't even answer."

chris rolled his eyes, knowing they were just trying to mess with him, "no he didn't, stop lying."

"oh, i did," matt chimed in with a whisper as well, a slight smirk growing on his face, knowing he caught chris.

he couldn't tell if they were just trying to team up on him to get an answer out of him, or if he was genuinely telling the truth. chris just knew the answer was he didn't know because he was too focused on what eden was doing at the time. he truthfully didn't hear matt say a word.

chris didn't want to lie to his best friend or his brother so instead of denying anything, he just shrugged, saying, "i guess i think she's pretty cool?" he avoided eye contact with the two. he would look at the random dresses hung up on the rack, or the small stain on the floor, but never in their eyes or anywhere in eden's direction.

matt laughed before he sarcastically remarked, "you sound so convincing."

"you don't stare at people like that if you think they're 'pretty cool'," nate added, chucking at the fact that he knew chris was done for. he practically already confessed to them without even having to use his words. he hated that they knew him that well.

"you guys need to shut up." although he was somewhat glad they knew what was going on now, that didn't mean he wanted eden to know. he had a feeling that eden and genevieve were probably about to come out any minute and he knew that if they saw matt and nate laughing, they'd want to know why.

it was like he predicted it because she came out in a few minutes with the dress hung over her arm, genevieve was telling her something as they walked out, but chris couldn't hear anything she was saying. he just stayed sitting down on the comfy waiting chairs in the fitting room as she paid for the dress.

once she was done, he, his brothers, and nate all got up to finally leave. when he made it up to the register where she was collecting the bag, he heard genevieve saying "and i've got these shoes that will match it perfectly!" she squealed in excitement, clearly not being able to wait a whole week for the dance to come.

on the way back to their house, chris sat next to eden. though he was confused when she was stuck in her phone the whole time. usually, when they were sat next to each other, they'd easily find something to talk about or even just vibe to the music together, but her eyes were practically glued to her phone since they got in. she's been smiling and quietly giggling too and he wanted to know what was going on.

he decided to ask out of curiosity, of course, "who you texting?" he attempted to look over her shoulder before she hid her phone.

she turned her head in his direction and looked into his eyes, saying "we've already been through this, chris." if he wasn't trying to get an answer from her, he would have just sat there and admired how her eyes were locked on his. but he had to process what she said. once he did that, he figured it had to have been someone she texted in front of him before.

"you're pen pal?" he guessed, knowing the only similar conversation they had about this was when she was texting him at lunch yesterday.

"mhm... and i'm figuring it all out before you!" she sounded proud of herself, thinking she was going to beat chris in this little bet.

"sure seems like it." he smiled, trying to sound encouraging, but he knew that she hadn't quite done that. because the thing was, chris already figured out who his pen pal was. he figured that out this past week. he just wanted to give eden a little more time to see if she could actually get it "before" he did. he felt that it was pretty unfair for her to take on this challenge against him as he has been going to this school with the same kids his whole life, and she just got here last week.

but the whole thing she had going on with her pen pal was completely rubbing him the wrong way. who asks someone they don't know to a dance? would she have even said yes if this stupid bet wasn't a thing in the first place? and it all hit him, maybe he was just jealous. jealous because he wasn't the one taking her.

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nat's notes !

this what the dress looks like kinda btw!!!
it's lowkey kinda mediocre but
isn't she going to be a little cutieeee?!! 🤭
and the fact chris found it? 😧

keep the dress somewhat in mind it's kind
of important!!!

<3