Pearl presents Zoey (Chase POV)

Your wandering has taken over to the science fiction section, where you’re examining the new releases, when there’s a tap at your shoulder.

You turn around to find Pearl standing behind you, with Zoey in tow.

“Ta da,” sings Pearl, presenting the girl to you as if she were a present.

Zoey wears her black blouse from before, unbuttoned to mid-chest. Her pants are gone, as is her bra. Her name tag is pinned over her chest, as before. Her long slender legs are totally bare, though in a sense, the blouse sort of covers down to her upper, upper thighs when you don’t think about it too hard.

The clerk grins. “How do I look?” Zoey asks, striking a cute, self-confident little pose.

“I thought you were going to fix her,” you say, turning to Pearl.

“I did. You wanted to look at her, now you can,” says Pearl, with a smug smirk. “I told her all about how clothes work.”

“You did, did you?” you ask, looking back to the clerk. You did have Pearl consent to let you oggle Choe - you knew it’d still be in effect, but this is a step beyond what you’d anticipated.

“Pearl even told me about underwear,” says Zoey, eager to back up her new friend. To demonstrate, she lifts her blouse to show you her little black thong. “See?”

“I do,” you say, staring at Zoey’s barely clothed snatch. You can’t help but notice how similar her new fashion sense is to Pearl’s. “So how exactly do you feel about clothes now? You didn’t seem like a fan ten minutes ago.”

Zoey drops her shirt. “That’s because I didn’t know how fun they were,” she says. “Like right now? Showing off what I’m wearing to you? This is the coolest thing I’ve done in months. I could do this all day.”

You laugh and give Pearl a long suffering look. “So this is what you were talking about in the bathroom? What’d you tell her, that the only reason she wants to wear clothes is to show off to me?”

Pearl shrugs. “More or less. Look at it this way. Zoey’s decent so she doesn’t go to jail, we don’t get banned from the store, and you can still check her out.” She folds her arms, resting her case. “Everybody wins.”

Zoey being decent, however, is a grave exaggeration.

“Until some customer gets handsy with her,” you say, unable to keep your eyes off the clerk. “She looks like a slut.”

Pearl scoffs and folds her arms tight beneath her chest. “Take that back. Zoe’s outfit’s awesome.”

While true, Pearl’s objectivity on the issue is compromised due to your meddling.

“What’s a slut?” asks Zoey, straight faced.

Pearl spares a glare at you, then reassures the clerk. “It’s a compliment for how badass you look right now.”

Zoey lights up and juts her hip out for you. “Do I really think I look like a slut?”

You ignore her. “If you didn’t forget, Pearl, she doesn’t even know what sex is. You look super hot right now, yeah, but you know how to say no. Zoey doesn’t. And if we remind her, she’ll ban us for earlier.”

Zoey sighs. “So long as you quit making a mess of the shelves, you two horsing around isn’t a huge deal.”

Pearl shakes her head. “We can figure out what she does and doesn’t know later,” she says. “We have a movie to catch in ten minutes.”

You check your phone. Indeed, you’ve been in the bookstore for more than an hour already. “We can’t just leave her like this.”

“Leave me like what?” asks Zoey. “I’m at work. Not my first day on the job.”