At the mall.

When I walked out of the changing room, the reactions I got startled me a bit. Mila squealed excitedly and did little jumps, Grace was covering her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide as plates, and Sarah reached for her phone to snap a million pictures of me while she grinned from ear to ear. I didn’t think it was enough to get those reactions, but I had to admit that even I felt… good looking.

Having quickly bought the pants and shirts I would need for my new job, we moved on to picking a new outfit for me, and the girls got a little too excited about it for my own comfort. They were having more fun than I was, having me change over and over again at their requests. But the bottom line was that they were having fun, and that was enough to satisfy me. This one, the latest outfit they had picked, seemed to be the winner in their eyes.

I looked back at the mirror inside the changing room. The ensemble was a little tight fitting, but not particularly restrictive. It started with some blue jeans, the only clothes article that felt just a little loose on me, thankfully. I’ve never been a fan of tight jeans (On me. On girls? Always a fan), but it still stuck to my butt, which was likely a big contributor to the girls’ reactions. After those, the girls picked these black, slick shoes that they said looked good, but I was happier with the fact they felt comfortable even though they were new. For my upper body, I was wearing a black thin sweater with a v-neck that, like I said, fit me tightly enough to show my figure and muscles. Underneath was a white t-shirt, also with a v-neck, meaning some of my chest right under my neck was left exposed. The last piece of the puzzle was a gray peacoat, worn open to see how it fit with the rest of the clothes. Clearly, the girls loved it, and embarrassing as it was to admit it, so did I.

I held back a grimace. This was one of those cases where ‘the man makes the clothes’ instead of the other way around. The clothes were neat and of good quality. The sweater had these nice, carefully knitted spiral patterns along its length that I actually really liked, but it was the lean figure and the muscles that made this look good. Again, not anything I’d earned for myself, and yet… It felt nice. It felt nice to look at myself in the mirror and genuinely think that I looked good, that I wouldn’t look out of place next to those three, stunning beauties.

“Just barely in the price range, too!” Mila said. “Luckily that coat was on sale!”

“Simple, yet eye-catching.” Grace nodded. “You look incredible, Oliver.”

“T-Thanks,” I said, awkwardly. Even if it was them, I was not used to being ogled like that.

Sarah walked up to me and started fixing the neck of the coat. It was fine where it was. She just wanted an excuse to stand close to me as she whispered, “Hmm. I could eat you up right here.”

“Easy there,” Mila said, giggling. “People from our school come to this mall, remember?”

“I know.” Sarah sighed in defeat and buttoned up the coat, just to see how it looked closed.

“Yep, that looks great.” Grace nodded even more fervently. Then she muttered lowly to Mila. “It’s like I’m falling for him all over again…”

“Right!?” Mila agreed.

I would have a hard time understanding that if I hadn’t experienced the power of a new outfit myself. After going our own ways after school, the girls had taken the time to go back home and change into casual clothes. It wasn’t just that seeing them in anything other than their uniforms was a breath of fresh air, but they really looked cute in anything, hardly ever wearing the same thing twice or in the same combination. It really was like falling for them all over again.

“Ugh, I want to go to a hotel, but we’ve already spent too much on that this last month,” Sarah said.

We do it like three times a week at least, but that’s mostly at school, either in the early mornings or during lunch break. It’s been a while since we used a proper bed.

“I’ll be able to pitch in properly from now on,” I said.

“The biggest problem is that, while the hotel agreed to let us use a room as a group of four, it’s only if we use the most expensive one.” Grace grunted. “I’m gonna start emailing other places.”

Mila kept casually glancing around to make sure no one was listening in. “Enough of that. Since we’re here, let’s go get some ice cream.”

I changed back into my uniform and paid for all the clothes. It wasn’t THAT expensive, but it felt expensive to me. Even these days I’m not much for buying clothes.

As we were going out of the store, though, we ran into people we knew, one of which I’d rather not run into at all.

“Oh! Hey, what are you all doing here?” the girl asked, sounding cheery.

That was Amanda, our classmate. Remember her? Very short hair dyed blonde, slender, athletic, small chest. She kinda flirted with me the first time I spoke to her, and she still did every once in a while, but I was getting better at casually brushing off her advances. I think.

But no, the person I didn’t want to see was another classmate. Mark. You remember Mark, right? Taller than Thomas, short dirty blonde hair, a square-ish face, a small scar under his chin. Blew up in my face and called me ‘creepy fuck’. Yeah, you remember Mark. I remember Mark.

The big guy walked behind Amanda as the girl ran towards us. His eyes met mine, and surprisingly it was him who turned away. First. He turned away first. I also turned away, but he didn’t notice.

“Oliver here wanted some fashion advice,” Mila easily told Amanda. She then put a hand on her chest and puffed it proudly. “And who better for the job than yours truly?”

Amanda glanced at the shopping bags in my hands, one at my side and the other behind my shoulder. “Oh? I’m kinda curious now,” she said, smirking. “Can I see?”

Mark flinched behind her. I decided to change the topic immediately. Looking around for emphasis, I asked, “S-So… Lena’s not with you?”

It worked. Amanda crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks. “She’s been spending all her time with Kevin, so now she barely hangs out with us. She was supposed to come with me here today, but she canceled to be with her boyfriend. I had **** but to bring Mark shopping with me.”

Again, the big man flinched, and I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. It had to hurt to hear your crush say that in front of you, but the part of me that thought he deserved it was winning.

“Well, we’ll leave you two to your date,” Sarah teased.

“It’s not a date, Sarah,” Amanda said flatly. Behind her, Mark’s shoulders slumped.

Grace shook her head. “You’re worse than me sometimes. Anyway, have fun.”

We waved and went our separate ways. Even Mark gave me a short nod, which I returned automatically.

As we walked, Grace spoke. “Gossip about us is subsiding. Not even Amanda believes there’s something between us by now.”

“If her flirting is anything to go by, yeah,” Mila agreed.

“Not many people are asking questions anymore, either,” Sarah said.

Grace grinned. “We have to thank Oliver’s friends for that, at least in some small part.”

“Hm?”

“I overheard Ben talking to some of his friends the other day. They asked him if you were three-timing, and he told them that was impossible. Since we three,” Grace gestured to herself and her two friends, “are so close, no one believes we wouldn’t know about it. That argument is spreading, and people are already losing interest and moving on to the next big rumor.”

“And which is that?” Mila asked.

“That one of the senior students is dating a teacher.”

I winced. “Is that true?”

“Who knows?” Grace giggled. “I don’t really care.”

“You’re getting sloppy, Grace,” Sarah teased. “What happened to the school’s Moriarty?”

“She’s on vacation with her boyfriend.”

You know, that made me kinda happy.

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