CHAPTER 14
Park City day two had been decent so far. We shopped and ate at a restaurant, which was nice after all the camp food we’d been eating. And we’d stayed together, like Ezra had promised. Now we were browsing in some overly priced clothing shop. I had an armful of items and took them to one of the curtain-lined dressing rooms at the back of the store. I stepped out of my shoes and shorts and pulled on a pair of distressed jeans first.
As I was looking at myself from all angles in the mirror, Skyler walked into the dressing room beside mine. I could tell it was him because there was literally only a curtain between us and I could see his gray Vans in the one-foot gap at the bottom. He kicked them off his feet and soon his shorts were in a puddle on the ground and my eyes shot to the mirror in front of me as if I’d been caught doing something wrong.
I shucked my shirt, which felt even weirder with only the thin piece of cloth between us. Is this always how people used dressing rooms? How come I had never felt so aware of it untilnow? I pulled on a green T-shirt that saidpark cityacross the front, the outline of trees behind the words. It was too tight. If I liked it, I would’ve gotten the next size up, but I didn’t.
“I like your socks,” Skyler said.
I used one of my feet to slide my shorts closer to the middle of the stall. He didn’t need to see them discarded there. “Thanks.”
“What are you trying on?” he asked.
“Nothing exciting. Just some T-shirts and jeans. What about you?”
“Shorts and a sweatshirt. I don’t like them enough to justify the price tag.”
“Same.”
“Do you pay for your own stuff?” he asked, that curious voice of his back.
“Yes, I have a job.”
“Really? Where do you work?”
“Michaels. Mainly for the discount on art supplies.” I took off the jeans I wouldn’t be buying and put my own shorts back on. “So my paychecks are next to nothing.”
He chuckled.
“What about you? Job?”
“I’m a server at this diner near our house.”
“I bet you get lots of tips.”
“Why would you bet that?”
“Because you’re adorable.”
“Adorable,” he said, a smile in his voice. “Exactly the word a guy likes to be described as.”
“Like a cute kid brother,” I added, because I was worriedthat I hadn’t convinced him I wasn’t in love with him and telling him he was adorable was not going to help in that goal.
“Even better,” he said.
I flipped through the other shirts I’d brought in. They were all the same size as the one I had on, which probably meant they’d all be too small.
“Did you draw that?”
“What?” I asked.
“Your socks.”
I had forgotten which socks I was wearing. “Oh…yes. My mom put one of my drawings on a pair of socks and gave them to me for Christmas one year. Moms are overly proud like that.”
“They are.” His feet turned to face me. “Pull them up.”
“My socks?”