Chapter 6

A/N: I have no idea what is happening to this story. How in the world did my reads just double from 600 to 1.2k. I'm just. I'm just...*goes to a corner to cry tears of joy* I love every single one of you, and you guys are the ones to thank for this chapter. Especially yaoigoddess01, my master and InfiniteTeal, the sweetest person ever. This chapter is for them <3xx Cheers.

Chapter 6: Makeovers, Surprises, and Giselle

Chip's POV

The first stop was Abercrombie.

I guess I should have expected it because… I mean…Ella loves brand names.

“Okay Chip—first you go into the changing rooms with Kim,” Ella propelled me towards the fitting room, “The rest of us will pick out the clothes.”

“Huh? What—but wait—“ Kim dragged me into an empty stall, pushed me in, and shut the door.

“Take off your clothes!” She called through.

I suddenly felt embarrassed, as if I was unable to choose my own clothes and I had to leave fashion to a group of girls I barely knew—except for Kim of course.

“Try this!” I think it was Anya. She threw a pair of jeans through the gap of the door above and I managed to catch it clumsily.

Fumbling with the material, I held it at arm’s length to check out what it was.

The jeans looked so tight, I bet they couldn’t even fit a water bottle in it. I stared at the pair of clothing, wondering how in the world I could get myself into this.

“U-um Kim…I think this is for femal-“

“Nope!” Kim replied, popping the ‘p’. “It’s for men.” Her tone was amused, as if stating the obvious.

Surprisingly, I actually managed to get both my legs in. That was a relief. However, the band of the jeans was quite loose and couldn’t stay on my waist for too long.

This made the jeans hang very low along my hips and I didn’t like it at all.

“I think it’s too big…”

“You sure?” Kim sounded apprehensive. “Lemme see.”

I slowly unlocked the door and hid behind it, ensuring that no one could even get a glimpse of the hideous me.

Kim huffed. “It’s fine Chip, It’s supposed to be like that.” Sticking a finger into the waistband of my jeans, Kim ran it around the clothing, testing the length.

“Uwah!” I jerked back, shocked by the contact of our skin.

My best friend only wriggled her eyebrows. “Ooh, sensitive are we?” She teased. “Don’t worry hun, you look sexy as hell.”

I pouted as she closed the door of the stall behind her.

“Here, try this!”

I caught another pair of skinnies, and just then, my eyes caught a glimpse of the price tag.

I had to take a second look.

My face paled immediately. The three digits before my eyes seemed like a complete nightmare. Scrambling for the previous pair of jeans, I checked its price.

It was even more expensive.

I fought the dizzy urge to faint. Without further hesitation, I slipped on my own clothes and immediately shot out of the fitting room.

“Chip? Chip! What’s wrong? Hey-“

“Are you out of your mind?” I hissed at Ella and Kim who were chasing after me. “That pair of jeans was more than a hundred American dollars! I can’t afford that…” Biting my lip, I tried to widen the distance between the running girls and me.

“Chip Honeycutt you better not make a girl run after you, you asshole!” Kim called at my back, her voice dangerously venomous.

I stopped in my tracks—better not mess with Kim when she’s angry.

Hesitantly, I turned my back and shuffled towards my female ‘masters’. Ella sighed, “Okay, if that won’t work then how about…Gap? S’that okay?”

Honestly, I found no difference in these brand names. They were all expensive to me (I felt my pocket bleeding just by hearing the name).

Kim whipped out her mobile to contact the rest of her friends while Ella dragged me to Gap, where she picked out some slim fit jeans, several pullovers and sweaters.

After an hour of boredom in the fitting room (gosh I don’t know how girls do this), we finally agreed upon a pair of black slim fits, light skinnies, a red pullover and a grey sweater.

I approached the cash register, painfully fishing out my worn-out wallet from the back pocket of my pants.

Then there was a slender hand on mine, pushing away the wallet.

“It’s on me,” Ella winked.

I was stunned. This beautiful girl who I barely even knew…was paying for my expensive clothes. I instantly felt guilt hit me and I began to protest (albeit hesitantly).

“B-but Ella-“

“Shh, it’s fine.” She smiled gently, “after all, you’ve been taking care of Kim for quite a long time. And as you can see,” She nodded her head towards the group of girls giggling—Kim in the midst of the mirth and laughter—“She’s happy.”

And she signed the bill.

At that point of time, I kind of realized why females find comfort in shopping—It’s not the stuff that they buy (well, not exactly), rather, it’s…the time they get to spend with the ones they love.

The feeling of not being alone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Then it was H&M. Where Ella ordered me to wear the clothes immediately because she absolutely refused to be seen with someone wearing baggy pants and oversized t-shirts.

Then it was the hairdresser’s.

Chip’s life rule Number 1: Haircuts suck. L

Ever since I was a little kid, I hated going to the hairdresser’s. This kinda made my hair longer than it was supposed to and it tended to flop around, blocking my view—and of course, hiding my face. Which is basically what I wanted. No one needs to see my face.

“Ella, c-can I please not-“ I began to beg.

“Uh uh~” Ella wagged a slim finger in front of my face, “you’re not getting away this time. Kim has told me all about your haircut phobia thingy, and well—I’m not that easy.”

Natasha laughed and patted me on the back. Anya and Ginny smiled apologetically.

As we arrived at the entrance of the salon, I realized I was biting my lip real hard.

“Excuse me Miss, could we get a haircut for this cute little boy over here?” Kim asked sweetly, gesturing to me.

“Sure, this way please!”

The assistant escorted us into the fancy hairdresser’s and directed me to an empty seat. There was a weird smell of shampoo and…something else I can’t put my finger on. Well—it didn’t smell too good.

I couldn’t really hear what Ella was saying to the professional hairdresser (someone was using the hair dryer next to us), and the assistant slid a piece of waterproof cloth over the chair, covering my entire body.

“-a wash and…shorter around the edges…side fringe…”

Before I knew it, Kim and the rest of the girls declared that they were off to Starbucks as Ella slid into the seat next to me—resting her hands on the armrests like a real boss.

“Trim the front, and layer the back a little more.”

Uh…what did she just say? I didn’t even understand a word.

Just then I felt a cold, wet liquid at the center of my head.

For a moment, I panicked and my eyes immediately darted to the mirror in front. Wait—is someone putting shampoo on my head? But wait I’m not in a bath-

“Just stay still dear, she’s just washing your hair. It’ll smell great after that!” Ella picked up a magazine in front of her and began to flip through the pages as an assistant attended to her hair washing.

I guessed I must have looked pretty tensed to the assistant because I was scrunching up my eyes and there was an ache in my shoulders.

After a few minutes, I was told that the shampooing part was done and now it was the wash.

I wondered whether my whole body would get wet.

Unexpectedly, the washing part kept my body dry—they have this basin where you lay your head into and the hairdresser will wash out the soap and put some weird liquid to condition your hair.

If not for my tensed shoulders, the entire process was pretty enjoying I must say.

After blow-drying my hair, I finally realized how long it was, and that it was actually quite a pretty blonde color (I’ve always assumed it was dirty blonde).

The female hairdresser whipped out her professional styling scissors and began snipping away parts of my hair. She alternated between a trimmer and the scissors.

When she was finally done, I opened my scrunched eyes, groped for my spectacles, and almost couldn’t recognize myself.

“You look great Chip!” Ella called over the noisy blow-dryer.

My fringe was snipped shorter and although it still looked slightly messy, it no longer covered half of my face. I could actually see my eyes.

“Wow Chip, your hair practically looks like honey!” Ella gushed as we walked towards Starbucks, hands full with shopping bags.

I blushed slightly at her flattering comment, “You look wonderful yourself.”

“Aw, thank you my dear.”

We found Kim, Anya, Natasha, Ginny, and Leslie at the corner of Starbucks. It wasn’t hard since they were creating a commotion (as usual), laughing and chatting merrily.

After settling down with a tall java chip (oh gosh it’s so expensive) and listening to the girls talk about boys and their problems, Kim decided that we take our final stop.

“Since Ginny needs to get her contacts at the Optician, why not…” Her gaze flickered to me. “We get some contacts for Chip?”

“Ooh, good idea.”

“Sounds great!”

I began to panic. “W-what but wait I don’t know how to—“

“Come on let’s go!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

At the optician, Kim had Ginny help me with the choice of contacts, choosing the brand that was most comfortable for the majority of eye-types. Obviously, I was absolutely clueless.

“Take off your glasses!” Ella ordered. I did so, albeit hesitantly.

The girls crowded around me.

And stared.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and glanced up anxiously. “W-what’s wrong?”

“You…”

“Hey Chip since when were your eyes so…”

“Huge!” Ginny finished in awe.

“Yeah, look at his eyelashes…”

“Gosh they’re so thick.”

I felt my face heat up from all the unnecessary attention I was gaining. Unable to take it, I hid my face behind my hands and refused to take them off until the blush began to fade.

“Okay, I’m going to teach you how to put on the contacts now,” the shop assistant said with a cheery grin on her face. She produced a pair of sample contacts, placing it gently on the glassed table top.

“First, you need to use your right middle finger to stretch the lower eyelid like this,” she demonstrated on herself. “Then using your left index, pull the upper eyelid as much as you can.”

I tried to mimic her movements to the greatest of my efforts.

“Okay well done! Just stretch it like that for a while longer…”

After several minutes of painstakingly boring stretching, the assistant taught me how to differentiate the inner and outer layer of the lens, and then she placed a single contact lens on my index finger.

“Now, still stretching your eyelids, try and place the contacts on your pupil, like this,” She once again demonstrated on herself.

She just poked herself in the eye.

I took a deep breath—this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Come on Chip, you can do it!”

“Don’t let your beautiful eyes go to a waste! You need these contacts!” Anya said with a determined look on her face, as if she was speaking to herself.

“A-alright…”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I didn’t get it in.

Well of course, what was I expecting?

However, after an hour of painful poking and prodding into my poor right eye, I finally (finally) got it in.

Although my eyes were already tired and teary from the number of times I poked it, the 6 girls were busy persuading me how worth it was all the way back home, and told me to keep it on until I was about to sleep.

“Thanks for today Ella, it was fun…” I said gratefully.

“No problem sweetie, and thank you too.” Ella smiled demurely.

I was puzzled. “What did I do?”

“Hmm…”The beautiful girl put a finger to her lips in thought. “Something that made me happy. Oh well, go impress that cute guy of yours,” She added a wink for an extra measure.

I felt a blush creeping up the base of my neck and immediately scrambled out of the car. “Bye Chip!” Ella laughed heartily as I waved, watching her car creep into the horizon, disappearing into a spot.

Dragging my aching feet into the bakery, I managed a feeble “I’m back.”

To my surprise, there was a single customer in the shop. The blush came back in full force as I felt the tips of my fingers and feet warm to an unpleasantly high temperature.

The teenager simply glanced at me, and then returned to his tray consisting of one hot cross bun.

I tried to shuffle into the kitchen without being noticed.

“Chip’s brother?” The unbelievably good-looking guy asked in his usual baritone voice.

Oh right, I don't look like Chip.

I stopped in my tracks. “Y-you…you remembered my name?” My heart skipped a beat.

Realizing what I just said, I clamped a hand to my mouth.

Xander narrowed his eyes, “what do you mean?” He left the tray at the cash register—which was unfortunately unattended—and inched closer to me.

That Gretel…I’ll kill her later. How dare she leave the—

The towering figure suddenly leaned in, closing the distance we had initially. I felt as if my heart was going to jump out of my chest any time—he was so, so close. My eyes scrunched shut automatically and my body unconsciously leaned backwards.

I felt Xander’s labored breathing at the tip of my head at that moment as he lowered his stance just slightly.

His nose was nuzzling my hair. I immediately tensed up as I felt heat claw at my cheeks, threatening to burn my face. I wasn’t used to having someone at such a close proximity—especially someone like Xander.

I could smell the delicious scent of his cologne and was overwhelmed by the sudden urge to reach out to him.

“You smell different.” He stated, voice dangerously close to my ear.

I shivered involuntarily and I realized that there was a slight tremble in my hands. My lips drew into a thin line from the tension.

I felt Xander’s breath shift, and then his head lowered even further to the crook of my neck.

Was this even real?

Must be a dream. Right.

Xander breathed calmly in my neck, taking in my scent.

“W-what a-are…you…” I couldn’t finish the sentence—Xander ran his tongue over the base of my neck in a simple movement and my breath hitched.

“S-stop-“

“Xander!” Rose stood at the doorway, her tone laced with shock and disbelief. “What are you doing?”

I stumbled back in bewilderment, trying to find my words. “U-um Rose I-“

“I was teasing your brother Rose,” Xander said lightheartedly. “No offense intended.”

Rose pouted and swept over to me, grabbing me by my arm and yanking it so that she stood in front of me.

“Well, although you are a regular, my brother is off limits,” She ordered, albeit playfully.

Xander laughed—a low reverberating sound pleasing to the ears.

“Sure.” Then he added, “Just wondered why he smelt different today.”

Rose raised her eyebrows as I did an inner face palm.

And so does he spend his time going around sniffing people like that?

Ugh that idiot.

I should have known…

I have to admit, half of me did expect that response. But the other half…didn’t want to believe it.

Just as Xander was paying for the hot cross bun, the bells of the door jingled, and I hurriedly greeted the customer.

“Good evening, welcome to—“ It was that girl again. The one with autism. She looked almost exactly the same as she did the day before, just that her dress was now pink.

Her gaze was on the cupcake display once again.

“Giselle..?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: Wait WHAT. Who's Giselle? That's for you to find out :D the clue's in the Prologue. Xander's like some strip teaser. Ugh. WAI CAN'T HE JUST D:

-Cupcake

P.S How's my new cover? Vote if you do! I made it myself :D yay. Sorry I haven't uploaded any pictures of Chip or Xander yet, I'm planning to draw the picture myself. But. Oh well. School is being a bitc- I mean...School is being a meanie.