Her Soul Bonded Mate

Chapter 6

“Taylor 10 pairs of clothes is too much to try on, and I really don’t want to wear any of this stuff,” I said, as we stood near the changing room in an overpriced outlet store at the mall. I really didn’t want to be there, nor did I want to change my clothes. I was in mourning, so I didn’t need anything fancy or anyone to take my mind off things. I was content in my dark hoodies and jeans and until I found out what truly happened to my parents, there was no point changing my look.

“I hear you, but we are already here and we both know your wardrobe needs an upgrade, so, take these and go into that room. At least try them on,” she said, practically pushing me into the changing room and closing the door behind me. The room was small, with a floor-length mirror on the wall and a couple of hooks to hang clothes. My first thought was to sit in there for a few minutes, pretend to try on clothes, then, walk out and say I hated everything, and I wanted to go. Then Liam’s face popped into my head and I remembered how he looked when he saw me the other night in that dress my mother and I had picked out. It was the same face I had always wanted to see when he looked at me.

Smiling, I reached for this green flowery halter top and some low-cut jeans. I smiled to myself as I put them on, then looked at myself in the mirror. Despite how I was feeling earlier, I loved what I saw. The clothes were truly me. It was the way I dressed before I lost those precious to me. It was a side of me I never thought I’d see again, and I missed it. I then turned and opened the door, to show Taylor. I figured that I would at least let her see one outfit out of the bunch if I decided to put the others back.

The moment I opened the door, I could feel a bit of anger brush over me. Not two feet away from the room, stood Sam and LaToshia talking to Taylor about what sounded like Liam; however, the moment they saw me, everyone but Sam smiled and approached.

“I am loving this outfit. You definitely have to get it,” LaToshia said, looking just as glamorous as she had the night before.

I smiled, but it was Taylor who spoke, “She is.”

“Really Taylor,” LaToshia said, shaking her head and laughing.

“What, we can all agree that this is so much better than the outfit she had on the other day when I introduced you guys to her. Am I right or am I right?” Taylor said, in a way that would have bothered me if I really cared about her opinion in fashion.

“Right because she looked like a train wreck yesterday,” Sam said, in a way that sounded like she was trying to insult me; however, I ignored her. I knew her problem before she even said anything. It was as if I could feel her hatred towards me and her need for me to disappear.

“Seriously Sam,” Taylor said, with an eyeroll.

“What it’s true?” Sam said nonchalantly.

I rolled my eyes, “Whatever, I’m going to go try on the other thousand outfits you picked out” I said, not really interested in any kind of drama, Ms. Samantha, whatever her last name, had cooked up for me because I was a threat to her relationship. A relationship that I didn’t really know about or want to care about. However, when it came to Liam, all I could do was worry about him and who he was with. It never failed. All though grade school and high school, whenever I’d see him with a girl, I would get this tight feeling in my chest and feel the urge to start a kerfuffle with the girl, as if he were truly my boyfriend and not my crush. Of course, on the outside I looked cool, calm and collected, but that was for appearance sake. The real me was ready to go to war over someone who I just learned actually liked me.

“I love them all, you are getting them all,” Taylor said, after I tried on the last outfit and showed it to her.

“How can you tell someone what they are going to get? Are you buying it?” LaToshia asked, the same question I asked Taylor earlier. To be honest, I liked that she was forcing me to go back to the old me, I just wasn’t ready to be her again yet. That girl still had two parents and was happy. This new version was far from that.

“Thank you. I asked the same question,” I said, siding with LaToshia while Sam pretended to shop. I knew she had something she wanted to say to me, and I knew it was about Liam, it was only a matter of time before she brought it up.

“Of course not. Neffi is paying for it herself,” Taylor said, repeating her statement from earlier.

“ OK in that case, I think I will put everything back,” I teased.

“I think I’ll help,” LaToshia said, joining in on the teasing. Our goal was to get Taylor to cave. I didn’t expect her to buy me anything, I had more than enough money; however, when a person drags another person out of their room in order to go shopping for clothes the other person doesn’t want, then it is the person who did the pushing’s job to pay for it.

“No, okay, I’ll buy two outfits, is that fair?” Taylor asked, sounding completely defeated. Both Latoshia and I laughed and I knew this was the beginning of a great friendship.

“You don’t have to pay for anything, except food, I’m starving,” I said, as my stomach began to talk to me, and of course everyone but Sam laughed.

After buying my clothes, we all walked to the food court and Taylor bought us burgers and pop. The conversation was fun and exciting. It was the first time in a long time that I felt like I could completely relax and hang out with friends. That was until Sam said, “So why did you leave the party early last night,” and the table grew quiet. There were plenty of people around making a lot of noise; however, in that moment it felt as if all noise had stopped.

“Oh, I wasn’t really feeling the party,” I said, trying to avoid any drama I knew was coming.

“Really? Is that why you left with Liam?” Sam asked, looking up from her burger and over towards me. I could feel the coldness in her voice, as if it were a warning or something telling me to stay away from what she decided was hers.

“Yeah, Liam thought I needed some air so we left. Why do you ask?” I asked, trying to be nonchalant while, at the same time, feeling that rage trying to creep over me.

Calm down. I heard the voice from earlier say and I did. A normal person would have looked around the room trying to figure out where the voice was coming from, but not me. I just rolled with it because I didn’t want Sam to see that she was getting to me.

“Why do you think it matters? He’s my boyfriend,” Sam said, with an attitude. Her eyes were narrow, and she was staring at me as if I were a thorn in her side.

Without meaning to, I chuckled and they all looked at me. Taylor looked a little worried, LaToshia looked as if she were ready for a show, while Sam looked as if she were ready to jump over the table and come at me.

“What’s so funny?” Sam asked, even more riled up than before.

“I’m sorry, but if he was truly your boyfriend, he would have stayed with you instead of worrying about me. From my perspective, you are just something to do nothing more,” I said, as I bit into my burger. Why did I say that? I thought to myself. It was as if my body had been taken over and inhabited by some jealous girlfriend, which was impossible because I wasn’t Liam's girlfriend. At least not yet. I thought.

“What did you just say to me, homewrecker,” Sam said, as if that comeback was supposed to hurt.

“Homewrecker? How can I wreck something that never existed? Make that make sense,” I said, again without thinking. If my mouth was listening to my mind, it would have made something up about two old friends catching up and nothing more; however, my mouth had a mind of it’s own and my body was responding accordingly.

“Neffi, stop,” Taylor said, just as Sam stood up and stared me down as if that was supposed to intimidate me.

“Listen to me little girl. Liam is mine, and I will not allow you to come up here and try to steal what belongs to me. I don’t care if you two were friends or came from the same hometown. At the end of the day, he knows where his home is and that is with me,” Sam said, as she rolled her neck and waved her hands before pointing at herself as if she were satisfied with her speech.

On instinct I found myself clapping as if I were watching her give a speech at an award show or something. I had never been the type to fight over a guy. No matter how much I thought about breaking up Liam’s relationship, I never did it because I assumed if it was meant to be, it would. Yet there I was acting completely differently than how I normally would have behaved. “That was an amazing performance. Way to really pull it in with the hand signals. That was epic,” I teased.

“Taylor get your roommate before I do,” Sam threatened.

Again I laughed, shook my head, then stood up, “Taylor, LaToshia, I’m going to head to the dorm and drop off these clothes. You guys have fun with that,” I said, before turning and walking away, completely ignoring Sam’s existence.