Page 9 of Ask No Questions

By the time I finished, I heard Mckayla greeting Brandon in the living room. I walked out to see her and Brandon with their heads together talking in hushed voices.

“What are you guys saying about me?” I was kidding, but when I saw them jump and go silent, I grew suspicious of the duo.

“Nothing! Let’s go!” She gave a pointed look over her shoulder at my brother before grabbing me by the elbow and pulling me out the door.

I yelled a “bye” back to Brandon before shutting the door behind me. We got down to the garage, and I led her to my car.

“Here she is.” I threw my arms out.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Mckayla was frozen in front of my brand-new baby with her jaw practically on the ground. Brandon and I had taken it for a drive the night before when we got home from dinner, and I fell in love. Jetta who? This car was my soul mate. Who needed men when cars are so loyal… and so much prettier?

“Do you want to drive, or do you want me to?” She ran to the passenger seat and climbed in. I chuckled as her mouth gaped after I pressed a button to lower the convertible top.

“I hate you. I hope you know that. I hate you, and soon everyone else will too. I thought I was lucky with my cute Bug, but this car is sexy and pure class and every guy’s dream. Did you plan that? I mean, seriously, you will be the most sought-after girl at school, mostly so guys can drive your car around.”

She slipped on her sunglasses as we pulled out of the parking garage. Despite what she was saying, she had a huge smile. “I’m already having a tough time trying to figure out how to stop every girl from hating you—and me for bringing you here—but this blows every plan I had. There’s just no hope. Not only are you gorgeous, have the amazing body of a dancer, and the best hair ever. Oh no, that would be it for us normal folk. You have to throw in the best, newest car in school. Thanks so much.”

I cringed. “I don’t know about being gorgeous, but I’m sorry I ruined your life. If you want, I can still transfer to a different school before Tuesday. I don’t want everyone hating me, especially not you!”

She finally laughed and shrugged. “No way! I will let you make it up to me by driving me to school from now on. Or at least we can trade off… maybe.”

“Deal! You’re a freak sometimes. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Matt makes a point of telling me that every day, actually.”

We both laughed as I pulled into the mall she directed me to. It was a different one than the one Brandon liked and about twice as big.

“I think we’ve made it to heaven.”

“It makes me sad to think you were so deprived of good malls all of your life. Let’s make up for lost time starting now.”

“Hey! Chicago has amazing shopping! But this mall is just so… big!”

Mckayla took her job as my personal shopper almost as seriously as Dragon Lady. She explained that while my tailored pants and blazers were ‘nice’ for certain occasions, I needed to loosen up my personality and style if I wanted to fit in. She pointed out how other girls paired jean shorts with oversized shirts or sweaters with ankle boots or sandals. Skirts went with cropped tanks, which I refused to participate in since I was firmly against reviving nineties fashion with anything cropped. Along with various styles of jeans, from skinny to baggy, low to high waist, that were acceptable.

I lost count of how many stores we had been through, and I was waiting for the credit card my mom gave me before I left to decline due to overuse. By the middle of the day, we each had so many bags, we had to make a stop to the car to drop off our load. Mckayla seemed to have caught a second wind, and we kept shopping for another few hours before collapsing onto a bench.

“I think I’m done. I have enough clothes to last me the next several months.”

“Nah, we’ll be back in a couple of weeks.” She gave me an evil smile.

“You are an addict.” I bumped her shoulder with mine. “Oh! Are there any home décor stores? I want to get some new things for the house to add some color.”

“Oh, finally! I can’t believe he is letting you change things. I have been trying to get him to paint or buy a new couch, anything, for months!”

“Um, I didn’t really ask or anything. I was planning on just doing it and forcing him to like it. You know, ask for forgiveness rather than permission?”

Her smile grew as she picked up her bags and led the way to Pottery Barn.

Luckily, when we got back to the condo, Brandon was still out. We dumped our bags in my room and rushed to get the living room ready. We bought navy and gray pillows for the couch and hid the white ones in my room. Mckayla laid the gray throw blanket over the arm of the couch as I moved the ottomans out of the way so we could unroll the navy and white Moroccan pattern rug. Still hurrying, we placed the vases and accessories we picked out around the room. The final touch was a picture I had of Brandon and me at his high school graduation that I placed into a new frame and set it on the end table.

We checked the room to make sure everything looked okay then Mckayla grabbed her purse and shopping bags yelling “bye” as she ran out the door. Chicken! I understood she didn’t want to be around when Brandon saw what we had done, but I didn’t want to be alone either!

I was sitting on the balcony enjoying the sunset when I heard the front door open. Not wanting to ruin my perfect moment of peace by getting up, I waited to see if he noticed. I cringed about two seconds later I heard him yell my name. Slowly I stood up and walked back into the living room in no rush to see how Brandon was going to handle our little surprise. His face was a mix of shock, anger, and confusion as if he didn’t know where to start with me.

“Oh! You’re home! How was work?” I’ll admit my attempt at distraction was pathetic.

“Work? Aubrey, what did you do? I mean I can obviously see what you did, but why? It was perfect before, now it looks like a girl’s place.”