We walked to the music store. It wasn't a far walk from the entrance, but long enough for us to walk by some shops and point out things we would or wouldn't buy. By the time we came to the music store entrance, Anna had decided her shopping list included rainbow fuzzy leg warmers, a fur hat with ear flaps, and a bright green tuxedo. My sides hurt so bad from the laughter; we were being so loud.

My hands were flying around as I was talking excitedly to Anna. She tapped my arm and pointed to a lingerie sign with a woman on it right outside of the music store. The woman on the sign had blond hair the same shade as mine and was sticking her butt out to show off the merchandise. Anna told me the girl on the sign looked like me. I almost fell over laughing. The girl looked nothing like me except for the hair color.

I stuck my hand in my hair like the girl and turned around. I pushed my lips into the duck face she was making on the sign. Then, I stuck my butt out, trying to mimic the pose and asked Anna if we still looked alike.

"Hmm," Anna placed her hand on her chin as if she was in thought and pulled out her hands to frame me. She turned her head and smiled, "Wiggle your butt out some more. You're almost there."

I did what she said and looked like I was doing a little dance in front of the store. My butt was waggling and I had it stuck out as far as possible. Anna was losing her mind. Tears were running down her face. I got the sudden feeling there was something I was missing.

My head turned in the direction Anna was looking and I froze in place in my "billboard" stance with the duck lips. Ezra was laughing at me from behind the counter in the store. He raised his eyebrow at me and sent me a signal saying to not stop on his behalf. My face turned purple and I was mortified. I turned back to Anna, who shrugged and continued laughing at me.

"You did that on purpose." I accused her.

"You should see your face." She said, grabbing her sides. She wrapped her arm in mine and pulled me into the store. She waved excitedly at Ezra before dropping me off next to the counter. Her eyes scanned around for JD. She saw him in the back of the store near the posters and skipped to him. Anna jumped into his arms and almost knocked him over. He was grinning when he caught her.

Why did I forget Ezra worked here?

I didn't even want to turn around to look at him. The last time I saw him, I was a confused hung-over mess. I should have known better than agree to come here. I was not prepared for an Ezra encounter today.

"Why'd you stop?" He asked in a low sexy voice. He pulled at his eyebrow rings and laughed at me.

"Shut up." I mumbled under my breath at him. I did my best to try to ignore him as he fiddled with some squishy key chains on the counter.

Anna giggled when she and JD disappeared into the store's backroom and shut the door behind them. I started fidgeting impatiently, waiting for them to reemerge. Ten awkward silent minutes later, I was ready to go back there and pound on the door.

"What is taking so long? This is so stupid. What are they even doing back there?" I was calling Anna and JD every name I could come up with in my head.

"Do I even need to answer that?" Ezra asked.

"Please don't." I said, putting my hands up to shield myself from the thoughts Ezra planted into my brain.

"If you're bored, we still have those pink stuffed animals over there if you want to throw them around again." Ezra pointed behind me to the shelf against the wall.

"You're not even remotely funny." I said, crossing my arms over my chest, huffing.

"Fine, you win. You can get drunk and decide to become a hooker again." Ezra lifted his eyebrow at me.

"I did not do that." I whispered.

"You asked me if I had any money. I went to the ATM this morning if you're still interested." He laughed.

I took in a sharp breath and turned around to see him leaning against the counter. I bit my lip and crossed my arms over myself to hide away the stirring I was feeling inside. His eyes moved over my breasts and traced the lines of my hips. I felt like he had just stripped my clothes off and I was standing here naked in front of him. He made me so nervous and I couldn't even form a thought. My eyes lowered to my feet.

"Riley, I'm just fucking with you. We both know you wouldn't make me pay for it." He laughed again before standing back up and pushing his hair off his forehead.

"You are quite full of yourself, aren't you?" I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"And you are too uptight. You need to learn to relax a little." Ezra stared me down.

I was spared another second of this awkward Ezra conversation when Anna and JD came up to join us. I saw JD pulling out his wallet and handing Anna a big wad of cash. This must be why she wanted to come here in the first place. She kissed JD on the cheek after taking the money and shoved it in her purse.

"What are you two ladies up to today?" Ezra asked curiously.

"Just some girl stuff, Brazilian waxes, buying some dirty outfits for the concert. The usual." Anna said nonchalantly as she picked at her fingernails.

"Hell no." JD spat at Anna and gave her a deadly stare. "You do realize you are with my baby sister. That's not happening."

"Chill out, James. I'm just playing around." She reached a hand behind him to squeeze his butt. I did not need to see that. I turned my head quickly and met Ezra's eyes. Another bad move on my part; he was looking at me like he was mentally processing the dirty outfits in his head. He was a guy. After all, he was genetically hardwired to like the visuals.

"Wait here, Lil Bit. I need to talk to my girl. Ezra, you got this another sec?"

"Yeah, I got her." Ezra said softly.

JD turned his head in Ezra's direction, not quite sure if he heard him right. Ezra snapped out of whatever was distracting him and corrected himself. "Yeah, I got this."

My stomach dropped when JD led Anna out of the store and walked towards the fountain in the middle of the mall. I was alone with Ezra again. I wondered how many times he would bring up all the humiliating things I had done around him this time.

We sat in uncomfortable silence for a few more minutes. There were a couple of glances and even more uncomfortable shifting while we waited. I still couldn't get anything out of my mouth. I wanted to break the silence but had no idea what to talk about.

"You're really going to the concert?" Ezra asked first, breaking the tension.

"Yeah, Camo has been my favorite band for years. JD always promised to take me, but they never came to town. It's so weird how he randomly got free tickets to the show." I looked back up at him finally. Were we going to have a normal conversation for once?

He smiled when I relaxed a little bit. "Yeah, really weird." He laughed like it was some inside joke. "Hey, do girls really go shopping to buy outfits for concerts?"

"Anna always does. She wanted to have some fun for her birthday. She likes to play dress up and then tortures me by making me go with her. She's been doing it every year since I was twelve. She likes to make me wear things I would never try on my own. I think she secretly likes finding new ways to make JD crazy."

"I'd be crazy too if I had a sister as beautiful as you are." Ezra said. He didn't look down or apologize for what he just said to me. Did I just hear him correctly? Did he just say I was beautiful? Should I say thank you? I didn't know what the right response to that was. Ezra was all over the place. He teased me, said terrible things to me, and then complimented me. I had no idea how to handle him.

I was about to open my mouth when JD and Anna walked back into the store. JD was scowling. It looked like Anna just won whatever argument they just had.

"Ready to go Ry?" She asked me.

I shook my head while looking at Ezra. He pulled his mouth up at the corner one last time before moving his attention back down to the counter.

Anna took my hand and dragged me away from the dark-haired boy who made my insides a confused mess. I turned to look at him one last time before she dragged me towards the Spa. I saw him laughing while JD was angrily flailing his hands around and pointing towards the door. JD was clearly not happy about how Anna's girl's day with me was playing out.

Ezra looked over to where we were and I sent him a little sheepish wave goodbye. He laughed again and twisted his eyebrow ring between his fingers. JD looked over his shoulder and saw me waving like an idiot. I flipped him off to cover my tracks before turning to give my full attention back to Anna and her crazy plans.