Read End of the Innocence for Free Online Page B

hand extended. “I’m Robbie; pleased to meet you, Kyle.”
    I shook it and mumbled a “Hi” under my breath.
    “Oh, and he blushes!” he exclaimed, laughing.
    “Ignore him,” Jennifer whispered, knowing Robbie could hear us. “That part of the brain that allows people to edit what comes out of their mouth was killed long ago by alcohol poisoning, so just nod and pretend to be nice.”
    “Nod and pretend to be nice,” he said, sounding shocked. “Don’t you have that tattooed somewhere on you?”
    She flipped him off, and they both laughed.
    “So seriously, what are you looking for today?” he asked, gesturing to the displays behind him.
    “Well, The Party is this weekend, so I need something that doesn’t look like a laundry bag.” She looked over to me. “What are you going to wear?”
    I paused, not sure what she was asking for a moment. “To the party?” I asked, not putting the emphasis on the words. She nodded. “Clothes?”
    “And show me something to make him look cute,” she said, turning back to him.
    “That he already is,” Robbie said, heading toward a rack of blouses. “You look through here and see if you can find something that doesn’t make you look like a total bitch.” He gave her a small grin. “I’d suggest something that covers your face.”
    “I hope you die in a fire,” she said, pushing him out of the way.
    “You,” he said, pointing at me. “Come with me.”
    I looked over at her, and she nodded. “Go ahead, he’s all bark.”
    I followed him to the other side of the store where the men’s clothes were. “So what is your style? Preppie? Hick?” He gave me a look over. “You are rocking that whole nerd thing something fierce. You want to go with that?”
    I shrugged, not knowing what he was talking about. What was my style ? Did I even have a style? I put on clothes and hoped they didn’t fall off in front of people; that summarized my thoughts about clothes.
    “Okay,” he said, looking back at the racks. “Let’s just build on what we already have.” He flipped through a few shirts before pulling out a white shirt with thin blue stripes. “Hmm—let’s start with this.” He handed it to me and then walked over to another rack and pulled out a black vest with a gray back on it. “With this.” I grabbed it too as he walked over to some pants. “And then let’s go with some slacks….” He looked at me again and then back to the pants. “You’re what, a twenty-eight waist?”
    “How did you know that?” I asked, shocked.
    “It’s one of my superpowers,” he said, pulling out a nice pair of pleated, black slacks. “And these.” He put them over my arm with the rest of the clothes. “Okay, so go try them on.”
    “Here?” I asked forcing myself not to stammer.
    “Well, as much as I would enjoy that, we do have dressing rooms.” He nodded to the back of the store.
    “Oh,” I said, feeling stupid now. “All of them?”
    He laughed. “Well yes, they are meant to be worn together, but that’s up to you.”
    I wasn’t sure what to do. My first instinct was to tell him there was no way I could afford any of these clothes, but that sounded so pathetic I could have cried. I half shuffled toward the dressing room, and when I hesitated, he shooed me into motion again. “Well, they aren’t going to try themselves on.”
    I had no argument for that and went inside the room.
    I put the clothes down on the small shelf and wondered if I put them on, would I have to buy them? I’d never really had to try on clothes before; my mom knew what size I wore and just bought me clothes at the start of the year. She knew I didn’t much care how I looked in them. Therefore she didn’t much care. Apathetic though it was, our system had served me well for the last few years, so I was reluctant to change it now.
    Of course, I had never been to an actual party before either.
    Well, that’s not true. The one and only party I had gone to was when I was in