“What do you think,” Brandy asked AJ, circling around once to give him a full overview.
“It looks good, princess.” His brow was scrunched as if he were in thought. “But you know what,” he began, “It would look a hell of a lot better with that blue top you looked at.”
“AJ, I can’t wear that. Think about how people would look at me,” she exclaimed, thinking of the little to nothing top that AJ was referring to.
AJ grinned and winked at her as he went to grab the top off the rack. She knew all too well that she would have to have it now.
During the three months that she had spent with him in Florida she had did a bit of changing. He had persuaded her to cut her hair. Her long hair that her dad said he would not allow her to cut above her shoulders was now in short layers coming just below her ears. Along with this “coming out of her shell”, as he called it, he convinced her to wear more make-up. “Not that she wasn’t naturally beautiful,” he had argued, ”but your beautiful eyes would stand out so much more if you shadowed them in a little.”
She thought about what her parents would do if they were to see the difference in her. But it was just looks, she thought. It’s only skin deep. AJ loves me for me.
Once again she stepped out of the dressing room. This time with the black skirt and the blue top AJ had suggested.
“Mmm,” he groaned, his eyes turning darker as he sauntered over to her and wrapped her up in his embrace. His mouth came down on her neck, breathing warmly over her sensitive skin.
Brandy looked over his shoulder, very aware of the eyes of two store clerks gawking at them. “A.. AJ.. C’mon now honey,” she said, trying to ease him away from her.
He quickly snatched himself away from her. “You ready to go yet,” he said, looking a little to eaten with his passion.
“Yea, sure. Let me get my clothes back on,” she said, turning away. If anyone had changed it was him. He had gotten more than free with his kisses and his public displays of affection lately. She didn’t know what had gotten into him, she wasn’t even entirely sure that she liked it. Either way, like it or not, she loved AJ. She would have to deal with a little mood swinging from time to time if that’s what it took.
^^^^^^^^
Brandy tossed the ball in the hoop.
“Ohhh! Can you hardly believe it? I’m whipping you,” Brandy teased Nick.
He smiled, being a good sport.
“You’re a girl. I can’t let you loose,” he laughed.
The two of them had become pretty good friends in the time that she had been there. She had went along with AJ to visit him once and became fascinated with his apartment.
Him being fascinated with her, he was more than willing to show her around the eccentric looking place. She expressed to him that she liked to play basketball every now and then when she saw some of his basketball memorabilia hanging from the walls. Since then they had made a habit of playing at least twice a week.
The two of them plopped down onto a bench in the park. It certainly was warm for the sun to be going down. Brandy adjusted her pony tail and complemented herself again for beating Nick.
“Alright, but next time I’m not going to go so easy on you if you want to be like that about it,” he laughed.
She laughed and eventually tossed the teasing aside. She stared into the red and purple sky in deep thought.
“What’s wrong,” he asked, nudging her elbow with his own.
“Nothing, I was just thinking about AJ,” she commented. “He just seems so distant here lately. Like everything he does is for himself. He isn’t the same person I first met.” She cut herself off realizing that she was intrusting way to much in her friend, who was better friends with AJ himself.
“AJ gets like that when things are on his mind,” he said reassuringly. “He usually does it when he’s worried about something. I guess because he hates to worry about anything. He likes to be carefree.”
Brandy thought for a few minutes. “Do you think I have taken his freedom away,” she asked, not daring to look at Nick as she was afraid of what his expression might be.
“No, I don’t think so. I think that he is worried about me a little. Even Howie has been pretty down because he worries so much. We’re all worried about the group falling apart.”
Brandy laughed under her breath for a second. “Howie is such a sweet guy. I was talking to him on the phone the other night. He called for AJ but he was at home and we started talking. Even though we were just talking over the phone I could tell that he has a big heart. And he’s so dedicated. He has stood by you through out all of this.”
It was Nick’s turn to laugh. “If you keep on your going to make me believe that you are in love with Howie.”
Brandy smiled at this. She knew her heart belonged to AJ, but she knew the perfect match for Howie. A scheming grin consumed her lips as she conjured up a little plan.
“I bet I can fix all of Howie’s worrying,” she laughed.
Nick getting the wrong idea, laughed heartily.
“C’mon girl. Don’t make me have to rat you out to AJ,” he said, standing and grabbing his things.
In any other case Brandy would have defended herself but she was to wrapped up in her plans she didn’t pay him much mind.