[Alex's POV]
"Ok, where do you want to start?" Alex asked once they were standing in the middle of the local shopping district.
"I don't know! Isn't that why you're here?" Otto asked as she shifted her weight uncomfortably from foot to foot.
"Didn't you grow up here?" Alex asked playfully, but Otto looked away with an ashamed expression.
"Oh boy," Alex thought to himself. Because of her revelation earlier, it was like the mist had cleared. He could read her like an open book. Not that it helped with her awkwardness around him.
It was disheartening to know that if Jasper had made the same joke, Otto might have laughed, or even retorted with a clever remark of her own. Did she still not feel comfortable around him? Maybe it was better to concentrate on the task at hand.
"What kind of clothes are you looking for?"
"What kind?" Otto asked confused, not knowing how to answer. She held his gaze with a persistent stare, obviously wondering if he was asking difficult questions on purpose.
"Yes, what kind," Alex repeated patiently. "You know, ... Like skirts, dresses, pants, T-shirts, sweaters... um, casual, formal?"
"All of the above, I guess," she concluded indecisively.
"That doesn't exactly narrow it down," Alex chuckled. He was starting to see why Jessy had refused to accompany her. "Ok, ... What about that store? They have a little of everything."
Otto nodded and followed him inside.
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[Otto's POV]
Otto couldn't believe her eyes. The inside of the store was massive! She didn't know where to look first. It was hard to believe the floor Alex had guided her to was only the female department!
"Shall I help you pick clothes?" Alex asked as he was looking through a rack packed with clothes on hangers.
"Definitely not," Otto said with no room for argument.
"What?! Why not?!" he asked incredulously.
"I bet you'd have me wear something ridiculous," she mumbled reluctantly. Alex snorted.
"Let me guess, Jasper had you wear a pink catsuit. Oh! No! I know. Tyrolean pants with white socks and leather sandals," he joked.
"It was Jessy," Otto corrected indifferently. "And it was a pink push-up bra."
Alex laughed an awkward chuckle, clearly surprised. Otto looked up at him in confusion. Why was he laughing? Had she said something funny?
"You're joking, right?" he asked once their eyes met. But she hadn't been joking. Otto instantly felt herself flush bright red. Only now did she realise how embarrassing the thing that she'd said really was.
"Please forget what I said," she said, her voice stiff with embarrassment. Oh no, now he looked at her with pity, which only made her feel more embarrassed. An escape route! She needed an escape route!
"Oh, look! What a pretty dress! I'll go try that on," she said, grabbed the first piece of clothing she came along on a nearby rack and rushed off to the dressing room.
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[Alex's POV]
Alex felt guilty. It was clear Otto had ran away from him earlier because she'd been embarrassed. He shouldn't have laughed. But she really had surprised him.
At first, he'd thought she'd answered him with a witty come-back to trip him up, but then he'd realised she'd told him the truth.
"Otto? Are you in there?" he asked loud enough so that she would hear him even if she wasn't inside the booth he'd picked. Alex had followed her to the dressing room, but determining which cubicle she'd fled into hadn't been easy. All of the fourteen booths were filled, and peering at the feet underneath the curtains had earned him a few disapproving glances.
"Don't come in!" he heard Otto yelp from inside the booth he'd picked. He silently thanked the heavens and noticed how the woman waiting in front of the neighbouring cubicle gave him a curious glance.
"I wasn't going to," he said in what he hoped sounded like a reassuring tone of voice. "Did you try on the dress?"
"I did," she said.
"Really? Can I see?"
"No!" she yelped again. Alex stared at the curtain of the dressing booth for a second. Her straight out refusal hurt. She was acting as if he was some kind of monster that pounced on every opportunity to humiliate the people around him.
"Calm down," he thought to himself as he released a held breath. She was only acting skittish because he'd laughed at her earlier. He only had himself to blame.
"Look, Otto," he said seriously. "I'm a little confused as to why I'm here. You don't want my help to pick clothes, and now you don't want my opinion on the ones you pick either?"
It was quiet inside the dressing booth for a few heartbeats.
"But... I grabbed the wrong size... and now the dress looks ridiculous," she mumbled quietly. Had she really been in such a rush to get away from him? Yeah, that definitely made him feel worse.
"Would you like me to bring you another size?" he asked patiently.
"Yes, please... But I'm afraid that I don't know which size it should be," she said a little more coherently now. "The last time I went shopping with Jessy, a size small fitted me, but that was for a roomy sweater, so maybe it is even smaller."
"That's alright. I'll just bring two sizes. I'll be right back," Alex said, smiling softly, and hurried off.
"I'm back," he said as he returned a moment later and slid the dresses through the closed curtain.
"Thank you!" she said gratefully as she accepted the dresses and quickly busied herself with trying them on. Alex patiently waited until she would give him some kind of feedback, but she stayed busy inside her dressing booth.
"Are you alright in there?" he asked, curious to know why she seemed to be wriggling and grunting so much.
"I- I'm fine," she said nervously as she abruptly stopped moving altogether. She clearly wasn't fine.
"You know I'm here to help, right?" he said, proud of himself that he sounded only a little bit annoyed.
"I know," she said quietly. Was it his imagination or did she sound defeated? Alex was pondering her words when a delicate hand appeared at the edge of the curtain. As the hand slid the curtain aside just far enough for him to look inside, an elegant shoulder appeared, followed by two deep blue eyes staring back at him and finally the pretty white sundress she was wearing.
Alex watched mesmerised as she turned around and pulled her long blond hair over one shoulder to reveal an only half-closed zipper.
"Actually, Alex? Could you zip me up please?" she asked shyly. Alex was glad she was standing with her back towards him and swallowed silently. She'd surprised him once more. Not because she'd asked him for help, but because she looked so different in the dress with her hair down. Well, he'd already been aware that Otto was a pretty girl, but at school uniforms were mandatory and Otto usually wore her hair up in a ponytail. Even earlier that morning she'd been wearing her hair up in a messy bun. He guessed it had come undone when she had changed clothes.
"Sure," he said, praying to God that she hadn't noticed his slow reply. He took a step closer, tugged gently at the zipper and frowned. "Hmm, I could close this, but you probably won't be able to breathe anymore. Was this the biggest size I brought?"
"No the smallest," she said as she glanced over her shoulder. Only now Alex noticed that Otto was blushing. And really hard too. Her flush reached all the way to her shoulders!
"Calm down," he said with a gentle smile. "Why are you so nervous? Is this related to the extremely handsome thing?"
"No, actually. It's more of a boy-sees-girl-naked kind of situation," she said quietly.
"Ah? Ha, ha! That does make a lot more sense," Alex laughed and added with a wink: "Except for the fact that you are not naked."
She flushed an even brighter shade of red when his words registered. Was it still too early to joke around? Well, back to focusing on finding clothes.
"Go on. Try on the bigger size," he said as he pushed her back into the booth gently and closed the curtain again.
Not five minutes later, the curtain flew open again, revealing Otto once more in a summer dress, but this time with the zipper barely pulled up at all. He tried not to notice that he could see her underwear like this, but it was something white and lacy.
"Zip me up please!" Otto half commanded, half asked as she tried to sneak a glance at herself in the mirror.
"And now she isn't embarrassed?" Alex thought to himself as he closed the zipper halfway and paused to push her hair aside to zip up the rest.
"There, all done," he said with a cheerful tap to the zipper. She sprung forward and twirled the dress around in the mirror.
"What do you think?" she asked, clearly satisfied with what she'd seen.
"I think it fits you like a glove," he said. She beamed a delighted smile at him. Once again, it took him by surprise. She should definitely smile more often. It was a good look on her.
"It does, doesn't it?" she said happily. "Do you think the shopkeepers will let me wear it?"
Alex frowned at her in confusion.
"Isn't that the whole point of shopping?" he asked, she blushed and her smile dampened.
"What I meant was; Do you think they'll mind if I keep it on while I pay for it?" she clarified.
"Oh!" Alex laughed in surprise. "Don't be ridiculous! We still have to fit lots of other clothes."
"Well, yeah... but..." she mumbled, her spirit dampening more and more. She reminded him of someone who'd crossed the desert and was denied access to the oasis.
"Do you really like it that much?" he asked. She nodded.
"Well, I guess you can change into it after we pay for it," he thought out loud and saw her smile brighten again immediately, so he quickly added: "But first you have to fit more clothes!"
"Okay," she chimed happily.