"No. No. That's not good." Eliza snaps at me. "Try this." She flings something at me through the curtain of the changing room.

When I accepted to go shopping with Ashley and Eliza, I never expected it would be this... Rough. It seems like Eliza takes fashion very personally. She has literally insulted every brand we've been into.

I change into the dress she flung at me, and I have to say, it's beautiful. Hell, I look beautiful. I pull the curtains slightly aside and my eyes meet Ashley's, who's between calling Eliza and calling the police as the former shouts down a shopping assistant about some sizes or something.

We smile at each other, and I take a moment to realise how much my life has changed. It really, really has. The past week - it's been incredible. Sure, I'm still healing from my last... Erm, encounter with Luke, but yeah.

"Woah, people in this shop are so goddamn useless!" Eliza exclaims turning back to us. I feel a little sorry for the poor guy she was shouting at. Well, not exactly shouting, but pretty much. "Hey, you look really nice." She says.

I look at my wrist, pretending I have a watch. "Thirty minutes later." I say, leaning against the doorway of the changing room. "Why thank you, Eliza. Maybe you should try on something instead of screaming at workers who probably get paid like six dollars an hour."

"Nah, in this shop? They probably get paid like twenty." She says. Ashley decides to intervene before we start a very long and possibly boring (for listeners) conversation about shop wages. I was all ready for it, though.

"What do you think of this?" She asks, also stepping out of the changing room. Eliza shrieks and dives into my changing room.

"Are you okay?" I ask. She shakes her head. She's actually gone a bit pale. I open the curtain while Eliza cowers behind a pile of dresses in my changing room and look at Ashley. "Oh, come on, it's not that bad." I say.

"That!" Eliza exclaims. "Is an aberration."

"Is she always like this?" I ask Ashley.

"Pretty much." Ashley says. "But it's kind of funny."

"I'll tell you who's funny!" Eliza squeals. "You, in that dress! If I met the designer I would have a few things to say to him!"

We need to prevent that from happening. Eliza would kill the poor woman/man.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else." I say, while changing into my own clothes again. Ashley gives me a thankful look and I smile back, emerging from the changing room in my own clothes again.

"I have an idea." Ashley says, coming out too. "Let's go to Aeropostale."

It's rather incredible how Eliza's face changes. It really is. I've heard of the shop, but I don't think I've ever been in it. Her face lights up in a huge smile, and she grins crazily.

"Yeah, let's go there." I say hastily, though. Ashley comes over to me as I ditch the beautiful dress for Eliza's sake and I prepare to go into new, uncharted territory.

We walk a long way through the mall which gives me another moment to reflect on life in general. Eliza is so much more... Energetic than I'd ever imagined her as. It's incredible how people change when you get closer to them. I guess they're thinking the same kind of things about me. If they even think in this kind of way.

"Aeropostale is basically Eliza's favorite shop." Ashley comes closer to say.

"It is the best shop." Eliza says. "Okay, maybe not, but it's cool and really fashionable."

"It sounds good." I say meekly.

"Hey, you don't have to act all freaked out because I screamed at a shopping assistant. He was useless, anyway. I just get like that when faced with such incompetent people."

I put a hand on my forehead in mock despair. "Imagine how I feel, having to deal with all you every day." I say. She grins, elbowing me. Ashley smiles.

We finally reach a large shop that says Aeropostale on the front. I'm guessing this is the one then. My suspicion is confirmed by Eliza uttering a quick goodbye and speed-walking into the shop.

"Uh..." I start.

"Come on, let's go through this together." Ashley says, linking her arm through mine. Woah. That's weird. I thought people only did that in books from the 19 hundreds. Oh well.

I follow her through the shop, and there are some cute things. Ashley picks up a couple of things, and so do I. I've suddenly acquired a taste for jumpsuits - I'm wearing one right now, and magically it's started trending not only in our year, but throughout the whole school.

It's been really quite amazing, watching all the poor fourteen year old girls look up to the Zerd and dressing like her. I'm trying to smile at everyone in the corridors, but after wearing a jumpsuit and the next day seeing half the juniors wearing it, I have to contain my laughter.

We meet Eliza in the queue for the changing rooms. She's one person ahead of us, so she lets them past and stands next to us. "So?" She asks. I shrug.

"It's good." I say. Eliza grins.

"At least they have all sizes and stuff." Okay, I guess it must be hard for her because she is doll-sized. Eliza is a very short person, to put it in the nicest and simplest way possible.

"Come on, you're next." Ashley nudges Eliza as the shop assistant holds her arm out expectantly and boredly. Eliza hands her the clothes and she counts them.

"You can only take in six." She mutters, shoving the clothes back into Eliza's arms. Eliza groans.

"I can show you my receipts. I am by far the best customer you have in this whole state." She says. Ashley leans over her shoulder.

"I can confirm that." She adds. The assistant rolls her eyes and hands Eliza a number. Eliza smiles at her and rushes to the cabin before she can change her mind.

The assistant casts a nasty look at both of us and shoves random numbers into our hands, pushing us through to the next empty ones. Ashley and I laugh.

"Does she always blackmail them like that?" I ask Ashley as we head over to our respective cubicles.

"Pretty much. I've been with her in moments where she's actually shown the receipts."

"I don't think I want to see those receipts." I mutter, going into mine and locking the door. I hear Ashley laughing in her changing room, as, from down the corridor of changing rooms, we hear Eliza's excited squeals.

~

Finally, loaded with bags, Eliza gets a text from Nate *erm, cough cough* saying that the four of them are waiting next to the fountain.

I pretty much have the equivalent of a panic attack. The four of them. These guys have fucked up my life. I simply do not have the courage in me to simply walk up to them.

Eliza notices that I've frozen in my steps, my hands weakening, and waves Ashley along. Ashley skips off to find the guys.

"I'm okay it's just- I'm not okay. I really can't do this."

"So right now there's a look of pure terror on your face, and I understand it. You don't have to come, Zoe. You can just meet Seth on his own."

"I guess this is nothing compared to..."

"To what?"

"To walking into school and suddenly being the trend-setter!" I exclaim. "To everyone accepting and having Seth and having people like you and Ashley and Zara and even Caleb! To having the fucking guts to walk up to Luke and make peace with him!" I exclaim. A couple of passersby look at us, but we both ignore them.

"Then harness all the bravery you have and do it. What's this? It's the last challenge, Zoe. Don't give up now."

"I don't want to, but..."

"We can just talk or something and you don't even have to look at them if you don't want to."

"It's okay." I say after a long time. She smiles, hugging me.

"You can do this." She says quietly. I smile back at her.

"Thanks."

If life had some parts projected in slow motion, this would be my part. I can imagine myself like an astronaut getting ready inside an aircraft, picking up my bags and walking right down the steps to place the first man's foot on the moon.

What I'm doing is really not that hard, but our lives are at a different scale. An astronaut's life revolves around something much bigger than mine does - something very different. For the past four years, mine has revolved around these four guys and the constant bullying I've had to go through because of them.

So, on different scales, the immensity of what I'm about to do is the same as the feat of stepping onto the moon.

"I can do this." I murmur under my breath to myself, softly enough that neither Eliza or any random person can hear me. "I can do this, I can do this."

I try to walk normally, not stomping too hard and DO NOT TRIP and make sure you walk in a straight line and your feet are pointing straight ahead and DON'T TRIP and -

Goddamn just don't think about it. As we turn the corner I see them, talking to Ashley. God, at least they're distracted. I thank everything for Ashley having gone ahead.

Seth, though, is looking around, his eyes roaming the corridor of the mall they're in. His eyes finally meet mine and he smiles, and in his smile I see more than just a smile, I see small words of encouragement and praise and him telling me he's proud of what I'm doing.

And I don't need them, but they help me to keep walking. And not turn and sprint away from here as fast as my feet will take me. To my horror the other three suddenly turn towards us as we're almost there. I almost break right then.

But then we're next to them and Seth's put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him and suddenly it's not so bad anymore.

"Hey." Seth says to both us, but mostly for me. Eliza graciously dumps her bags on Nate, who just grins like an idiot, but I see Ashley has kept hers. I move away from Seth, ditching my bags with him too. He groans, passing them onto Luke. Luke groans even more.

"No..." He moans. "I'll look seriously gay if I walk around with this and no girlfriend."

"Tough." I say, smiling at him. He fake-glares at me. Luke and I haven't spoken face to face since last Friday. I haven't had the guts, and somehow, I think he hasn't either. 

A/N - I think I was on something when I wrote this. 

Thanks for reading!