HTTYB - Day 18, Part 2a (Patreon)

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Wednesday, June 2 (cont.)

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Wednesday evening found the two siblings at the mall; just like the week before, Olivia had enlisted in her brother’s help to go clothes shopping once again. Since she and Jordan were heading to spend the night at their family’s beach house tomorrow, Olivia wanted to pick out at least one new outfit for their trip. And because of how relaxing their bath together had been, he’d said yes when she invited him to come with her after they dried themselves off. To her, it was a continuation of their bonding for the day.

As they wandered through the busy evening bustle of the shopping center, he struggled to match his sister’s pace. Not to mention the fact that everyone around him was taller, bigger, and didn’t even see him most of the time. On several occasions people bumped straight into him, would hastily apologize, and then he’d have to hurry up to try and reach Olivia’s side again. Luckily she was fairly easy to spot because of her height, but eventually he resorted to grabbing her hand. From a distance, he didn’t look any different from the moms that would hold onto their little sons’ hands so they wouldn’t get lost. He didn’t like to admit it to himself, but he was thankful for Olivia, to be able to wade through the crowd of people and make sure he never left her side. She looked down at him as he grabbed her hand, giving him a warm, sympathetic smile.

They eventually made their way into the place Olivia wanted to shop at, one of the major, multi-level stores with thousands of things to choose from. As she slowly circled her way around the stands, checking out all the different garments available, Reese simply followed behind, beginning to get a bit bored of all the clothes that he’d never want to wear, even if they weren’t way too big for him. And his phone was dead, so he couldn’t pass the time with that. But his sister sensed his impatience. “You know, you don’t have to follow me around the whole time, you can check out some of the stuff in the guys’ section downstairs,” she told him, holding up a crop top so she could examine its material more closely before losing interest. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to try stuff on.”

Oh yeah, I guess I don’t really have to follow her around; I’m an adult now. Although even if I wasn’t, I came here voluntarily. “Oh, alright then,” he said, and turned towards the escalators to take her advice and check out the men’s section. Even if there wouldn’t be anything at this specific store with clothes his size, a lot of places carried smaller sizes online. So I might be able to find something I want, and then I can order it online later.

But after a few minutes of checking out the clothes in the guy’s section, he felt himself getting bored again. The store wasn’t really his kind of style; just a bit too sophisticated, like everything was designed for upper middle class guys going on an expensive date. He liked more laid back apparel.

Olivia still hadn’t come to get him, but he glanced out the giant entrance to the store, the one that led back into the mall, and realized that a shoe store was right across the walkway. He hesitated over whether or not he should check the place out. I’ll just stay near the entrance to the store so I can glance over a bunch while I’m checking out the shoes. Then if I see her I can head back. He knew he was taking a bit of a risk, but he had shopped with Olivia enough growing up to know she could take a while, and he didn’t wanna be stuck twiddling his thumbs til she was ready to try stuff on.

So he made his way across the wide aisle and went into the shoe shop, making sure to stay close to the entrance while he gazed at the tall wall and the hundreds of shoes it displayed. He spent awhile checking out all the shoes, along with some of the other merchandise the store had, always making sure to look up every once in awhile to see if Olivia had come down to get him. But still no sight of her yet, so he continued browsing.

“Let me know if you see anything you like,” he suddenly heard a voice say behind him, and he turned to see a girl who looked to be about his age, standing a few feet back with a polite smile on her face, wearing the store’s T-shirt. “Unfortunately we won’t have any smaller sizes in the back room, but most brands have special sizing that should fit you, and I can order a delivery to be shipped for you.” Reese was initially taken aback. Partly because he’d noticed retail employees didn’t seem to approach him as much compared to when he was normal sized. Some people would have a patronizing level of pity for people with his condition, and others felt awkward around someone his size, instead of treating him like just another person. But mostly he just thought the girl was cute.

“Oh uh, thanks,” he smiled, blushing a little bit. “I think I’m just browsing though, I wasn’t planning on buying anything today.”

“That’s OK!” she replied without missing a beat. “Everyone needs to get new shoes eventually, and if you change your mind then I’ll still be here.” She’s pretty nice, he thought. And she obviously treats me with respect too. Most people weren’t rude to Reese, to be fair, but he could tell there was something different about this girl. I should probably ask her out, even if she said no there’s no way she’d be rude about it.

“That’s a good point I guess, thanks,” he responded, but didn’t turn back around. And neither did she. “Actually, I know this probably seems kinda random, but would—“

“Reese!” He was cut short by Olivia yelling at him, and he turned to see her stomping up to the store, marching right up to stand directly beside him with her hands on her hips. Shit, I should’ve been paying attention to the store. He gulped nervously as he looked up at his sister. She wasn’t furious, but she was definitely more than just annoyed. The employee was caught off guard too, and gawked up at the 6 and a half foot girl who’d just barged into the store, clearly upset about something.

“Oh, um… is this your girlfriend?” the employee asked Reese, glancing nervously between the two of them.

Olivia crinkled her face in disgust, turning to face the other girl. “Ugh, no, I’m his sister,” she said. “And sorry for yelling, I didn’t mean to cause a scene or anything,” she said with a calmer tone, looking to a few of the other store patrons who had noticed the commotion. “It’s just that somebody didn’t answer their phone when I called them,” she said, turning to glare down at Reese again, “and it went straight to voicemail so I figured it was off for some reason. So then I had to look all around the store, on both levels, calling out your name and starting to think that something had happened to you. Only to find that you were here instead.”

“I’m sorry,” Reese mumbled, avoiding eye contact. “The battery died earlier to… day.” He realized too late that he should’ve said instead that it died just recently, but accidentally gave away the fact that it had already been dead when he left.

“And you never told me that before you left?!” Olivia asked, continuing to stare down at him even though he wouldn’t look up at her. “That store is fucking huge, and I had to go around every square foot of the place cuz I had to be sure you weren’t behind something and I just couldn’t see you, or in the bathroom. But you were just here the whole time?” The employee stood awkwardly by, glancing nervously between the guy and his titanic sister lecturing him for running off like a kid.

Reese didn’t know how to respond. He’d already hesitated about coming here, knowing the risk. There wasn’t really any good excuse he could give her. He could only apologize. “I’m sorry. I… yeah. Sorry.” It was all that could be said, as he finally looked up at her, feeling anxious in her looming shadow. He glanced at the girl, who had lost her professional attitude and was now just an onlooker like the other people in the store. If she’d ever been interested in him before, she certainly wasn’t showing it anymore, and now he’d never know if he could’ve had a chance.

Olivia sighed, rubbing her eyes as she thought about what to do. “It’s fine, it was just an accident. But I was really scared there for a second, I can’t even imagine what I would’ve told Mom and Dad.” She took another deep breath, and reached her hand behind his back to push him towards her. Even if he had been able to fight it, he didn’t want to make any more of a fuss. So he just let her hold him close to her body, his face smushed uncomfortably against her crotch while her hand held his head there, as she looked down at him and regained her composure. “At least I know you’re safe now though.” After a few more seconds of the forced one-way hug, she let him go, and he glanced at the girl out of the corner of her eyes. Her mouth was barely opened, the slightest hint that she was dumbfounded at Olivia’s intimate actions. His face could only redden even more in embarrassment, and he looked down at the floor again.

“I know you obviously weren’t trying to run away or anything, but it was still annoying as hell trying to find you, and I don’t want you to wander off again,” she instructed. “I think we should head over to that family store and pick up one of those toddler safety harness things, it might be a little big on you but it’ll probably fit OK.”

Reese’s eyes widened as he realized what she was talking about, and he turned to look back up at Olivia’s stern expression. “Wait, no! This is only the first time it’s happened, I don’t wanna wear something like that though, that’d be way too humiliating. Come on Olivia.”

His big sister’s face was unchanging though. “You don’t need to wear it at home, obviously, or school or anything. It’s just for when we’re out in public like this and there’s a lot of people around. Maybe Mom and Dad won’t make you use it when you’re out with them, but I don’t wanna lose track of you again.” By now, the other girl had her hand up to her mouth, her unconscious reaction to seeing how this guy was being treated by his sister. She felt like she’d way overstayed her welcome, and Reese watched as she awkwardly stepped backwards before turning to head back to the front of the store until they’d leaved. But Olivia didn’t know that he had just been about to ask her out, and ignored the girl as she grabbed her brother’s hand and turned to leave, pulling him out of the store whether he wanted to come or not. “If you don’t make it a big deal then it won’t be. But at least for now, until we can think of some kind of better solution, you’re just gonna have to wear a leash whenever you head out with me, mkay?”