After leaving his sister at the trailer park with his best friend, Timmy made his way to the mall where he was going to meet Ryan. Thanks to his friends trying to 'help' him he would be late getting there. A.J. had droned on and on about popular topics to discuss on dates (which he'd found online), Elmer brought his girlfriend and Veronica to help him dress nice, and Chester had teased him the entire time. Friends were great and all, they made life bearable most of the time, but they could also be a pain in the ass. Right now, he considered them all annoying brats. At least they got his mind off his nerves.

The girls had raided his closet and dresser to find a nice pair of jeans that weren't faded or ripped, a pink dress shirt that he'd reluctantly agreed to wear, forced him to wear some makeup so the bags under his eyes weren't so noticeable, and had styled his hair for him. They all kept telling him to just be himself but how was he supposed to do that when he didn't look like himself? Scratch that, he looked like his old self, back when he was happy. Maybe he could pretend to be that Timmy again for the day. His nightmares hadn't changed anymore but he still wasn't sleeping much. Until the nightmares stopped, he couldn't go back to being his old self.

Finally he arrived at the section of the mall he was supposed to meet Ryan at. He could imagine the lecture A.J. would give him about keeping a lady waiting, even though he was the one who kept his friend from leaving. There was a crowd so it made locating the short blonde difficult. Hopefully he could find her soon. A tap on his shoulder told him that she had found him. She rolled her eyes at him playfully before teasing him about being late. Hearing that his friends were to blame and giving him a once over she ruffled his hair so that it was its normal mess, Trixie would pout about it once she found out. They laughed at the thought of the girl getting upset.

Then there was her attire. A pastel green, knee length dress a friend insisted she wear. There was what he was sure was a bow from a Christmas present in her hair. The reason he thought it was from a Christmas present was because it was light blue with snowflakes on it. She also wore a pair of candy cane leggings and just enough makeup to make her eyes stand out. Nervously she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear which made him realize he'd been starring. He'd also smiled a little. Feeling a bit self-conscious he looked away; this was going well wasn't it? Why'd she have to be so cute?

It wasn't until she giggled that he figured out he'd said that last part out loud.

"You don't look too bad yourself Turner."

"Thanks, I think… What?"

She was staring at his face, "are you wearing makeup?"

"Unwillingly yes. I was told looking half dead was inappropriate for a date."

"Really? So this is a date now?"

He shrugged. "Chester calls it a date-that's-not-a-date."

Crossing her arms and smiling up at him, "what do you call it?"

"Hanging out with a cute girl without my idiot friends around."

That earned a series of giggles from the blonde. Who then asked if there was any shop he wanted to visit before they began wandering around the mall. There was, a new shop that had just opened up that Chester told him was worth checking out. He had no idea what they sold but now she was curious to see it too. Several minutes of searching later, Chester's directions had been lousy, they found the store. It was definitely interesting.

About a quarter of the shop was dedicated to jewelry that ranged from colorful stones, magnetic bracelets, steam punk themed pieces, and zodiac necklaces. They spent a good ten minutes just browsing that part of the store. Some of the stone jewelry had little notes about what they could make the wearer feel (lucky, harmony, things like that) and the magnetic bracelets claimed to be good for the body. Unlike a normal jewelry display at other stores, this one was a collection of several different styles that were bound to appeal to everyone. Even though he didn't really see what girl's found so intriguing about jewelry, the teen found a few that he thought were cool, and was playfully teased for it.

Other items found in the store included small bamboo plants, some clothing, wrap around skirts, scarves, mirrors framed with colored glass, tribal masks, incense, and katanas behind the counter. The pair couldn't stop talking about some of the things they found, what they thought was cool, what wasn't really their style, and what was weird. While Timmy couldn't figure out what Chester would like about a place like this, he liked browsing around. Then they found a display of pins and magnets that kept them entertained for several minutes. Some of them were pictures of popular characters, others were snarky phrases, or stupid things like 'don't talk to me until I've had my second coffee'. He ended up buying a couple of them, one for him and one for Ryan. She said he didn't have to but he was going to anyway. The quote on it was funny because it fit her and she loved it, 'I'm short, I'm crazy, and I can kick your ass'.

Finally they left the shop, agreeing that they'd need to come back again at some point. Next they went to a store that Ryan enjoyed going to. Browsing the racks, the blonde kept up a conversation with her companion.

"You said you had a sister right?"

"Yeah, Hope."

"How old is she?"

"Twenty one months."

He heard her let out an 'aw' as girl's always do when they hear about children or baby animals while he took his phone out of his pocket. Once he found a picture of his sister he showed it to Ryan, it was one Chester had taken a few days ago with the siblings smiling at the camera, Hope was reaching for the phone.

"Aw! Little cutie. Have you seen her lately?"

"Yeah," putting his phone up, "I'm babysitting her for a while but Chester's watching her today. That's weirdly adorable."

That last bit was referring to a dark blue dress she'd pulled off the rack. Material around the stomach pulled back to reveal a mouth with sharp teeth. There were some strings meant to look like stitches connecting the upper and bottom portions of material that covered the mouth. It was one of those things you needed the right personality to pull off, and the blonde definitely did.

"Ya think?"

He nodded.

Several minutes later they were leaving the store after Ryan bought the dress. They spent a while people watching at the food court. It was fun making up conversations between couples and groups or guessing what someone's back story was. Things got a little ridiculous when she pointed to a woman with bright pink hair and said she was a grade school teacher. Timmy couldn't remember the last time he'd spent so much time laughing, smiling, and being happy. Something about the petite girl almost made him feel normal again, almost.

"So Turner, when do we get to have an official date?"

"Do you want to go on an official date?"

Again she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, something he realized she only did when she was nervous. Sheepishly she smiled and looked down at the ground, "well….yeah."

His face heated up as he blushed. Over the past couple days he'd seriously given some thought to dating her. Ryan was sweet, cute, and made him feel like life wasn't as shitty as it seemed. However he was pretty broken, would it be fair to her to have to deal with that side of him? Sure she'd seen it, but not like his friends had. It might freak her out. Another rejection wasn't what he needed right now, at least not until he was a bit better. But what if this could help him with that? Maybe what he needed was someone new in his life to help him out of this.

"Would you wanna watch movies at my house?"

"Sure."

"Cool."