"Marco, would you quit obsessing?" Ellie asked. She uncrossed her arms and did her best to pull Marco away from the mirror in the middle of the room.

"Wait, Elle," he said, running his hands through his hair and then smoothing out the jacket he had on. "Ellie!"

It was too late. Ellie had a tight hold of Marco and pulled him to the couch, the one Ashley was sitting on, looking at the clothes that she displayed on the couch's back. She looked up at her two friends.

"Marco, I thought we were shopping for Craig here, not you," Ashley chuckled.

Marco looked a little guilty. And he should be, because throughout the whole time the three of them were shopping in a men's apparel store or something similar to that, Marco would disappear for fifteen minutes and mysteriously emerge out of nowhere with a handful of jeans, shirts, and hats. When asked if any of them were for Craig, Marco would always give the same answer: "Well, not really. They're for…me…"
"Look, I'm sorry. This jacket was just too good to leave on the rack. I just called my name out, and I had to try it on, guys," Marco said, looking apologetically at Ashley and Ellie.

"And here I thought shopping was a girl's game," Ellie joked, rolling her eyes. She held out her hand, which had a hanger in it, out to Marco and stared at him. "Mr. Del Rossi—the jacket, please."

He smiled, trying to persuade her to let him keep the jacket on, but when it didn't work, he huffed, his shoulders heaving down, and sighed. "Fine, take the one good thing from me, Miss Nash. You can take my jacket, but you can't take my privilege to come back to this store and buy it tomorrow afternoon!"

Ashley just laughed as she watched Marco pathetically take off the jacket. He handed it over to Ellie, who hung it on the hanger and walked away from the waiting area in the dressing room. When it was only just Ashley and Marco, Ashley grabbed onto Marco's arm and pulled him closer to her.

"All right, jacket boy," she said, almost menacingly, but in a joking manner. "You need to help me pick out a good present for my boyfriend."

Marco knelt in front of the couch, staring at the T-shirt display. He rested his chin on his clenched hand and biting his lower lip, so serious and deep in thought. Then, he tossed the following items: a blue shirt with a white picture on top and displaying the quote 'Never Underestimate Canadian, eh', a red shirt with a display of the state of Texas, a pair of jeans that mysteriously made its way onto the T-shirt display, and a black shirt with the label 'Nothing But The Best' in big, red letters.

"So, you think these should stay?" Ashley asked him. She pointed at the leftover tees.

Marco thought about it for a moment and then said, "Frankly, Ash, I think none of them should."

"New store?" she asked him.

He nodded his head slowly, as if in deep remorse for a transfer of location. "New store."

They both put away the clothes neatly where they had found it, and then grabbed Ellie, who was walking back to the dressing room unknowingly, and then headed out of the store.

The whole afternoon had been like this—Ashley and Ellie picking out the things that would best suit Craig, but then Marco vetoing it after a quick review. Sometimes, it would be Ashley who gave the potential gift items the axe, but it was mostly Marco doing the chopping.

"I just don't get it," Ashley said, as they three sat on a bench directly out of the store they had been in. She leaned back a bit, resting on the railing that was behind the bench. "I say that love the guy, but find him a simple anniversary gift, then all I know about Craig is nothing. I thought these things were supposed to be hard for the guys, easy for the girls."

"Hey, don't discourage yourself," Ellie said. "Sometimes it's the ones you really care about that's hard to get gifts for. You know, you're always searching for that 'perfect thing', and really, Ash, there is no such thing as a perfect thing."

"I know. I just wish that I could find something for him that's really nice and sentimental."

"Well, why don't we go and get him a shirt, then?" Marco said after a long break.

"Marco, did you not hear what Ashley just said?" Ellie asked as Marco stood up from his seat and faced the two girls. "About sentiment?"

He held a 'so what' look on his face and shrugged his shoulders. "What? I heard. I just thought that maybe Ash could buy Craig a shirt, you know as a side present. Then, the whole 'sentiment' deal can come in with a little thing I'd like to call 'Poem Book'."

"'Poem Book'?" Ash asked in a hesitant way. "As in, Ms. Kwan's assignment for last year's English class, 'Poem Book'?"

"No," Marco said, dismissively. "'Poem Book' as in, 'I'll show how I really, truly feel about Craig through a string of love poems and secret love letters', 'Poem Book'."

"What?" Ellie and Ashley asked together.

"Ash…" he said slowly. "You. Can. Write. Craig. A book. Of poems. For your. Anniversary. So you can. Show him. How you truly. Feel. Okay?"

"Oh, I get it," Ashley said, nodding her head. "A book of sentimental, somewhat sappy, love poems. All right, all right."

"Yeah, so let's buy that boyfriend of yours a little 'side gift' and let's call it a day," Marco said, clapping his hands together before grabbing Ash and Ellie by the arms.

"Yeah, let's," Ellie agreed, getting up.

The three of them wandered around, looking for that vintage store that Craig loves so dearly. They were about to walk in when one of the sales associates walked up to them.

"Hey, kids," the highly pierced woman said to them. Her bright pink hair kept any of the three from ignoring her and continuing their shopping conquest. She held out a booklet of coupons to them. "You can go crazy with this packet of free deals and crap like that."

"Free deals?" Marco asked, looking at the booklet he had in his hands. "Like…"

"Like half off everything on that wall," the Pink Woman said, pointing at the back wall, where a guy on a tall ladder was putting up a display of new shirts.

"I don't think I'll be finding this useful," Marco said, handing the booklet back to the woman. She gave a questioning look. "Not my style of clothes," he explained.

The woman sighed heavily and took the book from Marco. She turned to Ellie, who handed it back to her as well. "You too?"

"I don't think I need it either," Ellie said, giving no explanation.

At that moment, Ashley opened her coupon book and flipped through it. In the middle, she had found the perfect shirt that surely matched Craig so much; she could just see him in it at that moment. She smiled and looked up. The woman was facing her now, giving her a look that told her 'sooner or later, honey. I got no time.'

"Um, I think I'm going to keep this," Ashley said, holding onto the coupon and walking into the store. "It's going to help me so much with this present business."

Craig was sitting on the couch in his garage. He leaned against one of the couch's arms, his left leg resting on the couch, and his right foot hanging off of it. He left arm was placed on the top of the couch. His right hand was busy scribbling down lyrics in the notebook on his lap.

He took the pencil to his mouth and tapped the eraser tip on his lips. He clearly was in a state of writer's block. He looked down at the once clean sheet of notebook paper, with all its swiggles and crossing out of words. There were also side notes like: What are you trying to tell Ash? Or, Must take that out. Sounds too needy. Along with the side notes were doodles and things like that. Craig was about to write a little more when someone burst through the door.

"Hey, ho…this is where the party's at, yo!" Spinner called out, his arms waving around in the air. Jimmy was directly behind him, shaking his head in shame.

Apparently, their arrival had shocked the living daylights out of Craig, as his eyes were bugged out so widely, they had looked like two chocolate donuts stuck onto his face.

"So, are we practicing or what?" Jimmy asked Craig, going to where his guitar was. He picked it up from its stand, plugged the cord into the amp, and then began tuning it.

"Yeah, dude. Where's Marco?" Spinner asked, sitting in his seat behind his drums.

Craig stood up quickly, hiding his notebook under the pillow he leaned against.

"Marco—he's, uh, with Ash and Ellie. They're doing some shopping or something," Craig said. "Therefore, there is no practice. So, goodbye."

Craig took Jimmy's guitar from him, unplugged it, and placed it on the stand once again, and pushed him away. Then, he walked over to Spinner, snatched his drumsticks out of his hands, and kicked him off his chair.

"What are you doing, man?" Jimmy asked, somewhat ticked.

"Yeah, why are you kicking us out?" Spinner asked, staggering a bit because Craig had pushed him towards Jimmy.

"Look, I am working on something, all right? I really don't want anyone to be in here right now, because I need some alone time and some peace. Now kindly…" Craig pointed at the garage door.

"What?" Spinner and Jimmy said together. "Man, that's low."

"Come on. I need this. I can't concentrate."

"What are you doing? We can help," Jimmy offered, then he looked at Spinner, who was smiling smugly. He rolled his eyes. "Well, I'll help you."

"It's a song for Ash," Craig lightened up. He went to the couch to retrieve his notebook and then tossed it at Jimmy. "I don't know how to form the words or anything. I mean, it's all in my head, but when I write it down…"

"It's lethal crap?" Spinner helped. Jimmy nudged him, hard, and then gave him an icy glare.

"Yeah, that's exactly right. Spinner's right for the first time," Craig said, taking a seat on the sofa. Spinner took this chance to look back at Jimmy, this time with a 'I win, ha-ha' smile.

"Well, I can't judge something I have never seen," Jimmy said, bringing the notebook to his face. "Let's see. You've already got—many things crossed out. What's up with this, man?"

Spinner took a look at the book. He pointed at something and then said, "Didn't we already use that line somewhere in one of our songs?"

"What? Which one?" Craig stood up and stood next to Spinner, looking at the words he wrote that. The two handed him the notebook.

"That one. We used that in the song that had that insane drumming, remember?"

"Dude, that was a song about mental instability, not about Ashley," Jimmy debated, slapping Spinner's head.

"Well, you could've fooled me."

"Guys, come on. I really, really, really need to work on this. And no offense, Spinner, but you're not really helping me," Craig said. He put on a miserable face, which Spinner missed. But Jimmy caught it in one glance and understood.

"You know what, Spin. I think Hazel and Paige are waiting for us at the Dot. We'd better go. You know how Paige gets when her honey-bunny takes too long to get to one place," Jimmy said, placing one arm around Spinner's shoulder, and using his other hand to pinch Spinner's cheek.

"Jimmy, I swear…" Spinner released himself from Jimmy's hold.

But Jimmy just place his hands on Spinner's shoulder and led him out of the garage, as if Spinner needed the help. Once Jimmy got him out of the garage, he turned back to Craig and gave him a look.

"Hey, thanks for that, Jim," Craig said. He sat down on the couch again and fell downward.

"No problem. Just make sure you're finished with your song by tomorrow. We need to practice."

"Yeah. All right. See ya later."

"Bye," Jimmy said, walking out and closing the garage door behind him.

Craig held up the notebook in front of his face and checked out all the words and things he crossed out.

"Wait a minute…I did use that line in that 'mental instability' song," he told himself. He dropped the book on his lap, shook his head, and rubbed his eyes. "I really need to get to work right now."

He picked up the notebook and searched for the pencil he used in the couch cushions, only to find that he tucked it behind his ear. Once he was ready, he scribbled down all the words that he knew would describe how he felt at the moment.

Hey again. Thanks for the reviews and such. Well, I hoped you like this chapter. I know I could've put more plot into the whole shopping thing with Ellie, Ash, and Marco. Oh, and if you're wondering why I pick on Marco so much [the first chapter (well, not really), the second chapter with all the balloons, and this chapter with his jacket and stuff] I don't really know why I pick on Marco. It's just something I felt was funny. Besides, Marco's the only guy there when it's just him, Ellie, and Ash. So, I felt that I had to input some humor in that plot, and that was to pick on Marco. And who picks on Ellie and Ash, really? I guess it's easier to poke fun at guys.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews.