12 Shopping with a new friend

The next day

Sam was leaning on the couch at home watching TV with Em. Yesterday after their session in the recording studio Sam brought the girls to a restaurant and treated them to a meal, the recording had went well and the rest of the day was the same so Sam was in a good mood.

Today as he was in a good mood Sam thought of Eric, he took his phone and called him.

« Hey Eric wanna go out ? »

« Hey you finally called me ! Sure let's go. Where do you want to go ? »

« I was thinking of shopping, I need new clothes... »

« Sure I'll be at you home in half an hour. »

Actually he wanted to use this occasion to pay back his debt to Eric, honestly if he really wanted to bring a friend with him he wouldn't chose Eric. Even though the story between them was over he still felt a bit awkward treating him like a close friend.

Next Sam called Annie.

« Hey Annie, are you home ? »

« Hi Sam, yes I'm home what is it ? »

« I'm going out for the day and didn't have anyone to keep Em so I thought of letting her your home to play with Rika... »

« Sure bring her there is no problem ! »

« Thanks ! If you need someone to keep Rika someday I'll be here! »

Actually she seemed happy to keep her, whenever they were together Annie would play with Em. She really loved this cute little girl.

Half an hour later Sam and Em went to the entrance of the apartment and looked for Eric, he could find him when they heard a honk. They checked and it was a full black BMW M3 the model seemed pretty recent, around 2016. When he saw this car Sam felt a bit jealous, then the car honked again finally Sam guessed who this car belonged to he went near the passenger seat and Eric opened the window.

« Hey man it's the third time I've honked, get in. »

« Sorry I didn't know this car was yours. »

Sam put Em on the back seat and helped her put the safety belt, it was the first time in her memory that Em got in a car. When both their parents were alive she had gotten in a car but never since then.

« Let's drop my sister somewhere first, this is the address. »

Sam said while showing him the text he had got from Annie.

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When they arrived at Annie's bourse Sam was chocked, their house was big, very big they even had a huge front courtyard with a fountain in, the fountain was the size of his room...

'Did we go to the wrong address?'

He first checked two times that it was really the address he had gotten from Annie before calling her on her phone.

« Hey Annie I'm in front of the address you sent me. »

« Oh sure, you came very fast, you could have just pressed the bell on the door why did you call me on the phone ? I'll be here soon. »

And she hang up the phone. He preferred calling her on her phone as if she had made a mistake writing the address he wouldn't bother unconcerned people.

A few seconds later Annie got out from the front door and ran all the way to the courtyard's door. She saw a black BMW in front of her house, she was a bit surprised as she wasn't expecting Sam to come in a car, when he saw her he got down from the car and helped Em to get down the car, Em was a bit pale and she had complained a few times that she wanted to throw up. It was her first time in a car and the road to Annie's house wasn't short so she had started to feel ill.

« Hey Annie, sorry to bother you. »

« It's not a problem at all, I'll be having another younger sister for the day! »

She said while pinching Em's cheeks.

A few minutes later Sam and Eric were on the way to the shopping streets of Toulouse, it was a crowded place near the place where Sam had done his live performance. There were a lot of clothing stores such as H&M, Nike, Vans... Sam has gotten his first check by 'Chords to the core' so he thought of buying a few clothing pieces and giving a few advices to Eric, all the advices were actually things he had seen yesterday on the net because he didn't have any experience in dealing with girls... his only girlfriend was his childhood friend and lover.

They had to park the car a bit far away as they couldn't drive downtown, the only ways in were by foot or by subway. So they parked the car one subway station away and went by foot the shopping street, on the way they talked about their experiences in life, first it was only Eric speaking. He told Sam about how he often got beaten by his older brother when he was young which was the reason he had a relatively violent temperament, it couldn't excuse his faults but Sam felt that he wasn't completely bad either.

Then Sam spoke too, he told him about how he worked hard for the last 3 years to gain money for his sister to live well, Eric felt ashamed of his doings and apologized to Sam continuously. Then they started to speak about lighter subjects and the atmosphere between them wasn't awkward anymore, Sam even started to smile more. Eric had never seen Sam smiling as he had always been gloomy since he had known him, they both started to feel a bit closer. There were still some apprehension between them but spending time together had become way funnier.

They made it into Zara, Eric had advices Sam to get his jeans here. As Sam didn't know much about brands he just took in the advice and went to chose a few jeans. The first one that attracted him was a navy blue jean with 2 holes on the knees, Sam had never wore fancy clothes since his parents were dead so he took the occasion today to transform himself. Next he took a black trouser, it was something he could put on with anything so he liked it. After buying a few other pants they got out and went to Vans store, he had seen a few T-shirt's there that he liked, after choosing 2 oversized shirts he didn't go into the changing rooms as they were full but just took of his shirt on the spot to try them, when he took it off he heard Eric gasping, he looked at him and Eric was looking at his body with a gloomy face.

« You have such a good body but you hide it... »

« What do you mean hide it, of course I have to wear clothes. »

« That's not what I mean why do you take oversized tee shirts, if I was you I would take fitting ones so that my muscles would be visibles. »

Actually Eric wasn't fat or skinny, he had a defined body but Sam's one was like it had been carved by an artist, every muscle was visible and beautiful, also Sam was very tall, even taller than Eric by a few centimeters.

2 clerks at the counter had seen the scene and started to whisper between them.

« First lesson, no need to show off. When you show off the first thing people will see isn't you but the thing you are showing off, be modest and people will like you for who you are. »

Actually Sam hadn't seen this advice on the net, he just felt like it was the right thing to do.

« Ohh, you're right, right ! As expected of you. »

He seemed to be enlightened, like he had seen the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

They continued their shopping, Sam bought a few tee shirts, a few pants, 2 pair of shoes ; a beige pair of timberlands, a black pair of Air Force 1, and a denim jacket. Even Eric was pleasantly surprised and complimented Sam on his tastes. Eric was born in a very rich family and never had to work for anything, for some special occasions he would even hire stylists to make him an outfit so it could be said that he knew a few things about fashion, and he felt that Sam had great tastes.

Sam himself was feeling refreshed, this feeling after doing shopping and renewing your wardrobe was great. It's been a long time he didn't spend money like this so he enjoyed as much as he could and even treated Eric a meal, he started to feel closer to him and the awkward atmosphere was gone. They even laughed about their disputes a few times, Eric had made a weird statement about how cute Sam's girlfriend was, which wasn't actually his girlfriend and Sam said

« Hey wanna get beaten up again ? I don't mind giving you a lesson... »

Eric didn't mind it at all, he laughingly apologized and kept speaking about Annie, in his eyes both were already a couple.

After dinner the sky was darkening so they went back to the car and found a group of guys holding metal bars trying to unlock the car by force...