How Green Becomes Wood

"I think people who don't have a sister, at least ones who don't have one close in age, imagine sisters as being very sweet, angelic, loving little girls who braid each other's hair, but actually I think it's like living with your mortal enemy who also steals your clothes," Claire mused.
 
"I am so sorry you have to go through that," Alec said seriously. "Boy puberty mostly makes you feel like everything you do is wrong, you're an ugly mess, and you really want to either cry or hit something or both."
 
"If you'd like to," Claire said, taking the last few sips of her drink before throwing her cup away. Then, after a few moments of hesitation, she took Alec's arm again. Her touch was gentle and nervous, proving she wasn't at all sure if this was right and half expecting him to pull away. But, she reminded herself, when they came in, he had offered his arm to her! So maybe it was alright, she hoped, as she turned her large, blue eyes up to him.
 
Alec tossed his cup when Claire threw hers away, and then a hand touched his arm. He looked down at her - one of the few people he actually looked down to - and his heart did a little somersault when he saw her blue eyes looking bashfully up at him. He blushed yet again and could not help a giddy little smile. He tried to rein in the smile as quickly as possible and shifted his arm so it was easier for her to hold. "Left or right?" he asked her softly. "I am happy going any direction." Any direction at all as long as it was with her.
 
"It doesn't matter," She breathed, unknowingly echoing his own thoughts. Then, after a moment, she blinked as if coming back into her own mind and said, "I think to the left has a Claire's, funnily enough, and to the right, if we walk far enough, there's still a Build-A-Bear. Or we can brave the Bath-and-Body Works, if you're daring enough!"
 
"Hmm. You know, I think this occasion is special enough to justify a visit to the Bath-and-Body works!" Alec declared. "If we manage to make it out in time... maybe... would you like to build a bear?"
 
"I'd love to, you just have to be very stalwart until then," Claire told him earnestly, hardly looking at where she was going as she walked with him to the most heavily scented store in the mall, "My sister worked at the Build-A-Bear when she was in high school, actually."
 
Alec was barely watching where he was going. He managed to watch enough to keep from actually walking into anyone or anything, but what else could possibly be more interesting than the person walking next to him? "Did she? That must have been fun! Or was it a nightmare? Did she come home with stuffing in her hair?"

They came up to Bath-and-Body Works, and he finally turned his gaze to the things around them. It was potent in here! But tolerable to him. Some of the new bottles were fun shapes, too. He watched Claire, waiting to see where she was drawn to.
 
"She loved it," Claire replied, only letting go of Alec's arm so she could pick up candles to smell them. The very first ones she went to were fruit scented, and she always held them up to Alec afterwards so he could smell them too, "She only quit for college. The only thing she didn't like were people who came in without buying anything, she said it ruined her numbers."
 
Fruit scented, he noted. She liked fruit scented! So, the few times he'd caught a whiff of her scent hadn't been a fluke. "That's too bad. I didn't know that was really a thing, but I suppose it kind of makes sense. In a cold-hearted money kind of way." He leaned over to smell the latest scent. "Mmm, that's a nice one! Very soft, but not shy."
 
"I like changing things up now and then, but I think I'm most drawn to elements of citrus. Floral and fruity scents are lovely, too," Alec said. He picked up a sample lotion, sniffed it, wrinkled his nose, and set it back down. "I could never understand cashmere as a scent."
 
"Citrus always makes me think of summer," Claire said, and after smelling the cashmere lotion, she too turned away from it, "No, I don't get it either. That, linen, and all the other boring 'clean' scents I just don't get. Do you know which ones I do love, though?'
 
"I love fruit, absolutely," Claire agreed, but picked up a scent called Moonlit Path, "I love the ones with an utterly incomprehensible name. Like, what is this? What is this meant to smell like?" She set it down and picked up two more, "Or these: Football Season and Cozy Sunday Nights. Who decides that?"
 
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