"And bam," Marisol announced dramatically. "Here we are."
She took a step forward and knocked twice on the door. I counted three seconds before the door swung open and a girl with even-crazier-than-my-thoughts hair, streaked with light blue and purple on one side, red and yellow on the other, and pink and green for her bangs, appeared at the doorway.
Upon seeing us, Chloe broke off into a huge smile. "Oh! Hello Marisol and Eleanor!" She stepped out of the way for us to come in. "Come in, come in. And welcome to Sidelane!"
We stepped inside and she shut the door behind us.
"You can just put your things over there," Chloe gestured to the coat rack placed beside the door. Marisol shrugged off her pale pink jacket and tossed it onto a hook. I hung my handbag next to hers.
"Sorry, it's a little messy," Chloe apologized as she gave us a little tour around her apartment. "We should get it fixed by next week."
We walked into the kitchen where a lady with hot pink hair stood next to a boiling pot of coffee. When she heard us come in, she turned around and smiled.
"Ah, you must be Chloe's friends," she said with the same heavy accent as Chloe. Without breaking a sweat, I identified her as Chloe's mother.
"This is my mother," Chloe introduced, confirming my thought. "Cassandra Grace."
Cassandra resembled her daughter in many ways. The hair was a dead giveaway. Though Cassandra's hair was dyed in only one color, it was still able to drive a person crazy just looking at it. She too had multiple ear pierces that dotted her earlobes. Even the way she smiled and talked felt like Chloe.
Maybe they were clones.
"Hello girls," Cassandra greeted right when the coffee finished brewing. She took the pot out and asked, "Care for some coffee?"
"Yes please," Chloe answered. "Three cups for me and my friends."
"Alright," Cassandra bent down and pulled out three cups from the cabinet beneath. "You three go ahead and go to Chloe's room. I'll bring the coffee to you once I'm done. Want cookies with it?"
"Yes," Chloe answered again. Cassandra nodded and shooed us away, "Now, go on and do whatever you need to do."
I had thought that Chloe's room be the most craziest bedroom in the world: posters of different bands plastering everywhere on the walls, a dozen rugs of every color spreading out on the ground, a messy desk where once you came across it, you had no idea what you were looking at.
In reality, her room was completely different from my imagination. Instead, all it was was a twin size bed placed to the side of the room, a desk with everything neatly organized on top, and a fluffy pink rug placed by her bed. It looked even neater than my room.
"I'm not done decorating yet," Chloe explained as we entered the room. "The supplies are still being shipped from Germany."
"It's pretty cool so far, though," Marisol complimented as she looked around. "What are we doing today?"
Chloe smiled to herself as she walked over to her dresser. She opened a drawer and pulled out a box. She set it on the dresser and pulled the lid off, revealing a case of neatly laid out nail polisher.
Chloe grinned. "We're painting our nails."
Being weak to those kinds of things, I immediately gave in. I meant, who wouldn't?
"I call blue," I announced as I plucked one of the light blues there. Marisol took a green and Chloe took a purple.
We all settled down on Chloe's rug and unscrewed the cap of the bottles. Cassandra came in and handed us our coffees. We thanked her and she walked out, leaving us alone to drink our coffee and paint our nails.
I took out the little paint brush, already dipped in nail polish, and began to paint my thumb, stroking the brush up and down.
I watched as the blue slowly spread across my nail until it covered the entire surface. I held my hand a little away from myself to examine it. Being a huge freak over these kinds of things, I liked to make my nails look perfect. If there was one little thing off, I fixed it immediately.
Seeing that there was nothing out of place, I went on to my next finger, doing the same thing for that one. I did each and every finger carefully until all of them were painted. I put the brush back inside the bottle and screwed it shut. Marisol and Chloe looked like they were closed to being finished.
"What color should I paint my toes with?" I asked as I stared at my toes and wiggled them, imagining random colors on the nails.
Marisol gave one last stroke to her pinky and held her hand away to examine her work. Like me, she liked keeping everything neat and organized. Satisfied, she popped the brush back into her bottle and screwed it shut. Giving it a little shake, she set it down beside her.
"I dunno... maybe white?" she shrugged. I shook my head.
"Red?"
"It clashes with blue."
"Yellow?"
"Who puts yellow with blue?"
"Green?"
"Marisol, that's far from close-to-blue."
Upon hearing our conversation, Chloe stopped mid-way in painting her nails to look up and pondered my question.
"Hm, how about a Moody Nail Polish?" she suggested. I gave her a confused look.
"What's that?" I asked because I had honestly never heard of that brand before.
"It's a nail polish that changes color according to your mood," Chloe explained as she dropped her brush into her bottle and stood up. "I'll go to get it for you."
"Wait-" I started because I wasn't sure I wanted a nail polish that changed according to my mood, but Chloe was already skipping back to the box and rummaged around. She came back a moment later with a little bottle of white nail polish in her hands.
I frowned. "It changes white according to how happy and sad I am?"
Chloe laughed and shook her head.
"No, no, you must first color your nails with it," she explained and handed the bottle to me. Marisol scooted in closer to me and stared at the bottle in wonder and curiosity.
I took it from her cautiously and stared at the contents inside. The white liquid sloshed back and forth, creating miniature waves.
"And I have a paper here that tells you what each color stands for," Chloe pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it.
"Hurry and try it out," Marisol urged from beside me. I unscrewed the cap and slowly pulled out the brush that was already dipped in white. I extended out one of my toes and made a single white stroke across the nail.
There was silence as we all stared at my nail, anticipating something to happen. I counted ten Mississippi's in my head, but nothing happened. The white stayed as a thick white line across my nail.
Marisol sat back and groaned. "Dang it. I thought it'll change colors or something."
I looked away as well and began to screw on the cap again. Chloe didn't take her eyes away from my toe though.
"Wait," she said, her eyes boring into my toe. "I think I see pink."
I paused in mid-screw. "What?"
I looked down as Marisol scooted towards me again. The three of us stared at my toe.
"Oh my gods," Marisol whispered. "You're right. I think I see... pink? Red?"
"It got to be red," Chloe declared. "There's only red on my paper, not pink."
As if to prove her correct, the pale white slowly began to fade away as a crimson color took over like a wildfire spreading. It was pale pink at first, but slowly got darker and darker. The white disappeared, replaced by none other than red.
Chloe swallowed and glanced down at her paper nervously.
"Um, you won't be happy if I tell you what red stands for," she said.
"What is it?" I asked, slightly annoyed. The red on my nail was starting to piss me off for some reason. I felt like I should know what this color stood for.
"It means that you're in love."
CHAPTER 13: Definitely Not Romeo And Juliet
"Say what?"
They knew now. All I could do was to keep denying, but how long could I keep this act up? Apparently, not very long.
"So who is it?" Marisol asked prom
ptly, ignoring my comment. I winced and tried to come up with a better cover up than 'Say what?'.
"Uh, I don't have a lover," I said lamely. Marisol stared at my head and I could feel her see right through my lie and into the truth.
Nothing needed to be said. Marisol knew. My guilt was clearly written all over my face. I swallowed when Chloe said, "Yes you do. Who is he?"
The question wasn't directed at me because she knew I wouldn't answer anyway so it was directed at Marisol instead.
Marisol grinned and leaned forward to whisper the answer into Chloe's ear. Chloe's eyes widened and she giggled. I felt my face light up in flames and became as red as my toe nail.
"Come on, guys," I grumbled and stuffed the dripping brush back into the bottle. "I'm done with this. What now?"
Marisol pulled back to drape an arm over my shoulder.
"Aw, come on, El," she drawled. "Don't be shy. It's so cute to see you blush! And for him!"
I was not sure if it was even possible, but my face heated up even more.
"S-Shut up," I scolded, but my voice didn't come out as commanding as it should. It sounded an octave higher than usual. "What now? What are we going to do?"
Marisol still seemed be interested in the topic, but she didn't push it anymore after I shot her a look that clearly said 'No'.
"The mall?" Chloe suggested as she put the box of nail polish up. "There's one close to here."
Marisol tossed her hair back, her newly painted hot pink nails flashing. She stood up and smoothed out her mini skirt.
"Well, what you guys waiting for?" she asked with that grin of hers that I had grown to see and feel comfortable around.
"It's shoppin' time!"
~*~
It was not that I hated shopping. In fact, it was one my favorite hobbies. The problem that I thought needed to be fixed immediately was how loud the mall was.
I had to literally yell just to be able to talk to Marisol and Chloe who were walking either side next to me, "Where to first?"
Marisol said something, but all I could make out was '... Republic' over all the noises in the background.
Knowing Marisol for nearly all my life, I basically knew everything about her. Her favorite store and brand was 'Banana Republic' so it was pretty easy to guess that she wanted to head to 'Banana Republic' first.
I had never been to this mall before, so I turned to Chloe and asked, "You know where Banana Republic is?"
Chloe heard me and nodded, mouthing the words "Follow me" back.
We weaved through the crowd and many times I thought I had accidentally stepped on someone's foot. We came upon the store and went inside.
This Banana Republic mall was different from the other ones that Marisol dragged me into.
For one, it was dark inside with a gloomy feeling to it.
For another, it was calm and quiet inside which I couldn't understand how they could manage to keep it that way, considering outside was like a hurricane attacked. Usually Banana Republic was packed with people and quite loud.
"Wow, it’s quiet," I stated the obvious, my voice echoing through the room.
"And dark," Marisol added as she attached herself immediately to a rack. "Help me find cute clothes."
I rolled my eyes. "Girl, you need more pants, not more shirts. You, like, wear skirts every day. Wear pants for once."
Marisol smirked. "Says the girl who has more pants than shirts."
I rolled my eyes and stood next to her, looking through the clothes with her. Chloe excused herself to take a look at the jewelry.
This store proved to be different from the others. The clothes looked better and more towards my style.
Marisol was a Banana Republic type girl while I was more of a 'Black And White' type. There was a huge difference between the two stores.
"Hey, this one looks cute," Marisol pulled out a light yellow sleeveless shirt with a huge ribbon tied at the waist. She held it up to herself. "Whatcha think?"
I leaned back to get a better look. Marisol looked really good in it. The yellow was the same color as the first streak of sunlight in the horizon, bring out her big hazel eyes.
"It looks great," I told her truthfully. "Dang, they actually have decent clothes now."
Marisol grinned and peeled it off of herself and draped it over her arm.
"You found anything yet?" she asked as I continued looking through the clothes.
"Nah, not yet," I said and moved on to the next rack. Marisol shrugged.
"What about that black jacket?" she pointed to the rack behind her. I looked in her direction and had to squint through the darkness to make out the silhouette of the jacket.
I walked up to it and took it off of its hanger. I held it in front of me and examined it.
It wasn't that bad of a design. Ruffled fur surrounded the rim of the hood. A golden zipper adorned the middle of the jacket. It actually looked okay.
"It's not bad," I decided and draped it over my arm. "I'll think about it."
Marisol grinned and pointed at the shelves where the pants were placed. "What about jeans?"
I snorted. "I think you're the one who needs them more."
Marisol laughed and gave me a little wave. "See ya. I'll go check out the jeans while you find some clothes. Meet you at the cashier."
She turned and walked to the shelves. I returned to flip through the clothes placed on the racks.
I didn't find much after that. All of the clothes looked identical to each other so that pretty much took out most of the clothes. I found a dark blue shirt with the bottom cut into strips and a red shirt with black poka-dots in the front and complete black on the back.
My mind wasn't with my heart today. I absently-mindly went through the clothes and didn't feel the small tug on my jeans until I felt the tug again.
I jolted and thought that my leg was in danger when a voice that sounded like a child asked, "Are you the princess that was kidnapped by the evil dragon?"
I looked down and saw a boy no older than 4 tugging at the helm of my pants. He looked up at me with big, brown determined eyes. His hair was coal black and in his hand he carried a small foam sword. Something about this boy looked familiar. But what was it?
"So, are you?" the boy asked again and gave my pants another tug.
Not exactly sure what to do, I bent down until I came to eye level with the boy.
"What's your name?"
It was a lame and dumb question to ask a stranger who was obviously younger than you, but he seemed lost and I decided to help him.
"I am Knight Felix!" the boy announced. "If you are the kidnapped princess, I shall save you!"
He swung his little sword around for good measure, yelling, "Die dragon!" and I had to lean back just to keep my nose from being cut off.
"Woah there," I said and patted his head. His hair felt smooth like silk underneath my palm.
"Did I save you from the evil dragon?" the boy grinned and stopped swinging.
"Uh, sure," I told him. This was getting really awkward. I needed to help this kid find his parents as soon as possible.
"Listen," I said. "Who are your parents? Shouldn't we go back to the castle?"
The boy seemed to see my logic and held his sword into the air, his other hand on his waist.
"To the castle we go!" he announced and ran off, his little legs sprinting through all the racks. "Come on!" he beckoned. "Let's go!"
"Wait!" I rushed after him. A couple of times, while we were turning corners, I almost lost his little figure darting in and out from underneath the racks.
I was almost out of breath before he came to an abrupt stop and looked left and right. I caught up to him and bent my knees, setting my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath.
"W-Where's your mom?" I managed to say. I was in no shape to run again. I should have listened to Marisol and worked out more. My tight jeans were another obstacle.
The boy didn't answer me and his shoulders sagged a bit.
&nb
sp; "Hey, you okay?" I asked, now a little worried. He was happy and full of energy just a moment ago.
"Hey," I said again, gentler and softer. "Where's your mom? Don't be sad; we'll find her."
I heard the boy sniff and I got more worried.
"I-I just remembered," he sobbed a little. "Mommy isn't here..."
I frowned and reached out to drape an arm over his thin shoulders.
"What do you mean?" I asked. Then it hit me. Maybe his Dad took him here.
"Where's your Daddy, then?" I asked suggestively. This only seemed to make the boy sadder.
"I... I don't h-have... a Daddy..." he sobbed again. I could see that tears threatened to spill, but he kept his confident face. He sniffed and wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt.