#PastelPrincess

Chapter Fifteen

Tips taps on the glass, soft rustling of leaves, the low humming of the air-con, Anastasia snoring soundly on her plush bed. Waking in slow motion, it’s the first time in quite a while that I stir with ease. My room is filled will silver sunlight, bright but unbreeching through the clouds. Everything seems as calm and still as dust motes floating in sunbeams. A contentment candy with a blissful center, my breath is light, stretching rejuvenating, and my bedding seems cool and extra fluffy against my skin.

There’s no noise beyond my room to indicate Mama is awake, there are no new messages or updates since I fell asleep before midnight, and when I move towards my bathroom Anastasia only rolls over to more comfortably snooze. The world is quiet, reminding me why I find life so beautiful and inspiring. It also leaves a sense of peaceful joy for the prospect of what today may bring.

In continuity with this morning, a warm shower is better than hot. My movements are slow, almost careful, rather than rushed or sluggish. By the time I’m done, hair almost dry, and nails repainted gauntlet grey, I have a new message in the group chat and hear Mama heading down the stairs. I open my door for Anastasia, calling down a good morning to Mama. She exclaims something back but she must be on the bottom floor because I can’t make it out. One hand with a towel to my hair, the other I start surfing my phone.

With perfect timing, I’m done checking all my social media when Sophia responds to Macen and me.

So-So: I can’t believe I was the last to wake up.

Mayday: Right?

It’s usually me!

It’s totally because of the rain.

M: What she said.

S: Ha! Probably.

So, we on for date prep?

Lol, yes.

S: Heck yeah!

M: We gotta go all out this time!

S: What he said.

New clothes

Help with makeup

Help with hair

I already did my nails

And lunch?

S: Perfect! Your place in thirty!

M: What she said!

*

Three hours later, before the five of us head down the second half of the mall, we drop off our two arms worth of shopping bags into the car. Though money has never been an issue for my family, I try not to splurge and or visit too expensive of stores when in person. Sophia totally seconds this because her father’s always telling her to seem more relatable and Macen doesn’t mind because he does most of his shopping online. So, after stopping into the places we really like - Express, Dry Goods, Forever 21, Altar’d State, and Victoria’s Secret – it seems I totally will not be needing any more clothes until Spring. With a little time left before we want to head and eat, we start towards Bath And Body Works and Barnes And Noble.

At the door, Sophia and I wait for our bodyguards to settle and give us the nod. This is one of the few stores they don’t follow us in because Ivan says he’s a ‘bull in a China shop’ and David won’t stop sneezing. Free to move about, all three of us pick up a navy mesh Bath And Body Works shopping bag.

“I cannot wait for the Christmas stuff to come out after Halloween,” Sophia nods in front of all the really cute looking Autumn candles. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been obsessing over Sweater Weather this year. But! Twisted Peppermint is calling my name.”

Macen laughs and then shakes his head with a smile. “I’m going to check out the men’s stuff. Parker mentioned he’s really diggin’ the Noir scent,” and he disappears past the aromatherapy collection display.

Nose is the leaves and badger labeled Crisp Morning Air three-wink candle; Sophia looks to me with eyebrows raised. “They’re getting close.”

Hand tipping the one labeled Frosted Cranberry my eyes look from her to the back of the store. “Who? Macen and Parker?”

She puts the candle in her bag and reaches for another Sweater Weather fragrance mist. “Yeah.” That goes into her back, plus a matching shower gel and lotion.

“That’s good though!” I eye the fragrance mist of Autumn Nights but know I can’t commit because I already have two bottles and I’m only halfway through one.

“Yeah… yeah,” she smiles and looks towards the back of the store. “I guess it is. How about you, though? How are you and Chris?”

Mid-step towards the Love collection I look over my shoulder. “Good, I think. I mean… it’s been so long since either of us have dated anyone and part of the time it feels like we’re more acting like friends than a couple but… but I don’t think that’s a bad thing?”

As I toss two of the Love lotions in, three of the fabric mists, one of the bubble bath stuff, and five of the candles, Sophia comes up next to me to look at the Relax section. “I totally get that. Eric and I weren’t really friends when we started dating, but that’s such an important foundation, you know? I totally think it’s possible to hang out with your significant other as a friend or as your boyfriend or both and any which way it’s correct.”

I think on it and the momentary uncertain nervousness I felt fades. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”

She laughs a little and carefully places a few items in her bag, “Right? That’s actually something me and my dad talked about.”

Mid-step, I stop. “Really? Your dad?”

After grabbing from the Sleep section, she turns and laughs again, her smile so wide there’s gum. “Right! Oh my god, talk about like weirdly awkward at first but then it was like when I used to run errands with him – just him and me, one on one, and it was really… nice.” Her happy sigh is accompanied by her shoulders easing. “I know a lot of the time my dad falls into the absentee category, but he still tries, you know?”

I give her a

one-arm hug and tilt my head on her slightly taller shoulder. “Totally. You also have your mom and Ry-guy, though.”

Her hand flicks my direct, “And you and Macen and Eric.”

“Always.”

Together we go to the floral display, her curling around the back for the Lavender And Vanilla candles and Wallflower refills, while I stick to the front for the rose products. Five of the Rose fragrance mist, three shower gel, two body lotions, then two of the Rose Water And Ivy hand-soaps, five of the three-wick candles, ten of the Wallflower refills, and I even look to see if the white marble candle stand is for sale – it is – and toss it in the bag.

With the straps digging into my arm and my other hand on the bottom, I curl around to find Sophia. “I just can’t help myself.”

She eyes the bag, bursts out laughing, then holds her almost-overflowing bag too. “You with the rose stuff, me with lavender. We’re doomed!”

Sufficiently stocked up on all the goodies, we beeline through the second room to find Macen in the Men’s Care area. As soon as we’re in arm’s length, he juts his wrist out. “What do you think?”

We sniff. Sophia nods, “That’s definitely, like, a classic man smell.”

“A man-man smell,” I nod. “Not like teenage boy, Abercrombie shit.”

“Cool… cool, cool, cool. I like it and I think it works well with me?”

We both nod.

He grabs one of each product in the Noir scent. Only now realizing our ridiculously full bags, he chuckles. “All set? For, like, the rest of your lives?”

With a smirk, Sophia rolls her eyes and I elbow him in the ribs. “I totally haven’t bought any smelly stuff in months! I definitely haven’t since my birthday in August, and you know it’s house rules that I can’t buy myself anything in the winter, so that leaves in the Spring. Spring! I’ve already run through all my Vampire Blood stock from last year and I’m almost done with my last Dark Kiss spray, may it rest in peace.”

We get up to the counter now and Macen goes first. “What about the Fall scent Misses O’Crosphen got you?”

“Autumn Nights? I love it. I mean, it was meant for my mama, and she didn’t like it, so she gave it to me. But it’s… like, I really need to be in the mood for it, you know? All cozy in sweaters or blankets and reading or hanging about.”

When it’s Sophia’s turn, she carefully slides the bag over the counter and turns halfway to us. “I totally get that. That’s how I am with Sweater Weather. It’s like an occasional scent. Like how we have date-night perfume… it’s occasional, it’s special. That’s why I get all the lavender stuff, anyway… for every day.”

Macen shakes his head. “Girls are so weird.”

I nudge him with my elbow, he nudges me back with a crooked smile. It’s my turn and I drop the bag on the counter. Halfway through, the woman holds up the candle stand. “Did you see the white marble soap dispenser? It matches.”

Intrigued, I follow with my eyes where she’s pointing. “I’ll be right back.”

Snatching it, I scan the area for anything else marble, but that’s it. Back at the counter, she’s already on the last item and is ready when I hand over the dispenser. She rings that up, I pay, and the three of us head out. Ivan and David lift from the wall and resume their normal position.

Right before the five of us head into Barnes And Noble, there’s an unsettling cackle from the Yankee Candle across the way. Macen, Sophia, and I look to Gabriella and her cronies. Gabriella, Marissa, Clarissa, and Sarahlee all stand with perfectly matching Victoria’s Secret, Coach, Apple, and Pandora bags. Fake tans, fake hair, too-tight clothes, they hold their phones in one hand and hold up the other, their fake nails curled limply.

Something about this is unnerving. Even Ivan and David feel unsettled enough because they move directly between us and them. This breaks the witch’s curse and we’re able to move into the bookstore. Hairs on the back of my neck still standing up, I have to wiggle my shoulders to loosen them and actively relax my face.