Day 3

That afternoon, we’ve decided to go to the local mall to buy some clothes and maybe hang-out for a little while. We both had a little extra money and didn’t know what to do with it, so Marisa suggested that I pick myself new clothes since she said I desperately needed it. She said that not out of me being fashionable, but out of her observation that I tended to wear the same choice of clothes whenever I went out. On the other hand, she wanted to someone to comment on her choice of clothes because she will be buying new ones. Again, she was not a fashion-oriented person, neither am I. But we wanted to make sure we don’t look awkward whenever going out, so we needed each other.

 

We started our clothing search at the department store. Perhaps it would be safe to say that department stores in malls have huge selections of clothing, usually arranged and separated by category. And thus, we both agreed that she would be browsing first, since I already have ideas of what I want to buy anyway while she didn’t. Besides, the whole point of this buying spree was just to spend some money on clothes.

 

Her first choice was a black sundress. She tended to darker colors, while I tended to choose lighter ones.

 

When she came out of the fitting room, she then asked me, “So, what do you think of it?”

 

I then looked at her, though for a moment and said, “You know, I really don’t think that anything with halter-neck suits you.”

 

“How can you say so? I thought it looked great for me.” She said.

 

“I dunno.” I answered. “Maybe it is just me.”

 

“You can tell me if it looks utterly shit.” She told me. “So come on, tell me.”

 

“Okay.” I said. “I have no idea, really. I’m not used to you wearing halter-necks.”

 

“Let me guess…” She then said with hushed tone, smiling smugly. “You haven’t seen my bare shoulders before?”

 

I then went silent, still keeping my straight face, before saying. “…Yeah.”

 

“Then I want you to get used to it.” Her eyes narrowed. She then said, as she returned to the fitting room, “And that settles that.”

 

It only means that she have bought the dress, perhaps in an attempt to mess with my mind whenever she wears it.

 

Then next choice was a dark blue off-shoulder shirt with wide white cloth straps as additional support.

 

“How does it look for me?” she asked me.

 

I said, “I dunno. It looks nice on you.”

 

“So you like it, huh?” She asked some more. “I thought you didn’t like to see my bare shoulders.”

 

I then shrugged and said. “I don’t really know. But that dress fools my eyes.”

 

“It does, right?” She replied in agreement.

 

“Yeah. So buy it if you want to.” I said to her.

 

She eventually did. Those two were just a couple examples out of the relatively many choices she made. A few of them were rejected before it absolutely looked awkward, but many of them were accepted. Besides, we tended to look at prices first before the style, so she did have a bargain spree out of it. On the other hand, my choices were, as I wanted to be, relatively plain. I bought three t-shirts, a pair of long denim pants, a pair of short denim pants, a new belt, a baseball cap and a brown leather jacket, the last one being the most expensive item in the list.

 

After the shopping was done, we went ahead and did what can be described as the most favorite part of our every past hang-out we did, which is eating. Since we were splurging on spending earlier, we wounded down on our budget and got ourselves some fast food. We ordered a couple of cheeseburgers, a couple small drinks and a large order of French fries which will be split between us.

While eating, we went ahead and had some small talk about miscellaneous stuff going on in our lives.

 

“So, how’s it going?” I asked her this bland question.

 

“I’m fine, I guess. What’s with the question, though?” She replied.

 

“Nothing, really.” I said. “I just want to check on you first, before asking about your neighbor Alice, so you don’t think I don’t care about you.”

 

“What’s with the concern with Alice, though?” She asked.

 

“She’s a recluse, isn’t she?” I asked back.

 

She nodded while saying, “Yeah, she is.”

 

“I knew it.” I said. “I just felt something eerie about her as if, you know, looking at a haunted house in the middle of a forest.”

 

“She does live in a house in the middle of a forest, just like me.” She told me directly. “Even wonder why she’s a neighbor of mine?”

 

“I know what you do when you’re not working, but what’s with her? What does she do alone?” I ask. “I mean, does she have a family or something?”

 

“She doesn’t have a family.” She replied.

 

I then asked some more. “Is that why she has a doll around her all the time?”

 

“Not just a doll. She literally surrounds herself with dolls.” She clarified, and then ate a French fry.

 

“That’s certainly odd. Not exactly a bad thing or something negative, but it is odd.” I told her. “She looks physically fine. Doesn’t she have a boyfriend or something?”

 

“I don’t know either. Whenever we talk to each other, we’re always bantering. No personal talk, really.” Marisa then sipped her soda through a straw, and went on. “Not that we don’t care, but it’s a magician thing to not care about each others’ personal lives. That is, if there’s such thing as a magician thing of some sort.”

 

“I see.” I simply replied to her, before I took a bite off the burger sandwich and chewed it.

 

“Also, speaking of families, when are we going to meet yours?” She asked. “You know what I mean, the two of us.”

 

“I was asking myself the same thing. My father will come home next week from his work. Maybe that will be a perfect time to formally introduce you to them.” I said, before sipping some of my drink.

 

“That’s great, really.” She commented.

 

“How about you?” I asked. “When are we going to meet your family?”

 

We then went silent for a while as she refused to say something. She just looked at me and did nothing as if I did something stupid, while I was ignorant at first, then the whole realization just sank into me. And when I fully realized it, it made me feel bad for myself, and perhaps for her.

 

She then said, “Let’s not talk about my family, okay?”

 

“…Okay.” I said. “I won’t ask anymore.”

 

By then, we just strayed to other topics, such as the movies we’ve watched and our jobs, over our snacks.