Velvet (19 page)

“Why not?”

I jerked a thumb at the corner of the room. “Pedal’s broken on the sewing machine and I can’t afford to get it fixed.”

A pop-up ad for Christmas-themed greeting cards appeared. I needed to update my malware protection. Which also required money. Which reminded me—

“I forgot to tell you, I’m going with some girls from school to Queensbury to shop for Christmas presents.”

He frowned. “That’s forty-five minutes away.”

“Yes, and it’s got a mall.”

He frowned again. “I don’t like it. Too many people.”

I frowned right back at him. “If someone starts trying to seduce me, I’ll pull the fire alarm and scream for the cops and throw holy water on myself.”

He didn’t smile. “It’s not funny, Caitlin.”

I also didn’t smile. “I have to buy presents.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“It’s a girl thing!” I protested. “We said no boys allowed.”

“What is this, second grade?”

“Adrian,” I said slowly, my patience wearing thin. “I cannot stay cooped up in this house or your house or school for the rest of my life. I understand the danger, but I’ll be with five girls in a mall bursting with security guards and video cameras. I’ll have my phone. I’ll have pepper spray. It’ll be the middle of the day. Unless there’s some critical piece of information you’re withholding from me, nothing is going to happen.”

He lay back against my bed, scrubbing his hands over his face.

I stared at him, puzzled. “Are your eyes glowing again?”

He sighed in an annoyed sort of way. “Yeah. They do that whenever you worry me, which is all the time.” He sat up before I could respond. “Listen, will you promise me that you’ll stay with all of them—
all
of them—at all times?”

I held up my right hand. “I promise.”

He shook his head. “This is a bad idea.”

I leaned my chin against the back of my chair. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m not above biting people. And screaming really loud.”

He smiled a bit. “I know that first hand from sledding. The screaming part, not the biting part.”

“It’s not my fault if you steer like a maniac.”

“Did we hit anything?”

I rolled my eyes. “Noooo.”

“Thank you.”

“Whatever. Now, did I mess anything up on my homework?”

He winced. “Only a few things.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Be honest.”

“Why don’t we go get you something to eat before we tackle this?”

“Tackle it? I thought I was getting better!”

“You are; this is definitely better than last time.”

“But it’s not good,” I grumbled.

“Caitlin, you’re not going to magically understand algebra. It’ll take time.”

I sighed at him. “Y’know, maybe it’s a good thing all this happened. Otherwise you’d never have felt obliged to tutor me, and I’d be failing.”

“You wouldn’t be failing—you’d just not be passing.”

“You’re so encouraging.”

“You told me to be honest.”

“Earlier, not now!”

“Come on,” he said, dragging me out of my chair. “Snack time.”

*   *   *

Thanksgiving passed by in a blur of food. As soon as dinner was over I waddled up to my room and passed out from all the turkey voodoo that makes you sleepy. Adrian told me the next day that it was called “tryptophan” and I told him “Gesundheit.” The day after Black Friday, he drove me to Stephanie’s, and only said, “Be careful,” before kissing me on the cheek—in front of everybody, of course—and driving away. We loaded up into Stephanie’s mom’s Suburban and headed out to Queensbury. To my surprise, Jenny came along—she never said anything to anyone at lunch or raised her hand in class. I honestly forgot she was
there
half the time. If it was possible for someone to be more of a loner than I was, she was it.

When we finally arrived, the mall was packed, and it took us twenty minutes just to find a parking space. We headed in through the food court and I realized it had been over a year since I’d been shopping.

I actually really liked shopping. A mall was like a giant Pinterest board where I could soak in design ideas and simultaneously feel good about myself, knowing that I’d created clothing that was higher quality than what could be found in many of the stores.

It was good to be back.

“Welcome to Aviation Mall,” Stephanie said cheerfully as we stepped inside. I didn’t talk to her much (actually, I didn’t talk to anyone much besides Trish), but she was the definition of cheerful. A little plump and shorter even than me, she always had a pair of woolen mittens hanging around her neck that gave her the appearance of a Good Christmas Spirit.

“Where to first?” asked Laura, another girl I’d barely spoken to since coming to Stony Creek. She was very practical and oddly stern, dressed in sensible winter clothes in various shades of brown. She already had a little spiral notebook in hand, and I would’ve bet money she had a list of every store she needed to go to with exactly what she wanted to buy.

“Why don’t we just wander around?” asked Meghan—Laura’s antithesis in every way. She was wearing a red plaid miniskirt over faded black skinny jeans, a pair of black combat boots, a red shirt with wide sleeves, and a black corset, half covered by the knee-length Victorian coat she wore. She was the one who’d wanted to be a slutty bunny for Halloween.

Stephanie looked back and forth between them, and I could sense her powers of mediation bubbling to the surface. “We could always split up and meet back at the food court for lunch?”

I panicked and said, “No!”

Everyone stopped and looked at me.

“I mean, it would be better to stick together. Safety in numbers.”

“Uh, Mystic?” Trish said. “We’re in a mall.”

“I know, but, look, Adrian’s really worried because I’m new to the area and I’ve never been here and he thinks I’ll get lost.”

Trish snorted and said, “He’s probably right,” while Laura muttered, “Overprotective, much?”

“Anyway,” I started again, “I promised him I would remain with all of you at all times.”

“I have stores I need to get to,” Laura said, crossing her arms.

Meghan cocked her head to the side. “And I have no i-
dea
where I need to go.”

I was afraid the two were about to have a showdown, which seemed to be a regular thing for them.

“Look,” I said, trying to keep the peace, and my promise. “Why don’t we make a list of the stores we know we need to go to, spend twenty minutes tops in each of them, and then if we have time, we can hit whatever other stores we want?”

There was a moment of silence as everyone considered this plan.

“Sounds good to me,” said Trish finally. “Where should we go?”

“I’ve already made a list!” Laura cried, waving her notebook.

Everyone crowded around, planning the route we’d take through the mall. I didn’t know what I wanted to buy, so I looked around, letting them decide. To be honest, it was weird not having Adrian around. He
had
become my shadow, and here in the enormous crowd with the Christmas music and crowds and constant tumble of voices echoing off the tiled floors, it was more than a little unnerving to know he was not within screaming distance. Which, in and of itself, kind of irritated me. I only had his family’s word that I was even in danger, and here I was, letting myself be scared.

“Excuse me, miss; would you like to try a sample?” a young man standing next to a kiosk asked me, and I jumped because now I was thinking about Adrian’s father looking for me at the mall and I just realized there were guys
everywhere
.

“No thanks,” I said, turning back to the girls.

“It’s free,” he persisted.

“I don’t wear perfume.” I turned, but he touched my jacket and I flinched.

“It’ll only take a moment.” Were his eyes glowing? Did he seem way, way too persistent here?

I smiled tightly and said, “No, thank you,” before turning back to the girls and urging them on.

“Where are we going first?” I asked, anxious to get away from the creepy salesman.

“Victoria’s Secret.”

“Victoria’s—why?” I asked. “I thought we were shopping for Christmas presents.”

Meghan smiled wickedly. “We
are
.”

In a daze, I followed them into the store. I’d been in there once, a year ago, when my friends back home had made me go in as a birthday dare to try stuff on. Entering the store again, I was just as uncomfortable now as I’d been then.

“You look like you’ve never seen lingerie before,” Trish said in her usual blunt fashion.

I crossed my arms over my chest, bristling. “I’ve
seen
it before.”

Meghan held up a black satin teddy fringed with lace. “This is hot.”

“Let me see that,” Trish said. She pivoted to face me and held the hanger against my throat. “What size are you, Mystic?” she said, eyeballing the scrap of cloth against my body.

“Why does it matter?”

“Because you want to make it a very merry Christmas for a certain someone.” She checked the price tag. “Ooh, maybe not that merry. Let’s keep looking.”

I stopped dead. “Wait, what are you talking about?”

Trish raised her eyebrow. “What do you
think
I’m talking about?”

My brain still wasn’t working through the implications, and I didn’t answer. Trish shook her head sadly. “We are in a lingerie store. Buying Christmas presents. Who would
you
buy lingerie for?”

I stared at her blankly. “My … aunt?”

Trish and Meghan burst out laughing.

“Mystic, I am sure as hell not talking about your aunt!”

“She means Adrian,” Jenny said quietly. I hadn’t even heard her walk up.

I turned bright red. I’m not sure I’d ever blushed that hard in my life.

“Oh.”

The girls saw my reaction and it just set them off even more.

“So you’ve—never, with Adrian?” Stephanie asked, trying to sound tactful.

“Uh…”

“Mystic, I can’t believe you’ve never had your way with that boy,” Trish said, still laughing.

“My way? My way is not a way, it’s a non-way. There is no wayness happening,” I stuttered.

Trish actually had to lean against a bunch of glass drawers filled with underwear to support herself, she was laughing so hard. People were starting to stare at us.

“The hottest thing that ever hit Stony Creek finally got himself a girlfriend, and they’re not doing it,” she said sadly, shaking her head. “Kinda makes you wonder what’s wrong with the world.”

“Wait, so how far
have
you gone?” Meghan asked.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore!” I threw my hands up and walked away.

From behind me, I heard Laura say, “As fascinating as Caitlin’s nonexistent sex life is, I just want a new white bra,” followed by Trish saying, “Nuh-uh; we’re gonna get you something in leopard print.”

I wandered toward a section of the store that seemed less threatening—pajamas—and pretended to check the price tags on cotton T-shirts and flannel pants. Someone cleared their throat and my heart jumped into my throat when I turned and saw it was a young man.

“We’re having a sale on underwear today—”

But I ran past him before he could finish. Since when did guys work at Victoria’s Secret? Was that even allowed? I spotted Jenny looking up at a rack of furry satin robes and headed over to her.

“Hey,” I said, trying to calm myself down. I was starting to think shopping hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

“Hey,” she said back, then continued to stare at the robes.

“Where is everybody?”

She glanced over at the dressing rooms. “They kidnapped Laura and said that we couldn’t leave until she’d tried on something colorful.”

“Poor Laura,” I said, meaning it. “Are you getting anything?”

She was back to staring at the robes. “I need some socks.”

“There you are,” I heard Trish say from behind me. “I found something perfect for you; and don’t worry, it’s hot enough for de la Mara.”

She grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the corner of the store. I was shoved into a dressing room with a single hanger in hand.

“Come out and show us when you have it on!” Meghan called from the other side of the door.

I looked down at what I was holding, wondering how I’d gone from talking innocently with Jenny to trying on lingerie. The hanger I was holding had a dark green … thing. I peeked my head out the door and whispered, “I don’t even know how to put this on.”

Trish rolled her eyes. “Just undo the hooks in the back; it’s not that hard.”

They shooed me back into the dressing room. I turned the hanger around and saw that whatever it was, it did indeed have a short row of hooks. Feeling completely stupid, I shrugged out of my shirt, knowing they wouldn’t let me leave until they’d seen it on. After a few minutes of wrestling and muttering obscenities under my breath, I faced the mirror—and stared.

I’d never really considered myself an especially attractive or unattractive person, just somewhere in the everyday middle, and never once in my life had I heard the term
sexy
associated with the word
Caitlin
, but I would almost dare to use it now. The Green Thing, as I’d so cleverly begun to call it (because it was green), was basically a corset, sheer from the bosom down, with boning sewn into the lace. The back was—well, there
was
no back, except for the tiny row of hooks that met just above my rear end, leaving the entirety of my spine exposed. The bodice was covered in iridescent beads, tiny sequins, and surprisingly intricate lace. I basically looked like Tinker Bell, if Tinker Bell had been possessed by a Playboy Bunny.

Slowly, I opened the door. Trish, Meghan, Stephanie, Laura, and Jenny were leaning against the wall. When they saw me step out, they all stared.

“You have breasts,” Trish said, sounding surprised.

“You look amazing, Caitlin, and that shade of green perfectly matches your eyes,” Stephanie said in an encouraging sort of way. Of course she found something wholesome about lingerie.

“You do look curvy,” Laura commented. In her hand, I saw a neon-pink bra on a hanger.