Ultraviolet

Chapter Forty-Eight: Grey Lady

The next morning, Hadeon was distant. Unusually so. He refused to make eye contact with me, and left the apartment as soon as I joined him and Jess at the dining table.

"Whats going on?" I asked, attempting to appear uninterested.

"Adrianna." Jess shrugged. "He gets like that before a mission." She laughed after she said it. "Mission" was an intense name for something as bland as doing Adrianna's bidding.

"He doesn't do anything dangerous, right?"

"Oh, don't worry." Jess assured me. "Hadeon and Adrianna are not putting you in any kind of danger."

I didn't correct her. She didn't need to think I was worried about him.

"What do you feel like doing today?" Jess smiled. "I have the whole day off, let's go shopping."

"Shopping?" I repeated. I hadn't been shopping for anything but groceries since I lived with my grandparents.

"Yeah! You're clothes always look too big for you."

"Oh, no. I don't need anything." I reasoned.

"No girl needs more clothes. We buy them because we want them. C'mon, this is classic sister bonding shit. Let's go."

"Okay." I mumbled out before even processing what exactly I was agreeing to.

According to Jess, malls in big cities are gross, citing children and idiots as the cause of that gross-ness. Instead, we stopped at individual stores along main roads, most disgustingly expensive and containing world-record ugly items.

"You don't want to look around for yourself?" Jess asked as I tailed her around a lingerie store. She was piling corset upon corset over her arms, something I'd noticed was a staple in her wardrobe. I wasn't quite sure where to look, so I just ended up staring at the floor for a majority of the time.

"I don't really- Its not my style, this stuff."

"What, underwear?"

"No," I quickly stammered. "I just meant I don't really go for fancy things. It's not like I have a need for it, being single." My voice strained slightly over single; lying wasn't a skill I was gifted with.

"Its not for your partner." Jess explained. "Its for you, for confidence. Look, if you see anything you like, I'll pay for it."

"No, don't buy me anything-"

"I have a million gift cards at this store. It's all Jack ever buys me. If you don't spend it, I probably won't use up the balance in time. You'd be doing me a favour."

Jess had a look in her eye that told me she wouldn't take no for an answer, so I turned and headed to the sale section for whatever was cheapest. I picked out a set of navy satin pyjamas that were far from revealing and headed back to my sister, but she simply swapped the satin set for a silk set and commanded I get more things.

"At least four items."

"Jess-"

"Four." She smiled.

My eyes caught on something to, my right. A mannequin wore a sheer sage green bra with pink and purple embroidered flowers on the fragile material. I remembered how Hadeon had looked at me in a plain tan bra, and imagined his reaction seeing this. My heart skipped a beat and I quickly found one in my size.

"We have a few more in that style towards the front of the store." A clerk beside me who I hadn't notice before said. "And you save some money buying full set."

I walked where she had pointed and found one with pink lace and tiny bows sewn at the seem where the cups met the straps and a simple black bra with glittering constellations patterning it. I picked them up, along with the matching underwear, and then joined Jess at the register.

"Finally!" She cried as we left the store. "I got you to buy something! Now you just have to do that in every other shop."

"No way, you've spent enough on me."

"Shut up, Violet! I like buying things for other people."

"I'm not too fond on letting people pay for me."

"I know, I know." She sighed. "Think of it as an investment. You get clothes that you like, you will be more confident, your confidence will help you succeed in life, once you're rich you can buy me things. Eh?"

"You will never let up, will you?"

"Nope!"

"Fine, but I'm paying you back for it all eventually. I promise that."

"Got it!"

We stopped in a couple department stores and I bought more jeans and shirts to wear at work, and also picked up a dress for "formal occasions" Jess promises I will have to attend at some time, as well as a couple coats and jackets and warm socks. It was almost coming down to winter and apparently our apartment does very little to retain heat.