Werewolves and Wendigos

Thirty

Cora and I were walking through the crowded Hill's Peak, our town's shopping mall. Beacon Hills was filled with all kinds of different people, and they all seemed to have congregated at the mall today; we saw young kids and teenagers, teenagers and young adults, young adults and senior citizens. There was one guy that had pink liberty spikes that must have given him at least an extra foot in height. There were a few more mall cops than I was comfortable with, but I guess it was better to have too much security than not enough.

And then there was me, and Cora. Wading through the sea of people, with her hand in the back pocket of my cargo shorts and my hand in her seriously undersized, blood constricting front pocket. It had been there since we'd arrived, and I could feel that it was losing circulation, so I slipped it out and moved it up to her left hip. We had been dating for about three or four months at the time, and things were going great. The constant hum of people talking around us made conversation almost impossible, but I could still hear her sigh as we passed another one of those little kiosks where they sell sunglasses or phone cases or whatever. I stopped suddenly.

"What is it? You see something good?" I asked her, looking down into her dark brown eyes. Cora looked away, and then back at me with a smile that I had seen a thousand times before, one that still melts me like butter to this day.

"At that stand back there." She said, motioning with her head. "They had a bunch of different jewelry. Earrings, nose studs...." Her voice trailed off. I sighed and rolled my eyes, but smiled as I did it.

"Lead on then. Find something you like, and it's yours." I said, and we turned around. Cora walked around the stand a few times, and then picked out what I guessed to be some kind of piercing. It was shaped kind of like a bent barbell, with a silver ball on top, and one small jewel on the bottom that was about the size of a penny. The jewel was a deep shade of bluish purple, a color that reminded me of the night sky when the moon was out.

"This one. I want this one." Cora said, and we turned to the lady at the cash register.

"That'll be two hundred even." I took in a sharp breath.

"Two hundred dollars?" I asked. For two hundred bucks, I could take Cora out to a fancy shmancy dinner and a movie.

"Yes sir. And for an extra thirty, I can pierce her bellybutton right now." She added.

"Oh don't give me that look. You said if I found something I liked, it was mine." Cora said, narrowing her eyes, and then turning back to the cashier. "He's got it. And tack on that in-store piercing as well." I gritted my teeth, and Cora gave me a smug grin. This was the first time I asked myself why, oh why did I put up with her.

But the answer to that was obvious. It was in the back of my mind, but I just didn't want to admit it yet.