First Light

16 halloween shopping

Tuesday 19th of October 2021

Faye:

Gia has convinced me to go shopping for Halloween with her. Not that I needed much convincing - I have nearly always gone with her to help pick out her costume. Every year, she declares that it must be "absolutely perfect", but honestly I think Gia would be able to pull off anything.

At this moment, she is sorting through the dresses in the women's section, muttering to herself about them being the "wrong shade of white". She's decided on going as a zombie wife, with her boyfriend Mikel as her zombie husband.

She gasps suddenly, and I know she's found the right dress, but when she takes it off the rack, she's holding two dresses, and one of them is green.

"You would look so gorgeous in this," Gia says, handing the second one to me.

I put it up against myself. "I'm not going to the Halloween party, though."

"Please just try it on, Faye. For me."

From the look on her face I know she won't take my refusal for an answer, so I head to the back of the shop where the dressing rooms are.

The material of the dress is soft and silky against my skin, and falls almost to the floor so it is covering the entirety of my legs. It is cinched at the waist but not too tightly that I need to suck in my stomach. The only problem with it is that it is strapless, so my arms and part of my upper back are exposed.

For everyone to notice.

I'm turning slowly in one of the dressing rooms' mirrors, this way and that, trying to work out if the parts of me on display are too hideous to wear something as beautiful as this dress.

Am I ruining this?

I know I've been staring at myself for too long when Gia knocks on my door.

"C'mon! I want to see."

I tear my eyes away from my arms and open the door for her.

Gia's eyes immediately widen and she covers her mouth with her hand.

She knows how bad you look in this-

"Faye, you look perfect, oh my god."

Perfect?

She takes my hand and holds it above my head, making me do a little spin for her, which makes me laugh.

"This dress was actually made for you. There's no way you aren't getting it."

I look at her blankly. "Where am I even meant to wear it? It's not exactly very casual."

She presses her hand to her face, tapping her chin with one finger. "Hmm. Maybe a birthday or some sort of celebration? I don't care - you have to get it. You look too gorgeous in it not to. I'm buying it if you say no."

She looks me dead in the eye so I know she's completely serious.

I laugh. "I do kind of love it."

"Kind of?"

I nod, turning back towards the mirror to stare at myself.

Maybe I don't ruin the dress.

"I don't know if my arms look weird."

Gia comes to stand next to me to look at them in the reflection. "Weird? Faye, honey, they look completely normal. Completely fine. Nothing weird or ugly or anything negative about them at all."

She catches my eye in the mirror and gives me a little smile. "Trust me."

She can't see what I'm seeing.

I force myself to nod, though. I don't want to make this a big deal. "Alright."

"If you're still uncomfortable, we could find something to cover them?"

"Would there be something like that here?" I ask.

"There might be. We can look," She smiles at me again and I feel a rush of affection towards her because I know she is trying her hardest to understand how my mind works and I know that she has always showered me with compliments and supportiveness because she is trying to change how I see myself.

I smile back at her. "Yeah, okay. Let's look. Give me a second to change."

We manage to find a cape that is a slightly darker shade of green than the dress. It is floaty and lightweight, and is longer than the dress so it skims the floor slightly. A silver clasp stops it from slipping off my shoulders, fastening around the base of my neck and resting on the centre of my collarbones.

Gia insists I try it on with the dress too, just to make sure I like both together.

And I do. I really do.

She's watching me patiently as I turn to her, and I match the smile on her face.

"I think I want to go with you? To the Halloween party."

She looks like she's about to burst from excitement. "Really?"

I nod. "Yeah, I think so."

Her smile widens, which I didn't even think was possible, and she grabs my hand and jumps up and down. "Okay! Okay. We need to think of a costume that you can go as in these."

I get changed once again back into my normal clothes, and we go searching in the accessories section of the store. There, she finds herself a wedding veil and a bouquet of fake flowers that she can paint to look dead, and a bowtie for Mikel. Much to Gia's excitement, we also manage to find a few accessories for me that I know will come together well as one costume.

She links my arm as we leave the store, humming to herself happily. "We're going to look so hot on Halloween, Faye."

I laugh. "Yes we are."

And for the first time in a long time, I am actually looking forward to a party.