The Book Shelf

The Costume Shop [1]

*DING*

I honestly don't know why the manager hasn't taken that damn bell down off the door already. It can't be just me that it annoys, it had to bug someone else just as much surely; because if I have to listen to it 'ding' one more time, I'm ripping it off the wall.

I mean why do I need to know every time someone walks in and out of the shop? I can see the door from where I stand at the till, I can see the customers walking in and out, I don't need to hear them as well.

I close my eyes and let out a deep breath when I hear the door 'ding' a second later. And to stop myself from removing the bloody thing, I sit down on the stool behind me and turn up the music in the shop. Hopefully that'll help a little until I can have a word with the manager.

I hear who the new customers are before I even open my eyes, it's a bunch of young teenage girls chatting and laughing away with one another about what they want to dress up as for Halloween this year. Halloween isn't about dressing up as scary as you can nowadays, it's all about dressing up in tiny scraps of material and adding a bit of blood to your costume. Opening my eyes I smile over at them as they head down the second aisle in the shop; and I knew exactly what part of the shop they were heading to, the 'sexy' zone.

I work in a fancy dress shop, or as the sign above the door says. 'The Costume Shop.' When I first started here six weeks ago the place was a pigsty. No one knew where anything was, everything was mixed up and muddled together; and helping out the customers was a nightmare because they couldn't find anything and you couldn't help them.

Then after one incredibly busy and disastrous shift I spoke with the manager about our dilemma and we came up with a system that worked for the store and everyone understood it. I then organised all the stock and re-arranged the store into sections. So anyone who worked here could easily tell the customer where to look for a particular costume, accessory or face paint.

"Hey, excuse me. Do you have this nurse outfit in a size eight?" a short brunette asks me.

"Let me check." I reply turning to the computer. "What code is on the front of the bag?"

"NU247."

"We don't have an eight in right now. We're getting a new delivery in tomorrow though so you could come back then or see if there are any other outfits you're interested in." I reply and she nods walking back to her friends.

I'm asked a few more times if we have anything else in stock, so I ask Mike through our headsets if he could head into the stockroom to find the costumes and bring them out. A sexy firefighter, a sexy police woman, a sexy school girl and a sexy cheerleader. The girls buy their chosen outfits after trying them on and say they'll be back tomorrow for the new stock.

I nod at them and then grit my teeth as the door 'dings' on their way out, damn bell. We weren't overly busy this week, it's only the end of September but give it a week or two and this place will be brimming with students, families and kids searching for their Halloween costumes.

Kicking my feet up onto the counter I pull out my phone and open up my wattpad app. I'm halfway through a story called Just A Friend and it's getting to point where I don't want to put it down.

"You still reading that story then Nia." I hear the delicious voice that haunts my dreams say in amusement.

I glance up from my phone to see my classmate Adam grinning at me.

"Hey, yeah of course I'm still reading it, it's just getting to the interesting part." I grin moving my feet from the counter. "And there's not much else to do when we have no customers."