My Wish

Daddy's Little Sweetheart

Bright skylights faded into tall black walls as I walked through the doorway. The dimly lit room was filled to the ceiling with hanging band tees, superhero pajamas, and various "emo" makeup items. I held onto a black lace Batman bra to steady myself as my eyes adjusted to the dark lighting and my ears to the punk rock music blasting from the speakers.

"Honey, you do not belong here."

Next to me, a man was rearranging jewelry on a rack and eyeing me as he did so. He wore a Sleeping with Sirens tank top that showed off his sleeve of tatoos, and he sported small black gauges in his ears. Right away, the tone of his voice gave me the hint that he could possibly be gay. He sounded exactly like the guys on my mom's reality television shows.

"What do you mean?" I stuttered, looking around the store for another customer. It couldn't be closed on a Friday afternoon, could it?

"Look at yourself," he gave me a once-over as I smoothed my white lace tank top and looked down at my navy blue knock-off Sperry's. "You look like one of those oh-so-innocent 16 year olds who sings in church and calls their dad daddy."

I scowled at him and pulled at my favorite pair of of dragonfly dangling earrings.

"I'm shopping here for a friend."

"Ahh," the guy sighed, somehow now understanding the situation, as he continued to put more skull rings in a plastic bin.

"Yes--" I bit out before he interrupted me.

"What's your friend's name?"

"Ellie?" I replied slowly, wondering why he even cared. A smile crept onto his cheeks as he chuckled a bit to himself.

"Ellie, as in the short brunette with the big blue eyes and the Harry Potter obsession?" he asked, seemingly knowing the answer. His face seemed to light up when he talked about Ellie. My friend Ellie.

"How do you--"

"She comes in here all the time. A sweet girl, she is." Suddenly, it was as if he'd said too much. He walked to the other end of the store in a hurry, fixing crooked posters and straightening CD's as he went. He was quite the character, and he seemed to have a crush (or obsession?) with Ellie. My eyes wandered all the way up the walls of tee shirts in awe. Who knew that there were so many punk rock bands? I had absolutely no idea what to get Ellie.

"Get her this," he mumbled and threw a pair of Hogwarts sweatpants at my chest.

"Thank you," I said as I paid for the pants.

"Do you want them gift wrapped?"

I had absolutely no idea that Hot Topic offered gift wrapping.

This guy really liked Ellie.

So I walked out of the store, big black box in hand, taking in the sounds of conversations echoing throughout the mall and the smells of fresh heart attack sticks (or french fries) as my mom calls them. I still had time to shop a little more. So, I made my way down the main isle when I passed Justice: Just for Girls. I know, I'm way too old to be shopping there, but I'm pretty small and their camis fit me perfectly. I checked and made sure nobody I knew was there, and tip toed in.

As I flipped through the various colors of camis, taking out a red and a navy one, the scream of a child startled me. I turned around to see a little girl staring up at a gigantic stuffed monkey display in absolute horror. No adults were with her, so I started over to see what was the matter.

She had little streaks of tears running down her rosy cheeks. I asked her what was wrong.

"That monkey his eyes blinked at me!" she yelled, so I immediately put my arms around her to shush her. Where the heck were the parents? Could they not hear their own child screaming bloody murder in a public place? As I patted her hair, a boy about my age exited the dressing room. He had a small girl in one arm and a little boy walking next to him, holding his hand. Right away, he seemed different. First off, how many times have you seen a teenage boy shopping at Justice? Never? That's what I thought. Second of all, he looked happy. He didn't looked frazzled or overwhelmed with this little boy wandering off or a little girl pointing out everything she wanted to buy in the store. He was smiling, laughing, and enjoying himself. Third of all, this had to be his child. The girl in his arms was dressed just like the one with me. They both had a tee shirt with a penguin on it, a pink skirt, and little piggy tails.