The Things We Do (Under Editing)

A Gift

Part of me appreciates other people doing things for me so that I don't have to, especially when that thing is spending money.

The other part of me was highly suspicious of random packages I find on my doorstep.

In this case, "find" actually meant "nearly tripped over as I was heading to class". This made it even more suspicious. I poked it a couple of times with my toe before determining that it likely was not an explosive and probably wouldn't bite.

There were very few reasons for me to find a package at my door. No one ever sent me anything, and I certainly didn't have the money to order anything. Mel, on the other hand, loved getting stuff, but all of her mail went to the post office as she didn't trust anyone in the apartment building with anything.

Figuring I'd deal with it later, I used my foot to slide the box in the door before locking the apartment and heading out.

When I returned, the package was not right inside the door where I had left it, but instead sitting on the coffee table, where my nosy roommate kept glancing at it curiously as she made dinner. Her gaze snapped toward the door as I entered, shifting vaguely towards the box a moment later. She caught herself and returned to cooking in an impressive attempt to pretend the box meant nothing to her, completely ignoring the living room-ish section of the main room.

From her reaction, I guessed that it was, in fact, addressed to me.

"Welcome home."

I snorted slightly and rolled my eyes. "Alright, you can see what's in it."

Mel immediately left the food to simmer and moved to the sofa, bouncing her feet and tapping her fingers, as excited as a child on Christmas morning. You'd think she was the one getting something. I stopped long enough to grab a knife before following her.

Personally, I was still a little suspicious of the box, so I poked it with the knife a few times for good measure before picking it up.

The box itself was rather interesting. I realized that it didn't have either a return or sending address on it. It was just a white box with my name scrawled across the top. That meant it had probably been hand delivered.

I squinted at it and turned it a few times, making sure I got a good look at every angle.

Mel huffed impatiently and I waved her away.

In the end, I did the reasonable thing for someone with my history, and stood back a little while slicing the tape and sliding flap up with the blade.

I could tell my roommate was exasperated by my apparent theatrics, but she stopped caring about that the moment she caught sight of the box's contents. Honestly, it distracted me a bit too.

Both our eyes went wide as I peeled back the tissue paper to reveal soft waves of scarlet fabric folded neatly to fill the space, folded lightly to prevent creases.

I remembered then that Elliot had said he'd take care of my outfit for the gala, but this was beyond what I was expecting. For a moment I wondered who had chosen the dress and delivered it. I doubted Elliot had done either himself. He'd probably paid someone.

Not that I minded. I don't think I'd touched anything so nice, and probably expensive, in my life.

The halter-top was covered in soft, flowy fabric, while the skirt would be tight down to my mid thighs and covered by a transparent curtain of feather-light material. The entire thing was the color of fresh blood on snow. It was beautiful, but the thought of putting it on made my stomach turn. I hadn't donned my signature color since watching my mask disappear beneath the dredge of the sewers.

It just had to be red of all colors.

Unaware of my struggle, Mel produced an ear-splitting squeal, effectively dragging me out of my thoughts.

"Where did this come from? Why did someone give it to you? Please tell me you're going to wear it! I have to send Kacie a picture!" The words flowed from her mouth like water over a waterfall, relentless and with no end in sight.

I'd rarely seen her this excited, and I expected that when Kacie showed up in response to Mel's summons, the two of them would just keep multiplying the other's excitement until I went deaf from their screams.

I wondered if I should start drafting an apology letter to the neighbors. Really, they were pretty nice people. They didn't deserve this. Me... I might deserve this a little.

"Amelia!" Mel demanded loudly. "Tell me where this came from!"

I rolled my eyes. "It's part of my deal with Elliot. My way of paying for his tutoring is suffering through a party."

Her eyes flicked between me and the dress a few times. "You... Elliot gave... You're going on a date!?"

"N-"

She didn't let me answer. "Finally!"

Jumping to her feet, she started bouncing circles around me like a toddler on expresso. Just watching her sapped my energy. Her phone appeared in her hand without me seeing her reach for it and Kacie picked up at the first ring, already excited from Mel's texts.

Without even saying hello, Mel screamed into the phone, "Amy has a date!"

From the speaker I could hear Kacie shriek on the other end, then the two of them started talking to and over each other so quickly I couldn't keep track of what was happening.

Clearly they weren't going to give me a chance to correct them.

I decided my best course of action was to make a hasty retreat into my room before Kacie arrived and the two got a chance to truly team up on me. Sighing as I walked away, I wondered if Mel even remembered that she'd been making dinner.