Dan’s mother fanned her hands over his chest, reminiscent tears welling up in her eyes. Dan glanced around the department store, hoping no one he knew was around. He shoved off his mother, turning back to the mirror. “Mom! Stop! You’re embarrassing me!” She smiled warmly. He knew she was holding back. “Sorry! Right! We’re in public! Sorry!” She quickly backed away, and Dan stifled his laughter. He perused his reflection, picking out every detail and considering them thoroughly. He was never one to care about his appearance, even when it came to school dances. In fact, he wasn’t going to buy a new tux at all this year for homecoming. But the second Macy told him about Stephen Star, he felt it essential that he look extraordinary.
The white undershirt was a tight fit, but it wasn’t strangling him. He particularly liked the velvet stitches embedded in the seams of the black jacket. “I think I like this one.” His mother clopped up behind him. She gripped his shoulder firmly, massaging it with her thumb. “I do too. The velvet brings out the ruby streaks in your eyes.” He glared at her reflection and she contracted away from him, smiling even wider. “I’m sorry! When you’re a parent you’ll understand!”
Dan rolled his eyes, retreating back into the dressing room. That seemed to be her favorite excuse for doing mortifying motherly things. “Do you like it enough to buy it? Is that the one you want?” He slipped off the jacket, sloppily securing it on the hanger. “Yeah,” he called through the navy blue door. He began unbuttoning the undershirt when his mother called back. “Really? Already? Are you sure? You really like it?” He sighed with exasperation as he continued to undo the plastic buttons. “Yes, Mom! I really, really like this one!” He suddenly stopped unbuttoning two thirds of the way down. He snatched the jacket hungrily off the hanger. He compared the velvet lined creases to his eyes. He’d never noticed the ruby streaks before, but they were quite noticeable with the red string by his eyes.
Once he’d completed undressing and redressing himself, he exited the dressing room with his new tux almost neatly positioned on the hanger. He passed it over to his mother and she took it from him tellingly. Together they approached the checkout counter, an old stout woman with silver hair picking at her fingernails waiting patiently. “I’m paying half you’re paying half, right?” Dan asked his mother as he checked the price tag on the tux. She flailed her hand in his face, accidentally slamming the tux on the counter. “It’s your senior year; this is the last time I will get to buy a tux for you. Let me pay for it.” The old woman took her debit card after ringing up the outfit. “So I’m not going to prom then?”
“That will be ninety-eight sixteen.” Dan’s mother received the receipt and freshly bagged tuxedo kindly, tipping her head towards the woman. “Oh, just let me be your mother why don’t you!” They exited the department store together coming into the almost deserted mall. “You would expect them to be busier right before homecoming,” Dan announced while peeking around the store, spotting one couple and a group of three kids hanging outside the laser tag park. “Well it is a Tuesday night. A lot of people have to work. Most people probably already did their shopping.”
They passed the abandoned toddler play park at the mall entrance. Pausing, Dan’s mother faced him. “It’s raining.” Dan focused his hearing, and sure enough he could hear the pitter patter of rain pelting the mall roof. Outside, the clouds collected into one massive black mass. You could catch a small glimpse of the fuchsia sun setting behind them, but they quickly blocked it from view. Simultaneously, Dan and his mother raced out the door.
They were greeted with the freezing cold rain droplets and ferocious gales. They sprinted across the parking lot, containing only six cars, to Dan’s scrap-heap of a car parked in the farthest spot in the farthest row. He fumbled with the keys in his pocket, unlocking it just before they arrived. Concurrently they seized the doors wide open, leaping inside. Dan plugged the keys into the ignition, cranked up the heater, and turned to his mother, frustration written in his expression. She was situating the bag behind her seat on the passenger’s side.
YOU ARE READING
Freak Genius
Teen Fiction"She’d been told everybody loved her. She’d been told everybody liked her. If this was true, why did she feel so isolated? Hatred and longing boiled up inside her chest, threatening to burst. It bubbled and hissed. She almost wished it would burn a...
