The Skylar Experiment : The "X" in Apex

Chapter Twenty-Two - Shopping

That afternoon, as I reluctantly joined Luc in the parking lot, he revealed that I'd be going dress shopping with the girls tomorrow after school. He'd said it dryly. I sized him up. For a while, I debated whether it was worth needling him with my questions, then elected to ask away because I couldn't hold it in.

"And how on Earth did you manage to be so compliant?"

He drove up the subtle hill. Leaves had begun morphing to orange and red and yellow, turning the woods into a smorgasbord of colors. I stuck my hand out the window, the cool breeze gliding through my fingers.

"Emma was pretty insistent. Besides, I wouldn't have agreed if the task fell on me to tag along. I'd sooner neck myself than be there."

"Then who is?"

He didn't answer at first, instead he kept steering the wheel, a sly grin stretching his lips. "You'll see."

I was about to press him further when the radio cut us off.

"Missing teen's body recovered from Huntington's adjacent forests after her parents reported her disappearance two nights ago," the host counted, and I could feel my stomach go topsy-turvy. "The last time they saw her was after school as she prepared to leave for a friend's house, and she was never heard of again until now."

Luc's hand rose to shut the radio off.

"Leave it," I requested. "I have to hear the rest."

He looked over at me quickly, then his hand moved back to the wheel.

"The girl's body had been identified this morning as being Georgia Phelps, a sophomore attending Oakwood High. According to her friend's family, she never made it to their house that night. The police is speculating as to what could have happened. Her body is in poor shape, barely recognizable if it wasn't for her DNA, teeth and scraps of clothing to identify her. The authorities think the most plausible scenario may be yet another animal attack. The question is, which one? It exhibits behaviors that elude animal experts on the matter, but they say it's still a rare occurrence in the region."

The man played an audio clip of a family member on TV, and from there I stopped listening, unable to hear her sobs. I turned off the radio, a huge ball sitting on my chest.

"How do you do it?" I asked Luc, gazing at the road.

"Do what, exactly?"

"Act like it doesn't faze you at all?"

Luc looked down at the wheel briefly. How did this job of his not drain the soul out of him?

"You know, the world won't stop spinning just because it affects you. I can't do what I'm supposed to if I tear myself to pieces over the times we couldn't change anything."

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The next day, as Emma decreed, we went shopping. Me, Emma, Sam and Jen. And Devin, it turned out. I should have known Luc would never let me loose so easily without any supervision.

Her presence weirded Sam and Jen out, rendering the trip beyond awkward.

We rode to an uptown shop in the city and got to business. As Jen and Emma dragged Sam enthusiastically and Devin plopped on a couch with her phone, I approached the rack of dresses hesitantly.

There had to be hundreds of gowns, how could I possibly choose the right one? I picked a dark blue and green dress to try, but they looked comical in the stall mirror. I looked like a twelve-year-old kid that got rolled in glitter.