Down But Not Out

Chapter 3

The click of the hangers against the rack echoed in the shop as I flicked through the tops. Summer and I were back again- honestly the Bullring was our second home, we were here more than what we were at our own apartment most of the time- and even Summer was looking through the clothes. I could see her stopping every now and then and searching for her size, although the sizing worked differently to how it did in most shops.

I heard voices talking and looked up to see that the guy was talking to a girl with black hair. I instantly recognised her as the girl who worked at the coffee shop further down the road. Summer and I were regulars there and she worked there nearly every day. It was funny because she knew our orders by now, yet we didn't know her name. She laughed at something the guy said as he handed her some money over- I heard the jingle of the coins against each other- and she nodded before stuffing the money in the pocket of her apron. She waved at him over her shoulder before walking over to the rack next to me. We nodded at each other.

"Hey" I said and she smiled at me.

"Hi" she replied and I noticed she had green eyes which were quite vibrant.

"I'm Lizzie" I replied and she nodded.

"Marie" she held her hand out and I shook it. We nodded at each other before going back to looking through the clothes. I saw her hold a top against her body. It was the pink one that I'm sure Summer had been looking at the day before. I shook my head at her.

"Try the red version" I said and she frowned at me but did as I suggested and I nodded when she held it up against her. She smiled at me gratefully and I draped another t-shirt over my arm. I had two now, so I decided to go and try them on.

I walked away from Marie, at the same time that she headed over to the counter to pay for her item. I watched as the two of them laughed before Marie walked out of the shop, with a bag in her hand. She gave me a quick wave which I returned before stepping into the changing room.

I stripped my current top off, which was an old one that I'd pulled out of my wardrobe this morning. It had an image of a wolf on the front- from about two years ago when I went through my wolf faze- and had been the only top available because I really needed to do some laundry. Luckily the top still fit.

I pulled on the first item and looked at myself in the mirror attached to the back wall. It was just a simple white top with the logo on, and it went really well with my light blue skinny jeans and brown calf length, leather boots. I stepped out of the changing room to see Summer standing outside.

"What do you think?" I asked her. She nodded at me.

"It looks good. Definitely goes well with your outfit" was her reply and I nodded before trying on the next item.

I wasn't too sure about this one since it was dark green and even though I love the colour green, I wasn't sure whether it would look right on me.

"Okay, how about this one?" I asked my friend when I walked out of the changing room again. She looked up, studied me quickly and nodded.

"Yeah, it looks good" I rolled my eyes at her. Was that all she was going to say? I huffed and she smiled before looking at the clothes next to her. I placed my hands on my hips in annoyance. So I happily tell her what's good, or not, about her chosen outfit, and today she's just saying 'it's good'. Usually Summer would tell me what she actually thought of what I was wearing.

"Well I think they both looked great on you" a voice said from my right and I looked up to see the sales guy standing on a set of stepladders as he hung up some more tops on the higher racks on the wall of the women's side. I frowned at him.