Just try...

10

"Summertime, and the livin's easy
Bradley's on the microphone with Ras M.G
All people in the dance will agree
That we're well-qualified to represent the L.B.C
Me, me and Louie, we gon' run to the party
And dance to the rhythm, it gets harder"

Lana del rey

Louna: 

And as always, I'm right there is never a real emergency if you don't count shopping as an emergency, as Jill apparently does. The shop is down a staircase in a brick house so it is constantly dark without any windows that can let in sunlight, they only sell secondhand so you have to be careful about what you try or pipe. Once, Jill bought a red dress with a tie around a necklace for a Christmas party last year and it ended with some very unpleasant red rashes that I thought would never stop itching, but nevertheless Jill defends the little store no matter how much I nag we can go elsewhere. But it is not just what gives me the unpleasant feeling it has been there much longer than that, it is just something with what has always made me feel unwelcome despite the sign with "Welcome in".

I stand leaning against a stand with sweaters with the sign "rea" over with red letters, Jill runs around the store and checks through every corner, she is like a blood dog when it comes to shopping. When I see her check in my direction, I just pretend to be interested in the shirts that I do not even have a thought of buying or even testing. After what seems to be eternity, Jill seems to calm down and come towards me with a mountain of clothes over her one arm and a happy smile. 

"Are you going to have all that?" I ask and raise one of my eyebrows toward her, which for some reason causes her smile to grow. 

"No then not everything, most of them are for you" I start wondering if it would have been better to stick with Ambrose and fold programs than to be stuck here with Jill and her delusions about what fashion is. If I had been with Ambrose I had the command over the situation and we had been able to sit in each one of the room and stick to our tasks in silence but with Jill it was she who has the power and I am in submission. But it's too late for repentance now, Jill pulls me through the store (what's with her and pulls me over everything) towards the locker rooms that consist of three small stalls. I reach out to her tongue before I close the door to the booth again. The booth is like I remember it from last week, crowded and I breathe a little more quickly by feeling so trapped. I try to distract myself by choosing between Jill's wide selection of clothes I threw in a pile at my feet, I randomly pick up a light pink sun dress that seems to be the most decent garment she had picked up on. I slowly take off my jumpsuit and it collects at my feet like a blue sea and I pull the dress over my body. I don't even care to check out the figure mirror at me but just open the door to the cubicle, Jill checks on me or rather on the dress disappointed which I do not understand there is nothing wrong with it on the contrary it is not so horrible, it resembles something at home in my wardrobe. 

"Next" she says only though I obviously like it but I do not say but go back into the little booth that gives me claustrophobia. "Take that white dress" I hear her cry impatiently from the other side and I look through the garments but much of it is white. 

"Which of them?"I can hear her sigh as if I could know what she meant. 

"The one with a red flower on" and I realize that I already hold it. I quickly take off the pink dress that apparently does not work well and takes on the white dress which was rather a big jacket with a giant red rose that sits on a lacquered belt about the waist, as soon as I have taken it on I realize that I detest it. First, it is too short I would rather not have anything that goes over the knees and this one goes high up on the thighs. And secondly, the V-ring is too deep and half the breasts are visible. 

"Are you ready soon or?" I hear before I step out of the way too crowded booth. I hold the dress up at the top to hide myself but still get a bus whistle from Jill who smiles big with her white teeth. "We take it!" She exclaims to my horror. 

"No," I say calmly not a chance that I waste my money on this thing but when I check on Jill I can see that her smile has died away. 

"Why" she asks wounded as I said that she was the one to be left behind. 

"Because I don't like it," I said honestly because I didn't like it. "But it looks so good on you" which liar. 

"Doesn't matter, I don't want to waste money on something I don't like" 

"But if I buy it," she said with hopes that I would soon break. "I will never use it anyway," I said honestly, for I will never use such a thing as this one. "Okay" she says before she continues "but if we make a deal." I no longer know where this conversation is going and I do not know if I even want to know but I must admit that I am a little curious about her proposal.

"What's the deal?" I ask and roll her eyes to her grin. 

"Yes ... you don't have to buy the dress but I have to choose what to buy instead" I honestly think she can find something horrible here but you never know with Jill. 

"Deal" it's a risk but I really don't want the dress. But I start to wonder if I chose right for Jill to smile at me as if she knew something I didn't know. Neither I nor Jill do not ask follow-up questions about the deal, but we are left so for a while, I definitely do not want to be the one who breaks the silence so to my relief, Jill concludes it instead. 

"You can try the a-lined skirt" she says pleased and I hurry into the booth to get rid of the awful dress but I hear her voice again "It is with ..." I interrupt her because I do not intend to tolerate being explained as a idiot at the same time as I wear this terrible dress "I know what it is." 

***

After trying too many garments that are completely useless they were all either too short or too tight for my taste, all that was in the pile Jill collected like something that belonged to a whore and she had not yet found anything that I would buy instead of the white dress with the idiotic scarlet flower. I start to think that she just pretends to rate everything to make me have to buy that dress because she knows how much I hated to wear it. By now, I have tried everything from neon green long dresses to short black dresses that were shamefully tight at the same time. One of the few garments left on the floor is a dress made of some silky material and is metallic gold, when I hold it in front of me it even looks worse than the others I tested, it looks short, too short, and have a V-ring that I think my breasts will fall out of. But I can hear her insist that I put it on the other side of the thin wall. I step in the dress and pull it up over the thighs and then enter the sleeves and to my disappointment I am right, more than right. The dress is barely the middle of my thighs and the V-neckline goes down to my navel so my white cotton bra is visible and takes me off against my will and corrects the fabric so they cover my breasts as much as it just goes. I hope Jill chooses this one just as she did with all the others, but when I face her facial expression when I step out of the booth, I realize it's late, I lost. Jill either gives me or the dress a standing ovation before she exclaims "we take it".