A Red Queen Black Friday

A Fish Boy and a Fashion Icon

Evangeline leered at her embarrassment-of-a shopping companion.

Kilorn Warren, in his ill-fitting jeans and oversized sweatshirt, looked rather pitiful compared to Evangeline and her girlfriend, in their designer, high-heeled boots, sleek leather pants, and fashionable winter coats. Cameron Cole, at least, had something going for her with her horrifically-ripped jeans, cheap studded belt, and Doc Martens. The strange black puffer jacket she had over it all, however, ruined whatever chance Cameron had of a decent outfit.

"Do you understand what you did wrong, Kilorn?" Evangeline asked her charge calmly.

And yes, he was most certainly her charge.

Elane, now making her way towards a display of lamps at the Ashley Furniture Homestore that Evangeline had grown to despise in the last half-hour, only smirked back at the two. Cameron had gone off in what would likely be another fruitless attempt to go pick out rugs for the Barrows.

Kilorn shook his head slowly, as if, Evangeline thought, time wasn't of the essence.

The two were standing in one of the many fake bedroom displays that the store had to offer,  which was nothing more than two fake walls and a half-assed attempt at decorating. The inside of the space had a bed with pillows but no comforter, furniture thrown here and there, and too many unrelated paintings on the sunset orange walls. The bookshelves were used as places to store knick-knacks for sale, and with a couple of paces, she'd be in a living room, and with more, a dining room. The lights overhead, however warm they came across, were ready to give her a headache.

Evangeline tried to remind herself that this place was in fact a furniture store whose job it was to sell furniture—though if she had her choice, she'd be somewhere in Midtown Manhattan, where the people there actually knew what they were doing and furniture wasn't mass-produced.

Again, she also reminded herself that Mare Barrow wasn't nearly as wise nor as rich as her, so Evangeline would have to settle on what she and Maven had agreed to: a popular chain furniture store.

"You are looking for a painting that will go in the Barrows' dining room. The theme of the room is to be warm colors. Do you see what color that painting is?" Evangeline pointed accusingly at the bronze-framed painting on one of the walls. Not only was it an ugly, abstract painting of a seaside town centered around a lone man in a fishing boat, but the painting was almost entirely blue. Not to mention was it located in a bedroom, which made the whole prospect of sticking it in a dining room just wrong.

Evangeline was this close to snapping. How had she fallen so far that it was now okay to shop for mass-produced wall art?

Kilorn, scared of and pissed at Evangeline simultaneously, looked down at the carpeted floor.

It's not that they hadn't made progress. Evangeline and Elane had already racked up a hefty tab at the furniture store between the curtains, wall decorations, end tables, and accent furniture they had found and agreed upon.

Cameron, Evangeline could handle. At least the girl didn't apologize for not knowing what the hell she was doing, spending most of her time swiping at her phone while trailing Elane around as they went from one display room to the next. Kilorn, meanwhile, seemed to actually be embarrassed of his beyond-poor taste as he tried and failed again and again with the portion of their team's list Evangeline had offered him.

After a moment of staring Kilorn and his helplessness down, Evangeline sighed. "Alright, Kilorn. I get it," she said, trying to lower herself down to Kilorn's level. "This isn't your thing. Why don't you go take a break and sit down on one of the display couches?"

As much as her words probably sounded mocking, Evangeline wasn't kidding. After a late night of planning yesterday evening and an early trip to the stores this morning, Evangeline knew she wasn't the only one feeling the exhaustion that came with Black Friday. Still, she had to keep moving, keep competing with all of these other fools that roamed through the furniture store on the cheapest day of the year. "I'll just—"

She was cut off by a familiar figure that slipped around one of the fake walls and into the display bedroom. He was with Gisa and another man his age, and they just so happened to be wearing matching Stanford sweatshirts. All three of them were covered in melting snow.

Maven, although not starting his studies at Stanford until January, when the new quarter began, had taken the liberty of leaving New York the month before. After the drama between him, his brother, and Mare, he had left the city like a bat out of hell, happy to graduate high school early and get situated on the opposite side of the country. He wouldn't move into a dorm until January, but Evangeline supposed he had already found a roommate in this Thomas kid that stood next to him.

"Maven," Evangeline greeted the younger Calore brother, extending her arms out in mock welcome.

Maven's smile told her everything she needed to know.

After two intense weeks of FaceTime sessions between her, Maven, and Gisa Barrow, she knew that Maven wasn't playing around when it came to interior design. He was here to win.

"Gisa was just telling me about how you were talking about me behind my back today."

Evangeline only smirked. She was half-expecting for her comments about Maven's subpar taste in living room arrangements to get back to him.

"You think that you're more sophisticated than me," Maven commented, being overly-dramatic as usual. "Well, you're not. So bring it on, bitch."

So much for the Holy Trinity, then.

While it might have hardly been competition for them to furnish a suburban home for a bunch of cheapskates, Evangeline nodded. "It's on, bitch."