Chapter 15 by: Owen

Stepping into the mall for the second time in two days, I followed the theme of my drive and took a look around. I'd always loved going to the mall growing up. I'd become a shopaholic from the moment I earned my first dollar of allowance from my parents. Even on the few occasions when I went to the mall flat-out broke, it was still an adventure. It was a magical place where I could try on all kinds of clothes, the clothes that I desperately wished to buy, and pretend that I lived the glamorous lifestyle that allowed me to buy them.

The beauty of it all was I actually could afford nice things now. Even after all the drama with Alex, I realized walking through the throngs of people in-between stores, I could still live the life that I'd always wanted to. I could go right into any store I wanted, pick out all the dresses that fit me, buy them, and still be able to afford to retire at the ripe old age of 45. Retail therapy was what my friends and I called this feeling back in high school, and it was nice to be able to financially back it for once.

After several minutes of gazing in different shops and observing various groups of people, I found myself standing in front of the fountain conspicuously located in the heart of the mall. It was much larger than I remembered it being. In fact, I don't know how I got through the mall yesterday without taking note of it. Over the course of the dream, the mall had grown to include three floors worth of stores. Each floor created an open ring around the area that the fountain occupied.

Honestly, the thing was more like an indoor waterfall than a fountain. Fountain seemed too wimpy a word to describe the towering colossus of color, stone and water. As I was staring in awe, my mouth most likely hanging wide open, I didn't even notice the woman standing beside me until she was tapping my shoulder.

“C'mon Stella, I know this mall has the coolest interior decoration ever, but we have some serious shopping to do for the Christmas ball!”

I started, momentarily confused. I was half-afraid TruPaul had followed me to the mall even though I clearly asked her not to. In reality, well, dream reality, it was my friend Cassie. It'd been ages since we'd last hung out, and I was instantly suspicious that TruPaul had something to do with her appearance. I didn't quite care, however, because Cassie was one of my closest friends.

“Cassie! Girl, it's been too long! How've you been?” The smile on my face was probably the biggest and most genuine I'd had in months. Cassie crossed her arms.

“You would know if you called every once in a while.” Her voice was stern, but her expression seemed to be slightly teasing. Again, I felt some guilt over becoming such a hermit after breaking up with Alex.

“I'll make it up to you, I promise! How about we go to the ball together? We can get fabulously matching gowns and accessories, my treat!”

I knew it sounded like I was trying to buy her forgiveness, but that wasn't true at all. Cassie was a world-class perfumer. She knew more about Chemistry than I did, and used that knowledge to create the mos dazzling scents I'd ever had the chance to sniff. She was mostly big overseas, but she always made sure to send me just the right perfumes on my birthday and other special occasions.

“Home girl, you know I'm not about to go to a ball at G.M without a drop dead gorgeous stud on my arm, and I've decided this year, neither are you!” She laughed at my shocked expression, and continued speaking before I could even open my mouth. “I don't care if you've vowed off men forever, are scared of rebounding or what! You're going to have a date and that's that! But, I am going to pick out dresses with you!”

She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the escalator. The most expensive stores were always on the top floor, and that was where we went. The store we chose was massive, much like everything else in the mall. Dresses that only I could have dreamed up were lining the shelves, and I couldn't believe that I could just pick one. I wanted to move the whole store into my closet, even though that would mean wearing ball gowns every day for the rest of my life!

“Alright, we're gonna need to find something red and/or green so that you can match the theme, it wouldn't do for the CEO to not look festive. Then we're going to need to figure out what you're going to do with your hair, what kind of accessories you're going to put in it, you have some plain and simple platinum earrings, I know, you should wear those, they go with anything. Then you need heels, a purse, probably a shoulder wrap of sort and of course, the dress. All matching or complimenting each other, of course.”

It was hard to follow everything that was coming out of Cassie's mouth, but luckily she mostly echoed my own thoughts. We spent at least an hour picking out different dresses to try on. Everything fit, of course, but it seemed like every dress we grabbed had a little too much of something or not enough. I was in and out of the fitting room at least a hundred times before we got down to the final selection, and not before Cassie had a hundred opportunities to take a picture of me in some ridiculous dress with awful shoulder pads, or too much lace, or an awful monstrosity of a dress covered not only in rhinestones, but in sequins too.

The final decision came down to a choice between a cute emerald green dress and a nearly scarlet one that Cassie grabbed without me noticing. I thought it showed way too much skin to be appropriate for a Christmas fund raising event held by my company, but Cassie insisted, and it was too tempting to resist. I was going to look damn fine when Alex and that cow walked into my party.