ꕤblue waterꕤ

Chapter 12 - Summertime Sadness

Heron tilted his head, glancing at Ripley. “Have you ever asked one of the staff guys? They have good suggestions, sometimes,” Ripley thought for a moment, reminiscing about the one time she tried. “Yeah, I asked once, and they gave me a cow print shirt… That was the first time my father beat a man in front of me, I can't entirely say It was unwarranted.” The group didn't know how they should have responded to that, so they simply did not. Staying awkwardly quiet until Ripley spoke up again. “Are you gonna be coming with us, or were you just sticking around to… do whatever you were doing before,” Vincent stood up with the rest, shrugging.

“I guess. I don't have a suit either, so.” He said, short spoken as ever. It's hard to remember his voice sometimes, when you barely hear it. “You're actually going to the dance!? That's the surprise of the century, aside from how Taylor Swift didn't win that AOTY award again.” Heron said, leaning against Vincent. It wasn't hard, he was tall as hell. “The less surprising part is Beyoncé getting snubbed yet again, that Ice Spice album was nowhere near good enough to win that damn award.” Jessica sighed. Vincent, ignoring the odd predictions for 2024's AOTY, grumbled. “I didn't want to go, but I think I'd rather kill myself than be around while my cousins are visiting.”

Vincent pushed Heron away from him, putting his hands in his jacket pockets. “Alright, then, I know the perfect place for nice suits and stuff! And also belts, a very questionable amount of belts.” The group followed after Jessica as she walked off, nobody else but her really went clothes shopping outside the mall or online. So it was best to trust where she was going, that, and being able to walk without your shoes catching on fire was enjoyable.

Jessica stopped in front of a smaller clothing store after they had walked around for a few minutes. It looked charming enough, smelled like cinnamon. Though that was possibly the small café it was next to, they had great cinnamon rolls. “We should grab a drink or something after we're all done here,” Heron suggested, mostly interested in the prospect of guzzling down caffeine. For a vampire that doesn't need much sleep, he likes it, a lot. And caffeine makes him sleepy. “I always do after going here, actually! Must be a business tactic, right?” Jessica said, putting a finger to her chin.

“Wear yourself out whilst clothes shopping, so you go grab a coffee or something next door. Checks out for me.” Vincent said, shrugging. He grabbed Lauren and dragged him inside the clothing store after he got too impatient. The others followed close behind, though Ripley quickly ran off to go hid in the clothing racks. You are never too old for that. There were a few other people in the store, most of which were other teens. Also looking for formal clothing. There was a benefit to Vincent coming along, though, and that was the fact he frightened anybody nearby off.

“That is certainly way one to prevent people from taking the good stuff…” Jessica said, whispering to Heron. They all stopped in front of the dressing room, where most of the formal attire was set up. For obvious reason. “Welp, the sheer amount of black suits isn't surprising, but I'm sure there's something more interesting in there!” Jessica said, taking a look at all the different racks of clothing. “Eh, works for me,” Vincent said, carelessly grabbing one of the suits. He really didn't care about how it looked, he just needed one that fit. And looked nice enough.

Jessica frowned at that, crossing her arms. “Ugh, men always get away with low effort dressing,” She turned to Lauren, putting a hand on his shoulder. “At least tell me you had something more interesting in mind, Dude,” Lauren looked at the racks of clothing, before looking up at Jessica. “I actually didn't have anything in mind, really, so I'd be open to anything,” The idea of someone wearing anything other than a simple black tuxedo was exciting for Jessica, and Ripley too! Who emerged out of some random clothing rack, scaring the shit out of Heron. “Great! I'm great at rating clothes, too, so I can tell you If you look ugly or not,” Ripley cheerfully said.

“Pretty sure Vincent was gonna do that, anyway,” Heron snickered. “Yeah, I was,” He confirmed. Which was honestly expected. “… Anyway, let's start finding you something to wear,” It took quite a while for them to find Lauren something to wear, about an hour, actually. They went through about 70 different suits before landing on a select few that everybody liked, but then came the issue of figuring out which one was the best. If a montage scene was possible, It probably would've saved them a lot of time.

But eventually, Lauren decided on a suit. It was the one everybody thought was the least good in their top 5, but it made Lauren happy, so they were happy. Except Vincent, but he wasn't happy to begin with, so nothing technically changed with him. Though, they should've known he was going to pick that one as soon as they realized it was the only one that had shorts. Does Lauren love anything more than the warm embrace of the lord? Shorts, possibly. It seemed so. “I'm not even going to complain, I'm just happy we found something,” Ripley sighed, a little tuckered out.

“Hehe, yeah, sorry! But I am really happy with this one,” Lauren said, folding the suit up. “Well, I mean, that's all that matters! So!” Jessica said, not having the heart to tell him that It was everybody else's least likely choice to be picked. Heron yawned, stretching out. “Can we go now? I'm like, exhausted,” Heron said. Lauren perked up, smiling. “Do we want to stop at the café and grab something, after? I can pay! Like, my way of repaying you guys for your time.” Lauren offered, how sweet! Jessica shook her head. “Oh, you don't have to--” Vincent cut her off, glaring at her. “Yes, he does.” Never deny a man a free drink and food, especially when that man is a hot headed werewolf. It doesn't ever end well, mostly because they get super annoying and complain.

“… Whatever, I'll be paying for my own stuff, though,” Jessica said, rolling her eyes at Vincent. Lauren tried arguing that then he wouldn't be paying for everybody, as Jessica argued back. And they kept at it even after making it to the Café, where it finally ended after Vincent distracted Jessica enough to where Lauren paid for everything. But then she said she'd pay Lauren back, starting another argument. Oh well, the cinnamon rolls made up for it! Coffee was good, too.

chapter 13 - the end of ꕤblue waterꕤ, coming soon