We Will Be Together For Never

[2] School Shopping

All of the clothing in the above picture is totally real and totally from Hot Topic. No, this isn't a promo. I just wanted to make it more real! (Sorry for the blurry quality of the Shadowhunters shirt in the bottom left-hand corner...)

Malls frightened me.

I jumped backward as a mother holding a screaming child passed me. Since becoming a vampire, my senses had heightened tenfold. With the cries of the little girl ringing in my ears, I scurried my way through the mall, knowing exactly what store I was heading for.

"You'll fit right in here," Roger had said, handing me his phone, eyes fixed on the road as he drove.

I had taken one look at the place and sighed. "You know, once upon a time, I wasn't considered the goth chick."

"You wanna be a vampire prep, go ahead," Roger said dryly. "But seriously, you've been acting like the goth chick for the past two years, so..." He gestured to his phone.

"Fine," I had retorted, tossing his phone back into his lap and giving him the silent treatment for the rest of the ride.

Now, here I was - in the center of a mall bustling with people and on my way to the only place where I wouldn't get a sensory overload.

My hand reached to the necklace around my neck and I fidgeted nervously with it. It was a small heart pendant on a golden chain.

My mother had given it to me on my sixteenth birthday.

I fought a growing feeling of panic as yet another man bumped into me and tried to remember how long it had been since I had even left the apartment. Two weeks - and that had only been to run downstairs and grab the mail. There wasn't much to go outside for anymore, anyway.

I stifled my fear and headed for the escalator, taking deep breaths. I flipped up the hood of my sweatshirt, plugged in my earbuds, and turned up the music until I couldn't hear anything around me.

I would only have to wait until someone invented hearing replacement meds, anyway. I had all eternity to twiddle my thumbs.

I kept to the wall as I walked, making sure to avoid human contact as much as possible. It was awkward, smelling their blood. It wasn't as if I was about to snap and drain one of them - Luke and I lived on animal blood for the pure simplicity of it - but still, it was like watching hamburgers walk around, shopping and socializing.

Sighing and shaking my head slightly, I kept my gaze locked on the store signs until I found the one I was looking for. Thankful for relief, I ducked into the shop and instantly relaxed at the dark interior nearly devoid of people.

"Welcome to Hot Topic," the woman at the counter said, offering me a grin. Her blue hair was pulled up into pigtails.

"Hi," I said quietly, not meeting her gaze as I moved among the racks of clothing, searching carefully for something that was my style.

Luckily, I had spent the last two years binge watching television and listening to music in between pining for my family and online school, or else I wouldn't have understood many of the references being made. I grabbed a handful of TV and music shirts from all over the store before walking up nervously to the cash register.

Roger had said, "You need to start learning to be independent. Shopping on your own is a good place to start."

Fumbling in my pocket, I pulled out the credit card he had given me. We didn't have a ton of money, so it was unlike Roger to be anything but stingy - it called for quite the occasion. I just wished the occasion was something, anything other than my going to school again.

I didn't even really care so much about the kids. I would be untouchable, cold. It wasn't exactly like I could have friends. It was the actual school part I was scared about. All of these kids had been taking school consecutively, year after year since they were five (or so I assumed). I had taken a two-year gap.

In the middle of high school.

Stake me now.

I handed the cashier my credit card. She smiled at me as she scanned the bar-codes on the tags of my shirts. "I love your tattoos."

I laughed, embarrassed, glancing down at heavily tattooed arms. I had been slowly applying them since I had been turned. "Thank you. I like your hair."

"Thanks!" she replied. She seemed far too peppy to be working in a store such as this. She also looked rather young - my age. I was curious; did she go to the school I would be attending?

"Just doing some school shopping," I said conversationally.

The girl regarded me oddly as she bagged my purchases. "It's the beginning of October."

"I just convinced my dad to let me attend public school," I lied quickly.

"Oh, cool! Where you going?" the girl asked, swiping my credit card and handing it back to me.

"Oaken Falls High?"

"No way!" When I nodded in confirmation, the girl grinned, confirming my suspicions. "That's where I go! Well, hey, now you'll have a familiar face there. I'm Sapphire."

I returned her smile. "Thanks. I'm Theresa," I replied as I accepted my bag. "See you at school, I guess!"

We both chuckled and I left the store, feeling as if I had had a minor victory before this dreaded school business had even began. I had never regarded my socializing skills as anything above mediocre, but obviously, I did okay.

I hit a few more stores, buying other articles of clothing and school supplies. Finally, weighed down with about seven different bags, I called Roger.

"I'm ready to be picked up," I told him, trying to keep my voice as icy as possible despite the success the day had been.

"See you in five," Roger said, and hung up. I sighed at the phone - I had wanted to be the one to rudely cut him off.

I might have set the foundation for a friendship with Sapphire, but there was no way in hell that it meant I was happy about attending high school.