The Broken Fade

Chapter Fourteen- No Delight

 Letting their excitement and eager-ness taking over their minds and brains, they literally shopped till they dropped, and came out of the shop with bags on both sides of their hands, their face filled with bliss and 'comfort' after shopping at their most favourite and loved clothes shop. 

"Did you know that a Korean named Do Won Chang opened the first Forever 21 shop in California?" They all listened intently as Cath told them about Forever 21's 'history'.

After stopping by at a snack bar where they enjoyed a round of vanilla and chocolate smoothies, they descended to the floor below them and took random photos at a photo booth, in a shop named Click!Ster. The shop sold ANYTHING to do with cameras or films.

Cath and Emma stood at the corner of the shop, admiring a camera necklace that comes in all sorts of different colours.

"Let's each buy one to remember our friendship," Krissy suggested when she curiously turned to see what had captured her two friends' attention.

The others agreed while Aurel busily snapped photos of the surroundings and of the camera accessories, before putting her camera back in her sling-camera pouch as she intently chose a few clothes, accessories, earrings, and others. You could see how happy she looked. She simply loved anything to do with cameras!

In less than an hour after dragging Aurel out of the shop (otherwise she would spend twenty-four hours in it), they headed to check out some casual shoes at Timberland. 

Meanwhile, Emma's mind was still fixed on the call from the unknown stranger who claimed to be her 'aunt'. That's...far too weird and unexpected. Emma wondered while she observed her friends gluing their eyes on the new arrivals placed at the front for display. 

Her attention changed from her thoughts on the mystery call to a pair of red leather shoes meant for casual uses. A good-looking salesman walked towards her and grinned, and it reminded her so much of Dean.

"This is a new arrival with an extremely reasonable price, miss." He said in a good, husky voice as he placed both hands in his pockets.

"And what makes it a reasonable price, mister?" Emma answered back, hoping that she didn't sound rude because she didn't mean to. That's just the way she usually talks, and to her and perhaps the people who are close to her, they'll pretty get used to her frequent sarcasm and mocking tone whenever she talks or asks a question. 

The man, however and surprisingly, didn't seem irritated or taken back by her words, his smile widened instead.

"Even though these new arrivals were delivered here just yesterday afternoon, this pair's price has been deducted." The man explained, his hands still placed in his pockets. Was he trying to flirt or act like he's cool, or just both? If he was trying to do something of what Emma had thought and assumed, he was a total, no- EPIC fail. 

But still, he looked good and his husky voice was a bonus!

"How much was the price deducted?" asked Emma, lifting up the pair of shoes as she made sure there wasn't any scratch or some other thing like that.

"Twenty dollars, miss." He replied.

Emma nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'll buy it."

"Okay." He said quickly as he rushed to get a newer pair of them in a box, confirming they were the same with Emma, before heading to the cashier.

Emma caught him whispering something into the lady cashier's ear as they chuckled softly and nodded at each other. The salesman turned his gaze towards me and gave me the hand signal to come to the cashier.

Emma glanced over her shoulders, Krissy and the others were still reconsidering whether they should buy a pair of shoes or not, as their eyes still lay on the new arrivals on the display stand. 

"Three hundred." The cashier said to Emma in a straightforward tone when she came up to the cashier.

"What?!" Emma gaped.

The other salespeople and shoppers laughed, and some threw cunning looks.

Emma realized that she literally almost shout, and immediately her cheeks flushed red. She had felt humiliated before, but not like this in public in front of unknown people. She simply couldn't fight back and shout at them with a hateful glare saying, "Hey! I was just shocked! Got a problem with that?!" 

She turned back to the cashier, with a demanding look on her face. "What did you say, miss cashier?"

The cashier looked annoyed by what she had said. Again, Emma spoke that way without any bad intentions. It was too bad that only very few come to understand her way.

"Three hundred dollars, missy." The cashier said in a mocking tone.

Emma continued to stare in disbelief. Her legs felt like jelly, like she couldn't move. It wasn't that terrifying, but the price...she could buy a quarter of the clothes and accessories in a Forever 21 shop during the greatest discount sale. Oh fine, maybe not a quarter. 

"But.." Emma stammered. That was when her friends came to her aid.

"What's wrong?" Krissy turned from Emma to the cashier, and so did the others.

The handsome salesman had a cheeky and nasty grin shown on his face now. Emma felt like she had been betrayed. One moment ago, he was so nice and acted like a perfect prince charming, except for the annoying part where he kept calling Emma "Miss". And now, he looked as bad and mean as Justin and his gang at highschool. 

There were a few people lining up behind me, they all looked curious and whispered to one another, throwing Emma a few looks that made her fully regret she ever placed her foot into this shop.