The Contagion

.1.

I have what I have and I am happy.I have lost what I've lost and I'm still happy.

~Outlook

I frowned at the aisle of clothes standing before me. I sighed heavily and look at my trolley. There are fifteen clothes from fifteen different high street brands. I don't want to be here. "Can't we go home?" I asked her bored.

"No." she said immediately shaking her head. She takes the trolley from my hands and pushes it herself. I tread behind her like a dehydrated athlete. Lethargy is taking over my body as I walk behind her. She looks above her shoulder and stops making me dash against her back. I rub my head. "Remember today's my birthday, I get to pamper you."

I groan and ball my fists making them turn white. We've been shopping for four hours and it's her who should be tired and pampered, not me. I mean, which birthday girl pampers her family members. Wasn't it the opposite way? How does this Myrel tolerate her?

"Here, take these from H&M and this mini backpack from Coach." She says handing the hoodie and black leather with golden studs mini backpack to me. I sigh irritably as I already have the clothes from the same brand two months ago and she's forcing me to buy more clothes.

"My wardrobe will be full." I say in a bored tone seeing her checking the labels and sizes of other brands.

She turns towards me. "Then we can get another one. Your old clothes could be donated to the orphans."

"Geez, seriously?" I blink at her. "Those clothes were bought two months ago when I gave my finals and you want to discard them?" What a waste of money!

"Anything for you," She smiles without looking at me. I thought she said that to that Chanel gown. As the minutes pass by she talks to herself what to buy next, earning angry glances from other shoppers. I can't help but shrug at them.

"These fragrances will be good." I hear her say. I open my tired eyes and see her going to the toiletries aisle. I sit on a stool at the end of the store and press my head to the cool metal. I watch her with one eye picking shampoos, hair clips, soaps and a lipstick.

I was shaken awake at eight in the morning when my alarm went off the hundredth time. Grandma was shouting at me in the hallway. I skipped breakfast since the mall opened at nine as it would take us one hour to reach the mall.

Thank God I didn't bite her arm in the car due to her loud voice in the morning traffic. My head was paining due to dream about the crazy woman in the morning. "Yuck!" I mutter when I see that she's chosen red lipstick.

"Then red it is." She said in a sing song voice and kept the lipstick in the trolley moving forward.One hour later, she woke me up and beckoned me to the cashier. I got up with a yawn and stretched myself, glad I wasn't disturbed by any of the staff. Picking up the bag near the stool, I go near the billing line and notice that it was quite big. "Wish we came here at seven o'clock" I mutter. Grandma heard my comment and scowled at me behind her black cat eye frames.

The staff girl helping our stuff in a bag, was a blonde with wavy hair tied in a ponytail. She gave me and Grandma a pleasant smile. Her nails were painted a dark red and her black eyeliner made her eyes stand out beautifully. Since she seemed sane to me than my own relative I gave her a sleepy grin. Poor girl has to work all day.

"Thank you for shopping with us." she said cheerfully. I glanced at her name tag-ELLEN.

"Thanks darling." Grandma replied with her cheeks flushed red. I looked at her with narrow eyes. Coming out of the mall, I counted the number of things on the cash memo: TOTAL NUMBER OF ITEMS-- 20. I crumpled the memo and dumped it back in the bag. We gather our belongings at the security check point outside the store and went home.