Chapter Eighteen

Clothes are changing, and so are Candice's feelings about being in them.

The mall has died down a lot since the back to school crowd did exactly what their name suggests. During the summer this place was a mad house, practically an early Christmas as every girl needing a new denim skirt rushed the department stores in an attempt to not show up on the first day looking ‘so last season’.

Whatever that means.

As I walk past Gadzooks I spy one of the girls who called me an ‘underserving b***h’ at the callback sheet, her bright white teeth shining as she laughs hysterically at whatever lame joke her friend just told her. Fortunately they don’t see me, so I cast my eyes to the floor and keep on walking.

You know the overwhelming scent of Halloween costumes? It’s like a fine blend of latex and paint. Well that scent is growing stronger with each step on the burgundy and cream polka dotted carpeting.

                I hear a wife on the other side of the gumball machine in the middle of the walkway as her husband for the time. He looks at his shin silver watch before responding with “6:45!”

                F**k. I’m late.

                My pace instantly picks up, my average sized legs trying to make the strides of a six-foot-four Olympian.

                “Girl, I’ve been here for twenty minutes!” Shannon shouts as I enter the storefront beneath the rainbow neon sign. She has a red feather boa wrapped around her neck.

                “I know, I’m sorry.” I inspect her current wardrobe a little more closely. “Okay, the theme is the wild west, not 20’s flapper.”

                “Rude,” she says as she tweaks the tip of my nose with her long press on nail. “There were saloon girls in the old west.” Shannon now takes a turn scoping out my current wardrobe. While my skin is more exposed than it was at the beginning of the year, it’s still very modest in comparison to my best friend’s. “And if you want Adam to stop looking at you like you’re a kid, maybe you should say screw the Jessie and Woody idea and you can be a saloon girl too.”

                With a more curious look in my eyes, I give her a one over once more. “I don’t know, Shannon. That’s… That’s a lot of leg.” I stare down at the long puffy costume dress she’s wearing, the front hiked up in such a way that she might as well not be wearing anything at all.

                “A lot of sexy leg.” She nods down to my legs, her eyebrow arched practically into a ninety-degree angle. “You’ve got sexy legs, Miss Dancer. Show em’.”

                “Yeah, but I’m not, uh, I mean I’m not-”

                “I know you were not about to call me a s**t.”

                “No, no. I-”

                “Goddamn. First you’re late, now you’re calling me a s**t.” She shakes her head while clicking her tongue against the backside of her top teeth. “Stardom has changed you, Candy Corn.”

                My lips form a thin, flat line as my eyelids collapse into narrow slits.

                “Excuse me, sir!” She skips over to the cash wrap while pointing to a dress in a small plastic bag similar to the one she is wearing, only in green instead of red. “She wants to try that on.”

                “She does?” I throw out before she gets too carried away.

                “She does!” she interjects to the employee before either he or I can object.

                He gets me settled into a ‘fitting room’, which is a U-shaped rod mounted to the wall with a long black curtain hanging from it. I pop the button on the little plastic sleeve and pull the balled up material with the help of some serious force. I’m not entirely sure how someone got this thing into that bag but massive kudos to them.

                I hold the dress up in front me before looking down on it. It’s not until I catch myself chewing on my lip that I realize how excited I actually am. When I’m putting on a sweatshirt, I’m hiding over a decade of insecurities. But with the dress, it’ll all be on display and I’m not afraid of it. I’m about to embrace it.

                I drop my jeans down to my ankles before stepping out of them. My tank-top comes off next, my fingertips holding the bottom of the shirt as I lift it up over my head, my arms raised in the air. There’s an odd sensation that courses through my nervous system as the material brushes over my skin as it’s coming off. Exhilarating. I don’t know if it’s a new thing or if I’ve always felt it and just didn’t notice. Either way, there’s no bottling that feeling up again.

                It’s almost a downer to put the dress on after that, but it’s not like the costume piece is lacking in flattering qualities. It’s cut shorter in the front than the back. I mean it shows my knees which back in the day was a sin or something, right? No? I’ve been memorizing lines during history class instead of actually paying attention to the lesson so I would take that with a grain of salt.

                “Are you done yet?” Shannon calls from the other side of the curtain.

                “Yeah, uh, almost.” I stutter as I run my hands down the surprisingly soft material that’s not covering my body. It’s not exactly silk, the orange handwritten price sticker wouldn’t say “$30” if it was, but it’s still a decent enough material. I inhale deeply before pushing the curtain aside, the metal rings that hold it to the rod making a synchronized scraping noise as the travel around in unison.

                Shannon’s eyelids practically disappear as her full eyeballs go on display. “Hot mama!” She scurries in my direction, her hands tugging at different parts of the material. I remain still, making a variety of different faces ranging from displeasure to annoyance to glee.

                “What the hell are you doing, dude?’

                “Just, uh.” Shannon chuckles nervously as she slowly rises back up to a standing position. “Admiring the new Candice. Or, Candy, I mean.” The new tint of her cheeks does not go unnoticed.

                “You’re blushing,” my pitch goes up just to tease her that much more. “Shannon has the hots for Candy Corn.”

                “Shut up!” She practically backhands my chest before she begins laughing. “You’re getting a big head, it ain’t cute.”

                I’m about to respond when the employee reappears. “So, what do we think?” He asks.

                Shannon spins around with a big smile on her face, her long ponytail whipping my in the face. “Oh, she’ll take it!”