Candy Floss

chapter eleven | devil's food cake

eunice's song: give me love by ed sheeran. please note that this chapter does contain a curse word.

chapter eleven | devil's food cake

My first impression of Alfie and the assumptions that went along with it were not incorrect. He was a gluttonous pig who didn’t know when to stop eating. He was one of those industrialized machines and his mouth was an all-night diner where truck drivers stopped to get their hourly cup of joe. The comparison I’d just made caused my to feel dirty, as I thought of a prostitute or hooker “open for business” at any time of the day or night. I blamed those thoughts on modern society and Eunice, who idolized the trends of modern society. Calling herself “curvy” was one of those fads. “Fad” wasn’t quite the right word to         describe it because I doubted people would stop using it to replace words that were more appropriate and fitting, even though it was cruder and sounded not so nice or attractive. I wondered how many “curvy” people used it as an adjective on their dating profile when describing their physical attributes. Next I wondered how many used fake or tampered pictures.

The rest of the assumptions, on the other hand, may have been in site of my disdain for him. After spending half of the day with the candy freak, I found that he wasn’t as bad as I made him out to be. He was still pretty horrible in the aspect that he had no respect for the dental hygienists of the world. Oh, and that he was completely terrified of them. I didn’t think he wanted to tell the story, let alone describe the nitty-gritty. He was already sitting farther than socially acceptable when having a conversation, and I didn’t want to scare him back to his house. This was either due to me being an aspiring dentist, I smelled, or he just didn’t like me. I was betting either the first or the last option. I took a shower that morning and used Eunice’s cotton-candy scented body wash. It was sickeningly sweet, but soap was soap. Regardless of the seating arrangement, he told me the story. Basically, his father had forced him to go to the dentist. His dentist was a scary man who was later charged with murder. Now, his dentist was in a bigger, more dangerous city. He was unfriendly and only cared about the money he was making from his dental procedures. His fear was understandable, but it didn’t know how it had gotten to that extent.

Eunice had gone away with her family again. This time their mission was to confront Mr. Gables about his infidelity. I believed they were going to Pickled Pickin’s to see if he was working there today. He was seventeen when he started working at the grocery store. That was how his affair began. Marguerite said she always thought she had a thing for Nancy, the manager. This was one family gathering I would not have wanted to attend. Although, I wouldn’t mind witnessing it behind a shelf.

“Guess what I learned this morning.” Alfie said.

It was two in the afternoon. Alfie had apparently just woken up. I wondered why he had slept in so late and what he was up to late last night. “What did you learn?”

“We have the same birthday.”

“July 3rd?”

Alfie nodded. “Eunice told me.”

“Interesting. What are we doing today?”

    “I still have to go to Marty’s. Want to come with me?”

    While going into a candy shop with Alfie wasn’t on the top of my bucket list, it was better than being a deadbeat in the Gables house. I had already finished reading The Lucky One this morning while waiting for Alfie to show up. “Sure.”

The smell hit me as soon as the door opened. It smelled like candy, which triggered my gag reflex. I felt woozy and overwhelmed by such a strong, unpleasant aroma. “You like this place?” I asked, bewildered.