[old] hexes for exes, briarville girls (1)

二。紅火

(red flames)

BRIE CARMEN HAS ALWAYS HAD A SHOPPING PROBLEM. Go to the Carmen house, it's full of her absolute bullshit items, most of which have no use. Her brother, Ben, had virtually begged all of her friends to never bring her to a store after Brie showered him with shirts he would never wear.

But Livia seriously needed decorations for her house and room, as well as some new clothes, so the three girls (Livia, Brie and Lila) showed up at the mall, fully prepared to shop till they drop.

Briarville malls always had one thing in common, and that was an astounding amount of designer shops and it wasn't hard to see why. Everyone you look, you're able to see some kind of celebrity (followed by the occasional paparazzi) or someone holding bags and bags of clothes with designer emblems stamped on the paper. Livia often wondered why. It never lasted, so why bother in first place?

But she wasn't one to talk. Her closet was just as expensive anyways.

Five seconds in, Brie had already found something that caught her interest. A necklace, in some ridiculously lavish jewellery shop, though a look could tell Livia that Brie would never wear it. Carmen didn't seem to care a lot about that, however, as the girl almost instantly paid for it without a second thought. Livia chose to stay silent.

"So what exactly are we looking for today?"

"Some decorations, new clothes, the usual," Brie shrugged.

Lila narrowed her eyes. "You'll have to elaborate. Your usual usually requires us to call your brother to help us haul your damn bags back." Sounds like Lila has fallen to Brie's shopping traps more than once. Unsurprising, to say the least.

"For the love of god," Livia mumbled, grabbing the price tag of a nice dress. "I do not remember things being this expensive last time I was here."

"They weren't," Brie replied, and that seemed to be the end of that.

By the time the trio were halfway through their shopping, Livia felt like she was about to be crushed under the weight of the bags (mostly Brie's. Brie needs help, and Livia wasn't sure where she could get it).

"Hey, is Selena's Smoothies still open?"

Selena's Smoothies served what Livia felt like was the best drinks in the entire damn world. The best thing was that one of the girls working there, Irene, is (was) a close friend of hers, so she often got discounts. She used to go there for drinks weekly.

"Yeah, you want to grab a drink?"

"Is Irene still working there?"

"Irene left for college a few months ago, unfortunately. She hasn't come back since."

Unsurprising. Despite her father being a world-renown musician, Irene Dumont had always hated the spotlight. Her father wanted to groom her into the next him, all Irene wanted was to be away from the "stuck-up assholes and fake bitches" of the industry. Her relationship with her father had always been strained. Livia wondered if her father had anything to do with her refusal to return to Briarville.