Shadows of Ash and Gold

chapter five

Shopping was not my thing. It never was. When I had asked Tandy and Mo if they wanted to go into town and go dress shopping I had hoped, prayed, they would say no but of course, they were ecstatic and blindly agreed.

The town was small and there really wasn't much to see except for the library which I was curious about. The dress shop was a little boutique off the main street.

        "Oh! This one would look perfect for you!" Tandy gasped, pointing to a glammed out sparkly ball gown on one of the racks.

        Mo rolled her eyes. "Does Ryn look like the kind of girl to wear glitter?"

Tandy stuck her chin out stubbornly. They fought like siblings, almost so entertaining it made me forget about a green-eyed enigma. Almost. He was still on my mind, like a bad penny. It was driving me crazy because I wasn't this type of person. I was so not the boy crazed type of girl. "Well, maybe she should be."

      I flashed her my best 'let down' smile. "Eh, I'd rather wear something a little more basic. Plain."

     "You can't wear something basic. Not at Crestwood. It has to be extravagant."

"This time I agree with Tandy, it has to be amazing, especially if you're trying to win over the Devara," Mo explained as her fingers ran over the dresses on the rack.

      My eyes widened. "Who says I'm trying to impress them?"

"I'd be concerned if you weren't trying to impress them. They invited you to sit at their table. They've never done that with anyone." Tandy's blonde hair bounced as we walked the isles, she reminded me of a sunflower. Bright and cheery but sometimes gloomy. She was a good friend, I could tell, but there was nothing alluring about her to me, nothing deeper, nothing mysterious, nothing like them.

       "Oh! Tandy look at this one!" Mo got distracted and they started looking at a bright yellow one.

      I decided to look by myself, maybe if I wasn't around people I could find something I actually liked. I wandered without purpose through the isle. Nothing stood out to me. Wasn't I supposed to feel something when I found the right one? I mean that's how it is in the movies.

      I found myself in the back of the store, two mannequins wore two different dresses. One was classy, white. It was innocent and angelic I'd probably look like a twelve-year-old in it but there was something I liked about it. The other one was the opposite. It was dark, blood-red, dangerous, and tight. It was everything I wasn't.

     I run my fingers over them.

My eyes landed on a nearby shelf with the shiniest gorgeous earrings. I didn't necessarily like any of them but that didn't stop the urge to take one. What was wrong with me? Since I was a kid I've had a problem with stealing, of course, it's not exactly a problem when nobody knows about it. I've never gotten caught. And I never will. I knew it was wrong. But there has always been a voice in my head urging me to do it.

     Just take one.

The voice always belonged to my father and that's part of the reason I refrained from doing it. I can't be like him. I just can't.

    But then again I've never thought of myself as a good person and I'm not necessarily bad I'm just logical. As in thinking "who am I really hurting?" Right now if I took a pair of earrings nothing would happen to anyone. The store I'm in is a million-dollar company owned by a man richer than a god. He certainly wouldn't notice if one pair of earrings went missing. Before I could stop myself I slipped the gold dangly pair into my bag and turned back to the dresses, contemplating which one I should pick.