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Note: Okay now we’ve reached a
point in the story where the headings: Justin, Toria, In Sync are not going
to be used. This is part two of Remarkable. Part Two: Beyond Headings Out of all the shops you had to walk into mine… “I
saw the cutest little outfit in here yesterday, all in pink.” Pamela said to
Justin as they entered Fornica. He didn’t know how but Pamela had somehow
talked him into going shopping with her for an hour. “Oh
look at this.” Pamela said, stopping in front of some leather pants in the
men's section. “This is so cute. I think you should try it on in each
colour.” The pants came in black, brown and taupe. “I’m
not trying anything on Pamela.” “Why
not? It’ll be fun!” “I
don’t wan-,” Justin stopped mid-sentence as Pamela got three pairs of the
pants and shoved them at him. “You
promised to be a good shopping buddy.” She declared as she collected some
more clothes for him. Justin
didn’t remember any such promise and he needed to stop Pamela before she got
way out of hand. And she was getting out of hand. Was that an orange Hawaiian
shirt in her hands? She had to be stopped before she got out of control. “Ok...I’ll
be good. I’ll even try on some stuff, but only what I pick out. Okay?” Pamela
smiled at him, just glad that she had gotten her way. She deposited the men's
clothing into his hands and moved to the women’s section in the store. Justin
gave a disparaging glance at the clothing in his arms and put everything, but
the black leather pants, away. He went around the store, picking up items as
he went along. When he finally met up with Pamela, he had managed to pick up
a baby blue knit shirt, a royal blue collar shirt, and dark baggy jeans. “Is
that all you’re trying on?” Pamela asked incredulously. Justin
nodded. “Yep! Is that all your getting?” He asked sarcastically, as he looked
down at the pile of clothes in Pamela’s hand. The
sarcasm, however, was unnoticed by her, because Pamela went on to say
seriously, “Of course not! They won’t let me bring all of it. Can you believe
they only have a ten items per person policy?” Justin shook his head,
humouring her. Who in their right mind, needed to try on that much clothing
anyway? “Can
I start a change room for you two?” A friendly sales clerk walked up to the
two of them. Justin
smiled and nodded, “That would be great.” The
sales clerk gazed at him dazedly. Only when she saw him giving her a strange
look, did she stop staring at him. “Umm...Yes,
your fitting rooms.” She
turned and walked over to the rooms with Justin and Pamela following. “We
have two change rooms available at the moment. This one and the other one at
the end.” She
said, motioning to a change room at the other end of the fitting room. “I’ll
go to the one at the end.” Justin said, already walking towards it. Pamela
shrugged and entered her own room. --- “Stupid
clothes,” Toria mumbled to herself as she waited for a sales woman to come
back with the clothing she had picked up in a size larger. “I am not fat,”
she told herself, looking in the mirror. “I am not fat!” Lisa,
who was in the next room, laughed. “Toria,” she called. “You aren’t fat! Get
a life! How’s it going in there, anyway?” “Fine,
I guess. I like the clothing. They’re a bit tight though, so I’m waiting on
the sales clerk to bring new sizes.” “Me
too actually. Except the clothing was a little big.” Lisa acknowledged. Toria
shook her head ruefully. Of course for Lisa they were too big and for her too
small. She soon heard someone approaching her room outside the door. She
turned to see if it was the sales clerk, but soon realized that it was just a
customer. “Tor?
Try on this skirt!” Lisa passed a short stonewashed jean skirt to Toria, over
the change room wall. Toria reached for it. She
had nothing better to do while she waited for the clerk. --- Justin
was considering not trying on the clothing he had picked out. He really
wasn’t in the mood. It wasn’t like Pamela would find out...On second thought,
she probably would wheedle it out of him and he really wasn’t in the mood for
the nagging that would follow. Ah
well! There was always enough room in his closet for jeans and...leather
pants. He laughed. He
began to undress. He bent down to take off his shoes, and he couldn’t help
but notice the legs of the girl in the change room beside him. Nice! He could
only see the bottom half of her legs, her ankles and her calves. But he liked
what he saw. Suddenly
realizing that he was staring at the girl’s legs, he snapped his head around
and took off his shoes. He took off his jeans and shirt and put on the
leather pants and the blue shirt. From what he could see they looked all
right and they were pretty comfortable. Yeah, he would buy them. As
he was about to take off the pants he heard the girl in the room beside him
groan. “Lisa, are you absolutely insane?” He heard her ask someone. “What?
Doesn’t it look good?” Lisa, he assumed, answered. “This
skirt is way too short. It’s almost up to my butt.” He laughed quietly at her
disgruntled tone. “Oh
whatever! You know you look hot in it.” He could hear Lisa laughing.
There was no forthcoming reply from the girl beside him, but for some reason
Justin knew she was rolling her eyes. --- And
Toria was rolling her eyes she glanced at herself again in the mirror. Okay,
so maybe she felt a little sexy with the skirt on, especially with the pink
halter that the sales clerk has finally brought her. She wasn’t going to tell
Lisa that though. Then Lisa might start getting other ideas. Like bringing
Toria to a manicurist or, god forbid, a tanning salon...She smiled at herself
in the mirror. Maybe she would buy the skirt. Unexpectedly,
she heard a muted curse as a cell phone came tumbling from the change room
beside hers into her own. Toria bent down on her knees retrieved the phone. “Here
you are?” She held the phone out to him. The other person also bent down.
“Thanks,” he mumbled and reached for the phone. His hand accidentally brushed
hers and they both stilled. The
air was suddenly charged. He could smell a soft scent emanating from her. He
knew that scent...Freesias. And Toria could feel the heat of his hand warming
her skin and she felt dizzy. Justin
was the first one to move away. What had just happened to him? Toria, who was
in complete bafflement, got up unsteadily. She had never felt that way
before. The
object that had caused the whole incident rang. He answered his phone and
heard a familiar voice on the other line. “What’s
up?” The voice asked. “Nothing
much Joey.” He replied “You
sound funny. Are you sure?” “Yeah...I’m
fine!” “I’m
calling because the meeting has been rescheduled. It’s in a half an hour.” Joey
went on to outline the details of the meeting. Justin hung up as soon as the
conversation was over. He struggled back into his own pants and walked out of
the change room. |