The mall is currently halloween-themed; it is October, after all.

The tall pillars that go from the first floor all the way to the roof through an opening are decorated with large cutouts of ghosts and skulls and pumpkins, each either black, gray, yellow, or orange in color.

On the left side of where we’re currently standing, which is by the railing toward the edge, a family of ghosts is also hanging from the ceiling, trailing down, one after the other; they’re clearly following each other.

Now, on the right, there’s a huge grim reaper floating, its gleaming scythe in its hands. The reaper’s cloak is a bit too big for its body; the cloak is hanging awfully loosely from its body. The sleeves are even so long that you can hardly see the grim reaper’s boney hands.

“What store do we go to first?” Adelia questions, and I turn my focus to her, looking at how prettily her lips move as flurries of words escape her petite mouth.

“I mean, I was thinking Windsor, since that’s, like, the most affordable dress shop here.”

“There is also Francesca’s,” Mari points out.

“Yeah, but isn’t that on one of the lower levels? Windsor is on the level we’re on right now, so it would make more sense to go there first,” I reply. I look around at our little group. “What do you guys think?”

“Sure! That sounds great, actually,” Adelia replies.

“Of course you’d say that,” Mari mutters, a hint of a laugh in their voice. “You practically live in that store.”

“I mean, yeah, that sounds about accurate,” Adelia admits.

Excitement courses through my body like electricity; I’ve been to this mall before, but never with my friends, let alone my girlfriend.

Oh my God, I’m so excited.

Maybe Addie and I will be in the same dressing room.

Does that mean I’ll see her body? I find myself blushing at the thought.

No. It’s too soon to think that, right? I mean, we’ve just started dating…

Before anyone can snap me out of my thoughts, I return to the present, and find that we’re rounding the corner to Windsor. Though we aren’t even in front of the store yet, I can see the mannequins proudly wearing their dresses; one is displaying a sweater dress, a hand placed on its hip, and another, to the right of the one in the sweater dress, is wearing a dazzling gold mini dress.

“Here we are!’ Sarai sing-songs as soon as we make it to the entrance.

Walking into the store, still arm-in-arm with Adelia, I immediately like the vibe: it smells sweet here, similar to some of the Bath and Body Works body sprays and perfumes, except more expensive and posh.

The store is relatively quiet, surprising since it is, after all, homecoming season. Mothers and their daughters, groups of girls—around our age— hover around the various racks lingering around the store.

Adelia immediately steers me in a different direction than the one that Mari and Sarai are headed. At first, I’m about to object, when I realize that Adelia is heading towards the rack of blue dresses, in varying shades of blue, raging from blue so light it almost looks white, to blue so dark that it would look black were it not for the lights overhead.

“Look at all these dresses!” Adelia practically squeals, unlinking her arm from mine to go through every single dress on the silver circular rack.

“They’re all so pretty!” I comment, smiling at how happy and bright Adelia’s face looks right now, a stark contrast to how dark and shadowed her face was just a few minutes prior.

“Can you help me pick some dresses?”

“Of course! I can also look for some, too. What’s your size?”

“Small. Here, what do you think about this one?”

Adelia pulls out a pastel blue mini dress, the back being mostly open, finished off by tying a bow in the back. “Yeah! That looks nice! I think it’d look great on you.”

“Aww, you’re just saying that because you have to. You’re my girlfriend, after all.”

“Not true,” I poke Adelia’s side, and she flinches slightly, giggling. I must have tickled her. “I’m saying that because I actually believe it. I’ve always thought you were beautiful. You could literally be a model.”

“Really?” Adelia’s face lights up.

“Yeah. I’ve thought that since I first laid eyes on you, on the first day of school, when I entered homeroom. You were actually the first person I saw.”

“You’re just trying to make me blush,” Adelia dismisses, returning her focus back to the rack of dresses, though she has a smile as bright as day spread across her face.

“And you’re just tryna fish for compliments.”

“Well, it’s clearly working, isn’t it?” Adelia questions, looking back at me.

“I mean, yeah,” I admit. “But I love giving you compliments anyway.”

“Thank you,” Adelia flutters her eyelashes. She’s practically asking for a kiss. So, I lean in and give her a little peck on the lips.

“Hey, not so fast.” Adelia pulls me back into her as soon as I back away slightly.

She kisses me intensely–not intense in the sense that it’s a steamy kiss–but the kiss clearly shows all her love and devotion towards me; it’s almost as if she’s trying to prove her love to me. You don’t have to do that, baby. I return the kiss, but a lot gentler, as if saying, “It’s okay, I know you love me. You don’t need to prove anything to me. You are enough.”

Adelia is the first one to break away, huffing a little bit. Admittedly, I’m also breathing a little heavily, too.

“Well, we should probably go back to looking for dresses before Mari and Sarai come over and ask about how much progress we’ve made,” I laugh, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Yeah,” Adelia mutters, rubbing the back of her neck.

We stand there awkwardly for a moment–I actually don’t know why, to be honest; we literally just kissed–before going back to searching for dresses.

“So I’m guessing the only color choice you have is blue,” I say, just to confirm, though I already know what Adelia is going to say before it even comes out of her mouth.

“Yes. Blue. More blue. Never enough blue,” Adelia replies quickly, not looking up from her frantic search of looking for the right dress.

I chuckle at that. “But what happens if, one day, blue isn’t your favorite color?”

Adelia stares into my soul when I say that. “No. That won’t ever change. Trust me.”

“But–”

“Nuh uh. Won’t happen. Just you watch.”

“Oh, so a challenge then, huh?” I smirk, leaning against the rack.

“Mhm. Got a problem with that?” Adelia questions, looking back up at me and smiling at me.

“Nope,” I reply, my voice going up an octave. Wow. She’s really good at flirting. I wonder if I’m doing as good of a job?

Finally, as I said I would do, I begin my search for the right dress for Adelia. Right away, I come across this very cute dress. It’s a dusty blue strapless dress with a skirt that fans out slightly, making it perfect for dancing and twirling and such. It looks like it’s made out of either satin or silk, what with how shiny it looks. Confirming that it’s a size small, I pull it out of the rack.

“What did you find?’ Adelia questions, closing the small distance between us so she can stand right next to me. “Ooh! I’ll definitely try that one on.” Adelia holds up two other dresses she found. The first one, in her left hand, is a sky blue dress, with straps that you tie to make them look like little bows. The second one, in her right hand, is a darker blue–an ocean blue–and it’s a babydoll dress.

“Cute! I think all of these would look good on you, honestly.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

“Okay then, let’s go to the dressing room so I can try these on.”

Just as I turn around to find the dressing rooms, I bump into Sarai, who has this huge smile on her face. “Look what I found!”

In her hand, she’s holding a dusty pink dress, and…Wait. Is that the same dress I found for Adelia, but in a different color? I look between the pink dress and the blue dress in my hand. Yup, sure is.

“Oh my God! Where’d you find that one?”

Sarai vaguely points over her shoulder to the pink dress rack. “Over there. Do you like it?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “Are you…are you going to wear that to homecoming?”

“No, silly! I came here to show you this because I thought you’d be interested, since your favorite color is pink, after all.”

“Oh wow, thank you!” I squeal. Grabbing the dress from Sarai’s hand, I turn back to look at Adelia’ who’s just looking between me and Sarai. “You know what this means.”

At first, it doesn’t register, but then Adelia’s face floods with realization. “Oh. So you want to wear matching dresses, then?”

“Yes!” I squeal, grabbing Adelia’s free hand and shaking it in excitement. Letting go, I add, “That is, if you want to.”

Adelia looks between the two dresses hanging in her hand and the blue one I’m holding. “Well, I don’t mind. But I also want to try on these two dresses.”

“Sure, that makes sense.,” I reply.

“Okay, I’m going to leave you guys to figure this out on your own. I’ll be over by the purple dresses if you need me.” Sarai calls over her shoulder as she swivels around and heads in the other direction.

“Let’s go to the dressing rooms now!” I squeal, dragging Adelia by the elbow all the way to the other side of the store, where a white sign in cursive handwriting hanging on the wall clearly marks off where the dressing rooms are.