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Owlen was out shopping for clothing, an activity that she both enjoyed and hated. It was near impossible to find clothing that fit them at the store, and many people that looked at her assumed she was a boyfriend buying clothes for their girl. It could be worse though, she could be shoe shopping. Everything that the store had that Owlen thought looked cute wasn’t in her size, even cross referencing the website didn’t help. Defeated, she left the store, feeling like a complete idiot. Owlen really missed being able to shop for clothes in store, something she stopped being able to do once she started transitioning. All the clothes she wanted were never in her size or the ones that end up being too short.
Walking to the exit Owlen was lost in her thoughts and without noticing she collided with someone. She heard cursing in a language that Owlen didn’t recognize. “I’m so sorry,” they said, looking down and offering a hand to the woman she had knocked over.
“It’s fine, I should have been paying closer attention.” the woman said, picking up the books she had dropped before taking Owlen’s hand.
Once Owlen got a good look at the woman she noticed how beautiful she was. Tan olive skin and curly dark hair that were the same color as her eyes. The woman looked like a model, lean and fashionable. As the woman stood up Owlen also noticed that she was wincing when she put pressure on her ankle. “I can help you get to a bench.” They said they were concerned that she had hurt her.
“T-thank you,” the woman smiled.
Owlen helped her to a nearby bench and the woman slipped her boot off. The ankle wasn’t bruised or swollen so it might have just twisted. “Thank you for helping me, I’m Vaska.”
“Oh, I-I’m Owlen.” She said she never heard the name Vaska before it was pretty. “Are you doing anything here today?” she asked, trying to make small talk to distract themselves.
“I was buying some books, and I’ll probably stop by Schmatta.” She said Schmatta was a thrift store in the mall that Owlen has seen but never went inside. “You want to come with me? You seem nice.”
Owlen smiled, “Sure,” they smiled.
Once Vaska could stand she got up and the pair went to Schmatta. The store had rows of clothing racks and shelves lined across the walls. Owlen went around and started looking for larger sizes in the women’s clothing section. Vaska was in the section that had dishes and other tableware.
To Owlen’s surprise there was clothing that looked like they’d fit. So they picked the ones that they liked and went to the changing room to try it on. Each of them fit and looked nice on her, they smiled looking at themselves in the mirror. Out of the 5 items they picked, she kept a Morticia Addams type dress, a pair of jeans that actually fit them perfectly, and a bat sleeve blouse. She also found a pair of heeled boots that fit her.
Valska came over to Owlen holding a pair of platformed boots, “Can you help me try these on?” she asked them.
The two of them sat on a bench area in the store and Owlen helped Vaska zip up the boots and helped her stand up. The boots were tall enough to allow Valska to look Owlen in the eyes without needing to lift her head up.
“How do they look?” Vaksa asked Owlen for their opinion.
“They look nice, I like the style of them.” Owlen said. She wanted to wear the punk kind of platforms that the boots were. But she never was able to gain the confidence to go out and buy them. They thought she’d get judged or the cashier wouldn’t let her buy them, no matter how irrational it seemed.
Vaska smiled at Owlen and sat down to take the boots off so she could buy them.
When they got to the checkout the person at the counter was sitting down reading a magazine that they put down when they heard the pair walk up. “Good afternoon Vaska, who do we have here?” The cashier had curly dark hair that was unkempt looking.
“Lia..” Vaksa said annoyedly, “This is Owlen, we met earlier when they ran into me.”
Owlen noticed that Vaska did use “he” for them. She didn’t remember telling her their pronouns.
“Well Owlen, I’m Lia Cohen, the owner of this fine establishment. Also been friends with Ms. Vasilija Aseneva Dimitrova, here since highschool.” Lia grinned at them.
“Lia,” Vaska said, more annoyed. “Please just check our stuff out.” Her cheeks were turning a little red.
Lia looked between them, “Oh I see,” they smiled more, “I see.” Lia started to check their things out. When they got to Owlen’s things she saw them add discounts to the final price. Owlen was only charged a fourth of the price.
“Now get out, have fun kids.” Lia laughed to themselves.
Vaska looked at them annoyed before dragging Owlen out. “I apologize for her behavior.” she said. “She’s always very interested when I’m with people.”
“It’s no issue.” Owlen said.
“Well, I need to get going, my dad is expecting me for dinner so I need to get ready.” Vaska wrote something on a note and handed it to Owlen. “Give me a call sometime.” before leaving
Owlen looked down, it was her number.