You take a step into Macy's, a little hesitantly. You hadn’t exactly gone shopping for clothes recently, it just wasn’t your thing! You felt perfectly fine just wearing the same five sets of shirts, hoodies, and pants. Nothing wrong with that either! But your sister, Jade, insisted that you needed more clothing. “You can’t keep wearing the same stuff!” she said. Ughhhh.
Sometimes you wonder why you agreed to share a dorm with her at your college. Sure, it’s not like you lived with her before- you only found out she existed in the past year, and it’s not like you don’t enjoy her presence, she’s really nice! Okay, you might take back that first comment, she’s not that bad. BUT she insists on dragging you out of your room sometimes. Recently you just haven’t had the energy to go out and do things. Maybe you should be appreciative of the fact that she dragged you out anywhere. You probably need the sunlight.
On the other hand, you kind of just feel like shit, and really, you’d rather just be left alone. You were perfectly fine to just sit and rot in your room for the rest of eternity, at least as far as you were concerned! Ugh. You’re not really mad at your sister, you guess, you’re just bothered in general.
You sigh.
You tune back into your surroundings. “Hello? John? Jooooohn? Earth to John!”
Jade is looking at you with a worried look. She’s about to gently(by her standards, not yours) shake you, before you take a step back. “Hey! Uh, sorry. I was just thinking!”
She pouts a bit. “Enough to space out for a solid minute? You know I was talking to you, right?”
Feeling a bit bad, you put your hands up, trying to come up with an excuse… she was probably talking about clothes? “Uh, no, I don't space out the entire time! You were saying something about clothes, right?”
She gives you the look and huffs. “I was talking about how I might pick up some stationary stuff!”
You feel a bit bad. “...Sorry.” You should’ve been listening. Jade holds grudges pretty easily, you think, and you didn’t want to disappoint her! Ugh… Your head drops down, and you feel kind of terrible now. Maybe you should just make some excuse that you need to go back. Wait. Shit, though, Jade drives the car. You always enjoyed taking walks. Maybe you should call Dave? You-
“John! It’s alright, I’m not that mad or anything.”
Jade pats you on the back, now next to your side, ending your spiraling. You swiftly apologize again. “Sorry.”
She pats you again, though it’s hard enough that it stings a little bit this time.“You don’t need to apologize. Let’s just get to shopping!”
You nod, a little weakly, before the both of you start to walk through the store. You’re in one of those large Macy’s, it’s got three floors. You walk past a couple escalators, which… hm. That gives you an idea, a FUNNY idea, but you don’t think Jade would approve of it. You file it in your head for later.
Both of you head to the Men’s clothing section, because the main point of this excursion was for, right? You pass by several Women’s areas- probably because there’s a lot more clothing in those areas, fashion and all that, but it feels like it’s a long trek just to get to the Men’s area.
Of course, the Men’s area is big too, it’s a fucking Macy’s.
“I think the hoodies are over here John. You like wearing those, right?”
You shrug. You’ve got two hoodies- a white one with blue stripes, and a blue one(you’re wearing the blue one right now), but you’re not really sure about whether you like hoodies, or if they’re just the only thing you wear. Jade hums at you, suggesting “Maybe you should get an actual jacket, the weather has been getting colder!” before pulling a black one off of the rack. She carefully considers it. “This might go with your blue shirts, or your hoodie if it’s cold enough…”
You look at it. It's not the puffy kind, but actual leather? You’re not sure if it’s real leather or not, but it’s got that shininess to it. It looks like it might reach a little below your waist, but… “What, you want me to look like a biker?”
She snorts “Duh, you’d go around on a bike pranking people left and right, huh?” You imagine it in your head, wearing the jacket(which you kind of do like!) while riding on a motorcycle. You’d probably have longer hair, which wouldn’t be too bad, but the stereotype you have in your head also has a beard, and you kind of hate that? The bike would be pretty manly, like your father always wanted you to be! But…
“John?” You think you’re almost grimacing. “John, I can just put the jacket away if…” She starts to put the jacket back.
“What- no I like the jacket!” You walk over and almost snatch at it, but instead think better of it and just put your hand out, before realizing you don’t have a basket, which then… “Jade, you should go get a basket.”
She looks at you confused. “A basket? Oh, right, a shopping basket, my bad!”
You then sneak in a second suggestion. “You could also go pickup your stationary stuff, and I can stay here and look at some clothes.”
She eyes you, suspiciously. “You’re not gonna run off on me, are you?”
“Nope!” You give your best toothy smile. You’re a little excited now.
“Okaaaay… I’ll be back soon.”
“See ya!”
She walks off, and you wait a little bit, eyeing her back as she goes. She glances at you and you quickly adjust yourself, you’re totally looking at clothes, yes, a clothes shopper is you!
She goes out of sight, and you spring into action. Hehe. You put the jacket back- though, you might be interested in wearing it? You dunno. You put it back and run over to the escalators nearest to you. Not the ones back at the front of the place, obviously, Jade is near there! You run up the one going up excitedly.
Oh hell yes. No one seems to be around, at least not now. Probably because this area is near the corner of the building. You pull a prized possession out of your hoodie pocket.
A slinky.
Oh hell yes.
You’re doing this.
You’re making this happen- which also then makes you shake your head. You’ve read too much of Dave’s weird comics.
You take the slinky and crouch low to the ground. You’re next to the escalator that’s supposed to take people up to the second floor. You prepare your hands slowly, holding the slinky out over the escalator, before letting it walk.
You excitedly look at it as it drops down onto the second moving stair, before it flops over onto its side. Drats! You figure maybe the first time isn’t the charm- perpetual slinky motion might be hard to set up.
So you try again, and fail. Arghhh!!! Maybe… Third time’s the charm? You pray to whatever eldritch abominations Rose worships and try again.
It goes down one stair, and then the next, as it’s moved upwards by the escalator. “Yesssss!”
You cheer, before realizing you were only cheering silently. Who else is cheering? You whip your head around, before seeing… a person?
She- you think she’s a she, anyway, has some pretty frizzy straight hair, which seems to just reach her shoulders. She’s wearing some kind of large green coat, along with a black shirt with some symbol on it. She kind of looks a little animal-like, and kind of pretty? Bluh. Ugh. You shouldn’t be thinking that about other people. You continue focusing on what’s happening. Her eyes, staring at- you think- the slinky, flick to you. She’s already sort of in a cheering pose, and there’s a basket next to her. She uh, waves at you.
“Hello!”
You feel a little embarrassed now… Maybe you should get out of the way. “Uh… hey, I can move, if you uh, need me to.”
"No, I'm watching the slinky!" She giggles.
You chuckle a bit. "Well I saw the escalator and really, I just had to try this..."
She grabs her basket, walks over, and crouches down as well, and WOW you are glad there's no one around right now, this is sort of embarrassing! You look back at the slinky and— wow! The slinky’s still going!
You both look at it go, and then realize someone is coming up the escalator- and oh shit is that-
"Jooooohn!!!"
She's walking up the escalator now that she sees you, and oh boy are you about to be yelled at. You grab the slinky before she arrives.
"John you can't just run off like that I was super worried! Agggh. You told me you wouldn't run off and I thought- aagh... John, I'm just worried about you, and you going off and disappearing on me only made me worry more!!!"
You look down at the ground a little guilty, as she's now standing in front of you.
"Jade?"
The stranger beside you says her name. Do they know each other??
“Oh, hey Nepeta!” She looks at Nepeta with a grin. The stranger- no, Nepeta, gets up, and you take this as your queue to get up as well.
“Hi!” Nepeta smiles back. You guess they do know each other? Not really a guess at this point. More like a confirmed hypothesis.
Jade turns back to you. “Nepeta, meet my brother, John, who’s been worrying me non-stop for a while! John, this is Nepeta.” She pats your back, and you still just feel a little bad.
Nepeta tilts her head, and kind of half defends you? “Huh, why? He seems purrfectly alright to me, we were just watching a slinky!”
Jade just sighs and shakes her head. “Well he was supposed to be looking for clothes. We were going shopping.”
Nepeta looks at you and smiles. “Well there’s always time fur a litter bit of playing, right?”
The sudden cat puns surprise you, but Jade doesn’t seem bothered by it, so… you guess you shouldn’t comment on it. Jade does seem bothered by you, though.
“Well… I just dragged him out of the dorm, because he’s been holed up in his room recently! I didn’t want him stuck in there any longer than he’d already been… I was kind of getting worried. I’ve literally only seen him in class!”
You look away, again, but this time Nepeta is in the way. Nepeta looks at her for a moment, before seemingly having some kind of realization. “Oh! Is this the roommate you’d been talking about?”
Wait, she’s been talking about you to other people. Oh god. Is it bad?
Jade nods. “Well er… yeah. We ended up going to the same college, so we ended up living in the same dorm again! Siblings and all that.”
“Well I suppose I should be polite!” She sticks a hand out for you. “It’s nice to meet you John!”
You wearily grab it, a little exhausted now by being in your own head so much. “It’s uh, nice to meet you… Nepeta?” She nods.
You think you preferred it when she didn’t know you. At least then she wouldn’t have any incentive to remember you. Now she knows who you are, she’s got a name to attach you to. She also apparently knows more about you than you’d like! Jesus. Maybe she’s already disappointed in you, since you’re not really acting very happy about meeting her and-
“You can let go meow, you know!”
You realize you’re still shaking her hand. “Ah- sorry.” You let go. Your hand is a bit sweaty. You feel a little gross.
Jade looks at you, concerned. “Mmm maybe we should head back. Look for clothes another time? I’m kind of worried-”
You quickly shake your head- “No! We uh, we don’t need to head back or anything!” You refuse to let your dumb mistakes ruin the outing! Besides, she’s uh, totally not wrong! You need clothes. Normal clothes. Clothes.
Jade gives you a SECOND concerned look. One might describe it as a combo of concerned looks. A concern-2x-combo? A combob of concern? She’s been more concerned about you lately. You really don’t want to worry her any more than you do… especially in front of a new, uh, friend? You don’t really know if you’re going to talk to Nepeta much, but you can’t disappoint her before you’ve become friends. That’d be a failed friendship any% world record.
You’ve just been… tired, that’s all, you know? It’s been a lot recently. You’ve been using most of your energy to focus on schoolwork, but it’s almost a miracle that you get any of it done in the first place. You’ve barely had the motivation, much less the energy, to do anything.
It takes so much to just get up, and even just go brush your teeth, or shower. You don’t want to see yourself in the mirror, you don’t want to see yourself and think you’re a mistake. You feel like if you look at yourself for too long you might just cry, because you’re just… you feel a little fake. Like you’re not really all there, and it makes you feel… ugh.
You don’t really know why you feel like that, but you can’t deal with it, and you don’t really want other people to deal with it, and-
You stop not-focusing and oh shit that’s a lot worse. You’re down by clothing racks now, apparently Nepeta is coming along with you now, because she’s standing there talking with Jade, looking at some kind of hoodie? Ugh. You really don’t want to be picking out clothes like this, though, but…
“Hey uh, I think I might get this jacket?” Both of them turn to you, and you’re holding up that vaguely fake-leather jacket from before. You’re a bit unsure about the choice, but it makes you feel vaguely not terrible? Bluh.
“Oh! That one! I forgot I held it up earlier…” Jade looks at it curiously, while Nepeta grins. “Ooo. That would look purrfect! I think. I dunno, I’m not supurr crazy about fashion, but it looks good!”
Getting a compliment from a stranger is kind of nice… “Yeah I just… It’s not something I would wear normally, or I guess it’s not anything like stuff I’ve previously worn! I just think it kinda looks good. It’s…” You frown at the price. “Oh man, it's expensive though.“
Jade perks up, maybe because you’re actually showing interest in something, and sort of shrugs a hand out. “I can pay for it!”
You start to protest, but she puts a hand up to your face. “No buts about it! You know I have way more money than you do, with my side of the family and all. I don’t mind paying!”
You want to protest, you really do, but you know she’s not going to change her mind. Ugh. Just another thing to feel guilty about.
You sigh and agree. You take the jacket and put it in the shopping basket Jade now has, and the rest of the trip kind of goes normally? You buy some pants and shirts too, and just ONE hoodie, since you already have plenty of hoodies. Jade then convinces you, or rather you guess her, to buy two sweaters, and you get some black socks from Nepeta’s suggestion.
You manage to convince Jade you don’t need to go into the changing room since you already know your sizes, which makes Nepeta kind of look at you for a moment, but you’re not sure why.
Eventually you start heading towards the check-out area, but before you do you end up exchanging chumhandles with Nepeta. She smiles and waves goodbye- apparently she still isn’t done shopping. Jade says the two of you should chat more, but honestly you’re not sure you’ll be able to even work up the nerve to.
You- or you guess she, Jade, checks out the items, and the two of you get out of there with the bags, into her car, and head home. You feel pretty terrible that she dragged you out and then bought a bunch of clothes for you, but she insists it’s fine. Ugh. When you get home you drop the backs into your room, you flop onto your bed, and just sleep. Just… just sleep.