Her bicycle was carefully propped up in the backyard the morning after the "Buddy Incident," as Rebecca had been calling it in her head. Did Buddy go and fetch it for her? What in the world did Buddy do in his spare time? Did he have a job? He had to be human, right? He had displayed a human level of intelligence. He was just ... hairy and weird looking. Maybe he was the secret result of an experiment on fetuses.
Rebecca couldn't come up with a proper answer to any of her secret questions.
A few days passed without much of anything interesting, but there was a moment at work where she tied the shoe of a wandering preschooler. Rebecca had then guided the kid back to his unaware mother. She could never understand how so many parents would just let their kids roam free in public like that. One person had asked about her scratched up arm. Rebecca gave an excuse, and that was it. Nothing major went down.
Her new Lolita clothing and accessories arrived in the mail, and she was excited. She thought she should have a nice day out to show it off. She picked a Sunday, since Conner's Cafe would be closed. The destination would be the nearest bookstore, almost forty-five minutes away, in a completely different town than where she worked as a waitress.
Everything in the rural USA was so damned spread out that you needed a car, and it was just a fact of life for her. As a small child, Rebecca half-believed that taxis, public buses, and subways were mythological. The same logic had been applied for malls, businesses in buildings that didn't look like houses, skyscrapers, and swimming pools that weren't above ground. Of course, as she grew, she learned these things were all real and not just stuff on TV.
She chose this bookstore because she was sure they had manga, figurines, and related things. And so, while people would definitely stare at her, there would at least be some customers who got the basic gist of her clothing. She got dressed fairly early in the morning.
Rebecca braided her hair into pigtails with little white bow knots. Funny, she hadn't known how to braid hair until recently. She always had a certain someone do it for her. She shook the thought out of her head. Then she pulled on a pair of shorts called bloomers, because Lolita skirts sometimes tipped upwards, and there was no need to show everyone her panties. A white blouse with long sleeves and a high neckline slipped over her head. A short, crinoline-like petticoat was tied about her waist, to give the outfit its desired shape.
A jumper dress made of pale pink fabric was pulled on. There were pretty round buttons on the shoulder straps. Decorative, yet functional pockets on the skirt also had a similar set of buttons. Rebecca pulled on long socks that ended under her knees. Her feet slipped into pink Mary Jane styled shoes with thick heels. A headband with a small bow knot was put on her head. The skirt was wide, but it was also long enough to just barely show off her knees, and she thought that her legs looked cute. Overall, she was pleased.
Soon, she had her brand new pink purse in her hand, and she was leaving her bedroom, but she was stopped by the sound of the front door opening, and she heard Jessa greet someone.
"Hey Cliff. What are you doing here?"
"Hi. Where's Rebecca?"
Cliff Miller was wiping his feet and coming into the house, cradling a small wrapped up gift like it was Christmas. When he found her, a mild surprise came over him. "Woah. Why are you dressed like that?" His black eye had healed. He was all perfect again.
"Because I felt like it," was Rebecca's venom soaked response.
Jessa folded her arms and quirked an eyebrow at her. "Damn, Tiny. You look like something Nana would put on a shelf." At Rebecca's questioning look, Jessa clarified, "We call our grandma Nana." She went over to the living room couch. "So, what's with the outfit?"
"I'm going to a bookstore and I want to be dressed up." Rebecca tried to go to the exit, but Mr. Miller was blocking her, those green eyes sparkling with amusement.
"You always dress like Alice in Wonderland when you go to a bookstore?" He really was getting on her nerves.
Her fingers tightened around the handle of her frilly purse. "It's just a fashion style, like Goth or something. Would you let me through?"
"Not until you open my present. Happy Birthday!" He poked her chest with the box. She almost felt the hatred seeping from her face. It made sense that he'd know when her birthday was. She had written it down on her application.
But ... there was a problem, a major problem.
"I figured," went on the man, "that since you live with my sister, you're almost family, and I should probably get you something." He wiggled his arm, letting the box move up and down.
The problem was ...
"Mr. Miller, my birthday was two months ago."
Silence, and then laughter, but it came from Jessa. She almost fell over in her seat.
Mr. Miller's eyes winced for just a moment, and then he recovered. "My mistake! Well, might as well open it. It's not like I'm going to take it back."
Normally, Rebecca would love a gift, but she thought this gesture from him was very inappropriate, so she couldn't bask in the moment. Still, politeness beat her brain into submission. She took the box and thanked him with pleasant words and a strained grin.
Her fingers tore at the gaudy wrapping paper.
It was a box of chocolate candies.
She tried not to barf at the thought of eating all of it. She wasn't the sort to go through a whole package. At her parents' house, there were probably years old bags and boxes of wrapped candy that she had forgotten to finish eating, and she wasn't the one who spent all the money on the candy. That was her father's doing. She could go through fruity candies like crazy, but thick chocolate was too heavy to dig into for long.
Rebecca's words were carefully measured. "Why, thank you so much for the thoughtful present. I appreciate it." She stepped into the kitchen, put the box of candy in the fridge, even though she was pretty sure that would make the chocolate melt faster once it was in the heat, and then she went back to the living area. "I bet it'll taste delicious." She smoothed out her skirt. "Well, I need to get going."
Mr. Miller stepped just a little bit closer to her. "What bookstore are you going to?"
It was then that Jessa took a plastic water bottle, pointed at her brother with it, and asked, "Thirsty, Bro?"
He gave her an impatient look. Then he looked back at Rebecca, waiting for an answer. Reluctantly, she gave him the name of the store. "That's right," he said. His tongue flashed out to swipe at his lower lip. "I wanted to go there too, been there lots of times. It's a nice place."
Tapping her heels together, raising an eyebrow, Rebecca said, "I wanted to sit down and have some coffee first, but I'm concerned about the distance between the two stores. I'm worried that I might use too much gas, driving from one side of town to the other."
His hand combed through his hair. "That's nothing to worry about. Just get some coffee now and drink it on the way to the store, or just drink coffee here."
Rebecca's shoulders slumped. Her lips flattened. Then she called out the bullshit. "First of all, I don't drink coffee. Second, the coffee shop is literally in the same building as the bookstore. The interiors aren't even separated by walls."
Jessa was laughing so hard that she ended up coughing and gasping for breath. That was when Jenny emerged from her bedroom, looking pretty tired. "Hey, what's going on? What's Cliff doing here?" She took note of Rebecca's clothing. "Oh. You're a Lolita girl? Cool."
Mr. Miller's face seemed to darken. His head lowered and the tip of his shoe drew short lines in the carpet. "Must have been thinking of a different bookstore," he mumbled.
