preparing for diwali [dated to 11/12/2015]

[puckandpie]

Things have been back to normal for a couple days now. Or as normal as things ever get in Darrow, I suppose. There's sunshine now and blue skies (sometimes) and no monsters lurking behind corners or running through the streets, no horrid sirens at sundown.

For all of that, I still feel uneasy, constantly jumping at every sound and barely sleeping a wink. Derek's been nice enough to let me sleep on his couch once I discovered that I couldn't sleep in my own apartment alone. I should be embarrassed, I know, and I am, but it's an embarrassment I can handle if it means actually getting a few hours of sleep every night.

I've been baking a lot. Stress baking. Not everything has turned out great, but it's been something.

Right now, I'm on the hunt for a new hockey stick though. It's the first time I've really ventured out for longer than an hour or two at a time, but it feels important, a necessary step to returning to normal. Like I need to take back something I lost during those two weeks of terrible nightmares so I can move on.

There's a store in the mall I remember seeing a few months ago so I try there first. It's a little overwhelming being around so many people after two weeks spent in a nightmare followed by several days of basically hiding in Derek's apartment, but I force myself through the crowds, knowing that it'll all be worth it in the end. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can make it out onto the ice again and I'll definitely want to have a stick by then.

I don't quite make it to the store I came for though, distracted by the sight of Derek inside a clothing store with a girl I've never seen before. He has that sort of grumpy, unamused look on his face that I can recognize now as being not entirely genuine as she holds up a shirt against his chest and then shakes her head.

Curious, I step into the store, sliding past a rack of equally colorful shirts. "Well, fancy seeing you here," I say as I approach, giving a friendly smile to the girl. It's only then I remember exactly why Derek might be looking to buy something uncharacteristically colorful. "Oh, is this for Diwali?"

Comments

[everyonetakes]

She would have taken him to the Dressing Room, but as soon as she'd suggested it, Derek had given her this look, like being forced into the fashionable boutique where she works is just taking this whole thing a step too far and so she'd sighed heavily and agreed to the mall. It's not the end of the world really and she's managed to find a few shirts that are both bright and not totally hideous, but she isn't sure if Derek is actually going to go for any of them.

"You can't just veto everything I suggest," she tells him, because she's pretty convinced that's going to happen. "Diwali is supposed to be all bright and shit, so you have to be all bright and shit."

She's still clutching a vibrant blue sweater when someone else approaches them and she turns to look at him, giving him a faint, curious smile. He obviously knows Derek and she waits for an introduction, figuring that's probably more polite than just piling more brightly coloured shirts on Derek as he stands there.