June led Kelan through the store, looking carefully down each aisle they passed. She came to a halt at an aisle full of brightly colored costumes and jazzy accessories. This was the '70s aisle, all right.
"Oh! You found it," Kelan said gratefully. He stepped ahead of her and briskly strode to a fixture where some jackets with ruffled shirts hung. They looked similar to the purple costume he carried. June followed him into the aisle, though at a slower, methodical pace to retain some of the daintiness she had acquired. By the time she caught up to him, he'd already hung the purple jacket on the rack and started walking back toward her.
Kelan halted once they reached each other. He looked at her with a sympathetic but warm smile. "That's a restrictive dress to move around in, huh? The look is worth it, though."
June felt the costume's bodice tense up around her as various other parts of the costume firmed up, drawing inward. It made her stand a little more rigidly. It wasn't uncomfortable by any means, rather it felt surprisingly supportive. "Uh, sure? I suppose. I'm trying to get the hang of wearing this costume."
"Oh, that is a costume?" Kelan said, genuinely surprised. "You look so natural in it, I assumed you wear this sort of thing all the time."
"I--" June had started to answer with the intent of telling Kelan the honest truth about what she was wearing and what it had done to her. But as she thought about it, the allure of embodying a gothic lifestyle beyond the vapid pretense of a costume party was appealing to her more and more.
She settled on a lie that closely matched his expectations. "I... have other goth outfits, but none are this fancy." She couldn't help but speak in a slightly dour, pouting tone. It felt bad to fib to such a trustworthy person.
If Kelan suspected she wasn't being honest, he didn't show it. "Aha. So, nothing that quite screams 'Halloween party' like a big fancy gothic dress. What do you think about it, now that you're trying it out?"
June had to consider for a moment. It hadn't been more than fifteen minutes since Lola had shown her what the costume could do, and so much had changed about her already. Plus, meeting Keelan had thrown her off her groove. It was difficult to think about how she truly felt about it all. She certainly didn't dislike it. There was potential in exploring more changes and leaning into the role play.
She shrugged and smiled. "I only just got it before we ran into each other. But I like it so far. It's definitely going to grow on me."
That got a big smile out of Kelan. "That's great. I hope you get a lot of fun out of it." He lifted the arm that still had the vampire costume draped over it. "Now I'm looking more forward to finding the section I pulled this from. Maybe the goth style is more my thing, too. All these bright colors are headache-inducing."
June knew what he meant. The whole time they had been in this retro aisle, she'd felt a heightened anxiety from the mass of contrasting colors. As she glanced around at the garish items one more time, their intensity seemed to ratchet up to almost unbearable levels. The shop's fluorescent lights didn't do them any favors, casting stark light that bounced off the offending garments and shot like needles into her eyeballs. She pinched her brow with a couple of fingers and shut her eyes. "Yeah, let's get out of here."
She turned on the chunky heel of her black shoe and walked determinedly out of the aisle. Although she wanted to leave as quickly as possible without looking uncouth, the costume's new tightness limited her range of motion. Her shoes even felt heavier, requiring more effort to move at all. She frowned, puzzled. None of the goth items in her closet back home were this challenging to work with.
Kelan followed alongside, obviously making a deliberate effort to slow his pace so he wouldn't rudely overtake her. June appreciated it, even though she felt awkward slowing him down. She settled for resting her hands on the protruding lap of her multi-layered dress and hoped she at least looked respectable.