Chapter XXXII: Shopping!

March 25, 2540 (UNSC Calendar)/

New Alexandria, Reach

"So, how was it?" Pavel asked, as inquisitive as always.

"It was good, different," I said.

"Come on, tell me the truth," he said.

"Ok, it was great. There I said it."

"Then why are you looking so glum?"
"For starters, I'm hungover," I said.

"That it?"
"Well, I also feel guilty as hell, there's a chance Layla didn't request a transfer to the other side of the UNSC space."

"Nah, I checked."
"Really? Where'd she transfer to?" I asked. Before Pavel could even start answering I stopped him. "No, don't tell me, I think it's better that way."

"Sol."
Well thank you very much for respecting my wishes. YOU ASSHOLE.

"Hey, what are you calling me an asshole for?" Pavel asked, hurt.

So that's where Layla had gone to, Earth. No goodbyes, no nothing. I didn't even get a chance to apologize, but that might've been for the best. That way we'd simply get over each other and try to forget the fact that I chose not to save her first. For the time being I could feel content with the fact that she was alive, even if she had been on the brink.

I punched Pavel on the shoulder and then shook his head. That ought to shut him up, especially if my assumptions that he had had twice as much as I had were correct.

"Argh!"

They were.

"Seriously, you're back in the game so soon?" Marina asked.

"Pavel said the best way to heal a broken heart is sex with a stranger…" I mumbled.

"I thought that was chocolate," Marina said.

"Why are you even here?" I complained. I was very annoyed.

"Well, the UNSC houses all the crew in our ship in this motel you know, they told us that."

"Shut up." I had nothing clever to say, so that was my retort. I looked at the blonde pilot as she sat down on the chair next to me. I did my best to make sure that she wasn't feeling hurt in any way, she had tried to kiss me, or at least had seriously considered it, a couple of weeks ago (or days, depends if you count slipspace).

"How was your night?" she asked. She didn't seem affected by my recent escapade with that redheaded airhead.

"It was alright," I said.

"Don't be modest Frankie, it was great!" Pavel helpfully said. He made a point to emphasize the word 'great', making me feel uncomfortable. Marina looked a little awkward too, that and the lack of that joyous air she usually had around her was a little bit unsettling. Maybe she had felt hurt.

I just keep messing up don't I?

Pavel and Marina both looked at me, I was forced to bite down on my toast to avoid their eyes.

"Did I say that out loud?" I finally asked.

"Say what out loud?" Pavel and Marina asked simultaneously. That felt awesome, now I looked like an imbecile that couldn't filter his thoughts and didn't know if he had actually talked or not. The sad part was that I was just that.

"Never mind."
I stood up and gulped down the rest of my coffee before I left. No need to be under two pairs of inquisitive eyes. I'd rather face torture. Or at least a different kind of torture. I was already starting to sweat with all that pressure being put on me.

As I walked the boring hallways of the motel, I decided that I'd do some swimming. I hadn't been on a pool or a large body of water (that didn't involve running away from an enemy Locust walker) ever since I had left Jericho VII seven years ago.

Seven already? I'm getting old.

I wasn't, I was twenty-five years old, not even a quarter of the average human lifespan had gone by. Well that came from the latest figures, no one had taken into account the billions of deaths due to the war. Life expectancy was now probably around the lower seventies if you took all those deaths into account. It was bound to get even lower if the Covenant kept pushing towards Earth.

While on my way to my room to put on some swimming trunks I realized something. I did not own a pair of swimming trunks. In fact, I did not own anything that didn't have a UNSC logo stamped in some place or other. Even my underwear had UNSC logos around the waistband. It was actually weird how the UNSC wanted to signal everything as theirs. Granted everything was theirs, but still. I entered my room and grabbed my gray cargo pants and a gray t-shirt that happened to have the letters 'UNSC' written on the left side of the chest, with my last name printed right below them. I decided I was going to go shopping.

"Where are you going?" asked Marina as I left my room and walked towards the bus station.

"I'm going to buy something that doesn't have Kevlar fibers in it."

"Everything has Kevlar fibers in it nowadays," she replied.

"You know what I mean," I told her as I shouldered my duffel bag. I might've been on a quest to buy regular clothing, but that didn't mean that I would leave whatever mall I entered carrying shopping bags. I didn't intend to look like an idiot.

"Wait a moment, I'll go with you," she said as she hurried towards her room, no doubt headed for her wallet or something like that. She entered her room and five seconds later she left, guess I was right; she did grab her wallet and nothing else. If I had been her I would've taken of my pajamas, but then again, who am I to judge.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"The closest mall I can find," I told Marina.

"Ok, what will you buy?"

"I don't know, jeans and running shoes. Don't really need anything else, how about you?"
"Not sure yet, I think I'll update my lingerie collection."

"You'll… linger… what?" I asked, dumbfounded. Admit it, it's not often that people answer a rather common question with that phrase.

"Relax, you don't have to come into the store with me," she said, "although I sure could use your opinion."

I had no idea whether she was joking or not, so I decided to simply ignore her comment and hop on the bus, it was almost empty, so we had no trouble finding a seat. As soon as we were inside it, it sped away from the bus stop near the motel at 90 miles per hour. I had to hold on to something.

The bus ride to the Sunrise Mall was uneventful, few people hopped on the bus and Marina was mostly quiet, just speaking every couple of seconds to point at a pretty building in the distance or show me a sports car that she liked. The rest of the time I just stared at the seat in front of me, which was empty for the duration of the trip. The trip ended after only ten long minutes, although it seemed like a lot more when your only method to pass time consisted of staring at the fuzzy headrest of the seat in front of you.

I hopped off the bus with Marina trailing behind. I looked at the mall. My first thought was that it would've made a very nice defendable position, it was tall, with small entrances and absolutely no windows on the outside, not even displays. The entrances were mostly automatic glass doors, with a few service entrances on the sides, the parking lot around the mall was huge, which meant that it was a killzone for any attackers trying to take the complex.

My second though was that it was the ugliest piece of architecture that I had ever seen in my entire life. It was basically a giant poly-crete rectangle with a few entrances in the middle of a sea of gray asphalt.

"That is one ugly building," I finally said.

"Yes, but it's supposedly a great shopping mall, so we're going in whether you like it or not," Marina snapped.

"A little bit aggressive today, are we?" I asked.

"Shut up," she said.

The mall was actually prettier inside than it was outside, not that that was a great achievement. It was, however, massive. There was even a network of roads for little carts to transport obese and tired shoppers. Or lazy ones, such as myself. We hopped on one of the little carts and headed to one of the larger stores where you could buy pretty much any type of clothing. We hopped off right in front of a store labeled 'New Navy.'

"Does that mean there is an Old Navy?" I asked.

"How am I supposed to know" Marina retorted.

So she was angry at me, hard to figure why (ignore that, it's sarcasm). I have no idea why she'd wanted to come with me, she had barely uttered a word since we left the bus and now she was snapping at me. The easy-going girl with good humor and dirty jokes was nowhere in sight, guess I'd have to ride this one out.

We entered the store and I immediately felt confused. It was huge, with different sections for men and women and kids, then there were subsections for that in no apparent order. It was like a labyrinth, designed to make you feel lost and have to ask for help from the staff. I was a battle-hardened UNSC Marine. Not a regular Marine, but an ODST. Saying that I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed was saying something. I came here for a couple of jeans and a swimsuit, but there were so many types of different jeans that I could barely think about which one I was going to get.

"Hi, you seem a little lost, can I help you?"

I turned to find myself facing a New Navy employee. She was a pretty girl that looked about nineteen years old.

The Ramsey curse strikes again! I thought to myself. The Ramsey curse in question was the fact that I often found myself surrounded by beautiful women. I wasn't complaining, but even I found it odd at times.

"Yes," I said with an awkward smile. "I haven't been shopping in over five years, so I'm not entirely sure how this works," I explained.

"Oh, don't worry, what did you want to buy?" she asked.

I told her and she proceeded to help me out, she pulled out the different types of jeans that existed from their respective racks and showed them to me, there were jeans that seemed to fit tighter than my ODST undersuit, there were also jeans that were so baggy they looked like skirts. There were jeans with more pockets than a soldier would ever need. There were jeans with more holes than fabric. There were jeans with intricate beaded designs. I really could've used Marina's opinion here, but she was on the other side of the store.

"Don't you have regular jeans?" I asked.

"Well, we have plenty of those," she said as she climbed up her ladder to pull down a bunch of jeans. To my surprise, they were regular looking.

"Yes, that's better," I said as I grabbed a pair of them that looked like they could fit me.

"Ok, what size are you?" asked the ever-helpful employee. She might as well have asked me what the square root of 389.837 was. The UNSC generally issued me my clothing, the clothing lacked labels. It was just regular clothing. I knew I was medium on my shirts, but I also knew that pants weren't measured like that. Last time I had gone shopping, over seven years ago, back in Jericho VII, I had been size 30 around the waist, but that had been seven years ago, so odds were that I was a larger size.

"I don't know," I said as I shrugged.

What happened next made me feel both stupid and awkward. The girl stared at my waist to make an educated guess about my size. Whenever someone stares at your groin area, you also feel weird.

"Maybe 32, take a 34 just in case," she said as she handed me two pairs of jeans.

"Thanks," I said as I hurried to the changing rooms. Turns out I actually was a size 32, so I left the 34 in the changing room and hurried back to the jeans section to thank the girl. As soon as she had said 'You're welcome' she offered to help me if I needed anything else, I asked her where the swimsuits were and she pointed me in the right direction. This trip was easier as I now knew my size, so I simply grabbed a pair of black trunks that stopped right above my knees. I looked around the store for Marina until I finally found her looking at some shirts.

"You ready?" I asked.

"You're the one that took hours to find two items of clothing," she said.

Yep, still angry.

"I'll take that as a yes," I said as I hurried to the cashiers. Since no one was there, my new friend came to the rescue once more.

"Will that be all?" she asked as soon as I placed my new jeans and swimming shorts on the counter.

"Yes, that's it."

"Cash or credit?" she asked.

"UNSC card," I said as I pulled it out from my pocket.

"That entitles you to additional discount, if you'll just give me your number and name."

"Forget the discount," I said. "Just charge it to my account."
"Good choice," the girl said with a smile.

Damn right it is, I don't want to get spam mail form New Navy.

As soon as I was one I stuffed my new possessions into my duffel bag and left.

"Come back soon!" the girls said a little to eagerly.

"Is that your new girlfriend?" Marina said, annoyed. If she was going to be an asshole, I had the right to be one too.

"Actually, we're meeting for coffee tomorrow in the food court, during her break."
"What?" she exclaimed. She had a surprised look on her face. "Really?"
"No you idiot!" I said, this time putting a joking tone in my voice.

"Oh," she said. "Guess I had that one coming."
Marina was one of those people you could talk to, but I wasn't the same kind of person she was, had I been she probably would've explained how she felt to me and all that, or I would've asked her, right now I only felt like I had no idea how to proceed.

"What now?" I asked, mostly to myself.

"I'm going to Victoria's Secret, you're welcome to join me or simply wait outside."

"You were actually serious about buying underwear?" I asked.

"Sexy underwear," she corrected.

That actually made me feel jealous, she was my friend and nothing else (yet), but she must've been buying the lingerie for some reason.

We reached the large store after five minutes of walking, this walk was a lot less awkward and was spent joking around much like we used to do whenever she was extracting my team or fixing something that I broke. I also noticed how the people in front of us stayed clear of our way, I was a marine, after all, and Marina was dressed in her pajamas, which meant that she was just a bit weird. I was glad I hadn't worn my ODST all-blacks. We had fame for being crazy around the universe. I remember this one time a young lieutenant addressed me as 'sir' because I was an ODST, I couldn't stop laughing for the next hours, the lieutenant had been quite offended.

"Here we are," Marina said. And here we were. The store was not as large as New Navy, but it was still fairly large, and its display windows were covered with posters of beautiful women wearing underwear and nothing else. That was one of the reasons why this store was famous.

"I think I'll wait outside," I said, I did not like the idea of entering a store that was meant for women to buy their underwear.

"Suit yourself," my friends said as she entered the store. I sat in a bench and looked around, there were a couple of candy stores and a Toys 'R Us nearby, but I decided to head to a place that sold sport shoes.

"Hello, welcome to Happy Soles! What can I help you with?" a large black man said. He would've fit nicely in a marine armor, the white and red outfit that he was wearing right now simply made him look ridiculous. My heightened eyesight and soldier mentality took quick not of the man's physique and possible weak points before I stopped myself.

"Yes, I just want some running shoes," I said, I was still new to this shopping thing.

"Any kind in particular?" he asked me.

"Good ones," I said as I shrugged. "That'll last."

"I think I've got exactly what you need," the man said before he headed to another side of the store. I followed him while wondering if people outside of the military were just that nice or if my military uniform made them behave like that towards me. I then wondered that if the second point was true they could be nice because they respected me or because they were afraid of me. I checked my arm to confirm that my Helljumper tattoo wasn't peeking under my sleeves and relaxed a little when it wasn't.

Maybe they do actually respect me.

The man showed me a pair of shoes that looked like they could last through a war, I wanted something more normal.

"Anything smaller?" I asked.

"Sure, we've got the new Nikes," he said as he pointed at another pair of shoes. This pair was smaller and looked nice.

"Sure I'll take those," I said.

"That was quick," the man said as he laughed. "What size?"

"Eleven, I think."

"I'll get you ten and a half through eleven and a half ok?"
"Sure."

The man returned with three boxes of shoes, I only tried out the right shoe, unlacing combat boots can be a real bitch sometimes, so I settled for trying out only one side. I finally settled for the size eleven and a half shoes, they were a nice fit, and it wasn't like I was getting any bigger, not unless ONI decided to pump me full of drugs later on, although I was thankful for the recent augmentations. Everything seemed less tiresome.

I checked out, denying the UNSC discount once again and left towards the bench outside of Victoria's Secret. Marina was already waiting for me there, she was carrying three different bags, all of them were pink with the store's name in silver letters.

"That sure is a lot of underwear," I said.

"Sexy underwear," she repeated.

I sighed and we headed to the food court, talking like old friends, I'm glad Marina wasn't feeling cranky anymore, after all, where would I have gone to when I needed to see a shrink?

HAHAHA psych! I was kidding, still had a couple of awkwardly-written characterization chapters that probably didn't do their job right.

Love you guys, hope you enjoyed.

-casquis