"We can't go wrong with matching outfits, right? Follow us boys." And so we did.
"How about that?" "Oh that's nice but what about this?" "Yeah but it doesn't match with this does it?" "You're right, as long as we get the colours matching it should be fine though right?"
As we were walking around the shop, Relentia flipped the sign hanging on the shop door so it now read 'Closed'.
I looked over at Jamie. "Looks like we're gonna be here a long time."
He sighed. "Yeah, last time something like this happened it lasted seven hours."
"Seven hours!?" I flinched. What the hell?
"Pfft. I'm kidding" Jamie laughed sneakily. "You actually fell for that? Haha."
This cheeky brat.
"You got me - very funny." Jamie kept laughing until he got tired then he turned serious. "Reno, what do you think about… running away?"
"What?" What is wrong with kids these days.
"You know—to play out. You like playing outside, right?" He asked curiously.
Oh so that's what he meant. "I've never played outside before." At least not in this world and very little in my old world. "Huh? Really?" He said, baffled. I nodded.
"Wow, so we definitely need to run away then." He said with resolve this time. I didn't like the way he was phrasing this.
"No no no," I said "We can't run."
"Why not?" He asked confused, his head tilting to the side as if my statement was outlandish.
"We should only go out with our parents' permission." I said. Wasn't that common sense?
"Permission?" He asked.
"If they let us—I mean." I explained.
"You use some big words for a kid." Shoot, my cover was blown.
"I read a lot of books with big words. Also I only used one big one word this whole time."
His expression turned strange. "Hm I guess you're right. Still…" he continued "Don't you think parents are annoying sometimes though?" His casual tone made my heart tense uncomfortably. Where was he going with this…
"Like how they don't let you do what you want… they tell you to sleep and… don't let you play outside with friends… sometimes I'd…"
Don't say it.
"Sometimes, I'd rather not have parents."
"What!?" I said, uncontrollably raising my voice by several degrees. The room froze. Silvia and Relentia who were picking out clothes turned back to see my flustered face. Zecko and Glyffe also came over.
"What's the commotion?" Zecko said. "Are you two okay?" Glyffe said.
"W-we're okay!" Jamie said quickly, panic evident on his face. He seemed scared of the face Zecko was making.
Silvia's face was neutral. "Reno, what happened?" She asked, concerned.
As everyone stared, my heart was still pounding. That shout had come from somewhere deeper than I wanted to admit.
It wasn't Jamie's fault—he was just being a kid—but those words had dragged something sharp and ugly out of me. I remembered the silence where a parent's voice should've been, the ache of being alone and pretending it was freedom.
I couldn't go back to that. I wouldn't let myself forget how much it mattered to have someone waiting at home, someone who cared if you came back.
I forced a smile.
"Nothing happened me and Jamie were just—" I looked over at him and he looked extremely concerned and scared because of how mad I got. He was just a kid after all.
"Having a shouting contest!" I grinned.
"Huh?" They all reacted in unison—Jamie included.
"You know that game where you say words louder and louder?"
I nudged Jamie subtly and then he burst to life. "Yeah, exactly! It's just that Reno went first, it's my turn next." He inhaled deeply. "WHAT!"
"Right." Glyffe sighed. Relentia glared at Jamie for shouting again but she didn't say anything, letting it go unpunished.
"Okay." Silvia said as the adults all exchanged glances. Of course they didn't buy that. The anger in my voice earlier was more than sufficient to indicate it was more than just a shouting contest.
"Kids do play these ridiculous games," Glyffe added.
"Perhaps." Zecko said.
"Regardless, if something did happen don't be scared to let us know. That goes for Reno and for you too, Jamie."
"I understand, I will make sure to tell someone if something happened." I reassured them. Jamie nodded along too.
Both Glyffe and Silvia were giving a look that said 'we'll talk about this at home.'
"Right we've decided on an outfit for you two." Relentia said brightening up the mood again.
"Perfect!" I smiled, trying to appear cheerful again.
"How about these two dresses?" Silvia suggested with an animated smile. "There's a white one for Reno and a black one for Jamie!" Relentia followed up.
Huh? Dresses? I looked to my left where Jamie was similarly dumbfounded. "D-dresses? Mum, y-you're kidding right?" I stuttered.
"Who's kidding?" Relentia asked.
N-no way… n-not like this. I could feel tears forming on the corner of my eyes.
"I tried to warn you Reno… this is why I said we should've ran away." Jamie mumbled. Maybe if he said this would've happened earlier, I might've actually listened.
"So who wants to try theirs on first?" Silvia asked politely. Were they actually serious about this? I instinctively took a step back.
"It's been nice knowing you, Reno." Jamie smiled as he took a step forwards - tears in his eyes.
"No Jamie, don't go!" I cried out. I didn't want to lose my second friend like this.
"I'm older than you—it's only right I go first and take one for the team." He spoke despondently, as if he'd resigned himself to this fate.
"Before I go, Reno, can you…" he paused, "Tell my pet sheep that I love her." He turned and walked towards the black dress.
"Jamie stop! You don't have a pet sheep, remember!" I shouted.
"Oh yeah—you're right. Oh well, bye then." He scratched his head as he walked towards Relentia. Well that was anti-climactic.
There had to be some other way. I looked around the room—looking for some sort of way out. My eyes homed in on the door, was that really the only way out of this? Unless—that's it! I looked behind me at the only hope left.
"Uncle Zecko," I called out, "Please help us before it's too late!" He was my only option left. I considered appealing to Glyffe but he was way too amused by the situation to intervene, I could tell that much.
Zecko looked shocked. His scratched his cheek. "Please uncle!" I put my hands together.
"Uncle, huh. I like the sound of that. Sure, I'll help you out kid." He said.
"Ladies, it's nearly the time when Jamie and his friends play out. Don't you think it'd be a good idea to let Reno play out with them too?" He asked. Silvia paused as if she hasn't considered that. "I think that would be great for their friendship." Glyffe added.
Once Glyffe had spoken, Silvia came to a conclusion pretty quickly. "Yeah I think that'd be nice for Reno."
He continued, "For them to meet up in time they can only try something on once—they probably won't have time to change after that too. I think they should change into something more appropriate for running around then…" he paused, "then a dress."
The ladies faces turned to disappointment. Jamie turned around - a bright hope returning to his eyes once more.
"Ugh fine." Relentia said. "There's Silvia's matching outfit they can put on instead." Phew. That was a really close call. Jamie reached for the two outfits in Relentia's hands and snatched both of them.
"Okay we'll put them on." He shouted as ran towards the changing room at the back. "Come on Reno let's go." He said as he ran past me. He really is lively, he certainly takes after his mum. I ran after him - as long as it was in the opposite direction to the dresses it was the right direction.
"You won't need help changing Reno?" Silvia shouted concerned.
"I'll be fine mum!" Sorry mum, I have to look cool in front of the people my age.
"Oh my, they grow up so fast." Silvia sighed.
"Don't they just," Zecko said.
"How long were you planning to tease them - you weren't actually going to make them wear those dresses right?" Glyffe said.
"Ah." The two ladies whistled innocently. "The weather sure is nice today right, Relly?"
"Te-Tell me about it Silvia."
Glyffe and Zecko exchanged glances, they were probably thinking something along the lines of 'these two are dangerous when they're together.'
Meanwhile in the changing room as we were getting ready, Jamie was apologising.
"I'm so sorry about earlier," he said. "I didn't mean to upset you or anything. I just wanted to sound cool."
One nice thing about kids this age is that they tend not to hold grudges or let their pride cloud their judgement. They usually apologise faster than adults when it matters.
"No no it's alright—I overreacted. It's water under the bridge."
"Huh, what does that mean?" He asked. Well—of course he wouldn't know what that meant.
"It means it's behind us or in the past now, so you don't need to worry about it anymore."
"Ohh okay, you really must read a lot!"
"Yeah, something like that." I laughed. We got changed as we talked and by this point we were almost ready. Jamie was rushing to get outside so he was changing especially quickly. I was taking my time.
"Jeez this is taking too long , let's just go out!"
"Wa-wait!"
"We're done now!" He shouted, opening the door to the changing room.
Surprise!
"Ohh."
"Aww." Silvia smiled, "I told you this outfit would look the best on them."
"You're right. But I'm sure the dresses would've looked perfect on them, too." Relentia sighed.
"You were right about them needing help. Come here, you two."
"Jamie, your shirt buttons aren't done properly—you should start from the top down or the bottom up, not from the middle."
"Reno your overalls aren't even put on yet." Silvia said. "Let me help you. I'll tie your shoelaces too, hold still Reno." Yeah, I could've done it myself, but I guess this wasn't so bad either.
"They're all done!" They said together. I had on a black shirt with white overalls and Jamie had on a white shirt with black overalls. We both had matching trainer-like shoes and cream shorts on. We were fully matching.
"Can we go out now?" Jamie droned again, like some sort of broken record. "Fine." Relentia said, "As long as you don't go to too far from the central area."
"Make sure to not cause trouble! Come back after a few hours okay? Reno be safe okay? Be careful okay? Watch out for each other okay?"
Uh, Silvia, you've already said for me to be careful three times now. "Ok mum, I will I promise." I reassured her.
"Don't worry aunt, I'll be there to show him around! We'll take care of each other!" Jamie promised.
"Come on Reno let's go!" Jamie grabbed my hand again as he rushed towards the door.
"Be careful okay?" I could hear Silvia say again in the distance. I felt a little sad leaving her, especially hearing the concern in her voice.
"I will don't worry!" I said one last time.
Jamie tugged me toward the central plaza, laughing. But even as I smiled, I kept hearing his voice in my head.
'Sometimes I'd rather not have parents.'
I wasn't sure why but I couldn't shake it.