Vanity and Death, chapter 1
<p>The day was cold and chill - a perfect day, she thought, to go shopping. These seemingly dark dreary days usually made others want to stay locked up at home and curl up in warm flannel pajamas, drinking hot cocoa and reading a romance novel. That was most people - most girls, anyway. Not Danny though. </p>
<p>Days like these she enjoyed most; partly because no one was out - the aisles weren't swarming with teeming masses and there wasn't anybody to push and shove and do all the typical rude shopping actions.</p>
<p>It was fall, or just nearly winter. The leaves had already fallen off birch trees and the cool breeze that the season brought had already rolled in. <br />
She walked inside the small store and grabbed a square, plastic hand basket and slung it over her arm. The door vacuum-sealed right behind her, sucking out all the air - but there was still oxygen lingering in her presence. </p>
<p>Danny walked up aisles one and two and saw nothing that particularly had her jumping up and down in excitement. As she turned the corner, though, going into the music section, it was hard to keep her eyes from falling out of her head. She closely read through each letter heading and looked under it to see what was available. She was a little upset when she had false hopes of finding the Adair CD, the one she'd been waiting for to come out for months already. She recuperated though and kept looking. Her eyes, concentrating like mad on all the small names and titles, made their way over to the letter "S". She turned ecstatic when she saw the CD she'd lost as a kid sitting under the category. She went and grabbed for Siamese Dream, but felt someone else grip it at the same time. She looked to the right of her shoulder and saw a guy around her age standing there with his hand still on the disc. His fingers had chipped black polish, Danny noticed as she looked down. She peered up and got a look at his face. Those eyes of his. <br />"Oh, sorry," he said. <br />"It's okay," she replied as she took the copy of the Smashing Pumpkin's CD. <br />
She dropped it into her basket and walked gleefully to the DVD section of the electronics. <br />
War of the Worlds. War of the Worlds. War of the... Here we go. Found it.<br />
Her pale face lit up, if that was even physically possible, and went to grab it. Again, though, someone else had reached for the movie at the same exact time. Their hand touched, and Danny quickly drew her hand back to her body. <br />
"Oh, sorry.."<br />Danny's mouth almost dropped to the floor when she realized it was the same person as before. Although his dark hair now hung in his face, he was still recognizable in Danny's mind as the one who had gotten their paws all over her Siamese Dream album. <br />"No, go ahead," Danny, slight irritation vivid in her voice, said. <br />
The look on the boy's face was of somewhat confusion. Was he to take the DVD, or be a gentleman and insist that she take it first? After quite a struggle with thoughts quickly running through his head, he bent down and grabbed War of the Worlds as swiftly as possible, and strode away without making a single sound. <br />
Danny shook her head. She felt bad now - she really did. There was nothing she could do though - he was already well gone. She found it best to continue on in her shop and, so, walked over to the makeup department. She thought in her head, 'Eyeliner. Eyeliner. Eyeliner.' as she searched the racks for the item. <br />
Purple or black? Black goes with everything, so I'll just go with that.<br />She decided to go with the black Maybeline eyeliner cosmetic and sighed as she went to reach for it. And for the third time that day, she felt a warm hand touching hers. She looked up and saw his nervous, very-sorry looking face. <br />"Hi again," her voice creaked.<br /> Both started to dry laugh at this third encounter of the day. She couldn't help but find this person, this guy, somewhat cute. His hair was flipped to one side, revealing red hair on the left side of his face. And he had the hood of his jacket pulled over his head. His cheeks tinged red like blush stains as he became filled with sheer embarrassment. He wasn't much taller than Danny herself, for he was fairly short for his age. And his smile - oh, that smile completed the picture perfectly.
<br />"My name's Frank," His voice rang.<br />"Danny," She replied. "I see we have similar tastes."<br />"Yeah, I noticed," Frank grinned. There was silence for a minute or so as the two exchanged knowing glances. <br />Danny smiled at him as he, from nervousness, choked down saliva. <br />"You know what, I wouldn't mind getting a coffee. Would you care to join me?" He humbly offered.
<br />"I'd be delighted." Danny replied, a smile that still couldn't be wiped off her face. Perhaps it was permanent, perhaps only temporary - but time would soon tell. She'd know, after about ten minutes or so of talking in the store café, that it definitely wasn't the latter.</p>
<p>Days like these she enjoyed most; partly because no one was out - the aisles weren't swarming with teeming masses and there wasn't anybody to push and shove and do all the typical rude shopping actions.</p>
<p>It was fall, or just nearly winter. The leaves had already fallen off birch trees and the cool breeze that the season brought had already rolled in. <br />
She walked inside the small store and grabbed a square, plastic hand basket and slung it over her arm. The door vacuum-sealed right behind her, sucking out all the air - but there was still oxygen lingering in her presence. </p>
<p>Danny walked up aisles one and two and saw nothing that particularly had her jumping up and down in excitement. As she turned the corner, though, going into the music section, it was hard to keep her eyes from falling out of her head. She closely read through each letter heading and looked under it to see what was available. She was a little upset when she had false hopes of finding the Adair CD, the one she'd been waiting for to come out for months already. She recuperated though and kept looking. Her eyes, concentrating like mad on all the small names and titles, made their way over to the letter "S". She turned ecstatic when she saw the CD she'd lost as a kid sitting under the category. She went and grabbed for Siamese Dream, but felt someone else grip it at the same time. She looked to the right of her shoulder and saw a guy around her age standing there with his hand still on the disc. His fingers had chipped black polish, Danny noticed as she looked down. She peered up and got a look at his face. Those eyes of his. <br />"Oh, sorry," he said. <br />"It's okay," she replied as she took the copy of the Smashing Pumpkin's CD. <br />
She dropped it into her basket and walked gleefully to the DVD section of the electronics. <br />
War of the Worlds. War of the Worlds. War of the... Here we go. Found it.<br />
Her pale face lit up, if that was even physically possible, and went to grab it. Again, though, someone else had reached for the movie at the same exact time. Their hand touched, and Danny quickly drew her hand back to her body. <br />
"Oh, sorry.."<br />Danny's mouth almost dropped to the floor when she realized it was the same person as before. Although his dark hair now hung in his face, he was still recognizable in Danny's mind as the one who had gotten their paws all over her Siamese Dream album. <br />"No, go ahead," Danny, slight irritation vivid in her voice, said. <br />
The look on the boy's face was of somewhat confusion. Was he to take the DVD, or be a gentleman and insist that she take it first? After quite a struggle with thoughts quickly running through his head, he bent down and grabbed War of the Worlds as swiftly as possible, and strode away without making a single sound. <br />
Danny shook her head. She felt bad now - she really did. There was nothing she could do though - he was already well gone. She found it best to continue on in her shop and, so, walked over to the makeup department. She thought in her head, 'Eyeliner. Eyeliner. Eyeliner.' as she searched the racks for the item. <br />
Purple or black? Black goes with everything, so I'll just go with that.<br />She decided to go with the black Maybeline eyeliner cosmetic and sighed as she went to reach for it. And for the third time that day, she felt a warm hand touching hers. She looked up and saw his nervous, very-sorry looking face. <br />"Hi again," her voice creaked.<br /> Both started to dry laugh at this third encounter of the day. She couldn't help but find this person, this guy, somewhat cute. His hair was flipped to one side, revealing red hair on the left side of his face. And he had the hood of his jacket pulled over his head. His cheeks tinged red like blush stains as he became filled with sheer embarrassment. He wasn't much taller than Danny herself, for he was fairly short for his age. And his smile - oh, that smile completed the picture perfectly.
<br />"My name's Frank," His voice rang.<br />"Danny," She replied. "I see we have similar tastes."<br />"Yeah, I noticed," Frank grinned. There was silence for a minute or so as the two exchanged knowing glances. <br />Danny smiled at him as he, from nervousness, choked down saliva. <br />"You know what, I wouldn't mind getting a coffee. Would you care to join me?" He humbly offered.
<br />"I'd be delighted." Danny replied, a smile that still couldn't be wiped off her face. Perhaps it was permanent, perhaps only temporary - but time would soon tell. She'd know, after about ten minutes or so of talking in the store café, that it definitely wasn't the latter.</p>
