From the Shadows

©2009 Kirsten Nussey

Chapter Three: New beginnings

Eventually the pair found themselves stood in the dressing room of Krystal’s favourite clothing store, surrounded by the dozens of outfits that they’d already tried on and discarded. Ethereality was a relatively small store in the heart of the city specialising in gothic and alternative clothing of all different varieties. It wasn’t necessarily Kayla’s first choice of clothing, but she couldn’t deny that she looked amazing in it – she looked amazing in anything.

“You have so got to buy that!”

Krystal sighed as she looked at the price tags. Ethereality certainly wasn’t known for having friendly price tags, but then the clothing was unlike anything she’d managed to find anywhere else and she couldn’t deny that she’d already fallen in love with her current ensemble. A black basque with a vivid emerald green trim set off her eyes nicely and highlighted her shapely figure – she definitely wasn’t skinny, but wasn’t exactly fat either. She was a healthy size 14 with curves in the right places. She’d chosen a long black skirt, which swayed as she moved, to wear with the basque.

“Just one more final touch…” Kayla stood with her hands on her hips, paused in thought for a moment before she reached over to the pile of accessories she’d brought into the dressing room with them and pulled out an emerald green cross on a length of black ribbon and fastened it round her friend’s neck.

“Voila. What do you think?”

“I love it.” Krystal enthused, “Don’t you think it’s a little on the expensive side though?”

“Well why don’t you let me treat you?” Krystal opened her mouth to argue but Kayla carried on, “Your birthday is in a couple of weeks, so why not let me treat you early… I was stuck for present ideas anyway and at least this way I know you’ll like it.”

“Kay…” She whined… “You are not spending that much money on me!”

“Tough. You’ve easily spent as much on me in the past.” Krystal didn’t even bother to carry on arguing because she know she wouldn’t win, so she just changed back into her own clothes and helped Kayla pick out her outfit.

Kayla finally settled on a tight blood red corset with a long black skirt that was very similar to Krystal’s but with a slit up the side and a black choker.

“What about shoes?” Krystal asked, indicating the four pairs she’d brought into the changing rooms with her.

“Hmm… I think I like the black heels the best, they’re not too strappy and the heels won’t be too uncomfortable to walk in but they will definitely make you seem a bit taller. Oh and they’re sexy as hell.” Krystal smiled; Kayla was definitely the best friend to have around for fashion advice.

“What do you think of these?” She asked, holding up some similar shoes for herself, but with a smaller heel.

“Definitely you.”

As they tried on the shoes, Krystal couldn’t help looking in the mirror and making comparisons between the two of them – whilst she knew that she wasn’t at all bad looking herself, she found that Kayla was just beautiful. Her long, fairytale blonde hair always fell neatly over shoulders in vibrant waves, and she didn’t even need to plaster herself in make up because she had lovely smooth skin and bright blue eyes. The rest of her body was just as perfect; standing just short of six foot she was much taller than most girls, especially Krystal who was just five foot six, and her height only made her look even more slender. Yet, despite all of this, her breasts weren’t exactly on the small side. Most people would slave away at the gym for hours to get her figure and Kayla didn’t even have to bother.

Krystal was a totally different matter – just very average, she often thought that she looked quite pretty herself but noted that it took a lot more effort than it did for Kayla. Her naturally black hair seemed amazingly straight and very plain, with no sort of life to it, and next to Kayla’s expensive designer clothes she often felt scruffy.

Even their friendship circles were different. Kayla had always had a large group of both male and female friends, whereas Krystal tended to have just a few close friends – mainly female - that she could rely on. Even then, with Megan no longer considered a friend; it was going to make it difficult to hang out with a lot of her other friends. She sighed and started putting things back on their hangers so that she could go and pay for the new clothes.

“Do you fancy getting some new underwear too?” Kayla asked her, grinning at her friend’s shy blush.

“Well it’s not like anyone is going to see it…”

“You never know, and I could really do with some.”

In the end, the two of them wandered back out of the dressing rooms and, after paying for their new outfits, they decided to head into the lingerie store next door. Krystal noticed almost immediately that there were some really nice basques on sale, but she saw no need in buying fancy underwear when nobody would ever see it.

“See anything you like?” Kayla asked.

“Yeah I do, but I just don’t see the point and, to be honest, the whole thing just reminds me of going shopping last week with Megan. It should have been our two year anniversary today, Kayla. I would have lost my virginity to him tonight…”

“I’m so sorry.” She said simply, not really knowing what else to say, but realising that perhaps she shouldn’t push the issue.

“It’s alright. Lucky escape I suppose.” She started sifting through the sale rack, trying to divert the attention from her relationship with Adrian. “I bet you’d look great in this.” She pointed out a black lacy bra with a matching thong at nearly half price.

“Ohhh,” Kayla’s face broke out into a grin, “I love it. What do you think to this?” She held up a black basque with red flecks in the lace trim, it had suspender straps and a matching thong.

“Very nice.” She winked at her friend.

“That settles it then,” Kayla added it to her basket.

Whilst Kayla headed into the dressing room to make sure the basques would fit, Krystal wandered round the store. She knew Kayla would be a while, there was only one dressing room, which of course had a queue, and Kayla took forever to try things on at the best of times.

She found herself drawn to a basque hanging on the sale rack, with a massive seventy five percent knocked off and in her size. It was bright green with a black lace material over the top and came complete with a matching thong and suspenders. She decided to bite the bullet and buy it, slipping it into her Ethereality bag so that Kayla didn’t spot it.

After leaving the store, they dumped their shopping in the boot of Kayla’s car and decided to head to the pub across the road for lunch. As they ate, they found themselves gossiping about all of the things they’d recently missed out on in each other’s lives. It was only little things but the more that Krystal sat and thought about it, the more she realised that Adrian had become so controlling of her life in the last few months that she hadn’t been able to do the things that she loved doing, like clubbing. In fact, the more that she thought about it the more she realised that her words to Kayla earlier had been right. It really was a lucky escape and the fact that Megan would probably end up facing the same crap from Adrian would end up being punishment enough for her.

Krystal had met Adrian the day that she arrived at university; he was already in his third year and was charged with the task of showing the new students who would be staying on campus to their halls. He asked her out on a date there and then, but she’d turned him down but he’d been so persistent and seemed like such a genuine guy that eventually she’d said yes. Then, at the start of December, they got together as a couple. Krystal found it hard to believe that she was already in her third year of university.