“oh shit, retro.” she grins a closed the door of her truck behind her and brought the engine to a roaring life. there were a lot of candies like that, that she forgot even existed. the reminder brought a nostalgic warmth to spread through her, a pink that she even felt on her cheeks. “i haven’t seen those in awhile…but i bet we can find ‘em.” she couldn’t say for sure though; but she was willing to bet somewhere in town would have them, if not the theater. before she pulled away she leaned on the frame of her open window. “there’s a dusty old party city…like a block that way. they have a lot of random candy.” she flashed a smile and then put the truck in gear and started out of the lot and on top the road in the direction of home. suddenly the coffee creamer in the passenger seat seemed futile because the craving for coffee was gone with the morning.
Dani couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to a Party City, there was a vague memory of the store sometime in her teen years, something along the lines of her cousin needing a wig for a halloween costume. It seemed that the store wasn’t as popular as it was when she was younger, especially around Halloween. Dani hadn’t gotten to do much Halloweening in in her teen years, she’d been allowed to dress up and go trick or treating when she was still small but the year she turned eight her parents had become more devout in their Catholicism and the holiday had been deleted from their calendar. She’d always loved the fall, the chill in the air, the rain, and the changing of colors, the excuse to layer and bundle up. She remembered that first year, being the only kid in her class to not wear a costume to school, she was still given a small bag of candy by her teacher but her parents picked her up early and she wasn’t allowed to attend the fall festival her school put on every year. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t dressed up since then, there was no one or anything stopping her from doing so since she left. Maybe this year she’d actually do something, even if just for herself, she was a long ways away from the fall but it was still something to ponder. Quinn seemed interesting, a lot warmer than most were to her especially given the circumstances. She wasn’t going to pretend to know the least about the other woman but there was this gravity about her that seemed to pull at Dani, made her want to linger in her orbit. She knew she’d have to stay on the edges of it all, for her own good but she couldn’t help her curiosity, her need to observe.
The walk to the party store was quite, but still scenic though if she was being honest she wasn’t sure there was anything you could do in a town like this that wouldn’t be scenic. The nostalgia of the town paired with the backdrop of the mountains made her feel like she was in one of those coming of age movies about some high school girl living in some little town with dreams of the big city. Pushing the door open, Dani understood that Quinn had been very accurate when she’d called the place dusty. The store seemed somehow sterile even with all the colors plastered on the walls, the checkered floor that had obviously once been black and white was a shade of light and dark grey, the display balloons stapled to the walls had lost their shine beneath a thick layer of dust, the aisle seemed to have the bare minimum of items, only one employee leaning over the counter boredly, thick flames and a scraggly mustache. “Welcome to party city, let me know if you need anything.” the man spoke in a monotonous voice, obviously ready to go home. She smiled awkwardly, her eyes quickly finding the candy Quinn had mentioned, and grabbing a small basket to fill with random handfuls, her fingers feeling grimy and gritty from the dust that seemed create a thin film over the wrappers, trying her best to pick from the bottom of the bowls to avoid as much dust as possible. He wrung her up quickly, and silently and she was out the door as quickly as possible, the deep urge to wash her hands crawling across her skin.