Chapter 10

The room was silent for a few long moments. Very rarely did we ever have this issue - Bailey and I - where we both became speechless. As a means of responding to the lack of talking, she sat next to me with a very serious look on her face. 

"What's the matter, TJ? You can't avoid Trish's wrath just for a few minutes to get your things?" 

"Well...um, sorta...." If she only knew the half of it. "And - it's not like it would even work that way. She would give me looks, and wouldn’t just let me leave again like that..." ...which couldn't have been more true. I love not saying the truth and not lying at the same time! 

"So then how are you planning to get your stuff...?"

Lost in thought, I found myself looking at the dresser in the TV room. Um, what is with the dresser in here? This isn't her bedroom.... Then I realized why it was in here - the bird took up most of the space in her room, besides her bed of course. I laughed a little to myself. The bird won over the dresser! 

"TJ, snap out of it!" She gave me a very worried look. 

"Oh, yeah?" 

"So you're planning to get your stuff how?" 

"Um..." Not knowing what to say, I started slamming my legs on the ground repeatedly. "You okay, TJ?" 

"I'm better than ever. So about what your bird was saying earlier...." 

"It's Sammy, TJ." I smiled - I had successfully changed the subject! 

"Right, Sammy... what was he saying before about big plans and fortune?" 

She looked at the floor and smiled at me, as if hoping I'd react a certain way to what she was going to say. 

"I was talking to him the other day about asking you if you'd help me make over my room. Sammy and I would like it very much." 

Bailey is on the verge of insanity. You could practically say she talks to herself, but since she says it all in the same room as a talking bird, it's okay. It's darned obvious that she loves that bird! 

"Sure Bailey, why not! Your room could use some major... help." 

She took a couch pillow and threw it at my stomach. 

"What, it's true!" 

"Let's just go, alright?" 

"Where?" 

"To your furniture store or whatever..." 

"Max's Furniture and Appliance Mart?" 

"Yeah, come on!" 

I followed her to her car. 

We went into the store and were automatically greeted by Darius as always. 

"Hey TJ," he said to me. Ever since I've talked to him about the note I recieved and mentioned the vague message it sent about 'changing my life', he has been calling me TJ. The formal barrier is broken, and I'm okay with that. 

"Who is this, TJ?" Though he was talking to me, now he was just staring at Bailey. 

"This is Bailey, my girlfriend..." She just waved awkwardly at him. "Yup, that's me...." 

"Well - isn't that great, TJ." There he goes again with his phoniness. What he's trying to say is, 'well, I guess that it would be easy to get a girlfriend when you finally decide to get a spray tan, contacts, and get your hair dyed.' I know that's what everyone thinks about me! But so what, I finally look normal... And, he didn't even know that she liked me even before my looks changed. So, in your face Darius! 

"So, we should be looking for our furniture now...." I had to leave, it was so awkward with him drooling over my girlfriend like that! 

We didn't take a second glance as we went downstairs, and passed all the over priced, already decorated furniture on the main floor. 

We went downstairs and passed the couches right away to the beds. 

"Wow, you really know where you're going." 

I gave her an amused look. "Well, this is just luck, as this is the first time I've ever gone here. I said to myself, 'the beds will be right past the sofas', and hey look, I got lucky!" 

She gave me a fake smile and I grinned. 

"So why do we have to look at the beds down here again? All of the ones upstairs looked so nice..." 

"Bailey, they're overpriced up there and since it's already all laid out and decorated, it stifles my imagination. Down here, I can get an image in my head of how I want it to look.” 

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, but it was so warm and inviting up there... it's so cold and blah down here." She was right, but it was still worth the price difference. "Let's just look, okay?" 

After a while of Bailey being super picky, she finally decided on the bed she wanted. As she had been doing this whole time, she got on the bed to check its 'comfy level'. 

"So how comfy is this one, Bailes?" Yeah, I just came up with this nickname... not sure if it's catching on, though... 

"What, so now I'm a dirty bale of hay?" So apparently it's not catching on. "It's decent I guess... but it could be better." 

"You know we can buy a new mattress for it if you like it, right?" 

"Oh... yes, I knew that...." She didn't know. 

"So, besides that, you like this one?" 

"Yes, the frame is nice...but I'm not digging the bedspread." 

"It's all good... Bailey... you can choose any bedspread you like." 

"Really?" 

"Of course really, the bedspread isn't attached to the bed!" 

"True...." 

Repeat this conversation about twenty times, and we found all the furniture needed for her room. Bailey likes to think these things through. I, on the other hand, can usually make a decision about a piece of furniture in about thirty seconds. So it was a little frustrating, but I was patient with her, and we got there in the end. 

We went upstairs to the cash register, and lo and behold, my favorite cashier of all was there. 

"What purchases will you be making today?" Her question was automatic, before she even noticed it was me. 

"Oh, hi TJ." She smiled at me. Now that I'm no longer albino, they haven't been calling me Mr. Alabaster. The name is no longer fitting. They've all agreed on how I changed my looks, but their assumptions don’t come close to the truth, of course. 

Then she noticed that Bailey was there. "Oh, so who's she?" She had her hands together under her chin with a strained expression. 

"This is Bailey, my girlfriend...." 

"Oh, so you have a girlfriend!" She smiled. "That's... great.... Good luck you two...." At this point, I was just staring at the cash register. "Right... so my things?" 

"Right - your things...." 

I started ranting off my design numbers like I always do. After I was finished, Bailey gave me a shocked expression like, 'wow, I didn't believe you could actually do that....' Once I looked away from her, I saw the cashier moving her gaze to me, away from Bailey. 

"Your things should be shipped next week sometime." 

Bailey gave me an annoyed look. I could tell that she wanted to get her room fixed soon. 

"Um - is there any way that you could send the things in tomorrow maybe?" I gave her a hopeful look. 

After just a minute's pause she said, "no, that's not possible." 

Then I noticed Darius had been standing behind me, because he started to talk. "Yes we can, Yvonne,” he interjected. “We can certainly send your furniture in for tomorrow, TJ." He looked back at Yvonne. "Come on, this is my best customer. Pay him some respect." 

Yvonne just pressed a button on her register and said, in a cold professional voice, "alright, your things will come tomorrow." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

When we got back to Bailey's place, she headed straight into the kitchen. 

"So, what do you feel like eating tonight?" 

I just shrugged, not sure at all what to suggest. "Anything good?" 

"No, all my food's good!... of course I have something good." After a minute of rifling through some food, she found something. "How's spaghetti? That work?" 

"Sure, spaghetti sounds good." I’d had such a busy day that I needed a nice filling meal, and I needed it fast. 

She started cooking the noodles while I sat at the kitchen table behind her. 

"So, what was with our cashier today?" Bailey’s voice sounded aloof, quite unlike her usual carefree tone. 

"Um... she was a cashier....” I replied hesitantly. “What about her?" 

"Doesn't she know you have a girlfriend? God, she totally was jealous, and you didn't even address it!" 

"What are you talking about? Back when I... looked like an albino she and other cashiers made fun of me. They called me Mr. Alabaster!" 

She didn't say anything at first, but I imagined her rolling her eyes. "Oh come on TJ, it's like you don't know what flirting is. There was other stuff going on there. She was looking at me with red hot jealousy!" 

"Sure she was." 

"She was, TJ, and you need to tell her to stop flirting with you!" 

"Whatever Bailey." Sometimes she is just so silly, there's no way that Yvonne had been flirting with me, ever, especially when I was an albino. 

I dished myself up a big serving when the spaghetti was done. I was surprised by how much I ended up eating. It was as if whenever I ate a few bites, that semi full feeling left me, and I needed to eat a few more bites to feel as full as I did a moment before. 

"So about your room.” I said, in between mouthfuls. “I can help you with that sometime tomorrow." 

"Sounds good. I can't wait to have a new room.” replied Bailey excitedly. “The wallpaper in there is the thing I can't wait to get rid of the most. It gets quite blurry after a while." 

"I’ll bet!" I said, probably agreeing a little too readily. I'm used to Trish's nice house. This house is a normal abode of a person my age. I have been just so spoiled with Trish's money.... 

Later, I followed Bailey in her room since she wanted to check on her beloved Sammy. I went with her because I wanted to talk with Sammy since he amuses me, but I was disappointed to see that he was asleep. 

"Aw well, Sammy does like to sleep early anyway," she said. 

"That's too bad, I wanted to... well, never mind." 

"It's okay, admit that you want to talk with him. I do all the time." 

I didn’t admit it though, since my wanting had been obvious. Bailey shook her head at me and proceeded to top up Sammy’s food and water, a smile playing on her face. 

After she’d set Sammy’s food down, she turned around and took her clothes off as if they were nothing, revealing her lace red bra and panties. 

"So, I'm kinda sleepy, how about you?" She asked, going in to touch my shoulder. Seeing her like this made me clam up. 

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh, come on now, you're living with me, you're going to have to sleep with me. Where else would you sleep?" 

"Um...." This little part hadn't quite snapped in my brain yet.... 

"Oh, come on, you know you want to." She went over to her bed and laid on it, kind of like how she had at the store, but with a very different connotation. 

"Can I have a sleeping bag?" She looked at me, genuinely hurt, and grabbed a sleeping bag from under her bed. "Fine, have it your way. Tonight." 

"Oh - it's not like that Bailey - it's just...." 

"Whatever, just go to bed." She threw a spare pillow at me, probably the one she had there intended for me. "Go to sleep already!" 

So I took the polka dot sleeping bag and went into the TV room and sat on the love seat. I put the sleeping bag on the floor and turned the lights on dimly. I took a deep breath, psyching myself up for what I was going to do. 

When she's asleep - I'll get out of here and go in her car... (I know where she keeps her keys) ...and drive to Trish's house to get my stuff. She'll be asleep, that I know... (she always goes to sleep on the earlier side since she 'never knows when a customer will call last minute to book an appointment - which may be early in the day - and "I need my beauty sleep) ...and since she's such a heavy sleeper, I'll be good! I can get all my stuff and be back here before Bailey even realizes that I left! She will be none the wiser... 

I'm just lucky that she forgot that I didn't ever get my stuff, or I'd be screwed....