She looks over at me like we’re girlfriends shopping together instead of an adult shopping with her kid’s friend. I don’t really know what to say, so she goes on.
“He takes after his dad a lot. That man ran hot and cold. Either he was volcanic, or a complete iceberg. When his love was flowing over me, it was the greatest thing I’d ever felt, but when he turns on you… oof. Not good,” she says, shaking her head.
“Hunter hasn’t really turned on anyone, has he?”
Her eyebrows rise like she’s surprised I’m so out of the loop. “Don’t you remember Marshall Gough? He was Hunter’s best friend in elementary school.”
“Vaguely. Didn’t he move a couple years ago?”
I think he used to be one of the popular kids, but I had forgotten about Marshall Gough until she mentioned him. We were all in the same fifth grade class together, but I only ever spoke to him once—and it almost got me in trouble.
Marshall was something of a class clown, and one day during science he earned a few chortles with some dumb comment about how the planetary nebula we were studying looked like a woman’s vagina. He was sitting at my table between Hunter and me, and since I was not one of the chortlers, I guess Marshall felt the need to convince me. He started tracing the picture in our textbook with his fingertip and saying things like “See it now? You’ve got one, you should recognize it.”
Since the jerk wouldn’t stop talking to me and he was embarrassing me, I told him to leave me alone and pay attention. That’s all I said, but I happened to say it when the teacher was looking at our table. Mr. Branch snapped, looking directly at me, and my heart plummeted. I thought I was going to get in trouble for talking when I wasn’t supposed to be, but at the last moment he changed his mind and his gaze shifted to Marshall for the verbal warning.
Venus nods. “He and Hunter had a falling out. Things got so bad for him at school, his mother decided to pull him out. She open-enrolled him somewhere else for middle school so he could have a fresh start.”
I can only stare at her as she says this like it’s acceptable. “What do you mean it got so bad? Like, Hunter… bullied him?”
“I wouldn’t say bullied,” she says, her tone rising by a couple octaves. “Hunter’s just… he can be a little intense if you cross him. Like his father,” she adds, like that helps. “His father pretty much ruined my modeling career just because his fiancée found out about us and left him. It wasn’t my fault. He’s the one who initiated things between us, and stronger women than me couldn’t resist that bastard, but at the end of the day, I was the one he punished.” Looking over at me with wide eyes, she adds, “And she came back, so I don’t know what he was so upset about.”
It’s all I can do to keep my jaw from dropping open as she says all this to me like it’s perfectly normal. My mom and I have a very open and honest relationship, but my mom isn’t nearly as scandalous as Hunter’s. I don’t even know how to process what she said, let alone respond to it.
Seeming to sense she’s over sharing, she waves away that conversation. “Anyway, let’s not focus on all that unpleasantness. We’re here to shop. Do you know what kind of look you want to go for?”
I shake my head, glancing down at my clothes. I’m wearing light denim jeans and a plain T-shirt. “Not really. I can’t take home a whole wardrobe or anything, though. My mom will flip.”
“Okay, no problem. We’ll keep it simple, get you some staples. I’m thinking a great pair of jeans, some black leggings, a couple tops, a stylish jacket. Oh, this is going to be so much fun,” she enthuses, flashing me a big grin.
I try to smile back, but I’m definitely feeling intimidated. “Yeah, so much fun.”
Chapter Five
It turns out shopping with Hunter’s mom is fun.
She’s a lot to absorb right off the bat, but the more time I spend with her as she hauls me through stores collecting more bags than I wanted to take home, the more I realize she just lives in her own world. She regales me with horrifying stories of “fun” things she did back in her modeling days, but recounts it all with fondness, like it’s nothing to be ashamed of. She buys me things I think are really pretty, and a few things I try to talk her out of because I know I’ll never wear them.
“Camel looks so good on you,” she insists, holding up a top that… well, I’m not sure if it’s a shirt or a bandana, but it doesn’t cover nearly enough skin.
“I’m never going to wear it,” I tell her, shaking my head. “It doesn’t matter how pretty it looks.”
“Nonsense. It looks great. We’re buying it,” she announces, draping it over her arm.
“I really think we should stop,” I tell her, glancing anxiously at the stuff she has already bought me. “We already have so many bags. I feel bad about you spending so much money on me.”
“Nonsense.” She waves me off. “When I got pregnant with Hunter, I hoped so hard he’d be a little girl so I’d have a daughter to doll up and shop with. Obviously, he was not a girl. I still dressed him cute, but boy clothes just aren’t as much fun as girl clothes.” Suddenly inspired, she says, “Oh, we need to get you a couple dresses! Every girl needs a little black dress and a little red dress in her closet.”
“I don’t really have a lot of occasions I need to wear a dress to,” I tell her.
“You’ve got those middle school dances, right? Picture this walking into your next one: you’re rocking heels and a flirty red dress, a black leather jacket, and a cute clutch purse. Oh, we need to get you a clutch. And makeup. We need to get you mascara. Your eyes are beautiful, a little mascara will really make them pop.”
I look around at the five shopping bags we have already accumulated. “I literally cannot take all this stuff home with me. My mom sent me to the mall with twenty dollars.”
“We’ll condense before we send you home,” she assures me. “It only looks like a lot because of all the bags, we can easily fit everything in just a couple. Don’t worry so much. Is your mom really going to be mad that you got to go on a shopping spree she didn’t have to pay for? Come on, now.”
She will, though. Not least of all because it’s not just some shopping spree she didn’t have to pay for—it’s a shopping spree sponsored by Hunter’s mom, and anything having to do with Hunter sets my mom on edge.
“Heeled boots,” she says, suddenly inspired. “Black heeled boots.”
“I don’t think…”
But she isn’t listening. She’s wandering off to the cash register to pay for the shirt I told her I’m not going to wear so we can go shop for boots I’ll also never wear.
___
After a full day of shopping, Venus and I have returned to the food court. She bought us bubble teas and sat me down to give me a makeup tutorial.
She only bought me a few makeup items, but she taps each one as she tells me what I need to know. She bought me a moisturizer, too. Apparently, Venus Keller believes it’s never too soon to start moisturizing.