Breathe Gentle | Tag - Open

[jasmine kirk patrick]

Amazing, how much responsibility she was given while this was only her first week to work here.

Jasmine strolled through the empty clothing boutique, her eyes scanning everything to make sure it was all in their proper place and looked decently. The clothing hung from the racks, sorted on color and type; women’s on the right, men’s on the left. Everything seemed perfect, the way it was supposed to be and the way Jas liked it.

Her long, black hair was pulled back in a braid, a few loose strands of her falling over her face. She took one of the strands and placed them behind her ear as she looked at her own reflection in the mirror. For a moment, she practiced her smile. She always wondered how real it looked to the people around her. Surely, customers wouldn’t notice whether or not her smile was real, nor would they really care. They came here to buy clothing, to look beautiful and be told they were looking good; and Jasmine was good at that.

Before she came to this place, before everything happened, she had a job in a men’s clothing store. She loved her job there, even though she was treated rather badly by her boss. The customers were always grateful and friendly, and since she served them well, they kept coming back. How the young woman regretted giving that up.

She turned away from the mirror, checking the large clock that hung right over the fitting rooms. It was nearly time. Nearly 9am. Jas always wondered who’d walk into a clothing store this early, but it wasn’t rare to have served a bunch of customers before the clock even hit 10. Due to her previous experience, the manager had trusted Jasmine could handle the store alone today. It was a little nerve-racking for the woman, but she decided to suck it up. She knew what to do, she knew how to register worked; this was a good test for her. Then why wouldn’t her heart stop its mad pounding?

The woman got herself together, though, as the clock hit 9am precisely and spun around, walking towards the door. She opened it and turned the sign from ‘closed’ to ‘OPEN’. A sigh escaped her lips, as if she’d just overcome something huge. Swiftly, she took her seat behind the register, where she waited for what the day would bring.

[veronica brenna bain]

Okay, did Veronica have a thing for starting huge fires or something? ...Yeah, she prbably did. She loved it too much; it was too beautiful for it's own good. She hadn't meant for the fire to get quite as big as it did. But, hey, that was life, wasn't it? Accidents happened. She knew that better than most people would. She would just need to be able to clear up a mistake, and it would all be fine.

But this had been one hell of an accident. Thankfully, no one was hurt or anything. But Ronnie's favourite shirt, a beautiful powder pink blouse, had been scorched a rather ugly brown from the flames that she'd been practising on. She should really have learnt more control.

That was her problem. She could start fires easily, but keeping them under control or putting them out was a huge challenge. It wasn't like she couldn't do it; o the contrary, that was one of the ways she practised. It was just...beauty. She couldn't quite bring herself to kill the flames. And she knew that was dangerous, but she couldn't help it. It was strange how much she could love something like fire, after what it had done to her before.

She shook her head quickly, not wanting to go down that track. Because, one she started down that road, she wouldn't be able to stop herself. She just wanted to buy clothes. Something nice, something pretty, something Ronnie. That wouldn't be too difficult, would it? No. Ronnie would know what she wanted when she saw it, wouldn't she?

She wandered inside the clothes store, a jaunty spring in her step as she entered. She could smell the clothes. It was a wonderful smell. One that would never fail to bring a smile to the young fire sprite's face. Well, actually, scratch that. It failed just then, because she ended up falling face first right into a clothing rack. She wasn't smiling then; she was the slightest bit shocked. She'd tripped over her own feet, surprise surprise.

She got up, giggling at her own stupidity. And that was when she noticed a woman with long, dark, glossy hair in a braid. Oh, god, it was so beautiful. Ronnie could just sit and play with it forever. Well, she couldn't, because that may have been considered creepy. But still. Then, she realised that, of course, she'd just fallen into a clothes track and made...a tiny bit of a mess. Whoops.

She looked at the woman, a sheepish grin painting her face and giggles fighting their way to the surface. "Sorry," she said, fighting laughter. "Kinda...uh, tripped over my own feet there."

Outfit: Clicky! Tagged: Jas! Open! Notes: :3 Word Count: 466

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[jasmine kirk patrick]

Jasmine looked up from the book she was reading; obviously, she wasn’t going to sit here in this store and stare straight ahead for eight hours straight. She had to do something to keep her mind a little occupied and this book was really rather good. Not as good as ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. The woman chuckled to herself; no, she hadn’t actually read that book. She wasn’t planning on reading it either, but for a short moment, she could hear the voice of her former best friend in the back of her mind. Zhuo would’ve shameless come over here and brought her that book, and if she’d refused to read it, he would sit in a corner near the dressing rooms and chuckle to himself. He might’ve even read it out loud, even when there were customers in the store. The thought of that young man made Jasmine both happy and sad. Happy, because he somehow always managed to make her laugh, no matter how dark her dreams had been. Sad, because she missed him. She missed him so terribly much.

The smell of something burned entered her nostrils and the young woman lifted her eyes to see someone had entered the shop; she’d been so far off in her thoughts, she hadn’t even noticed the footsteps. Quickly, she closed the book, stalled it safely in a little cabinet behind the counter and stood up, a smile on her face, as usual. “Good morning,” she instantly said, making her presence known and sounding very welcoming. Jasmine did have a talent for that. Her voice was warm, as were her smile and eyes and there was something inviting about her. If people only knew what happened on her inside..

Apparently, the customer was so startled by Jasmine’s sudden appearance – after all, she’d been hidden behind the counter, so it must’ve appeared as if she doomed up out of nothing – that the young girl lost her footing and tumbled over, straight onto a rack of brand new clothing. “Oh my God!” the raven-haired woman exclaimed, literally bringing both her hands up to cover her mouth as she watched the shocking scene play before her eyes. A scene of which she thought she’d caused it.

“Are you alright?” Jasmine instantly rushed over to the side of the customer; she at least hoped the girl would still be willing to buy something now, after such an unfortunate first encounter with the latest fashion. Luckily, she spotted a grin on the girl’s face, which almost made Jas sigh in relief. And when she explained she’d tripped over her own feet – although Jasmine didn’t know whether that was true or whether the girl just said that to make the saleswoman feel better – she, too, started to smile. “It happens to the best of us, doesn’t it?” It surely did, because Jasmine was a frequent wearer of high heels and that was always risky business.

Quickly, the older woman lifted up the rack, that had tumbled over, but ooh! That thing was a lot heavier than it looked! Her eyes widened slightly as she felt her grip on it weakening. ‘Don’t drop it, Jas,’ she thought to herself.

[veronica brenna bain]

As the girl's feet met the floor once again, she laughed just that little bit harder. The raven-haired woman she'd seen before had actually taken the time and the trouble to come over and...check on her! This was weird! Rather nice, actually, but weird. If that had been her aunt, it'd probably have been a shrug and a firm "Watch where you're going, Ronnie!" But, no, it'd actually been a "Are you alright?" And, for some unknown reason, she just found this hilarious. Maybe it was because she was so used to it?

"Hey, hey, relax," the girl snickered, pushing her rose-red hair behind her ear. "I'm fine, it happens all the time, trust me." This and worse. The last time, actually, Ronnie had ended up with a broken arm and wasn't allowed to paint or anything for forever. That had been boring as hell; she really needed to remind herself to be careful. But, damn, this had just been too funny!

She nodded enthusiastically at the woman's next words. "Oh, god, yes," she laughed brightly. "Me more than others, it seems. I need to be more careful." She stood up straight, smoothing down her top and chuckling at herself. It was okay; it was really frequent. She was doing this all the time. In fact, she'd been lucky that this time she'd had such a nice person to come check on her. The last one had been all sniffy because she knocked over a CD rack. Yup. It really was that bad.

Oh, lordy, she'd forgotten that she'd knocked over the clothes rack. Oops. She felt almost guilty, now, watching the woman struggle to lift it. It was really...sturdy. Ronnie could tell. She'd just fallen into it, for Chrissakes. And this poor woman was lifting it up by herself. Nope. No, she wasn't. "Here, let me...uh.." Ronnie said, wrapping her hands around the cool metal bars and helping to yank the rack upright.

Outfit: Clicky! Tagged: Jas! Open! Notes: :3 Word Count: 343

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[jasmine kirk patrick]

Relax? Yes, Jas would’ve loved to relax, but with every tiny little thing that happened around the store, she felt how she got really uptight and nervous. She wanted to make a good appearance, especially since she was on her own today, but the day wasn’t off to a good start. On the other hand, she’d met a friendly girl, who actually offered her a hand in putting the clothing rack back upright.

The woman heaved a sigh when the two of them managed to get the rack back in it’s normal position. Come to think of it, its location really wasn’t very practical, in the middle of the store. Jas would have to discuss that with the manager of the place and see if they could find a more appropriate spot for it. But that could wait; she had a customer now. “Thank you for your help,” she stated friendly, just before her eyes fell on the burned shirt the girl was wearing. It made both of Jas’ eyebrows rise. Clearly, this redhead got herself into a little more trouble than simply tossing over a clothing rack.

“Do you need help with that?” the saleswoman asked, gesturing towards the shirt, but she couldn’t help and laugh lightly. It was quite a funny sight, and what was even more enjoyable was the fact that the girl herself didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the way she was currently looking, nor the smell that hang around her. It did tell Jasmine that the girl had come here with a specific reason: she needed something new to wear. And this was the right place to find it. Girls her age – Jas guessed she had to be in her mid- to late-teens – were the exact group this store was targeting.

Again, the raven-haired woman showed one of her bright smiles. “If you want, I could show you around a little?” she proposed; there was a lot of clothing here and sometimes, it was useful to get the salesperson to lend a hand. “Why don’t you describe your style to me? Maybe we can find something that’ll fit you well.”