33

“What?! Shopping? Why do you want to take me shopping?” Layla spluttered, staring at Alaric like his skin had turned purple. If it had, it would have been far less surprising than what he had said. Why in the great wide world did he want to take her shopping?

“Don’t take it the wrong way, but I noticed your clothes have seen better days.” He pointed out, and the smug smile he wore turned sad.

“Oh,” she mumbled, bowing her head in shame as she fiddled with her skirt. He didn’t need to tell her for her to know. She knew all too well the state of her wardrobe. Most of them were almost worn out of existence, patched in a lot of places, and so faded that she had forgotten the original colour.

It was another of the reasons she hated going for dinner. Since she couldn’t wear her school uniform, she stuck out like a sore thumb. While the students would be dressed like celebrities, she looked like what crawled out of their gutters. They had noticed it, and it had fuelled their gossiping and je