This store, the one Hannah called a health and beauty shop and John had called a girlie store under his breath was full of smells.
Skylar took a deep breath in the doorway: aloe, jasmine, watermelon, and many more scents lingered around them.
“You are going to help me pick out some stuff for a spa themed sleepover.” Hannah tugged on their arm and they were moving between shelves, opening jars and taking sniffs, adding them to the mixture already in the air.
"Hey Hannah." Skylar put back yet another jar with the crisp scent of cucumber. "Why do so many of these use the scent of food when all the labels say do not swallow?"
"Well, they are mixed with chemicals that are not good to eat." Hannah shrugged. “I think most of the time it is just to make things smell nice."
"Oh." Skylar turned the jar in their hands. They ran their finger along the jar. The description wasn’t making any sense, and their database wasn’t being much help for this modern phenomenon. They glanced around, but John was outside the entrance, looking at his phone. “So, you want clearer skin?” They held up the jar and then pointed to their face. “Like, transparent?”
Hannah snorted and started laughing. Skylar turned towards the door again, but John still wasn’t paying any attention to what was going on inside the store.
“Are you sure you don’t want to be a comedian?” Hannah nudged Skylar and took the jar gently from their hand.
“Why are we getting so much stuff?”
“Your skin is the largest organ of your body, you need to take care of it now so it will look nice when you’re old. This way we can make our outer beauty match our inner beauty.” Hannah clapped. “Oh, help me pick out face masks!” She grabbed Skylar and dragged them to another part of the store.
Multicolored packages of face masks, fruity smelly exfoliating scrubs, colorful sets of makeup, and a handful of vibrant nail polishes ended up filling their basket. Hannah babbled and ended up explaining more about the products when Skylar didn’t ask any questions.
“Wasn’t that fun Skylar?” Hannah asked as she handed the bags to John outside the store.
“I mean,” Skylar glanced back at the store, “Yeah.” They had certainly learned a lot with Hannah in the store.
“That’s the important part.” John mumbled as he peeked in the bag. “Now can we go to the food court?”
“Yeah!” Hannah punched her fist in the air.
Word count: 424
