T-Shirts

Kritvik Bhatt

The sun was still shining brightly over the heads. The alley where we were walking was filled with people, obviously. On both our sides were stalls, where people stood and were looking at the anime merchandise and other stuff.

“She was such a cool woman,” Sana said as she had her head tilted down toward the smartphone in her hands. On the phone, the selfie that Kirishima just took was opened. Sana was smiling as she looked toward it.

I was walking on her left, both my hands inside the pockets of my pants. I was looking toward her as I said, “No doubt, man.”

She then suddenly turned her head to me and said, “Anyway, you see, I forgot to tell her that the second book was actually yours, so, well, she just wrote my name on it.”

“Huh? Man, you should have taken care of that stuff.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Anyway, what about the matching tees? We should start looking for them now.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s start some real shopping, man.”

She turned her head frontward and said, “Well, where do you think we should get the tees from? And, do you know how to check if the quality of the tee is good or not?”

“Uh, no. And no.”

“So, like, how are we gonna know if we should buy it or not?” She turned to me again.

“B-By looking if the print is good or not, maybe…?”

She narrowed her eyes. “The first thing you check in a tee is if its print is cool or not?”

“… Yeah,” I turned my head to the front, smiling awkwardly. “Man, my parents see if the tee is good or not. I just check if the print, design, and other stuff are okay and if I’d wear it.”

“Same,” She turned her head frontward.

“What are we gonna do now?”

“We’re gonna touch it.”

“Huh?!” I chuckled and frowned in amusement as I turned my head to her.

She smiled as she turned to me. “Like, what else can we do?! Do you have any other plan?”

I continued looking at her, amused, with my lips open, and then I suddenly closed my lips. I then opened them again, like I was about to say something, but then I closed them again. I then nodded. “Good point.”

She chuckled. “Anyway,” she said as she turned her head to the phone in her hands and then turned it to me. “Send me these photos when you get home. You see, I’d save them somewhere online. They’re important.”

I took the phone from her and kept it inside my right pocket as I said, “Okay.” I then turned my head to the front, and so did she.

“Whatever,” Sana said as she suddenly turned her head rightward. On our right was a little cubical booth with a single guy in a white shirt and denim jeans. His long hairs were waxed and combed backward. That guy was sitting on the chair, scrolling on his phone for some reason. Behind him were some plushies hanging, along with some key-chains and stickers on the table in front of him. That table was filled with baskets of stuff like that. But, for some reason, there was no one in front of the booth. Sana pointed to that stall and said, “You see, when we’re done with the tees, if we still have some extra money remaining, we’d get some key-chains and plushies from here.”

I turned my head rightward as I looked toward the booth. I glared at it for a few seconds seriously and said, “We can finish this job right now, man.”

“No. We don’t really have a lot of money, you see. So, we’d only come here with the leftovers. Tees are more important.”

I smiled. “You think a lot about this stuff, huh? I never once thought that we might not have a lot of money.” I turned my eyes to my left at her.

She chuckled as she turned her eyes to me. “Yeah. Well, you’re dumb, you see, so someone has to be serious about it.”

I shook my head as she turned her head and laughed, obviously covering her mouth with her right hand as always. “Ahahahaha.”

“Damn, man. No doubt, that was good.”

“It was so good only because it was so true. Ahahahaha!”

I opened my mouth. “Ahahaha! Damn, man! I completely disagree!”

“Disagree all you want, emo, but that’s the hard truth! Ahahahaha!”

I turned my head to her and opened my mouth, about to reply to her, but then I, for some reason, didn’t say a word.

She was laughing so damn much, with her right hand in front of her open lips. Her eyes were closed. As I looked at that lovely face of hers smiling and laughing, I closed my mouth and just glared at her for a few seconds.

Her laughs were calming down a little. She then closed her mouth and gulped in.

“Who… laughs so much at such lame jokes as you just did?” I said with a smile, still glaring at her.

“Ahahaha!” She suddenly broke into another round of laughter, which ran for a couple of seconds. She then said, “Well, I’m turning dumb because of your dumbness, you see.”

“I don’t do that stuff.”

“You do!” She turned her head to me. She looked me directly into my eyes, and then she chuckled again.

“Damn.”

She turned her head frontward. “Well, let’s focus on the tees, you see.”

“Yeah, we should.” I turned my head frontward.

Sana started to turn her head right and left, searching for the booths where she could find some clothes. She turned her head left backward, maybe noticing the booths that we just left behind. “You see, there are not really a lot of clothing booths.”

“For some reason, there is less of every type of booth. There are only a few booths of books and only a few of key-chains and stuff.”

She turned her head frontward and said, “I guess that’s just how much they were supposed to be.”

“Yeah, but I’d have preferred some more options to choose from, for some reason,” I turned my head leftward at a booth beside her.

Man, we were just some steps away from the entrance now, and the booth was one among the first couple of booths in the alley. It was huge, just like the one from where we bought the books, but the people only stood in front of it. There was a table at the front, where the people checked the open t-shirts and accessed them, maybe. But, a lot of anime t-shirts with high-quality anime stuff printed on them were hung all over the wall behind the guys that worked inside it, for some reason, and most of the people were looking toward them. There were some hoodies hanging there too. “Hey,” I said to her, and she turned to me. I jerked my head a few centimeters up, pointing toward the booth, and she turned her head to her left at it. “How’s it?” I asked as I turned my eyeballs from that booth to her head looking at the booth.

“Well, it looks fine. Let’s see what’s there.”

We both turned left toward the booth and started to walk toward it. We stood in front of the table, in between some random guys. One of the guys in black t-shirts and denim jeans stood in front of the two of us, folding a black hoodie or a t-shirt maybe. He then turned backward, walked a few steps away toward the wall, and threw it down on the bunch of polythene bags filled with t-shirts. That’s when we noticed that beneath the table, by the wall, the whole place was filled with these polythene bags with t-shirts and stuff inside them. He then turned toward us again and walked to us with a smile. He was in his twenties, maybe, and he had a shaved face with his mustache and beard no more than a few millimeters. “How can I help you both, sir, ma’am?” He asked the two of us politely.

“Uh, we want to look at some tees, you see,” Sana told him.

“Yes ma’am, there are all of these designs hanging on the wall behind me. You can choose anyone you like.”

“Like, can we not try them?” She suddenly asked.

“Oh, that won’t be possible,” He turned to her. “We can provide you with the sample t-shirts that we have so that you can get an idea of the quality of our cloth and your size, but you can’t open the packed t-shirt until you buy it. And no returns.”

I nodded as I turned my head upward at the wall. She too started to look at the wall and access the designs.

I suddenly turned to that guy and asked, “What would be my size, by the way?”

“Thirty-six,” He said. “It’s also the smallest that we sell.”

I nodded. “Can I get the sample piece?”

“Yeah, sir. Sure.” He turned backward and started to walk toward the wall again which was a couple of steps away from him.

I, for the time being, turned to the wall again and started to look at the designs. I turned my head right and left after each second, looking at the black and dark blue colored t-shirts, with some of them also being white. There were colorful graphics and prints on each one of them, and every single piece looked unique in terms of its colors, for some reason.

Suddenly, that guy came back with a completely black t-shirt and kept it in front of me. “Here, sir.”

I turned my head downward and looked at the t-shirt. I took it up in my hands, pinched my fingers to notice its quality, and then moved my hand to the down end of the t-shirt. I opened it and started to wear it on top of my shirt.

Sana, on the other hand, was also analyzing the designs, maybe. She was lost in them as she repetitively turned her head right and left. She then suddenly turned her head rightward and kept her arms on the table. “You’re trying it on top of your clothes?”

“What else should I do?” I asked as I moved the end of the t-shirt down. I then turned to her and looked at her looking at me wearing that plain black t-shirt on top of my dark red shirt tucked out of my pants. She was accessing the size and other stuff. She then moved her right hand toward me and touched the t-shirt with her fingertips.

“Well, it looks small on you.”

“Maybe it’s because of the shirt. I’m also wearing a warmer beneath it.”

She nodded as she continued to glare at it. She then turned to me and replied, “This size is fine.”

I smiled as I turned to the guy and started taking off the t-shirt.

She too turned to the designs again.

With the t-shirt in front of my face and my arms on top pulling it upward, I commented, “Our sizes must be same, right?”

“Yeah,” She said.

I kept the t-shirt in front of me on the table, and that guy took it and started to fold it again.

Suddenly, Sana pointed toward a particular t-shirt at the front and said, “K, look at that.”

I frowned as I looked at where she pointed at. “That black t-shirt with a girl on it?”

“Beneath it.”

My eyes widened, for some reason, as I looked at that. “Damn.”