“Hey Chels, look over here!” Sabrina called me over to where she was standing. There was a rack of clothes and next to it, a basket of purses and bags.

Holding one up to me, Sabrina stood back analyzing how it looked from every angle. “I think this would go with your costume perfectly,” she said.

“Hmm. Maybe. It’s missing something… I don’t know.” I looked through the rest of the bags and didn’t really find one that clicked. I started walking around to other parts of the store. I was still looking for something else- something that would tie together my costume. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I swear, this used to come a lot more easily to me.

I’m planning on going to this costume party thing. I’ve been trying to get myself out and about with other people my age and I love dressing up, so why not? Well I can think of several reasons but I’m not gonna go there right now. I’ll convince myself not to go at all.

Usually I’d go all out for a costume but I’ve been really tired lately and I’m having some trouble drumming up my normal level of excitement. I kinda feel like the Scrooge of Halloween this year. But I finally decided that I’m going to be an old zombie Taylor Swift for my costume. I can’t take the credit- I saw someone dress their parents up as old-timer Taylor Swifts or something which inspired the idea. Not sure what inspired the zombie bit though. I think I saw Taylor do a zombie thing before. Idk. I like a couple of her songs but I don’t follow her or anything… so I hear and see bits and pieces of her on Instagram and stuff.

“Aha! This is the kind of thing I was looking for!” In my hands was a shirt saying “1989.” It was perfect. Now all I had to decide was whether I was going to bejewel it or glitter-ify it or something. I mean, that would really give Taylor vibes, right? …Honestly the icing on the cake would be finding cat earrings. But back to the handbag. Now that I had the 1989 shirt I had a better idea of what kind of bag would go with it. Maybe I’ll bejewel it, too!

I walked around the store again. Thinking I struck out, I was about to call Sabrina to see where she had gotten off to. I decided to try the basket with all those bags in it one more time. Maybe the perfect bag slipped my notice since I didn’t have a complete idea of what I was looking for at the time.

“No. Not this one. No. No…maybe? Eh, no,” I muttered to myself as I kneeled to the floor, reaching all the way into the bag. I felt like Mary Poppins. Giving up I put all the bags back into the basket, picked up the shirt and the cat earrings I had indeed found, and I was staring at the bag that I knew was the right fit for my outfit. It was a black tote bag with a bejeweled cat on it. But it was also stylish and cute somehow. Like it was a tote bag that had been leveled up a few times. I immediately grabbed it and headed toward the cashiers.

Sabrina was there perusing the candy and stuff. She loves Swedish Fish.

“Look what I found!” I said.

“The cat? Spot-on! I can’t believe you found one like that!”

“Honestly, neither can I. The costume’s probably not going to win me any awards, but at least people should be able to guess who I am.”

“For sure,” she replied. “Okay, let’s check-out. You might be okay being late to everything -“ I frowned at her. “Chill, chill I know you’re not really- but time-wise we gotta get going so we can get to the party on time…ish.”

Rolling my eyes, I set my stuff on the conveyor belt. When I put the handbag down, I noticed a piece of paper sticking out. I grabbed it, intending to read it then and there.

“Paper or plastic, ma’am?” The cashier asked.

“Uhm, make it paper, please.” I stuck the note on my back pocket to read it later and fiddle around on my purse to get out my credit card. I paid them we left, bags in tow. We put the bags in Sabrina’s car then hopped in ourselves.

As Sabrina started the car and got on the highway, I opened the piece of paper.

Andreas, my love,

I hope this note finds you well. I’ve been doing well, but I’ve been missing you.

Everything’s crazy here as it always is.

I hope you’ll come back soon.

You are my forever. I love you.

Awh. So cute! Also- so short. I would never be able to send such a short note- even if it was to Sabrina, asking her to get me a Diet Coke! How do people in love keep their letters so short? Ah, whatever.

“Hey Sabrina- check this out. I found this note in the handbag earlier! We should totally see if we can find the owner of this bag and the person she wrote this letter to!”

“Bet. That would be really cool. Hey can you read it out loud to me?”

I read it.

Then all of a sudden we weren’t on the highway anymore. Suddenly we were in the middle of a forest. Sabrina’s car was gone and all we had was the handbag and the note I had just read. Too stunned to speak, we looked around.

“We’re not on drugs, right Chels?”

“Pretty sure, Sab. I mean, two people can’t see the same thing on drugs or in a hallucination anyway…”

“So where. Are. We,” asked Sabrina.

“I have no freaking clue,” I said.