As i hung there in the corner amidst the rest, i felt ugly and unattractive. i looked down at my yellow colour, it seemed to look paler than i thought it used to be. i've not been touched for a long time and my dream of being slipped on and strutting under the brightly lit streets was slowly replaced by the hard, cold reality that nothing of this sort is going to happen. At least, to me.

The owner of the shop took a dirty look at me and shaking his head, tore off my price tag of $49.90 and stuck a $10.00 instead onto me. To think my self-worth has dropped to such extent, i dropped a tear of self-sympathy.
Never would i knew, this cheap price tag, the one i actually despised, changed my fate for the better.

i was happily bought by a girl who made me feel i was the best buy of all her clothes. She showed me proudly to her friends and said i only cost 10 bucks. To be honest, i did not know whether to laugh or cry. To laugh that i can finally realise my dream, or to cry that my dream came with a price. A dirt cheap price.

She did not pick me to wear as often as i hoped she would. As i got squeezed in her wardrobe with what seemed to me like a few hundred of her other clothes, i sometimes wondered if she had forgotten me. Compared to some lucky hot-favourites in the wardrobe, i start to doubt if i would ever see daylight again.

What seemed to be the most unlucky one proved itself and others wrong when i was brought on a trip to Batam! Not to mention the rest who were totally green with envy when i was stuffed into her luggage.
It was my first time to a beach. I loved the waves crashing to shore, the warmth of the sand seeping through me and i say it was the happiest day of my life! My owner, with her hands secured in her partner's, made a wish that their love would be as strong and as beautiful as a gigantic rock that was before them.
I too made a wish. I secretly wished everything would come to a stand still there and then. i did not want to go back home.

Of course my wish did not come true, for the next day, i found myself spinning in soapy laundry. i was zapped back to reality when i returned back to the wardrobe. The stuffy wardrobe.

After what seemed like a thousand years had passed. I was finally worn a second time!
I was too busy scrutinizing for creases on my body did i not realise something was very different that morning. She was not smiling like she used to be anymore. Well, actually she did, but the smile was very different. I knew something was amiss.
And I actually felt bad, for i never bothered to care about what happened to her and her life. All the time i spent comparing myself with others, debating on who had more wardrobe space and other useless stuff. It was the first time I felt i needed to do my part as a dress for my owner, I tried eavesdropping on her conversations with others hoping to know what was wrong, but i was still clueless in the end. Something that cheered me up was when the pastor in her church came up to her and commented that my colour looked really good on her. It was the first time i felt really proud of myself.

And the hour finally came.
She received a call in the late afternoon and off she went out of the house again. She met her partner at the void deck a few blocks from hers. An air of uneasiness filled the atmosphere. Both of them were very quiet. The silence was deafening.
I knew the hour of truth has come. I was feeling so uncomfortable that i felt i would rather be in the place i dreaded most- the wardrobe. At least, it's safe there. Sometimes, i rather be ignorant about certain things.

The next thing i knew were the exchange of words. Nothing loud or offensive. Instead, words that were calmly put across. words that looked as if they had been contemplated for a decent period of time. But they were words that seemed to result from burnt out, stress and hopelessness.
Whatever happened to the wish they both made together at Batam was the burning question in me.

Everything after that went well, thankfully. They have reached a stage in their relationship where it was time to move on to another level of understanding, compromising, loving and building their future together.
Whatever happened after that is a mystery to me, becos here, i'm chucked back into the wardrobe once again. Damn.



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Baby, thanks for holding on together.
i love you