>>10290826Later.....
Colby runs back to Halcyon Apartments, turns the shower up to hot, kicks her shoes off, and jumps in under the scalding jets of water. The yellow paint fortunately washes out of her hair easily enough, but it's clear at once that it will not wash out of the dress she is wearing. The dress she had bought for two hundred dollars only a few days ago. Colby recalls how proud and confident and beautiful she had felt, putting that dress on for the first time today. Now it was ruined. Colby's shoulders heave with sobs, and her face stings with tears that are washed away in the shower's hot spray. With a stifled scream, she rips the dress off of her body and tosses the wet remains to the floor, then falls to her hands and knees in the shower, naked and sobbing pitifully, as her tears are washed down the shower drain.
The dress is ruined, of course. So is her handbag, another three hundred and seventy-odd dollars. Her shoes had been miraculously untouched by the yellow paint, and her belt had been salvageable, but this is small consolation. Despite the payoff from her win over Hailey, money is getting tight again. These items can't be easily replaced right now.
