Chapter Two: "Malls, Balls, And Free For Alls."
I GUESS you could say that the week wasn't my best.
Stacy got an unfriendly confrontation by Lacey and Johnny, so she's backed off since Tuesday. I had to beg Justin to stay out of it, since I knew that he probably would be the meanest out of them all. Yes, he wouldn't hit a girl, no matter how much or how badly he wanted to, but he'd get someone to do it.
The boys' football team have their first game of the season tomorrow, so that means that Homecoming is tomorrow night as well. You could only guess what that means too, can't you?
Yes, that is right. I have to go shopping.
Don't get me wrong, I'll shop if I want to and I have to, but else wise, I couldn't care less about strolling around stores for hours. Going to the mall to shop for something dressy is not my idea of a fun spree. I'll only wear formal attire when necessary, and usually I don't fight against it, since I get to look my best and have a positive thought on how my body is.
So, you can only guess how enthralled I was when Lacey and Jody, one of our other friends, said we were going out to buy dresses for the date.
Now, the day is over and I'm sat on the bus beside Justin as we get driven home. It's Thursday, and my mother still hasn't come home from her business meeting. I'm assuming she'll be home late tonight or sometime tomorrow, but I'm not worried about it. Dad sent a few hundred dollars in my account last night once he called and asked if she came home yet. He isn't allowed to use his phone on the flight, so he tries to get in contact with me whenever he's landed somewhere. That being said, it is why I thank him for making my phone have international calling and texting so it wouldn't make my bill spike up to a thousand dollars.
"You really didn't have to ride home with me. Coach said that all members had to be at tonight's practice to prep for tomorrow." I begin to my best friend, who currently slaps my arm and gives me an 'are you crazy' look.
"I told you, I want to. Coach can deal with it." He reassures me, and pats my leg and stares out the window.
"Butâ"
"JâLo, seriously, stop worrying," Justin interrupts, "don't worry about it. He'll let me off."
"Okay, fine."
About ten minutes later, the bus stops at my house and Justin and I both get off. Our bus driver knows that he gets off at my stop instead of his own, so she lets it slide. There's odd days where we get off separately, but that isn't often. I follow off the bus behind Justin, and step in line with his speed walking. I'm not all that short, standing at around 5'4, but I have little legs so I walk slower than he does. He knows this, but of course he ignores my protests and continues speeding down the sidewalk like Lightning McQueen on foot instead of wheels.
I finally catch up to him as we step on my property, and I fiddle around my bag for my house key. I find it in between two binders, and put it in the lock and step inside. I toss my bag on my bed once we get upstairs, and take off some layers from the heat. It may only be September, but it's still July weather outside and I picked a bad day to wear jeans and a hoodie.
"So, what are your evening plans tonight?" I ask him as he collapses on my bed and flicks on my TV.
"Hanging out with you." He shrugs, "The usual."
"So you want to go dress shopping?" I question with raised eyebrows and head to my bathroom to brush my knotted hair.
"Wait, what?" Justin says in shock. "We're not going dress shopping!"
"I am," I explain. "Jody and Lacey are dragging me out to the mall to get ready for the ball tomorrow."
"You're actually going to that thing?" He asks in surprise. I am not one for dances and parties, but with the way the determination was on the girls' faces, there was no backing out of this.
"Lacey made it pretty clear that if I didn't attend, then she'd share her stories about her summer with her grandparents."
"On that note, then you definitely need to go." Justin says with a shiver.
Lacey's grandparents are fun, but embarrassingly fun.
That being said, her grandfather has swum with Speedos on, and that was with everyone there. Not to mention that her grandmother thinks she's fifty years younger.
"Yeah, no doubt."Â I cringe.
"How long are you going to be? If you're only going to be a couple hours then I could tag along or stay here and wait for you to get back? Spend the night or something."
I nod in satisfaction. I could use Justin's company. Maybe even have a few friends over and have a small get together.
"I honestly don't know how long I'll be out. Hopefully not long, but beats me when it comes to Jody and shopping."
"That's true. I guess I'll just go home and see you tomorrow morning then?"
"Yeah, sure," I answer, "I'll see you later."
"Text me when you're home." He says, making himself more comfortable. He's probably going to stay for a few hours then go, I think to myself.
"I will." I smile. I shoot the girls a text, and Jody responds immediately that they're already down the road. That was fast. "Jode just texted me saying she's down the street. I take it that you'll show yourself out?"
"Yeah," he says, "Mom's out for a few hours, so I might as well do something productive."
"Alrighty then. Got your key?"
"I do."
"Okay, cool. I'll talk to you later. Please don't burn down my house."
"No promises." He grins, and I just roll my eyes, grabbing my wallet and walking out the door, just in time for the girls to pull into the driveway of my house.
***
"Please don't."
"What? Come on, Brookie; get out of your element a little. You look hot!" Lacey whines, rubbing her hands together in a pleading motion.
I don't care what she says or how bad she wants me to buy this outfit. There is no way in hell that I will wear this. Especially to a school dance.
"I'm not wearing this, Lacey." I tell her point blankly, and turn to walk back inside the change rooms, but she grabs my arm before I can make a break for it.
"Why not?"
"Because I look like a damn Barbie doll, that's why!" I exclaim. "Not to mention that this particular item of clothing shows off my nonexistent curves in all the wrong ways possible."
"Okay, first off, Barbie looks are hot, especially in red, and second, shut the hell up, because you have beautiful curves and you need to show them off." She says sternly, arms crossed. I roll my eyes at her. She is completely wrong. I have barely any curves to show off, and if I did, then this dress would make me look like I got transplants and lifts.
I definitely don't want that.
It's worse enough that Stacy is already telling people that I'm bulimic; the last thing I need is her telling the whole school I'm made of fake plastic because I couldn't get the body I wanted.
"I'm not showing off something I don't have, Lacey. You already know that I don't have a model's body to just show off these pretty dresses in. It'll probably sag in ugly places and the last thing I need is to embarrass myself more on the first week of school."
"Brooklyn, sweetie, you are beautiful, okay? Stacy is a jealous whore. She gloats about her own imperfections and acts like everything revolves around her. You can't let her get to you, babe. She just isn't worth it. You hear me, right?" She says sternly and honestly, grabbing my face by my chin, making me look her in the eyes as she says her little rant. I grin at her, thanking that this is exactly why she's my best friend. She always knows what to say; even if it makes me want to cry most of the time than not.
"Okay, okay." I give in, even though I'm doing it just so we don't argue in a public store. She smiles widely at my defeat. "But I'm still not wearing this."
Her smile disperses a tad, but nonetheless, it is still visible. "Okay, deal."
We continue to change into many different materials and lengths; enough to the point I want to just go home and make Justin make me some hot chocolate and watch movies with me even if it's a school night.
About an hour later, Jody is squealing in behind the curtains of the seventh shop we tried. "Oh. My. God, guys! This is it! I found my dress!"
"Good, great, now actually come out and show us what you look like." Lacey says blankly. We have been in this store for the past half hour, watching Jody change into dresses, then come out in the clothes she came in with, instead of showing off the gowns to her best friends. She'd kept saying that she 'wouldn't show dresses that were a no-no' and that 'I can't show you guys unless it's a definite maybe.'
I'm in the same mood as Lacey is: tired and bored. However, now that Jody has found her dress, I can't wait to see her in it. I'm sure she looks even more beautiful than she's letting on. She's a naturally flawless girl.
Jody squeals once more as she pushes open the curtain and walks out in a long, sparkly green dress that is strapless and goes down to her heels. The waist is covered in a large jewel, surrounded by smaller ones, and the chest has a low sweetheart neckline that shows her cleavage. Yep, typical Jody move. All in all, though, she looks absolutely stunning. The dress makes her green eyes pop, and with her long black hair, it makes her look dark and mysterious, but light and sweet all at the same time. I wish I was her, sometimes.
"You look amazing." I say to her with a wide smile.
"Jode, you look flawless! It totally suits you." Lacey says happily.
"Thanks you guys," Jody blushes, "I can't wait to see what you girls choose."
We all look at her once more before she excuses herself to go get undressed and get ready to pay for it. As Lacey and I scan more racks of dresses, a particular grey one catches my eye. It's simple yet elegant: it's long and strapless. It's a very light grey, with crossed fabric over one another on the bust and chest. I tend to think that it can hide my imperfections yet stand out the ones that can do me some good.
"Hey, what about this one?" I nudge Lacey on the arm with my shoulder. She whips around to me, and scans over the material in my hands. She does a quick onceover, and then looks it over more carefully and a lot longer than she had before.
"Get it." She says sternly, and goes back to scanning out the gowns.
"But I haven't even tried it on yet," I protest, "how am I supposed to know if I'll fit in it or not?"
"You don't. Save that for tomorrow. Make it a surprise." She grins, and pulls out a light violet dress, one that's very similar to mine but the colour, and hers has a slit from the middle of her thigh to the bottom of her dress. "Okay, now onto me. Does this scream 'celebrity' or not?"
"A little bit of celebrity and party animal." I answer honestly. It's those types of dresses that you could wear to weddings, formal parties, and of course, dances. I'm not taking the Homecoming Ball that seriously, so I think my plain and simple choosing will suffice for me. I'm not an 'out there' type of gal. If I want glitz, glam, and bam, then I will be La La Land where everything is unreal. Because in my life, that kind of clique just isn't going to happen.
"Perfect!" She exclaims. "Now come on, let's pay and go out to eat!"
I gulp, but don't answer as Lacey grabs my arm and drags me to the front of the store where the cashiers sat. I give the lady behind the counter a small smile as she rings my cloth and gives me my total. "Have a great time." She says warmly, moving onto Lacey's choosing. I wait patiently beside Jody as Lacey pays, then the three of us walk back to the entrance of the mall where the food court is. We stroll around, and decide to get pizza. I get a slice of cheese and a small Sprite, and sit down in a booth with the girls. I take a small bite as I grab out my phone; the two girls devouring their food like animals, and I begin scrolling through my Instagram feed.
"Take a bigger bite." Lacey says, glaring at me heavily with her ice cold green eyes.
"I am," I argue, shrugging.
"You got to eat, Brooklyn." Jody says, chewing on her slice of Hawaiian.
"I'm not all that hungry." I reply nonchalantly, but my body disagrees as my stomach grumbles. Stupid organs.
"Too bad. Eat half of it." Lacey demands. I ignore her, but nonetheless, take a slightly bigger bite out of my pizza. All in all, I am slightly hungry. However, I would much rather not eat. No, not because I am anorexic, but because this pizza place actually makes some really awful tasting pizza. It's really gross.
'Butâ"
"No buts."
I growl my protests and finish the greasy mess, before choking it down. "Don't you dare," Lacey warns, and I just roll my eyes.
We finish up and I take a cab home. Jody said she's got to meet up with her brother across the mall so he can take her home, and Lacey's staying a little longer to get matching accessories for what she just bought. I had enough shopping, so I gladly skipped out and called an Uber.
Once home, I notice that Justin has already left, so I have the house alone. I text him, letting him know I'm home, safe, and alive like I promised hours prior. I adore how protective he is, but sometimes it's a little annoying having to tell and explain where I've been and what all went on when I don't respond to messages five minutes after they were sent.
As expected, no calls on the house phone are from my mother, so I decide to call my dad to see the plan and if he's heard anything.
Laying on my bed, the phone rings four times before the line connects, "Hey kiddo."
"Hey," I breathe through the line. "What's up?"
"I'm just waiting for everyone to board up. We're heading to Manchester in a few minutes."
"Interesting," I chuckle. I've always wanted to travel to the United Kingdom. "Have you heard from mom at all? She hasn't called."
"No, sorry hon. I'm sure she'll be home soon though. You know how forgetful she is with charging her phone when she's rushing."
"Yeah, I suppose so." I sigh, "So, do you have an idea on when you'll be home then?"
"I'll be home Saturday. For sure; I'll be home by the time you wake."
"Great," I say softly. "Well, I'm tired, dad. Lacey put me to work hard today."
"It was only dress shopping though. . ." He says a little confusedly.
"Yes, which is exactly why it was exhausting and a ton of work."
"I'll never understand girls and shopping." He mutters, and I laugh.
"Don't worry, I totally agree," I scoff, "I'm a girl and I don't even like it."
"Now, now, don't go all masculine on me. I love my little angel." He kids, and I roll my eyes. My dad wanted a boy when my mom was pregnant, but he didn't mind having a girl one bit once I finally came out. They wanted the gender to be a surprise, and a surprise it was. Mom wanted a boy as well, but she didn't seem as disappointed as my dad was once he noticed that I didn't have a penis.
He tried raising me to be sporty, but it turned out that I was half and half in the end. I can do sports, but I could never commit to it for a long time. I can do them in school and gym class, but the amount of exercise you have to do for it is definitely not a commitment I want to focus on.
So, I turned into a semi-sport who also enjoys shopping and gossip. Hear the sarcasm?
"I love you too, dad."
"Sweetie, you know I'd love to talk, but I got a full load and got to head off. I'll call you when I get back in the country, okay?"
"Sure thing," I answer, "bye."
"Bye baby."
I hang up from my dad, and peacefully lay down in bed, staring up at the ceiling.
I am so not looking forward to tomorrow.
But. . .
On the other hand. . .
I can't wait to put that dress on.
We'll see who is better tomorrow, Stacy. Just you wait. Lacey, Jody, and I will knock you and your slutty followers to the dump where you belong.
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~Kisses,
Ellaina