“I’m going to take you home and pick you up at six tonight.”
“Are you going to do all the Prince Charming shit?”
“Yes.” He smiles. “All the Prince Charming shit.”
***
I watch Carter pull out of the driveway and rush inside, giving quick hugs to Henry and Virginia.
“Are you alright, hun?” Virginia raises her eyebrow.
“Absolutely.” I smile and hug them both again before turning away. I’m halfway upstairs when I hear Henry whispering, “Do you think she’s been drinking?”
Laughing, I slip into the shower and stand under the streams for what feels like forever. I’ve never felt like this and I’m not sure how to exactly describe it, but if I could bottle it up and save it for my darkest days I would.
It’s one o’ clock when I finally step out of the shower with wrinkled skin and reddened blotches, but I’m too excited to care. I have five hours before I’ll be picked up, but when I thumb through all of the dresses I’ve bought this summer, I realize that none of them seem good enough for a “date.”
Virginia and Henry wouldn’t dare let me drive their cars to the store, and I don’t want them tagging along to see what I’m buying if they volunteer to take me.
My phone suddenly buzzes and I sigh, bringing it up to my face.
“Hey. Did you fuck him yet?” Sarah.
“NO. Do you have a little black dress I can borrow? He’s taking me out tonight. It’s my first date...”
“You really didn’t fuck him yet? Why not?”
“OMG. Yes. I fucked him! Do you have a dress or not?”
“I’ll be over in fifteen :-)”
Within minutes, Sarah is barging inside my room with shopping bags.
“Why does your grandmother still think that I’m your manager at a diner in Tallapoosa?” She crosses her arms. “If she tells me how I can improve ‘those apple pies’ one more time, I’m going to tell her what you really do for a living.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“I wouldn’t, but if you fight me on any of my suggestions today, I just might.” She motions for me to sit on the bed and lays several dresses and shoes out for me to look over. As if she doesn’t trust my opinion, she hands me a sleeveless black dress with a low V-cut in the front and sparkling nude pumps.
I don’t expect for her to stay any longer, but she plugs my curling iron into the wall and asks to do my hair and makeup. I tell her that I’m perfectly fine doing it myself, but she insists.
“Friends don’t let friends do their own hair and make-up for their first big date,” she says, gliding a comb through my hair. “Were you at our prom in high school?”
“No. I didn’t feel like going.”
“Why not?”
I shrug. “Everyone already had a date and no one knew me so I didn’t see a point.”
“I wish we’d been friends then so we could’ve gone together. I had to go solo.”
“No one asked you out? I refuse to believe that.”
“I had bangs and braces.” She laughs. “Believe it.”
“Oh...Have you ever been on a real date before?”
“Nope.” She slides a bobby pin into my hair. “This is the closest I’ve ever been. That’s why I’m trying to be a part of it.”
Our eyes meet in the mirror and I suddenly wish that I hadn’t turned her away so cruelly in high school—that I would’ve known that “friends” were okay to have after all.
For the next few hours, she coifs my hair and makes sure my makeup is the best it can be. When she’s done, it’s five forty five and I can hardly recognize myself.
The girl staring back at me looks more sophisticated than I’ve ever looked in my life.
My hair falls over my left shoulder in a bevy of curls that barely touches my breast, and my eyelids are coated in a glittering bronze shadow that brings out the green in my eyes. The black dress hugs my curves perfectly—the V-cut in the front is low enough to intrigue, but not deep enough to give anything away.
“You like it?” Sarah puts another coat of gloss onto my lips.
“I love it. Thank you.”
“That’s not a cue for you to hug me.”
“I wasn’t going to.” I laugh and start helping her put her things away. “I really appreciate this.”
“Anytime. Hopefully you’ll be doing the same for me one day, except my date will be a lot sexier and I won’t wait half a year to let him fuck me.”
“Looking forward to it.” I pick up one of her bags and open my door, prepared to help her carry it down to the car, but she stops me.