“Drake is at the mall too. Can you ride home with him?” She doesn’t look at me when she asks the question, so I don’t have to mask my face at the thought of sharing a small space with him.
“Whatever is easier for you. I’ll figure it out.” Mom and I rode together and I don’t know if Lindsey drove herself. I can always catch an Uber on the sly and no one would ever know.
Mom gasps as she pulls out one of the dresses.
“Wow.” Even my eyes widen at the sight of it. It’s breathtaking as she brings it over and helps me put it on.
“It looks like a wedding dress,” Mom says, zipping up the side for me. My eyes meet hers in the mirror and I can see they’re filling with tears.
“Mom.” I turn to her, smiling as I look down at myself. The dress is perfect and I don’t think it’s going to need any alterations.
“It’s like it was made for you.” She kisses my cheek and I say a silent thank you to my dad for talking me into doing this. Homecoming might suck but this moment was worth it. “Just look.”
She turns me around to face the mirror again and for once I don’t feel awkward in my skin. The dress really does look like it was made for me. My curves fill it out in all the right places and I don’t look like a little girl. With the white mermaid style clinging to my curves, I look like a woman.
“We’ll do shoes later,” she says and I groan, making her laugh.
“I can’t wear heels all night. I’ll hurt myself.” I’m not the most graceful and it’s why I picked swimming as my sport. At times it’s like I have two left feet and I can trip going up the stairs without any shoes on.
“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
The dress is long and I’m thinking I could sneak some tennis shoes on under it or something. Though for some reason the longer I look at the dress in the mirror, the more I want to try for heels. It’s making me think of a lot of things I want to do that I haven’t before.
“Can we do makeup too?” My mom freezes and you’d think I just told her I was pregnant or something. But she knows I’m on birth control since we had that talk almost a year ago.
“I thought we could do a day of it. Hair, makeup, and nails.” Mom looks so excited as she says it that I swear she might explode. I know since David came into our lives we get to enjoy more of the finer things in life, and Mom loves using them on me when I let her.
“Sounds fun.” I’m starting to think she’s right. I need to get comfortable in my skin, and a part of that might be trying different things.
“I’ll set it all up.” She beams as she helps me back out of the dress. “We’ll take this one,” she tells the sales lady as she steps out of the changing room. I get dressed and I stop to look at myself in the mirror. I’m in a loose shirt and my favorite jeans and I pull my hair down, shaking it free. I dig through my bag to find the lip gloss Lindsey left in it and put it on.
“Ready?” Mom asks as I step out.
“Yep,” I tell her, sliding my glasses back on. I don’t need them all the time and they’re only required for reading, but I read so much I always have them on. Now, it feels weird when I don’t.
I pause as we’re about to leave the store and decide to take them off and put them in my purse. I’m just going for food so I don’t need them.
Mom smiles at me. “I love when you wear your hair down.” She’s ready to go with the dress in a bag over her arm. “I’ll take it home,” she says as she gives me another kiss on the cheek. “Have fun tonight and stay out past your curfew if you want.”
I roll my eyes as I watch her walk out of the store’s front entrance, then I walk toward the food court. If anyone is going to be late or out past curfew it’s Drake. Not that I’ve paid much attention but we’ve both been given a curfew and I’ve never tested mine. I’m always home way before I need to be and Drake rolls in minutes before. Since he turned eighteen he only has one on school nights. Any other time he only has to call and let them know if he’ll be home that night or not but he hasn’t done it yet. Okay, maybe I pay attention but I don’t want to. For some stupid reason I can’t seem to stop.