cxiv. shopping and prom dresses

Rebecca and Robin were back in town, and Rebecca insisted on taking me shopping for a prom dress. I didn’t get why I couldn’t just pick any old dress, but Rebecca was being difficult about it.

“You’re lucky,” Rebecca told me. “You can fit in all of the smaller sizes.”

“They’re impossible to find,” I told her.

“You just have to know where to look,” Rebecca said. “How about this one?” She showed me a blue dress that I swore we had already seen.

“I have one exactly like that in the pile already,” I said.

“This one has a different cut,” Rebecca said. “Just take it. The more dresses we try on, the more fun it will be!”

I rolled my eyes. I really just wanted to get this over with. Rebecca seemed to be having fun though. She made a show of looking at every single possible dress, no matter how expensive it was. I didn’t have a lot of money, but if it was good enough, Rebecca would probably pay for it.

We tried on a ridiculous amount of dresses. I didn’t see the point, so I told Rebecca that I liked all of them. Of course, Rebecca disagreed.

“Too loose,” Rebecca said. “You might want a different size.”

“This was the smallest size they had!”

“Try the next one then,” she said.

“I don’t get why this one is a problem.”

“It’s too loose. It’s not flattering.”

Rebecca had a different complaint for each dress. It’s too loose. It’s too tight. It’s too short. It’s too long. I don’t like that color on you. It’s cut weirdly. It just doesn’t look good on you. By the time I tried on the last dress, I was just irritated.

“This one has to be good,” I said.

Rebecca studied me for a while before declaring, “It’s perfect!”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Rebecca said. “It looks great. How much is it?”

I looked at the price tag. “Two hundred dollars. I don’t have that kind of money.”

“I’ll pay for it then,” Rebecca said. We both went up to the cashier and paid. On the way out, Rebecca said, “So I heard you’re going with Aaron.”

“Yeah, but just as friends,” I said.

Rebecca looked at me in an odd way, as if I had just said that the world was flat. “How is that even possible? He’s hot. I’d totally date him if he wasn’t three years younger than me and I didn’t have a boyfriend.”

I shrugged. “I guess so.” I never really thought about Aaron that way.

“Well, I have to go,” Rebecca said as she pulled up in front of my house. “I’ll see you later. Tell me all about prom afterwards!”

“I will,” I promised. Now I had a dress, but I still didn’t feel ready for prom, probably because I never wanted to go in the first place. Why did I even say yes?