Athenus •armin ✗ reader •

Plutus

Exams were finally over and it was now time for the true most important part of this semester - the winter formal. Whether it was dressing up or getting drunk with your friends or just the free food, everyone went to the winter formal, and fair dues to the school and the student committee because it always looked so magical.

The annoying thing about dances however is that love is everywhere. Promposals, matching attire, everything and as a single person it sucks. Heavily. I mean sure im not the most romantic person in the world, I certainly don't obsess over boys like the average teenage girl in those movies from the 80's but sometimes I think about how nice it'd be to have someone take me on dates and to cuddle with, to run up to me after a big race and be so proud of me or to just sit there for hours enjoying each others company. Now I know you can do all that stuff with friends, and I had but... I wanted to experience a teen romance, I was 17 after all and I'd had about 3 love interests, two of which were before high school so they barely even count and none of which i actually dated.

Historia had texted into a new group chat that our friend groups had created together since we'd all been hanging out a lot more recently if anyone wanted to come with her and Ymir to go dress shopping later in the afternoon. It seemed that Peick, Sasha and I were pretty excited about it, Annie and mika on the other hand... If we turned up to their houses they couldn't say no after we had gone to all that effort right? Right. And that was exactly the plan.

So after Sasha had picked me up, and Historia, Ymir and Peick were already on there way, it was our duty to get Mikasa and Annie into this car and en route to the mall, preferably as soon as possible, but that was easier said than done
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"Cmon Mika please it'll be fun I promise!"
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"Please Annie! You don't even have to get a dress, plenty of girls wear suits now"
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Eventually I managed to get both of them in the car after practically getting on my knees for them to come, which I know for a fact they were happy to see. On our way to the mall we were all discussing about EXACTLY what dresses we were looking for so we wouldn't be at the mall for the next week.

Sasha told us she'd already ordered a dress online that turned up yesterday but she loved the malls food court so she decided to tag along anyway. Mikasa said she was thinking definitely a long dress in either red or maybe black because 'red was her fave colour but she did look good in black'. Annie said she was thinking some kind of pastel like blue or yellow which kinda surprised me to be honest since I thought she was a dark blue kinda girl. I on the other hand was thinking blue of some kind, since it's a winter formal and blue is sort of a Christmas colour.

After what felt like forever we finally arrived at the mall and immediately headed for the most popular store for prom/homecoming dresses. I especially liked this store because 1. The staff were so nice and 2.they had both a discount section on dresses they couldn't seem to sell or had slight damage and rentable dresses which are both perfect for when your a broke high-schooler working a job that pays peanuts.

We spotted the others already checking out the new in section when we walked into the store. We all greeted each other before mikasa was dragged off by historia to look for red dresses since that was what they both wanted and Annie started to browse the new in with Peick who was definitely a little too excited to see Annie in a dress. Sasha decided to accompany me straight to the reduced section to find the best bargain in there.

"So what are you looking for?"

"Mmm I don't know to be honest. I was thinking blue since it's kinda wintery but I'm not like dead-set on it or anything."

"M'kay. Sooo how's it going with your tutor sessions. Honestly I commend you for having to stay around Armin that long, ha can be a real douche you know? He said the other week it's like trying to teach a monkey to be the next Einstein."

"Oh I know, trust me. And remember that episode in the Simpsons where the monkeys were working for NASA? Exactly. I'd like to see him work at NASA. Plus aren't we like monkeys or whatever cause like evolution and shit."

"Your so right"

After about half an hour of chatting our hands were glittery and our stomachs were hungry. We were on the verge of giving up on finding a dress I actually liked and just heading over to the food court for disappointment milkshakes when Peick practically tripped over a dress she was carrying over to us while running as if it were gonna disappear if I didn't hold it in the next five seconds.

"Y/N LOOK! THIS DRESS WOULD LICH BE PERFECT ON YOU."

Well she certainly wasn't wrong. This is going to sound so cheesy but it was literally my dream dress. Like seriously the one I'd imagine my high-school self wearing when I was five years old. Words couldn't even describe how much I wanted this dress in that moment but sadly my dreams were shattered the very next.

"$400 FOR A DRESS!?" My voice going into the shriekiest distress I'd ever heard it go

"Yeah but it's perfect!"

"Peick, I know it is but it's $400, that's about as much as I make in 6 months at my crappy minimum wage job."

"Just ask your dad for the money."

Now as much as I loved Peick, she was one of those rich girls who was completely oblivious to the concept of 'getting by'. For people like me, it's not as easy as just calling my dad and casually asking for $400. That's about how much money we have left after we pay the bills and that's excluding all the other expenses like food and fuel.

"I'm sorry Peick but I just don't have that kind of money right now. Or ever really."

As Peick sadly walked away, probably putting back that perfect perfect dress, I started to feel that tinge in your throat when your about to burst into those tears where they won't stop flowing.

It's not like I was ashamed of being poor or desperate for that dress but sometimes it was hard being the poorest friend in the group. The amount of times I've had to say no to things and experiences while playing it off as a 'can't be bothered' attitude was more than I could count. I didn't want my friends pity so I never really told them about this, but this is how I felt every time I had to reject something I really wanted because I didn't have the money.

Sasha and I told the other girls we'd meet them in the food court since we were the only two not getting anything. I'd probably just wear the dress I wore to the last school dance I went to or borrow one of Sasha's old ones since we were a similar size and build.

We ended up having a good time at the food court in the end and I eventually forgot about the perfect dress and that tinge in my throat slowly went away. Even if I wasn't able to get my dream dress, I hoped the winter formal would still be a blast.

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A/N~ ahh i can't believe I've uploaded again so soon ngl but seeing people read my story and save it to their library gives me so much motivation. I'm in the middle of really important exams for British people which is part of the reason my updates have been so slow this year but thank you to everyone who's stuck by this book. Hopefully things will start to get spicy between y/n and Armin soon iykyk 😏