“So what should I wear?” Jennifer asked, holding up two dresses. “The orange one or the purple one?”
“Neither,” Charlotte replied with an eye roll. “With the orange dress you look like a clown, with the purple dress you look like an eggplant.”
Jennifer sighed and slumped down next to me. “There’s no dress for me, is there?” she said as if it was the end of the world.
Charlotte patted her shoulder comfortingly. “You’ll find something later, don’t worry.” She glanced at me and then raised her eyebrows. “Are you okay, Erin? You seemed quiet today.”
I looked up. “Huh?”
Jennifer frowned. “You’ve been acting so quiet lately, Erin. Is there something wrong?” When I replied nothing, she sighed. “It’s Hugh, isn’t it?”
“How did you know?” I asked, surprised. Was I really that easy to read?
“Just a guess,” she said, giving me a slight smile. “So what did he do now? Did he hurt you or something? You could tell me – I’ll be beating him up in a second.”
I gave her a small smile. “It’s not like that…”
“Then what is it?” Charlotte asked. “You could tell us everything. We’re your friends.” Then she narrowed her eyes. “Right?”
“Of course. It’s just… I don’t know where to start.”
“Well, start from the very beginning.”
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. “Hugh tried to kiss me last Thursday night when I dropped him off. I resisted and then he got mad.”
“He got mad?” Charlotte repeated incredulously. “Whoa. I didn’t see that coming. I don’t know Hugh could get mad.”
Jennifer gave her a look. “He gets mad like a tiger.” She turned to me and smiled reassuringly. “So why do you think you resisted?”
“Because… because…”
“Well, there are two things,” Charlotte started, “one, you want to play hard-to-get and two, you don’t like him.”
“I’m guessing it’s the latter,” Jennifer said helpfully.
I pursed my lips. “What are you saying? I like Hugh.”
“But not like-like.”
I blinked, considering this. Maybe Jennifer’s right. Maybe I don’t really like Hugh as a boyfriend-material. Maybe I just like him only as a friend. “Or maybe I’m just not ready?” I suggested.
“I’m not sure,” Charlotte said, shrugging her shoulders. “If you really love the person, would you kiss him?”
“Of course. Why not?”
“See?”
Before I could reply, a saleslady walked in our Fitting Room and smiled kindly at us, but there was no mistaking the annoyance in her eyes. “Are you girls done fitting the dresses?”
“Yes,” I replied, standing from my seat.
“We’ll be in the reception area in a minute,” Charlotte assured the lady.
The lady just smiled back and left.
“Ugh, I’ll just use that red dress I wore in the Christmas party last year,” Jennifer grumbled. “That way, I could both save and have a good time in this dance. I’m taking this shoes though.”
“Are you taking that dress, Erin?” Charlotte asked, nodding on the dress on my hand.
I looked down on the dress that I picked. Actually, I just picked this out without giving it much thought. It’s a simple dress – colored baby pink, filled with sequins on the skirt part, not that elegant or simple, not too flashy… just a normal dress to wear in a party.
YOU ARE READING
The Beauty Underneath
Teen FictionAfter the death of her parents, Erin Maxwell leaves New York with her brother and aunt and goes to Chicago. She wants to start a new life and to forget everything from her past. When she moves in her new house, she suddenly realizes that she can hea...
