Daydream Dating

Chapter 15 - Photobooths

Song of the chapter - Dynamite by Taio Cruz

I had no idea what to wear. This was a completely new experience for me and being girly was not my thing. But a dance meant at least a little bit of girliness should be attempted, so I was trying my best. I had almost nothing that qualified for girly dance attire, and TJ had only given me about twenty-four hours to figure it all out.

Thanks a lot, buddy.

It was Robin to the rescue at the last minute. After looking through my closet, which was a dumb idea to begin with based on the fact I had never been asked to a dance so therefore I had no dance wear to hang there, I spent half of Saturday shopping. The dresses I liked were out of my price range, or the range my mom had given me, which was next to nothing. The ones I could afford were god-awful. Hideous, to be exact. So they were all a hard pass. Thankfully, Robin told me to pick through her closet, she had a bunch of fancy dresses to choose from.

"Why do you have all of these? I don't remember you going to dances."

Robin just shrugged. "My mom likes to sew, and her work has all of these fancy parties. I wear them once to a party and then they die in here."

They were all pretty nice, actually. They didn't seem homemade, more like designer dresses. I picked out a navy blue dress with thin straps and a short skirt. The material was gathered at the waist so the skirt flared out when I spun around. "I like this one. Do you think it will fit me?" Robin was taller than I was.

"If not, my mom will hem it. She loves you." Robin winked. And sure enough the length was past my knees. That type of dress needed to be just above the knee to look good. Her mom pinned up the hem to the right length and ran off to sew it up. Robin was totally right about her mom liking to sew. She was giddy at the fact she got to hem the dress.

Worked for me. It was a win with the cute dress, customized and everything. And Robin insisted on doing my hair and make up, which was definitely a big improvement on what I did on my own. Not that I wanted to glam it up, but a little more polish was appropriate for the occasion.

An hour and a little hairspray later, I was ready, and waiting, and nervous as heck. TJ had been around enough that I shouldn't have felt that way. I should have been used to him at that point. But this was different. I wasn't just holding his hand between classes, or kissing him goodbye on the porch. This was public body to body contact to the beat of the DJ's spin. This was arms and chests and stomachs in close contact. For hours. I was just hoping not to pass out at some point. That would be a win, too.

I paced in my room, not wanting hear anything from either of my nosy parents, or my snake of a brother. He had been nicer to me lately, but I still didn't trust him. That would have been pretty stupid to do, considering our rocky history.

Waiting for the doorbell to ring was torture. Well, relatively speaking of course. The plan was for TJ to pick me up, and then we would go straight to the dance to meet up with some of the other guys from his team. None of my friends were going, which was another reason I felt like I might throw up at any second. My ride or die crew had left me high and dry. I couldn't really blame them, though. The male population at our school wasn't clued in to my girls' qualities.

Before I could contemplate the logistics of puking and not getting it on my dress, the doorbell chimed, signaling the beginning of the great high school dance labarynth. Why had I been so excited about this? I had forgotten what possessed me to ignore the fact that this was a date. I was totally wrapped up in my now massive bout of hysteria. How would I get through the night feeling that way?