Beautiful Mistake

xxxix

We meet up with Beth at a boutique not far from my house.

"Oh my god! You're huge!" She exclaims as I get out of the car. Now I see the resemblance between them.

"Hi!" Beth gives me a hug and takes my hand.

"Okay, so I've been coming here since I was like a child and they have the best of the best at relatively low prices."

"Relatively low means like 100 bucks a piece by the way." Collin says, walking next to me.

"I think I have three hundred on me right now." I say as we walk in.

"No, no, no. I'm paying." Beth says, "I'm the one who's forcing you two to come with me."

I begin to protest but the an employee approaches us.

"Hello Beth! Collin, it's good to see you back in the boutique." The woman says, practically ignoring me.

"Uh, this is my girlfriend, Caroline." Collin says, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"Right, I've heard a lot about you from Darla." She gives me a fake smile and turns around.

"All good things I hope." I say under my breath, looking at Collin who just shrugs and leads me to the large racks of dresses.

"Here, we can get the dresses resized so they fit around your stomach." Beth says, grabbing a black dress with a white collar and holding it up to my body. Shaking her head, she puts it back and grabs another one. This one is a pastel pink and goes above my knee, "No, this one is too like a backyard party." She puts it back and shuffles through the dresses.

"Do you know how late the party is going to run until?" I ask, starting to move dresses around too.

"Midnight at the latest." Collin says, as he comes out of the dressing room in a form fitting tux.

"You look great." I say, twirling my finger around so I can see the back. He does as I want and a I get glimpse of his pretty nice butt.

"Oh! This one is perfect!" She pulls a dark grey dress off the rack and shows it to me. "I found a maternity dress so we might not have to get it resized!" She squeals giving me the dress. "Go try it on!"

I open the dressing room door and start stripping off all my layers. I take the dress of the hanger and slide it on. It's a V cut dress that lands just above my knee. It fits perfectly and I sigh at how pretty it looks.

"Caroline, try on this jewelry to go with it." Beth's hand hangs over the door and I take the necklace and bracelet from her.

I put them on and open the door to the room.

"What do you think?" I ask, doing a little spin.

"It looks amazing!" She gasps, grabbing onto Collin's dress shirt. "You chose good brother."

I feel the heat rising to my cheeks and I go back into the room. I get dressed in my winter clothes and bring everything to the register.

"You know, I think this dress would go great with earrings." The woman behind the register says, taking a velvet box from the wall behind her and opening it to reveal a beautiful gold set.

"How much are they?" I ask, taking out my wallet.

"They're three hundred." My heart drops at the high numbers and I take the 100 out of my wallet before putting it away.

"I'll just take the dress." I say quietly, looking over my shoulder to make sure Beth wasn't around.

"Your total is 98 dollars." I hand the hundred dollar bill and after checking it in the light she rings me up. The lady delicately puts the dress in a box with tissue paper.

"Thank you." I say as I take the bag from her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Beth asks, crossing her arms.

"I just got the dress." I instantly feel like a child who's done something wrong.

"Didn't I say I was paying? And the jewelry has to go with it Caroline." She walks past me and takes out her wallet. "I want the jewelry she didn't get."

I'm about to say something but Collin's touch startles me.

"There's no point in arguing. She's going to buy it for you if you like it or not."

"Why?" I whine, putting my hands on the inside of his jackets so I'm actually holding him.

"Because that's who Beth is. She always uses the money our parents give us to give to other people." I look at his outfit and he's wearing a light brown temp jacket, a cloth hoodie, and under his hoodie he's wearing a white t-shirt.

"That's sweet of her but I hate when people buy things for me."

"You let me buy things for you." He says, wrapping his arms around me.

"Well yeah, but that's only because I know you buy me things just to annoy the shit out of me."

"That's true. I do like annoying you." Without a second word, Beth comes over and gives me the bag.

"There, now the dress is going to look fabulous." I let go of Collin as we walk outside. I start towards the car but Beth calls out to me.

"Where are you going?!"

"I thought we were leaving." I say, walking back over to them.

"No silly, we still have to get our nails and hair done." She leads Collin and I to a place a couple stores down called Hair & Nail. How original.

She opens the door and a mixture of chemical smells surround us.

"So, you can get your hair and nails done at the same time here. Isn't that fun?" Beth signs us in on the receptionists desk and then we take a seat.

A couple people are already in here getting their hair and nails done for an obvious special occasion.

"The three of you can come with me." A worker beacons us to follow her. I sit in the middle of Collin and Beth.

"So, my name is Carol and I'll be doing your hair, what kind of style are you looking for today?"

"I'm not sure," I laugh, looking at her in the mirror.

"Well, I can give you some highlights, a trim, and then curl your hair." She says as she fiddled with my hair.

"That sounds good." I smile and she nods.

"Damn Caroline, I can see we've made a big spender out of you." Beth laughs as she gets her hair curled.

"I guess so. It's fun doing things for myself for once." I say, closing my eyes as they do their work on my body.