Inhale

Chapter 37 - Dress Me Up All Prim and Proper

Eventually, we arrived in the mess hall. Esmae, as ecstatic as ever, walked over to a table and sat down. Getting a piece of paper and a pen from her pocket, she jolted something down, and then placed the paper it down on the table. It read: "Adair Hair Salon." She placed some scissors on the table, stood up, and looked at me with gleam.

"Do you like?" she happily inquired.

"What is this supposed to be?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious? It's a hair salon. We need extensions, and there's probably girls here who wanna hair cut that so happen to have your hair color. Might as well use that," she explained as if it was as plain as day. "Anyways, this is going to take a while. If you wanna get the dress, here." She handed me a golden key, which shimmered in the light. How pretty. On the key, it read: "2223." This must be her dorm key.

"It's your dorm key."

"No dip, Sherlock," she scoffed, "it's somewhere in my room, assuming my roommate hasn't found it yet. Since we're about the same size, it should fit you."

"Thanks, Esmae," I thanked, and then turned to Phil, "are you coming, Phillip?"

"Absolutely," he said, nodding. We bid our farewells to the girl, and then walked towards the girl's dormitory. On the way, we didn't say a word to each other, though that was likely due to our discomfort walking in the girls' dorm without a girl. Awkwardly strolling, Phillip tried to make our presence less awkward by whistling. This, of course, only made us suspicious and drew attention to us. Embarrassed by the teen, I face palmed, and kept my head down as we drew closer to her room. Eventually, we reached her room. Placing the key into the lock, I turned it and we walked in.

To our surprise, the room was split in three by two painted bookshelves: one was pink, while the other was orange. We walked over to the orange side, and found ourselves consumed in a clutter of orange. Shuddering, I pushed away my feeling of unease.

"Here we are," I announced as we both eyed the mess. Clearing my throat, I continued, "Let's look for the dress. I'll look near the bed, and you can look in the closet."

Immediately, my attention was drawn to the pile of clothes lying near the foot of her bed. However, despite there being numerous discarded articles, there wasn't a point to searching it since it was a monochrome pile of shirts and shorts that reeked of a mix of sweat and persimmons. Next, I peered underneath the bed and helped back my urge to gag...let's say I will regret this until the end of time. Not only was there another pile of clothes, but also what appeared to be empty food containers that contained a hazardous mess and a dozen, stained, half-opened books. Poor books.

"Is this it?" Phillip called. I got up from underneath the bed.

The dress was a soft, sleeveless sheer ball gown with many rhinestones for décor. It had a scoop neck made from a transparent fabric that dragged down until it reached the bosom. There, there were more white rhinestones that depleted in amount as it left the breast area. Along the waist, there was a simple band of rhinestones, possibly there to accentuate its wearer's waist. Overall, the dress was light blue, maybe a celeste blue, and had many white sheer layers over it to protect its pale color. At the very bottom, white ruffles could be seen, but they were soft waves that drew only a little attention.

"It's...blue."

"Is that a bad thing?" he inquired. "I think it's a pretty shade of blue."

"It's not that," I responded, "it's just that her clothes are usually orange—it surprises me that she has this."

"Do you not like it?"

"It's not that, it's that there is no way in Hell that I'm putting that on," I blurted, "I'd rather be a manly woman than a feminine one." To be honest, I was more scared of ruining the elegant, innocent image of the dress—I didn't want to make the dress any less beautiful with my lack of curves. I mean, it can't be helped, but still.