Glory Days

Chapter 27: Prom Dress Shopping!

-Kira-

"I think this one is too sparkly." I say, looking at myself in the mirror. Shania picked probably the sparkliest dress in the store. The dress is studded in silver gems from the top to the waist, and poofs out with a sparkly silver fabric.

"I want to see it on you fist." She says through the changing room door. I open the door and walk out. I look over at Rylee, who is trying to hold back laughter.

"Um, I don't like it." Jamie says.

"I think I need sunglasses." Emme jokes. Rylee starts laughing, and I laugh too. Shaina looks at the dress a little longer, then frowns.

"There's too much fabric, the dress is wearing you." She finally says. Everyone but her starts laughing again.

"I really don't think that's the problem" I say. Shania's Mom, Linda, walks into the gown room. Her mom owns this boutique. We were able to convince her to let us stay after closing so we could try on dresses by ourselves. So here we are at 9 pm, trying on prom dresses.

"Oh my, Kira that is not the dress for you." She says. "You would look better in teal, or green."

"I was thinking maybe an A-line dress?" I ask her. Linda nods her head.

"You would look good in a flowy A-line, that way the dress won't eat you up. Now let's see... You would look good in a flowy V-neck." Linda says and points to Rylee. "Do you have a date?"

"Um, yes." She says and smiles.

"OH! Is it Henry?" Jamie asks. Rylee smiles and nods.

"Alright, I have a couple that you will like." Linda says. She walks through the long room full of dresses for 'formal occasions', aka prom and weddings.

"Jamie, do you have any requests?" Linda asks, while finding dresses for Rylee and me.

"I was thinking pink, but that's all." Jamie says.

"I can feel the sparkles cutting my arm." I say and awkward hold up my arms.

"The more I look at it, the more it makes me think of pirate treasure." Emme says.

"Are you 100% Sure you don't want to go to prom?" Shaina asks.

"Yeah, I want to go senior year, but I don't really want to go this year. But I wanted to see you try on the dresses, obviously." Emme says. She is sitting on a loveseat sofa, that is usually used by moms who are watching their daughters.

"You don't want to even try on one dress?" Shaina asks.

"Ok, one dress." Emme says and smiles.

After trying on probably 10 dresses, all of which were handed to me from Linda, I finally found my favorite. I walk out of my dressing room and Linda smiles. I look in the giant mirror.

"I love it." I say. It's a dark teal color with a low V-neck, and small flowers from the top to the waist.

"It's wonderful." Emme says. She is wearing a two-piece pastel yellow dress.

"You would look amazing in that." I tell her. She smiles.

"I'll remember it for next year." She says. Rylee walks out of the dressing room in a shimmery gold dress. She gasps when she sees herself in the mirror.

"I love it!" She says and does a slow twirl.

"I love that on you." I say. Shaina and Jamie walk out at the same time from their dressing rooms. Shaina is wearing a Navy dress that has straps in the back, and Jamie is in a rose patterned dress that is similar to Shaina's in the back, but the front has a lower cut.

"What happened to fuchsia?" I ask and laugh.

"Well, I looked around the room and I was drawn to the roses. I guess I will have to tell Ethan to use roses for the corsage." Jamie says.

"So, he did ask you out?" Rylee asks.

"Yeah, and turns out he's a pretty great guy." Jamie says.

"What about Aaron, has he asked you?" Emme asks.

"No, we never really talked about it." I say.

"But we're going in the same group, so maybe he'll ask you to slow dance." Shania says. I nod.

I'm not upset that Aaron hasn't asked me to prom. I'm honestly not even sure if I wanted him to. That's a lot of pressure on him, but... I still kind of like him.

"I think those are the best dresses you've tried on all evening." Linda says. "Now get together so I can take a picture."

We all squeeze together for a couple of pictures for Linda. She likes to take pictures of groups to show on her Wall of Fame for memories and for examples for future customers. We change back into our normal clothes and take our dresses to the counter, where Linda carefully bags them and gives us a discount when we pay. I help Shaina and Linda clean and close the boutique. As Shaina walks me to my car, she asks,

"Do you want Aaron to ask you to prom? It's not too late you know; Prom is 2 weeks away. I can tell him to ask you if you wanted me to."

"No thanks. I'm good, really. I'm perfectly fine just going with friends and having a good time." I say.

"Yeah, I know. Well, drive safe and text me when you get home. Love you." She says and hugs me.

"I love you too." I say and hug her back.

I stay up late watching Murder Mystery on Netflix. I check my phone and see a couple of texts from Shaina, but I put down my phone. I can check the texts tomorrow. I close my computer and fall fast asleep.

I wake up from a nightmare. The same nightmare I've had for the past couple weeks. I don't know how to explain it, but the same thing happens every time.

I remember being in a hospital bed, and lights all around me, then everything goes black and I can't remember the rest, but I always wake up sweating after having them.

I rub my eyes and reach for my phone. 4 am, ugh I'm going to have 0 sleep tonight.

Should I call Aaron? Is he up? I've called him at midnight before and he was asleep... his voice was raspy, but it was actually kind of cute. No, I need to go back to sleep.

But I can't.

I eventually fall asleep again and wake up to the sound of my alarm at 7. Time for school, with 5 hours of sleep, yay!