by Sadie Allen
“Well, I may have a solution,” she replied.
“You went to prom last year, right?”
“Yeah …?” Her pale eyebrows hit her hairline.
“I need to borrow your dress.”
“What?”
“I need to borrow your dress,” I repeated.
“You’re going to prom?” She shook her head in disbelief.
I just nodded, feeling shy and not sure what to say.
“With who?” She had a wary look on her face like she didn’t want to know my answer. “Never mind. I know who you’re going with. So, are y’all, like, together now?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” She sounded incredulous.
“I mean, I don’t know. We haven’t exactly discussed it.”
“Has he kissed you?”
“Uh …”
“You let Judd freaking Jackson kiss you?” she shouted.
“Shh …”
“Why are you telling me to shush? There’s no one here!” She threw her arms out wide and waved them up and down, emphasizing the empty room.
“I’m telling you to shush because he didn’t kiss me … exactly,” I said, studying my toes.
“What do you mean, exactly?”
I lifted my head to see she was studying me with narrowed eyes. Then I looked up at the ceiling and prayed for deliverance, but it looked like none was forthcoming, so I looked back at her and told her about the near kiss last week.
“Hmm …”
“What do you mean, hmm? That’s all you have to say is hmm?” I said on a near shout, feeling the hysteria crawling up my throat.
“My dress probably won’t fit you,” she said, examining me from head to toe, and then her face turned thoughtful.
I sighed because I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t want to spend any of my savings on a dress that I would never wear again.
“Follow me.” She walked toward a hall that was just off the kitchen and toward her room, the first room on the right.
I followed her down the hall that, unlike my home growing up, held no pictures, and went inside a room that I could only describe as a purple paradise.
Almost everything in her room was a shade of purple—the lavender walls, which were beginning to peel in places; the mid-range purple comforter, with every color purple toss pillows; the deep violet rug that spread over the aging brown carpet underneath; and the curtains that were an ombre of purple, the top was the lightest pale lavender that gradually darkened into a basic purple. You would think it would be overwhelming, but it actually worked. All her furniture, the trim, and her doors were painted white, so it brought some light into the very monochromatic color scheme.
Molly was in her closet, scooting hangers around until she found what she was looking for. Pulling out a black garment bag, she gently, almost reverently, laid it on her bed. Then she unzipped it slowly, revealing crimson fabric, and when she unzipped it all the way, she reached in and slowly pulled a dress out by the hanger. Lifting it up high she displayed a timelessly elegant chiffon dress that wasn’t the dress she wore to prom last year.
“Wow,” I breathed out.
“It was Marissa’s,” she whispered.
Marissa was Molly’s older sister who had been sixteen when she was killed in that car crash with their mom.
“I couldn’t.”
She looked at me, eyes bright with emotion, and then looked back at the dress. “You should try it on,” she said with a nod.
“No, really, Molls … I can figure something else out.”
“You can’t wear my dress,” she stated matter-of-factly, and when I opened my mouth to argue, she cut me off with, “You’re half a foot taller, and the skirt was ankle length on me; imagine where it would hang on you.”
I snapped my mouth shut, knowing she was right. I wasn’t sure it would fit in the waist, either.
The dress beckoned me, and I felt myself start to crumble.
“Try it on.”
“Okay, I’ll try it on, but that’s it. I’m not taking it with me.”
She rolled her eyes and handed the dress to me.
I held it up, examining the lace detail that was sewn across the sweetheart neckline and the off-the-shoulder straps. It was gorgeous and infinitely precious, not for its beauty, but because I knew how much it meant to Molly. It humbled me that she was letting me see it, let alone wanting me to wear it to prom.
I laid it on the end of her bed and turned around to take off everything except my panties. Then I gingerly took the dress from the hanger and stepped into it. Pulling it up, I then held it up with my hands to my chest and looked over my shoulder at Molly, asking, “Will you please zip me up?”
I turned and faced forward when I felt her fingers at my lower back.
“Can I ask you a question?”
She zipped the dress, and when she was finished, she gave it pat. “You can ask, but I may not answer.”
I turned around and heard her gasp. I looked at her face and saw tears pooling at her lower lids, and she had her fingertips pressed to her mouth. She then grabbed my arm and propelled me toward the door where she had a full-length mirror mounted to the back.
When I saw myself, my breath caught. The dress fit me like it was made specifically for me. The mermaid style enhanced what little curves I had, and the deep crimson color played brilliantly against my warm skin tone and black hair.
I felt a flutter of excitement in my belly, but I couldn’t let myself embrace it. I couldn’t wear this dress.
I looked down at the floor and kept repeating that to myself because I really wanted to wear this dress. It was perfect, and I knew that, if this dress couldn’t impress Judd, then there was no chance of anything between us. That this was probably some kind of pity date after all.
“You look phenomenal, Sunny Sunshine.”
I looked up and saw Molly behind me in the reflection of the mirror, a huge smile on her face.
“I can’t wear Marissa’s dress,” I said with a sigh. My heart dropped into my stomach, knowing that was the right thing to do. No matter that the dress looked amazing, I couldn’t wear it. What if I tore it or spilled punch on it? It was too much of a risk with something that was irreplaceable. If something happened to it, there would be no replacing something that held so much sentimental value to my friend.
“Why not?” she asked as the smile dropped from her face.
“It was Marissa’s.” I stared at her like the answer was obvious.
“So?”
“So? What if I wreck it?” My voice went up an octave at her lack of concern.
“You won’t let anything happen to Rissa’s dress.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“You’re the most responsible person I kn—”
“That doesn’t matter. I could have some freak accident.”
I kept arguing, but a little bit of hope was creeping its way in. If she kept pushing, I would cave. It wouldn’t take much, because I really wanted to wear this dress.
“The dress deserves to be worn, not collecting dust in my closet. I can’t wear it, and even if I could, where would I be able to? I’m a small-town barmaid with no social life. That dress needs some new memories to be made in it. And if Judd’s stupid eyes don’t fall out of his head when he sees you in it, then he’s as stupid as I’ve always thought he was.” A mischievous glint lighted in her eyes, and I figured she was probably not having good thoughts about Judd Jackson’s intelligence.
I could feel my protests die a quick death.
“Okay. Only if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure, Sunny. What better way to honor Marissa than by letting her dress out of the closet to be worn by someone who has been like a sister to me?”
My nose started stinging and the back of my eyes burned from the effort to hold back tears. Her words moved me because I felt exactly the same way. Living out here on the outskirts of town wasn’t easy,
not just because of the rough neighborhood, but because of the way people looked at you. People in town looked at people from Country Acres like we were trash. Stinky trash judging by the perpetual look on their faces when they realized you were from the wrong side of the tracks.
Molly and I had bonded over both those aspects. We were both trailer park kids who had to struggle to make it, unlike most of the kids in school. Before working at the bar, Molly had sacked groceries all throughout high school until she graduated. Her dad might own Oasis, but it wasn’t that profitable of a bar, mainly because Richard was a lazy owner, so she had to earn every bit of money for extra things, like school clothes, gas, food, etc.
I turned and gave Molly a hug. She gave me a squeeze, and then stepped back and turned away, suspiciously swiping at her eyes.
I reached behind me to unzip the dress so I could put it away, when I felt Molly swat my hands and then work the zipper. Again, I held up the dress until I reached the bed and was able to change back into my clothes. I put the dress carefully back into the garment bag, and then laid it back on the bed.
“Speaking of things coming out of the closet, I didn’t get to ask my question from earlier.”
She screwed up her face like she tasted something sour, and I knew that she had hoped the dress would be enough of a distraction to keep me from poking around. Something was going on that she didn’t want to talk about.
“Why’d you tell Judd that you are gay?”
“Heard that, did you?” she said with a wince.
“Hard not to. My trailer isn’t that big. Sally couldn’t talk long, so I caught most of your chat,” I told her, turning around to face her
Her eyes looked everywhere but at me. Then she shrugged like it was no big deal.
“Why do you do that? Play it off? You let everyone in school think you were a lesbian last year. Heck, they probably thought I was your girlfriend.”
She didn’t say anything, and I began to wonder …
“Are you gay? I mean, I don’t care—”
“No, I’m not gay,” she said in exasperation.
“Then what’s your deal? Why let everyone think you’re something you aren’t?”
I didn’t mean for that to come out as an accusation, especially on the heels of her selfless gift, but I just didn’t understand why she let people treat her like crap over something that wasn’t even true. Whoa, I was really getting a sense of déjà vu. Wasn’t that almost the same thing Judd was going through?
“I have no deal. I just don’t care enough to correct losers like the Klein family and their lemmings. They’re bigots, and every time one of them opens their mouth, they just show everyone how ugly they are on the inside. Plus, what’s wrong with letting them think I’m gay?”
“Nothing, if you were actually gay. You aren’t, though. But even if you were, you don’t deserve their hate. I just don’t understand why you encouraged it instead of disputing it.”
I would think that maybe if she protested against their accusations back in high school instead of encouraging it, she wouldn’t have had to deal with all the whispers, rumors, or snide remarks still today.
“You just don’t understand because you don’t know when to fight and when not to. Nothing I can or could say matters to these people. It doesn’t matter if I scream that I’m straight at the top of my lungs. They don’t listen. Ashley Klein didn’t like the way I looked or the way I talked, so she made shit up about me. And once she gets her teeth into something, she’s like a dang Doberman, she will never let it go. So”—she shrugged—“why let it bother me? It’s more fun to play it up and be outrageous just to see the looks on people’s faces or bask in their discomfort.”
She had a point. I still hated it, though.
Sunny
THE WEEK OF PROM seemed to last about ten billion years. Not really, but it felt like each day would never end.
Things between Judd and I were different, a strange tension simmering between us. I didn’t know what to do with it. We still did what we always did, which was work at the diner and practice cooking a couple nights a week, but we hadn’t been able to hang out any this week because there was no time off since Judd had gotten us the weekend off.
I gave my hair one last dose of hairspray before I set the can down and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn’t recognize the person staring back at me.
I had styled my hair in a way Grana had shown me when I was little when we had often played beauty shop on her days off. I loved those days because she had let me play in her stuff that was usually off limits. We would do makeovers and paint our fingernails and toes, and it was through those times that I had learned how to put on makeup and fix hair. As I did those things today, I felt like a little piece of her was with me.
I had taken the old curling iron that took forever to heat up and started curling my hair. After that, I pinned the curls with my grana’s metal clips to my head, creating pin curls. It took forever because I had a ton of hair. Then, when they finally set, I undid all the curls and brushed them until they created one big S wave. I was surprised at how well it had turned out, considering I hadn’t done anything like that in forever.
I was so glad Sally had given me the weekend off, because it took almost all day for me to get ready. I had to redo my makeup at least twice since it was hard to keep the tears at bay. Memories of my grana creeped in at the most unexpected times, and I would find them leaking out of my eyes without even realizing it. She would have loved to have been a part of this.
Since I was wearing a special dress and doing some of the things Grana had taught me, I really wanted to do something unique with my makeup. Therefore, I had gone on Pinterest and looked up all kinds of makeup pallets. Then, after school yesterday, I had run by the Dollar Store, hoping to grab some stuff for my eyes and lips, and had lucked out when I found the perfect shade of lipstick that matched my dress.
After doing the basic foundation and concealer, I painted my eyes in two shades of shimmery browns, the lighter toward my inner eye and a darker shade used from mid-lid to the outer edge. They gave my boring brown eyes a smoky and sultry look. I then used black liquid eyeliner on my lids for a cat-eye, which took almost as long as my hair and wasted a ton of Q-tips on trying to get it perfect. A swipe of mascara to each eye, a dab of powder, lips lined and a coat of lipstick, minus gloss for a matte style, and I was ready, pleased with how it had all come together.
Now, as I surveyed my handiwork, it was almost time for Judd to pick me up. I had on my dress and the shoes that Molly had dropped off yesterday. Evidently, when I went by her place the other day, we had forgotten shoes. Molly loaned me a pair of her high-heeled sandals that were higher than what I was used to, which was sneakers, and black with a few thick straps toward the toe and ankle that zipped up the back.
I had Grana’s black clutch that had miraculously survived my dad’s trailer devastation and put what little money I had in it, along with my lipstick and phone. I didn’t bother with jewelry since the dress was so elaborate with its lace and beading that I thought it didn’t need anything to take away from it. The smooth chiffon fabric and the mermaid style made me feel like a Hollywood starlet of old.
I was walking out of the bathroom to go wait in the living room when I heard a knock at the door. I craned my neck to peek at the clock on the microwave and saw that he was five minutes early.
I hoofed it to the door and looked through the peephole, making sure it was who I was expecting, before opening the door and seeing Judd Jackson standing there, looking like a dream.
I just stood there and stared, not saying a word.
He was dressed in black slacks with a gray suit jacket over a black button-up dress shirt, no tie, and black cowboy boots. His shoulder-length hair was tied back and his face was cleanly shaven.
I put my hand to my chin to make sure I didn’t have drool there. It was then I took in the expression on his face and felt a little self-conscious when he just stared at me, his ey
es going from the top of my head down to my feet. When it looked like he wasn’t ever going to say anything, I decided to break the silence.
“You look nice.” That was an understatement. He looked like he had just walked out of a photo shoot for Teen Vogue.
That seemed to break him out of whatever trance he was in, and he smiled, his eyes scanning me one last time before he looked me in the eyes.
“Wow, Sunny. You look amazing,” he said, sounding kind of breathless.
My heart warmed at the compliment, and it felt like a hundred butterflies had taken flight in my tummy. That strange tension was vibrating between us again, making me squirm. My hands convulsed on the clutch I was holding. I wanted to reach out and touch him, be close to him.
When he held out his hand for mine, I quickly locked up the trailer before taking it, feeling how large and warm it was.
He helped me down the steps so I didn’t trip over my hem or the shoes or both. Then we were strolling over to his Jeep that looked like it had just come from the carwash with the water droplets glinting in the evening sun.
“Where are we going?” I asked once we were both in the Jeep, and he was cranking the ignition. “Prom doesn’t start for another hour.”
“It’s a surprise,” he answered, flashing me a mischievous grin before putting the car in gear and pulling out of my dirt driveway.
***
We didn’t drive far before we turned onto the road that led toward Fowler’s Landing, which was on the lake. I wondered what Judd was up to.
We drove down the gravel lane that ran by the lake until we reached the graveled parking lot by the picnic area. The lot was mostly deserted, so Judd parked right up in front by the grass.
When he cut the engine, I reached for the door handle, but before I could open it, I felt his hand touch my knee. Surprised, I looked over at him to see him shaking his head.
“I’m getting your door, so sit tight.”
I put my hand back in my lap and waited as he rounded the hood and opened my door. Then he reached in and helped me step down from his Jeep.
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face as I looked up at him and remarked, “What a gentleman.”
