“I know, I know, Nina. But seriously, all ‘I pushed him away’s and ‘he’s better off’s aside, do you or do you not ever think about him? About picking up the phone and telling him he’s going to be a father?” I rushed.
She looked like a dear caught in headlights for the longest time.
“Just about every day,” she admitted, nodding sheepishly and looking down at her stomach. She was subconsciously rubbing her belly as she continued. “Every time I feel this little guy kick; every time I hear a Spanish beat; every time I close my eyes at night I’m reminded of how alone I am and how much I wish I wasn’t. Is that the answer you were hoping for?”
I saw she was nearing tears, but was successfully holding back and taking deep breaths.
“No,” I shook my head, “I wasn’t aiming for a perfect answer; I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I just wanted to hear the truth from you, because you’re my friend and I want you to be able to talk to me. You keep all of this bottled up inside you for no reason – it’s okay to talk to me about it. I may not be your age and I’m not pregnant myself, but I’m not incapable of understanding at least a little bit of where you’re coming from. I just hate that you feel like you have to put up some kind of front with everyone. You don’t have to prove that you’re perfectly fine on your own. In fact it’d be weird if you were completely okay.”
“Emery,” Nina chuckled, standing up and waddling over to hug me real quick. “You should study psychology in college,” she suggested, “because I have a feeling I’m going to need a therapist like you in the future.”
“Why do I have such negative friends?” I wondered out loud. We both laughed and I placed my hands on her shoulders. She placed hers on mine as well.
“You should call him,” I told her straight forwardly.
“I should,” she agreed, dropping her hands and returning to her chair. She squeezed herself in and pulled forward toward the desk.
“You’re not going to, are you?” I murmured, returning to the doorway as I heard Fox come in.
Nina shook her head slowly. “It’s too late for that, I think.”
“You think wrong,” I sighed as I walked over to the front desk. I doubt she’d heard me. In fact I hope she hadn’t. I didn’t want to push her and annoy her a week before her due-date. She had enough to deal with; I didn’t want her thinking I was angry at her for the (horrible) choices she was making.
“Hey.” I smiled, looking at Fox as he walked around the counter himself and put his bag on the floor.
“Hey,” he returned, looking a little disheveled in appearance.
“You okay?” I asked curiously.
He nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, just a little winded,” he smirked. “The team went for a run today.”
“Fox gets tired? Impossible,” I commented incredulously.
“Shut up,” he muttered, shoving my lightly.
A muffled pattern of vibrations went off. I watched as Fox felt his pants for his phone, finally finding it and checking the screen. His jaw clenched as he pressed a button and placed it on the counter.
“Not gonna answer it?”
“Nah,” he shook his head. “I’m at work. Technically,” he said as his lips formed a grin and he closed in on me. I was backed against the counter and trapped between both his yummy arms while he lowered his face to mine. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him the rest of the way, molding our lips together. His hands gripped my waist and he angled his face to accommodate the kiss; I did the same. I pulled him closer, letting the need to be close to him take over. With my arms around his neck and my body arching into his, I felt his warm fingers slip under the hem of my uniform shirt and trace patterns on my skin. I moaned at the sensation, wanting more of it. I needed friction. I needed warmth. I wanted–
“You’ve reached the Hartford Red Cross Center, this is Emery speaking,” I said cheerfully, hoping I didn’t sound too out of breath through the telephone. “How may I help you?”
“Did I interrupt something?” a giggly voice inquired at the end of the line.
“Lily?” I scowled, frowning as Fox disentangled himself from me. His phone started vibrating again and he immediately pressed ‘end’. Nina called him over and he headed for her office while I remained on the phone.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Yeah?” I replied, “Sorry, um, what’s up?”
She chuckled. “Oooh, Em, you’re getting bad. Making out on the job? I thought you were the responsible one.”
I smirked, blushing at her comments. “It’s not a job; I don’t get paid.”
“You don’t get paid to suck face with Fox Evans, either,” she commented, “Not that money matters in that situation. The satisfaction is enough for you, I assume?”
“Did you call to indirectly call me a whore or is there a point to this phone call?” I mused, noticing Fox’s phone go off again. Before I could stop myself, I looked over the counter to see who was incessantly calling.
Mom, the screen read. I immediately moved away from the phone and focused back to Lily. Somewhat. His mom was calling him? Or did he call Millicent ‘Mom’ now?
“Hello?” Lily asked, “You there?”
“Hmm? Wha– Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that,” I responded.
“Which part?”
“All of it,” I admitted, laughing as she scolded me on the other end of the line. Fox emerged from Nina’s office and grabbed his phone before heading outside and making a call. I turned in another direction so he wouldn’t see me watching.
“–xing, pedicures, manicures, and of course, dress shopping,” Lily concluded when I tuned back in. It clicked that she was referring to getting ready for prom.
“Oh my God, right, we have what? Like a week to get all this done,” I gasped, “It totally slipped my mind.”
“Mine too; I was getting ready to plan some kind of anti-prom sleepover with you before Nick asked me,” she laughed. “We’ll make it work, and we’ll look hot – like sizzling. I promise you, Fox is gonna wanna eat you up.”
“Umm…” I paused. “Right, when is this all happening?”
“Tomorrow? I was thinking we’d go get some dresses and then do all the body maintenance after we know our colors,” she suggested.
Body maintenance? She makes me sound like a used car.
“Sounds good,” I nodded. “Wait – where are we going to get dresses this short notice? There’s no way I’m going to the mall; everything good’s already been sold and the last thing either one of us needs on prom night is to have the same exact dress as four other girls.”
“Em, chill. Relax. I’ve already thought this out; my aunt can totally hook us up. She’s got this underground dress shop and it’s very chic. We’ll be unique, trust me.”
“Underground? Is it a legal business she carries out, Lil?” I chuckled, biting my lip and peaking over my shoulder. Fox seemed frustrated as he talked to whoever was on the other line.
“Oh, yeah, totally!” Lily laughed, “I just say it’s underground ‘cause it’s in her basement. She sells to a legit store, but she makes all the gowns in her basement first. So we’ll get first pick before she sends them out.”
“Oh, okay. So I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” I smiled as a whole new level of excitement churned in my stomach.
“Bring all the cash you can!” Lily advised. “We’re going hard tomorrow, from dusk ‘til dawn. It’s a full day project.”
‘Kay now I seriously feel like a fixer-upper going to an auto shop.
I hung up the phone and checked on Fox through the glass. His face was expressionless as he nodded and said a few more things. He came back inside a couple minutes later.
“Everything alright?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
He nodded slowly. “Fine.”
***
I pulled back the curtain of the makeshift dressing room Lily’s (British) aunt, Lorraine, had set up prior to our visit. Stepping out, I modeled the crims
on Cinderella-esque dress for Lorraine while Lily changed into her next dress.
“Hmm…” she sighed. “This dress does nothing for you, love.”
“I agree,” Lily nodded, imitating her aunt’s accent. She looked flawless in a sky-blue shimmery number. “You look sickly pale, darling.”
“Well thanks, you look hot,” I muttered, turning around so she could unzip me before returning the same courtesy. We waddled back to our ‘dressing rooms’ and tried on the next batch of gowns. We’d been doing this for over three hours. All of these amazing dresses were starting to melt together and look the same to me.
“Lorraine?” I called, stepping out of the red thing and slipping into a silky black number.
“Call me Raine, love,” she returned. “What is it?”
“Am I supposed to be half-naked?” I asked uncertainly, pulling the curtain back and stepping out. Lily peeked from behind her curtain to inspect my gown.
It was a halter with a plunging, and I mean plunging, neckline. A single thread of silver connected the gown and kept it from opening to reveal the goods. From my waist the soft, cold midnight fabric fell and pooled at my feet. Lily gestured for me to turn around. Like a puppet I twirled slowly, revealing the back of the dress or rather, a lack thereof.
“Emery…” Lily started. Raine was speechless.
“What? I can’t pull it off, right?” I winced, looking down at myself and the cleavage the dress revealed. Not bad, I thought, not bad at all, girls. “It’s too sexy for me.”
“No!” Raine and Lily said simultaneously.
“It’s definitely beyond sexy,” Lily laughed, looking me over again. “But that’s the point. It’s almost like it was made for you – you’ve got the three main points: boobs, back, and butt, covered. Or, uncovered, I should say,” she winked. “I think you just found your dress.”
“Really?” I looked at myself in the full-length mirror on the wall across from me. I did look great. I just didn’t know how I felt about it, yet. I liked it, definitely. But did I want to spend an entire night half naked? Would I be comfortable?
“Can I have a couple days to think about it?” I asked, biting my lip and turning to look at my back in the mirror.
“Of course,” Raine nodded. “It’s always good to think things over. I can tell you’re still not completely sold on it. Is it the plain color you’re not sure of?”
I shrugged. “The color’s okay, I think black automatically discards it from sticking out, but with all this skin I can see why you’d use a dark fabric instead of like bright pink. That’d be too overwhelming.”
“Right,” she nodded. “You’ve got enough going with this one, that’s for sure. You look lovely, love.”
“Thank you,” I smiled, “for everything.”
“Anything for a friend of Lily’s.”
Lily came out from behind the curtain looking for more dresses. She was seemingly just as uncertain as I was, except she didn’t mind showing it. We scoured the basement for every color and style we could find. She seems particularly fond of shimmery dresses.
“What about this one?” I asked, pulling a gold dress out from behind a mannequin.
Raine gasped at my discovery. “Oh my goodness! I forgot all about that one! It’s absolutely divine,” she said, taking the dress and shoving Lily behind the curtain with it. “It’s yours, I can feel it.”
A minute later Lily emerged shyly from behind the curtain, stepping forward and twirling almost in slow motion to give the dress the entrance it deserved. It really was ‘divine’. The dress stuck closely to her frame, though it wasn’t exactly tight or stretchy. Its light-gold fabric resembled the color of champagne and shimmered like a million diamonds. The excess material collected at her feet and as she turned it followed suit. A single champagne strap held the dress up and ran down her back before meeting the rest of the gown at her lower backside. A gold thread wrapped around her torso to connect the front half of the gown together, making up for the lack of fabric in the back.
“It’s like it was made for you,” I commented. Raine seconded my statement.
“Ahhhh!” Lily shrieked, jumping up and down and giggling as her ponytail fell apart and her hair fell in her face. “I found my dress!”
“You look stunning,” Raine praised, “You ladies are going to be the hottest ones at the dance.”
“Definitely,” Lily agreed, checking out her back as she held her hair up. “Oh my God, I love it. Thanks so much Auntie Raine.”
“What’s this ‘Auntie’ nonsense?” her aunt mock-scolded. “Go change, you’ll miss your hair appointments.”
“Hair?” I inquired, having not heard that part of Lily’s plan yesterday on the phone.
“Yeah, we have 12 o’clock appointments, remember?” Lily asked running back behind the curtain to change.
“Oh!” I said, feigning recognition, “Right, 12 o’clock.”
“Yeah, silly,” Lily chuckled. “We can’t forget the highlights!”
“Highlights,” I reiterated, trying not to sound shocked.
“And lowlights,” Lily nodded, carrying the dress over to her aunt who gave her a bag to place it in.
“How much for this one, Raine?” Lily asked her.
Her aunt waved her off. “Don’t even start, Lil. Both are free of charge.”
“Raine, I can’t let you–” I started.
“Nonsense! You can, and you will let me give you both a gift. The only thing I require in exchange is a smile, an amazing night, and safe choices during… whatever it is that occurs after these dances of yours.”
“Lorraine!” Lily scolded playfully, hugging her aunt. I, however, made no comment.
“Thank you, again,” I said, hugging her as well. “I’ll get back to you on the dress.”
“I’ll keep it here for a few more days, love,” Raine promised. “Good luck, girls!”
***
“White blonde for her, and a dark brown for me just to dramatize our natural colors, y’know? We don’t want anything too different,” Lily told the stylists who would be doing our hair. They nodded and suggested a few things to her, using technical terms that I had no clue how to translate. Lily mentioned getting a choppy angled cut like Posh just above her shoulders.
“What about you, Em?” she asked, “Are you getting anything cut?”
“Um,” I sighed, staring at my hair in the mirror. It’d grown quite a bit. “What would you suggest?”
My stylist, Greg, took over. “Well, I’d definitely put some layers in here,” he started tousling my hair and pointing to the parts he wanted to touch up. “We should definitely frame your face with a few shorter layers – just to open up this lovely heart-shaped you’ve got going on. You are an adorable creature, honey, but this bland cut isn’t doing you justice. I’m so glad Lily called us in for highlights; we’re going to reawaken your inner goddess.”
“Oh wow,” I nodded enthusiastically, “Well then I’m down. Reawaken my goddess; do what you have to.”
We all laughed and got to it. I was anxious for the change, eager to see how it all came out.
“So, Miss Emery,” Greg said, painting thin strips of my hair with bleach and folding them up in tin foil, “Who’s taking you to prom?”
White is for Virgins Page 36
