“So, anyway...Mark and I found this great little place across town. It’s a restaurant that has a bar side with dancing. We decided that we’re going to go check it out tonight. I’m so excited.”
“Well that’s good, sis. I know how much you want to get out and meet new people here.”
“Oh, that’s the best part. Mark insisted that you come with us. Eeeek! I can’t wait. We talked about it last night, but I didn’t want to come outside and wake you. Plus, I wasn’t wearing any clothes at the time.”
I set my coffee down on the table. “Ugh! Really? I don’t need that morning visual, Buff. Damn! Keep that shit to yourself.”
She smacked me on my leg. “Shut up, Chance. You wouldn’t be complaining if you were in my shoes.”
“Sometimes I think that platinum hair of yours has caused you permanent brain damage.” I liked to tease my sister whenever I had the opportunity.
She rolled her eyes and started running her hands through her hair. “Whatever!” She then stood up and headed toward the door. “We’re leaving at eight. You better be ready, because if you aren’t we’re coming in here and dragging your ass with us.”
“Oh, I’m scared of that threat. You do realize that you’re half the size of me. You haven’t been able to take me since you were ten.”
“Seriously, Chance, do it for me at least. Try! For one night pretend that you want to hang out with your big sister. I do a lot for you.”
“Fine, Buff. Whatever. I don’t have a choice anyway. I live under your roof and have to abide by the rules. You’re the boss.”
She leaned her head back in the door. “Just be ready when I said.” She ambled away and I picked up the coffee again, but as soon as the door closed it re-opened. “Oh, and Chance, no drinking today. I can’t have your ass all incoherent before we even leave for dinner.”
I shook my head once I knew she was gone. The last thing I wanted to do was go out with my sister and her boyfriend dancing. I hated to dance, and more importantly watch how my sister did it. Every guy in that bar would be mind-fucking her. It was disturbing as all hell.
5
When Rylee finally called me, she said she had a way for us to have a “real good time” tonight. I rolled my eyes while talking on the phone, but made her promise it had nothing to do with Trevor. He was getting on my nerves and I couldn’t shake the way his last message made me feel. Maybe I was just interpreting it wrong, but I was leery still.
Rylee finally arrived at my house around six p.m. She was wearing a regular looking sundress. It was close to the blue one I’d worn the day before. Once she made it into the boundaries of my room she slipped it down revealing the tightest, skimpiest thing I’d ever seen. It was black and platinum and opened up on the sides from her rib cage down to her hips. Large metal buckles were holding it together. I watched as she adjusted it while looking in the long mirror attached to my door. “That’s what I’m talking about,” she spoke to herself.
Rylee was a gorgeous girl. She had dark hair, an ebony in color, and almost black eyes. Her father was from Pakistan and she’d gotten his chocolate complexion. Our friends hated being around the both of us, because we were so much darker than all of them. I was always thankful that I got that trait from my mother, although I favored my father in appearance. Her mom was of Cherokee descent and she had passed down the creamiest brown skin a girl could ask for. We didn’t have to go tan for the prom, like all of our other friends did. Instead, Rylee and I would go to the ice cream shop and get milkshakes while we waited on them.
“So, what do you think?” Rylee inquired, while smoothing out the tight dress.
“You look hot, but I don’t have anything resembling that. Where did you even get something like that?”
“At my mother’s shop. Girl, you’d be surprised what people turn in at the second hand store. Anyway, I was working for my mom last weekend in the back. A bunch of bags had come in, and I collected as many as these babies as I could, and shoved them in my purse.” Her mother owned a consignment shop inside of the little town we resided. Being the traditional woman that she was, I couldn’t imagine what she would say to her daughter for stealing such items.
“There’s more? You’ve got to be joking?”
“Oh no, I’m not! There was an entire bag full of dresses, and several more with other things. A few of them I wouldn’t even wear. I was thinking they came from a transvestite. Wouldn’t that be hysterical?”
I didn’t know if I wanted to picture that, or what else was in the bags. Considering what this one looked like, I was afraid to visualize what the others must have compared to. “So where are we going anyway, because I can’t imagine wearing that to the big five.”
The big five was a group of fast food places all in the same block of each other in the middle of our small hick-town. They made no sense, but seemed to remain open anyway. All of the teenagers would hang out with their big trucks in the parking lots at all hours of the day and night.
“Silly girl, it’s a secret.” She threw some bunched up fabric at me. “Now pick which one you’re going to hide under your clothes, so I can start on your hair and makeup.”
I held the fabric in my hand. “You’ve got to be kidding. There is no way in hell I’m wearing either of these.”
“Trust me,” she exclaimed, while primping in the mirror. “You’re going to fit right in where we’re going.”
I stretched out the two dresses across my bed. For me to even be considering either of them was against my religion, and I didn’t mean that in any biblical way. These dresses, if that’s what they’d even be classified as, should have been against the law to wear.
The lime green dress was tight and short, but draped down in the front. I wasn’t sure I had a bra that I could wear, and I was too big to be without one. “This is a no!”
“Fine, then it’s settled. You’re wearing the pink and black one,” she declared, while holding it up.
“You know I hate pink,” I slammed. She must have lost her mind from being stuffed into that tiny dress.
“Too late. Now, hurry up and get it on so we can get ready.” She wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer.
I shook my head, cursed under my breath, and clenched the small fabric into my fist before heading to the bathroom. Once inside I held it up against my body. It looked too small, but once I got it on, it fit every curve of my body. I wasn’t modest, but there was a whole different level of confidence needed to pull off wearing something in this magnitude. When I peered in the mirror, I noticed how the pink wasn’t as much as I’d originally suspected. The center of the spaghetti strapped dress front and back were black, but on each of the sides were bright pink. I guess it was made to accent a woman’s curves, in which it was clearly doing. From the way it draped down in the front, it made my breasts almost double in size. Finally, before I put another dress over it, so that my mother wouldn’t see, I bent over to do the ass check. Of course, in doing so, as I feared, I could see my panties.
It took me a little while longer to come to grips with what I was about to do. Rylee had terrible ideas, and the fact that I was letting her go along with one, said a lot about my judgment in character.
I still had no idea where we were going. There was nothing to do in this town and we were way too young to get into either of the bars here.
This couldn’t be good.
When I stepped out of the bathroom I was wearing a normal summer dress. It was yellow with white daisies all over it. I headed into the bedroom and saw Rylee rolling her eyes. “What?”
“You weren’t even going to let me see it?”
“I didn’t want to get caught. My mother would kill me if she saw me wearing something like that. Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I questioned.
She sat me down in front of my mirror and started messing with my hair. “No, it’s a surprise. Just be quiet and let me do my magic.”
“Fine, but my mother will suspect something if you cover my
face in makeup.” There was no way I could go out of the house with as much as Rylee wore on a normal basis. My mother would have had a heart attack.
“I’ll do your makeup once we leave, stupid. Geesh, give me some credit. I got a diploma too, ya know.”
I rolled my eyes and sat back in the chair while Rylee curled my hair. When it was all said and done I looked like I was headed to a photo shoot. Rylee was pleased with her work; I could see it on her face.
I slipped on a pair of sandals and she rolled her eyes again. She reached into her giant purse and pulled out a pair of black high heels. “You’ll be wearing these once we get out of this church house.” She was referring to my mother, who at times could be very over-protective of me.
“Shut up. She isn’t that bad.”
“Oh, yes she is.”
My mother was taking a nap when we headed out of the house. She barely opened her eyes to kiss me goodbye. I told her I’d be staying at Rylee’s house overnight, and made it out of there without any extra questions, which was a first.
My sister had barged in my place three times during the day. A few of the occurrences I just wanted to get on my bike and leave, but I really had no place to go. She knew how I was feeling about going out in public. I hadn’t done it in so long, and could only assume she thought I would break down and go completely crazy. If she paid more attention to me in the past she would have known that I used to be an easy person to be around. There was probably even a time when I was the life of some parties. That was all before everything came crashing down on me.
To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy being around people anymore. After what happened to me, I couldn’t trust anyone. My so-called friends had showed me that.
I looked through my closet, realizing I hadn’t even unpacked any of my nice clothes. Before everything happened, I had lots of fun events to attend while at Penn State. My rich girlfriend had taken me shopping and left me with a closet of designer clothes. I located one of the boxes out of the back and began scavenging through it. Inside, I found a few V-neck t-shirts that were still folded nicely.
I chose the light blue one with a pair of dark gray shorts. They were made from linen. I remembered because Veronica, my ex, made a big deal about owning a pair. I never would have bought them for myself, but once I tried them on I understood the hype they got. They were comfortable and light. I wasn’t into dancing, but bars could get ungodly hot, and I didn’t feel like sweating my ass off all night. My sister came in as I was putting my white Nike’s on.
“Oh, hell no! You are not wearing those shoes with that outfit. I would have thought Veronica taught you better than that.”
“For someone that wants me to go with her, you aren’t being very nice. What’s wrong with my shoes?”
“Chance, you can’t wear those expensive shorts with a pair of sneakers. Here.” She tossed me a pair of boat shoes. I know they had some fancy name, but I always thought they looked like something our granddad had worn. “Wear these instead.”
“Yeah, I was going for the old-man look tonight anyway.”
“Shut up and get them on. Mark and I are ready to go.”
I slipped the shoes on my feet and followed her out the door. When she turned around to stop me, I slammed into the back of her. “Damn it, Buffy, watch where you’re going.”
“You forgot your hair. Good thing I carry gel in my purse. Come on, Mark’s in the car. I’ll deal with your hair situation as he drives us there.”
“Wait! I think I want to drive myself.”
My sister turned around to face me. She was wearing a short leather skirt and a pink top that left her belly hanging out. The bright glare from her belly ring shined in my face. I covered my eyes before I could even talk to her. “Damn girl, you trying to blind me?”
“You’re not driving that motorcycle.” She pointed toward me as she spoke.
“Yes, I am. Listen, I promised you I would go, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll have a great time. In fact, I’m counting on it being horrible. With that being said…I think I want to have my own ride. I’m not trying to spoil your and Mark’s time. I’ll follow you there, and I assure you that I’ll have no more than two beers. If I get too drunk we can leave the motorcycle there.”
She seemed to be considering my idea, but when the horn honked she knew Mark was growing impatient. “Fine. Don’t do anything stupid tonight, Chance. We want to make friends, not lose them.”
“Okay, I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do.” She turned around and gave me a smile before heading to the car. There had been a time where there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t have done. The new and improved Buffy had morals, and an image to live up to.
Thankfully she’d forgotten about my hair. I put on my helmet and followed them out of the large driveway on my bike. I’d already decided that shortly after dinner I was going to head home. I’d never been to a bar where something good came out of it, and knew this was going to have the same result. I wasn’t going to meet the woman of my dreams in that type of establishment; not after everything that happened to me.
6
Rylee waited until we were a few miles away from my house to apply makeup. As the foundation filled my pores I started to feel uncomfortable. It was hot outside and the last thing I wanted was something else to make me sweat. The two dresses were bad enough as it was, during the ten minute ride.
I hated having someone else put makeup on me, especially mascara. I couldn’t help blinking, which made it even harder for Rylee. After at least fifteen minutes being on the side of the road, she told me I could look in the mirror.
I didn’t even recognize myself at first. Between the hair and now makeup I looked so much older.
“Wow! I look different.”
“Do you like it?”
“It’s a big change,” was all I could stammer out.
Rylee rolled her eyes. “Whatever! You look totally hot. I would do you if I were a guy or a lesbian. Shit, if you get enough drinks in me I may do you tonight.”
“Oh my God! Shut up. I am not doing anybody tonight or anytime soon.” She was crazy. Not only was I in no way interested in women, but I had zero desire to sleep with a stranger.
“You never know what could happen. You might want to be the next re-born Virgin Mary, but I want something new, something strange to start off my summer.”
I interrupted her. “Don’t talk like that, Rylee. You sound like a whore.” I didn’t mean it rudely and she knew I didn’t. She’d only been with two people that I knew of, and the last relationship ended this past month. Since then, all she could talk about was being single this summer to “experience new things”.
We drove in silence for a few more minutes before pulling over to a local bar that was in the middle of nowhere. If you didn’t live in the area, you’d never find it.
The Cedar Shack Bar sat off the road. It was a popular local hangout. During the day it was a restaurant, but at night it converted to a bar. I grabbed Rylee by the arm, before she could climb out of her car. “Wait! We can’t get in there. It’s after eight.”
“Do you really think I wouldn’t come prepared?” She asked, as she handed a small card that resembled a drivers license. I looked down and noticed the picture sort of looked like me. We definitely had similar features. “Where did you get this?”
“Duh, Hope, sometimes I wonder where your head is. My sister’s home from college for the summer, and I gave her money on spring break to buy one of her friends I.D.’s. It’s yours. Consider it a graduation present.”
I looked down at the Maryland driver’s license again. “It says my name is Julie Stanton.”
“Well you better be taking that dress off, Jules, so we can get our groove on.” She giggled at her apparent sarcasm. “Oh, if anyone asks, my name is Kara.”
Kara was her older sister, only by three years, but she was twenty-one.
While slipping out of the top dress, I immediately felt my cheeks becoming red. I had no clue ho
w I was going to make it in this place. Rylee handed me the heels and I watched as she double-checked her lip-gloss in the mirror.
I stood up and gripped my small clutch purse. “So, how do I look?”
“I already told you, totally do-able.”
I rolled my eyes and followed behind her as we headed toward the door. I’d never walked in heels, and found it very difficult on a gravel-filled parking lot. By the time we’d made it to the front door I was surprised I hadn’t broken an ankle. I straightened out my dress and handed the bouncer my fake I.D.
He looked at it for only a second before turning all of his attention to my dress. He started at my face, but made a beeline for my tits and finally my legs. “Where have you been all my life, gorgeous?”
“Maryland!” I blurted out, just as Rylee pulled me inside.
“Holy shit, Hope, he was totally hitting on you.”
I looked around the bar. It was filled with people both young and old. The D.J. was already playing some kind of hip hop music, but nobody was dancing yet. It was still light outside, and I’d heard that bars didn’t get busy until later on.
“Come on, let’s get drinks.” Rylee pulled me toward the bar. We found a corner where nobody was sitting, and she waved down a bartender.
“Hey, ladies, what can I get ya?” He asked. The guy was nice looking, and probably in his early twenties. I could tell right away that he liked what he was seeing. He gave Rylee a big grin when she leaned in to give him her order. “We’ll take four shots of Jaeger.”
I smacked her on the side. “I wanted a soda.”
“Lighten up, princess. If you want to puss out, I’ll drink them all myself.”
She stuck a twenty on the bar while she watched him making them. Another man gave him an order while he was still filling ours. When he slid the shots in our direction he pushed the twenty back to Rylee. “These are taken care of already,” he announced while nudging his head toward the man who’d spoken to him just seconds ago.
A Hope and a Chance Page 4
