A Hope and a Chance(10)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“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.”