A Hope and a Chance(9)
Author: Jennifer Foor

She handed me a cup of coffee, and I could tell from the color of it she’d added cream and sugar just how I liked. “Thanks for this,” I said, as I took my first sip.

She sat down beside me and put her hands on her knees. I had to let out a chuckle when I noticed her entire outfit was pink.

“What’s so funny, little brother?”

“Oh, it’s nothing really. I was just thinking about something that happened yesterday. On television.” I added the last part so she would let it go.

“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!”