Deep Secret

Valentine's Dress

As I go inside my house, I shut the door quietly, sigh, and sink to the floor.

"Shelby? Are you home?" calls out my mom. "Yes!" I respond, and gather myself up and head upstairs. "How was your day?" she asks as I hear her chopping up some carrots and lettuce. "It was FANTASTIC!" I exclaim, slowly walking up the stairs. "That's great!" she replies, poking her head out of the kitchen.

"What happened?" she asks me, watching me as I slowly walk up the stairs. "Alex happened. He asked me to go the Valentine's dance, and I agreed," I answered. My mom smiled largely. "That's great, darling! When is it?" "Tomorrow at 7 p.m I'm excited," I exclaim, still walking slowly up the stairs.

"Do you know what you're going to wear?" I hear my mom call up as I enter my room. "No idea, but I'll find something!" "Ok! Hey, why don't you invite Heather over? She seems like she needs a break from her family, don't you think?" "Sure! I'll call her right now!" I shout down to my mom.

I grab my phone and dial Heather's phone number.

"Hey, Heather? It's Shelby. Do you want to come over and pick out some dresses for the Valentine's dance tomorrow?" I ask.

"Totally! I'll be right over!" she says, and hangs up.

As I wait for Heather, I place my smart-phone on its charger, and pick out some outfits as I listen to music. "Well, THAT was a fast response. Knowing Heather, she like, ALWAYS says yes," I tease, then giggle.

After a few minutes, I hear the bell ring, followed by a knock, and then the door opened. That was Heather's little SECRET code to indicate us that she was here.

She stepped inside the house, and her voice boomed from the spacious entry-way.

"Shelby?" a voice calls out. "She's in her room, Heather," my mom answers, cutting up some meat. "Thank you, Mrs. Thompson," Heather responds, then bolts upstairs to my room.

She enters my room with an armful of dresses and makeup. "Shelby Thompson! I can't believe that he still asked me!" she says in utter complete shock. I start to laugh. "Heather, you and Jayce have been dating since Sophomore year! Why WOULDN'T he ask you? You're his girlfriend. Of COURSE he's going to ask you," I tell her, grabbing a few dresses.

"I know, but, it's just that, oh, I don't know! What would you say?" she asks me, giving her full attention. "It's up to you, BFF. That question is meant for YOU to answer," I respond, sitting on my bed.

"Oh my gosh! And I thought that my BFF would have the answer!" Heather shouts. I giggle. "Heather, just listen to me, ok?" "Oh alright," she grumbles.

We then sort out our dresses and some makeup.

"Ok, Heather? I don't think that my dresses are any good. What about your..." I begin, then stare at Heather. She looks like as if she's about to blow. "Uh, Heather?" I indicate to her, lightly touching her shoulder. She starts biting her nails.

She then looks over at me. "Shelby, we look like as if we're going to prom. We need to get some other dresses that aren't all fancy, got that?" I just stare at her. "What do you mean?" I ask. "These dresses are perfectly fine. Where else are we to get dresses? It's the day before the dance, and we're looking at ONLY fancy dresses."

"What I mean is that we need to go to my Aunt Lisa's Boutique!" Heather says, then grabs her keys and dangles them in front of my face. "I'm driving!" Heather shouts, then runs out of the room.

I just stand there, re-thinking of what had just happened, then shake my head, and head downstairs also.

As I get outside, I see that Heather is already in her car, blasting the speakers. Her eyes are closed, one hand covering her ear, the other spinning an invisible DJ player disk, and shaking her whole body to the music.