roller derby queen ~ j.g.

eight

"the fact that anyone would wait in a line just to get into victoria's secret is ridiculous." and yet, that's exactly what they were doing. dakota sipped on her auntie anne's slushie. never had she ever done anything like this for a friend before. but then again, she had never had a friend that treated her as well as vicky did before. it was hard to say no to her, the girl was just too damn nice.

it was saturday night; the official first week of school was done, and vicky wanted to take her friends shopping to celebrate. that included dakota now, apparently. she didn't really have any extra money to spend going shopping, but it would have made vicky sad if she said no (according to connie, she loves making new friends), so her strategy was to tag along and pretend she didn't find anything she liked. it totally wasn't because she didn't have any money. she wouldn't admit it in front of these girls.

dakota had chosen to keep quiet about the victoria's secret line for fear of making vicky feel bad, but connie had no such problem. "i'm serious, if i have to stand here for thirty minutes just so you can get a new bra, you're doing all my english homework for the rest of the week." she popped a pretzel in her mouth. "what do you need a new bra for, anyway?"

vicky blushed deep, eyes looking anywhere but connie's. "i mean, just in case..." she trailed off. connie raised her eyebrows at her. all of a sudden, vicky grabbed dakota's hand, looking for a quick change of subject. "hey! and they're having a buy one get one free! so i was just thinking i could get dakota one too, as a gift!" she looked at dakota with a bright smile, eyes pleading. "wouldn't that be fun?"

dakota felt her face get hot as she remembered the last time she went bra shopping, with a foster mom she had a couple years ago. it was, in her mind, a gay disaster, and she had no intention of doing it again. it was that day that she decided to just wear sports bras. "no, you really don't have to." she laughed awkwardly to try to break up the sentence. "i mean, i don't really shop at victoria's secret anyway. hell, i pretended it didn't exist until i was like, fourteen."

she heard julie snort behind her. was she making fun of her? dakota whipped around to look at her, and it was then that julie spoke. "oh yeah, me too. i used to cross to the other side of the mall so i didn't walk next to it." julie's face was in her phone, scrolling instagram, so she didn't see the way dakota's eyes widened. was she...?

dakota shook her head, clearing her mind of those thoughts before turning back to vicky. "seriously, i'm okay, i promise." vicky eyed her carefully.

"are you sure? i mean, do you even own a real bra?" the words seemed to come out of her mouth before she realized, and she clamped her mouth shut as soon as she was done speaking. dakota didn't quite know what to say. neither, it seemed, did anyone else. vicky spoke again after a few seconds. "i'm so sorry."

dakota didn't know if it was the guilt on vicky's face, the silence of the rest of the group, or the fact that no, she actually did not own a real bra, but she found herself saying "no, no, it's okay! i do probably need a new one anyway if you're sure you want to get me one." she regretted every single one of the words as they came out of her mouth, but she put a smile on her face and pretended for the nicest girl she had ever met.

after that, vicky's mood did a complete one-eighty. "oh my god, really?" dakota nodded slowly. "oh my god, okay. so we're going to have to get you fitted, and find you a good one for your style, and..." dakota didn't understand half of the words that were coming out of vicky's mouth, and it scared her a little, but when the attendant at the front told them there was enough room for them to go in, she let herself be pulled into the store. vicky immediately pushed her toward the fitting rooms.

"why are we going to the fitting rooms? i don't have anything to try on yet." vicky just kept chugging along.
"well, we're going to need a place for you to take off your bra so i can get your size." dakota's face turned one hundred and six shades of red.
"wait, i have to take my bra off? in front of you?" dakota started getting nervous. "can't we just find one of the worker people with the tape measure thingy?" vicky laughed.
"this store is packed, i doubt you'll find any available workers. plus, the tape measure only finds your band size, not your cup size. i found that out the hard way." dakota went to ask what 'the hard way' was, but decided it was best to keep her mouth shut.