Runaways and dreamers

Chapter 9- Masquerade

"No." Katie stated firmly, arms crossed as Jace tugged her toward a rack of dresses.

"Oh yeah!" Jace smirked, continuing to tug her toward the dresses, "I got to learn about your past life, now you're gonna learn about mine."

"Make me!" Katie shot back defiantly, pulling against his grip on her wrist.

"Oh, I will." Jace nodded, laughing and continuing to drag her along until they stood in front of the dress rack.

Katie folded her arms in refusal, "No."

"Yes." Jace corrected, pulling down a few dresses of various styles, "What size are you?"

"How the hell should I know I've never worn a dress!" Katie scrunched her eyebrow in distaste.

"Well this should be interesting then." Jace laughed slightly as he grabbed a variation of estimated sizes. He held them out to Katie who stared at the foreign objects for nearly a minute before giving in and taking them.

"This is gonna suck." she mumbled as she headed to the dressing room. After a few minutes Jace heard her first complaint.

"I hate it!" Katie commented as she unlocked the door, showing him the salmon colored bejeweled dress.

"It's nice." Jace shrugged.

"No it's not, I hate it." Katie slammed the door shut and resumed trying on dresses. Sifting through the pile, Katie grabbed a blue dress that didn't appear completely disgusting to her.
"Nope, I was wrong, it sucks." Katie mumbled as she zipped up the blue, extremely fitted and sparkly gown.

"Can I see?" Jace asked from outside the fitting room.

Katie sighed, opening the door, "It's terrible."

Jace cringed slightly, "Ok, I agree this time, it's not good." Katie nodded in agreement, closing the door and digging through the pile again. Most of them she took one glance at and refused to wear, only two of them looked the least bit intriguing.

Stepping out in a long purple ball gown, Katie did a half hearted spin. "Eh, I don't like it." Katie stated, dropping her arms to her sides in defeat.

"I kinda like it..." Jace admitted, nodding.

"I don't." With that, Katie went back in to try on the other one that was a potential possibility. Pulling on the emerald green dress, Katie immediately reconsidered.

"Ew." Katie muttered as she stepped out for Jace to see.

Jace grimaced, "Yikes."

Katie shook her head, "Ok, are we done now? None of them work."

Jace smirked, jogging back and grabbing one more dress. He handed it to her, "Try this last one." Sighing in frustration, Katie went back one more time and switched dresses.

This one she liked.

She smiled as she zipped up the long black and gold dress with slight glitter and a high-low tulle skirt. "I like this one." she smiled, twirling for Jace.

Jace nodded, smiling, "Yeah, that one's great."
She gave him the thumbs up and turned to change into normal clothes again. "Wait a sec," Jace called, jogging away into the store. Katie stopped, raising an eyebrow as he returned holding a matching mask.

"Really?" She raised both eyebrows in a sarcastic manner.

"Yup." Jace handed her the mask. Katie gritted her teeth but grudgingly put it on, raising her arms and twirling once.

"Now it's perfect." Jace remarked, and smiled in approval. Beautiful, he thought as she disappeared into the dressing room again.

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