TANGLED PLANS

30

With all the talk of the girls saying that one of them was going to lend me a dress, I didn't get one until a few days before the dance.

The bell rings downstairs, and knowing that my dad is out of the house and Brayden is studying in his room, I walk downstairs to get it. I open the door to find the girls holding up a bag with matching smiles on their faces.

"We got the dress!" Keilly screams, and in turn, Maria does as well. I'm excited as I say, "Oh, really? I want to see it."

"Where's your room?" Maria asks as she holds up the bag for me to grab. I take it while I answer. I gesture for the girls to follow me, and the three of us trudge up the stairs. Once I get to my room, I turn the back upside down and drop the dress on the bed.

"Oh," I say so softly, probably a gasp at the dress. It was a white dress with tiny gold beads along the surface of the dress. There were white pearls in certain places on the dress. I grab the dress with delicate hands and say, "Oh, this is beautiful. Absolutely—"

The words die out in my throat because when I pick up the dress, I find that the neckline, which was a V, hangs all the way down past my rib. It wasn't much space in the center as it dipped down, but it was a lot. The design was how the neckline just fell with extra fabric. Pretty, but way too much. There was a tiny string across the part where it would fall on my chest.

"So much skin!" I shout in disbelief, and the girls both look at me. Maria holds up her hand and says, "It was mine. I wore it to a birthday party last year, and it didn't show much."

"Cleavage, yeah," I answer, and then say, "But skin does show!" I'm in disbelief at how beautiful this dress was and the fact that it wasn't appropriate. The dress was perfect, but it seemed too much for school.

I place it in front of my body and, for a second, wonder if I'm too big for it. Maria gives me a look and says, "Come on, Daisy. You will look perfect in it; put it on, and we will discuss the neckline later."

I take the dress and walk out of my bedroom and toward the bathroom. Once I get in, I take off my clothes and change into the dress. At first, I knew that this dress wasn't meant to be worn. It fell on my thigh, and the bodice was tight enough to hold everything in place. I studied the neckline and found that it didn't hit my belly button like I had assumed. It was above my ribs, and as I looked in the mirror, I couldn't find anything wrong with it except for the amount of skin it was showing.

At least it didn't show too much of my cleavage, and without having worn any undergarments, they sat perfectly in the dress. Only a shadow of where my breasts would end showed. I smile in the mirror and head out of the room.

I'm walking over to my own room when I hear something that pauses me. "Daisy? Is that you?" I hear a voice come from the direction of my brother's room and turn around to find him looking at me. His eyes scan down my dress before he says, "For prom?"

"Yeah," I answer softly as I touch the material of the dress.

"It's nice, but that's a lot of skin, Daise," my brother says.

"Not cleavage though," I say to him, and that causes him to glance away from me. Right, he was my brother and didn't like talking about girl parts with me. I shake my head and say, "Well, I'll probably alter it to look more modest."

"Dad will have quite the reaction," Brayden says with a laugh, and I only nod to agree with him. I wave goodbye to him before heading back over to my room.

"Oh my God."

"It looks so good."

"DAISY THAT DRESS WAS MADE FOR YOU," the girls both shout the last sentence with their hands on their faces. Both of them look at me with a huge grin. I walk over to my mirror and look at myself.