Love Always Wins

Chapter 4-Naomi

CHAPTER 4
"Lydia." Mom said opening the bedroom door. I didn't reply, I just rolled over and tried to ignore her. "Honey, it's been a week... you need to get up and do something."
"Don't want to." I moaned. She walked over and sat next to me on the bed. She rubbed my back to comfort me.
"Honey, you need to get out of this room... Please." She begged. I didn't answer, and she sighed. "Look I need your help..."
"Help with what?" I asked still not looking at her.
"Well... mine and Connor's anniversary is in two days." She began.
"Can't help you with that?" I said, but she ignored me, and continued.
"He's taking me to a real fancy restaurant." She continued.
"That doesn't sound like a problem." I said rolling back over and looking at her. She brushed my hair off my face. "Where is the problem in this?"
"I don't have anything good to wear, and I was going to go shopping. I need a second opinion." She finished.
"What?"
"I want you to come with me and help me pick out a nice dress for mine and Connor's date."
"Today?"
"No tomorrow." She answered sarcastically. "Of course today."
"But the date is in two days."
"I don't see you up and moving." She said laying over and facing me. Her tone turned into begging. "Please go to the mall with me."
"No." I buried my face in my pillow.
"Are you sure?"
"I don't wanna momma." I repeated.
"Then I guess you don't want this..." Then she started tickling me, and I couldn't help but laugh. I kept trying to fight her off.
"Mom...MOM!" I yelled. "STOP IT!"
"Not gonna stop until you agree to come to the mall with me." She said.
"Ok... ok... OK!" I gave in, and she stopped. I tried to catch my breath. "I'll go... I'll go. Just don't do that again."
"Ok... Get dressed." She got up feeling accomplished and walked out of the room. "Don't make me go back in there."
"OK!" I yelled through the door. I laid on my back and sighed. Then I uncovered myself and got up. I walked over to my dresser and threw on a pair of blue jeans and a deep sky blue tank top with a black sleeveless over-shirt. I walked over to the door and slipped on a pair of matching blue flats. Walked over and grabbed my phone off the charger next to my bed, and with that I grabbed my purse. I walked out of the room and down the stairs.
"Are you ready?" Mom asked coming out of the kitchen archway, just as I was coming down the stairs into the living room. "Wow you look great."
"Thank you." I replied as she walked over to me and hugged me.
"You did forget something." She said.
"What?" I asked, and she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and walked me over to the mirror by the front door. I startled myself, because my hair was a ratted mess from laying in the bed all week. I turned around to look away, and she handed me a brush to brush my hair... and I did. It looked nice after I brushed it, and it smoothly laid halfway down my back. I pulled it up in a low ponytail and pulled the hair over my shoulders. "Thankyou."
"No problem. Now are you ready?" She replied.
"Yeah." I answered. Then my phone chimed. I pulled it out and looked at it. Nora sent me a text, and I locked it and put it back in my pocket.
"There's a start." Mom said hugging me. "And what do you plan to do if you want to get on your phone, and that's still pulled up?"
"Delete it." I answered shrugging my shoulders. "I'm not stupid momma."
"Ok." She sighed. "Let's go... Shall we."

"What do you think about this one?" Mom yelled from the other side of the curtain. It was the dressing room at a store in the mall. It was slightly uncomfortable being in there. The girls were really pretty, but I knew that pretty much all of them were straight. Mom came out of the dressing room. She was wearing a red dress, and the front went down showing a lot of cleavage. The rest of the dress stopped at her knees.
"That's nice." I answered looking at her. "The real question is, 'how does it make you feel'?"
"Sexy." She said smiling. I rolled my eyes and smiled with her. "See... I knew you'd be smiling today. Connor didn't think I could do it."
"Got any more dresses back there."
"Just one more. Think you can look around for another one?"
"I'm perfectly capable." I stood up and walked out of the dressing area and into the main part of the store. I walked around looking in the dresses. There were so many dresses, in many different colors. Red and black were very common, but I had no idea why. I fumbled through the dresses trying to find one for her.
It seemed like we weren't in luck. We've been through five department stores, and not one of them had what she wanted. We were walking down the hallway carrying shopping bags and drinks.
"Look, there are plenty of stores to search through." She said wrapping her arm around me. "I just want to know that you're having fun."
"Always." I smiled and took a drink from my cup. "Lots."
"I know that's one fake ass smile." She joked taking a drink from her cup. Then pointed to another store. "What about that one?"
"Whatever you want. As long as I come out with something." I joked. We walked into the store. It was full of beautiful dresses. Mom and I got to work on our search looking for the right dress. I pulled out a black one. "What about this one?"
"I don't know." She grabbed it from me, looked at it front and back, then hung it back on the rack.
"You know it's hard to help you if you don't tell me exactly what you like." I said looking at more dresses. I held up a red one, and she shook her head. I scoffed and put the dress back on the rack. "Jesus mom, tell me what you want."
"Really. Well I like pink."
"There's a start." I moved down to the pink dresses. "What else?"
"Um. I don't want to show too much." She said.
"Ok." I looked through the dresses. I held up one. "What about this one?"
"Hmm." She grabbed the dress and held on to it. "I'll try it on."
"Ok." I looked in the pink dresses some more. I pulled out another one. "Try this one on."
"Hmm." She looked at it. "I don't know about that one."
"Just try it on." I pushed.
"Ok... Ok." She grabbed the dress.
"Thank you. You might like it."
"Ok. I'll try it on." She said. Then she walked over to the dressing room. "Look trying it on."
"Thank you." I said following her. She closed the door and I hear the hangars cling to the hook. Just as she did that, a girl came out of the dressing room. She had on a beautiful black strapless sparkly dress. It was a long "V" neck, and fell to the floor. There was a long slit stopping mid-thigh. She had long blond hair with light brown streaks, and it was straight but fell into light waves near the bottom. She was about my age and height. I was stuck staring at her, and then mom tapped on my shoulder. I snapped and looked at her. She was smiling. "Not what you think."
"Uh huh." She put her hands on her hips. The dress was the first pink on I handed her. I could tell she was saving the second for last. This on went to her knees, and had skinny straps. It was a pastel baby pink.
"I just really like the dress she's wearing."
"Hmm." She gave me a strange look. "What do you think?"
"Her or you?" I joked.
"Me genius."
"I don't know. You look good... Try on the other one."
"Ok." She walked back in and shut the door. I looked back to where the girl was, and she was gone. The dressing stall she had come out of was closed again. Then she came out in a dress that was blood red. It stopped at her knees, but was loose. It had a sash going around the waist, and had tank top-like straps. She looked at herself in the mirror side to side. When she caught me looking at her, her confidence faded. She got shy and gave me a small giggle.
"I don't normally do this." She said, her voice was low. I shrugged, and mom came out of the dressing room catching my attention again. This time she was wearing the second one I had handed her. It was coral pink and showed cleavage, but not too much. It was long-sleeved, and fell to her knees. She looked beautiful. The girl walked over, and looked at her in awe. "Wow."
"Perfect." I said watching her walk over to the stand-up mirror to look at herself. "You look great."
"Thankyou." She looked at herself in the mirror. Left then right, then she turned and looked at her back in the mirror. It just looked normal. "I really like this one. I think this is the one."
"I told you you'd like it." I said. "If there's one thing I know... Things don't look like they would on the hangar. Sometimes that's how poor dresses are left untouched. They don't look good on the hangar and no one even gives them a chance."
"That pink looks really good on you, Ma'am." The girl said.
"Thankyou." Mom replied to her. "What's your name?"
"Naomi." The girl answered. "Naomi Reynolds."
"Hello. My name is Madeline, and this is my daughter, Lydia." Mom introduced. I shook Naomi's hand.
"Lydia's a beautiful name." Naomi said.
"Thankyou." I said. "So is Naomi."
"Thankyou."
"Ok well... I'm gonna go and pay for this dress, and Lydia and I are going to get shoes that would go with it." Mom said walking back into the dressing room.
"Well... Looks like I better get out of this one, too." Naomi said walking away. "It's the last one."
"It looks nice." I complemented.
"Thank you. It's the one I'm going with." She closed the door to the dressing room, and they both ended up coming out at the same time. Mom was wearing blue jeans with a pastel green t- shirt. Naomi was wearing an emerald-like green plaid sun dress. They were both carrying their dresses. The three of us walked over to the register. Naomi made it there first, and was walking out when she stopped. She turned to me, and waved for me to walk over. "Lydia?"
"Yeah." I walked over to her.
"How about I give you my number, and maybe we can hang out sometime?" She asked a little nervous.
"Sure." I pulled out my phone and unlocked it. I saw the picture of Nora, and I was scared she'd seen it. I exited out of the notification, and took it to where she could dial her number. She took the phone from me and punched in her number, and then she saved it under her name. When she finished, she handed it back to me.
"Who's the ginger?" She asked.
"Uh... Ex-girlfriend who won't leave me alone." I answered. Then I felt really stupid because I didn't want it to come out like that.
"I could kick her ass for you." She smiled. "That'll get her to leave you alone."
"No thank you. She'll stop after a while." I denied, then the phone dinged and her picture lit up on the screen. We both stared at it and laughed. "I might just take you up on that option."
"It was nice to meet you, Lydia." She said walking away.
"You too, Naomi." She disappeared out the exit down the hallway. Mom appeared behind me and cleared her throat making me jump. "Mom... Don't do that."
"Do what?" She asked trying to look confused even though she wasn't.
"Never mind. Let's go and get some shoes for our dresses."
"Hey looks like you did come out of here with something." She smiled.
"What?"
"A Number." She laughed, and I laughed along with her. "Maybe you should have her come over while Connor and I are out."
"I could, but she may be busy. Do you think that I could do your hair?"
"Sure why not?"
"Yay." I gave a small cheer.