It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 36

“Oooh, Brianne, look at this!”

I let out a long sigh as Kyla held out yet another dress in front of me.  Shelley and Meghan squealed in delight at the sight of it as though they could visualize themselves in it.  I, for one, would puke if I saw one of them wearing it.  It would match the color of the dress at least.  A color that shade of green should not have been allowed in the world.

“Kill me now,” I muttered.

When we first entered JC Penney, I knew that it was going to be next to impossible to find a dress.  Every single dress in the section (conveniently named Prom Section) was unappealing.  Shelley and Kyla had rolled their eyes at me when I scrunched my nose up, saying that much.  Apparently I had to give the place a chance.  And I had—fifteen chances, actually, if you counted the number of ugly dresses the girls had tried to shove in my face. 

Kyla huffed, letting the dress fall back into its place on the rack.  We’d been dress shopping for a good two hours now, and I was the only one without a dress.  It wasn’t at all shocking that this was the situation we ended up in.  I didn’t like dresses.  Simple as that.

“Brianne, you have to find something,” Meghan said, coming up from behind me and playing lightly with my hair.  I resisted the urge to slap her hand away.  “We want you to look nice and pretty for Dannon!”

I shot a glower to the ceiling.  I was tempted to tell them all that Dannon didn’t care, that he thought I looked fine the way I did, but that would get me absolutely nowhere.  In fact, it would only make them want me to impress him more.  I hated being a girl sometimes.  It was way too difficult living up to the expectations.

“What kind are we thinking, Shelley?” Paula called from across the room.  She was rifling between dresses, looking more concentrated than I’d ever seen her. 

I had to hand it to the girls.  They were rather determined.

Suddenly Shelley was in front of me, grabbing me by the shoulders and spinning me around slowly as she examined me.  “She needs a purple!” Shelley declared after a moment, pursing her lips as she looked me over.  “Spaghetti strap.”  She grabbed my cheeks in her hands, twisting my face in strange ways.  I wasn’t really sure how this told her what kind of dress I needed, but I wasn’t about to ask her.  “Down to the knees—at most.  Hmm, and we want some small frills at the bottom.”

Frills?  Uh-uh, I didn’t think so.  “Um, excuse me—”

“Brianne, do yourself a favor and allow the professionals to do their job.”

I would have slapped Kyla if she hadn’t been right.  I was so tired of dress shopping.  If Shelley thought I needed all of those things—except for the frills—than fine, whatever.  It would have been nice if she played costume designer a little earlier, but hey, no one was perfect.

“I found one!” Meghan called gleefully, cutting me off from my inner thoughts.

Everyone turned, watching as Meghan held up the dress in question.  It was a simple dress, and it had the exact same description that Shelley had provided.  A dark purple with a light purple strip of what looked like silk separating the top of the dress from the bottom.  The bottom half of the dress was frilly—but not too frilly—with black lace underneath.  I hated to admit it, but I actually liked it.

“It’s beautiful!” the girls chorused together, giggling cheerfully.  Meghan ran over, fitting the hanger over my head and pushing me over to a body mirror in front of the dressing rooms.  I huffed, placing my hands on my hips as I looked myself over.  Okay, so it didn’t like that bad.  But—