An Abundance of White Blood Cells // [WATTYS 2017]

FOURTEEN

The next day Mom had cleared her entire day (not that she was already doing anything) and we went prom dress shopping! Before we left I crossed getting a tattoo and going prom dress shopping w/Mom off my list. I was pretty sure Mom was more excited than I was, but, who could blame her? She had woken me up around eight in the morning so I could get ready and be at this store called Bliss by nine. I couldn't blame her because it took forty-five minutes for me to get ready. Twenty of those minutes were spent waking up, ten of them were spent complaining about my sore rib cage and the other fifteen were spent getting ready.

Mom basically chucked me into the car, almost crushing my Poptart. I nibbled on that as she drove to Bliss. We talked about what color I'd want it to be and whether or not we should buy Nate's tie (we decided we would) Mom asked about heels. I told her I was clumsy enough in normal shoes, so no thank you. We had a good laugh about that. As we parked Mom asked to see my tattoo. I'd forgotten to show her the night before. I lifted the left side of my shirt to reveal my tattoo, that; was still covered with the plastic wrap and duck tape, I'd take that off on Monday.

"I like it hon." Mom said, smiling.

"It's really sore." I groaned.

"I bet," Mom chuckled. "Come on, let's go dress shopping!"

We ducked out of the slug bug and padded into the building. It was a very girly store, but I couldn't really imagine a prom dress store to look any other way. They walls were striped with two different shades of gold and floor was pink tile. There were portraits of girls wearing prom dresses sprinkled through out the store. There were racks of prom dress all sorted by color and near the back I saw a tiny selection of ties, also sorted by color.

This place was legit.

I found myself walking to the pink section of the racks. I stay away from bright pinks and hot pinks, those were the bad pinks. The shade of pink I did like was apparently rose pink...and there were only three dresses in that color. One was very showy in the front, another was too big for me, and the third one was just the right size. Oh, look at that, I'm Goldie Locks.

I took the third dress of the rack and checked it out. The bodice had a shear floral design(ironically, the flowers were roses) over some nude fabric. The nude fabric ended just above where my boobs would go, but the shear part continued to where my neckline would be. It was also capped sleeved and backless. The flowy part of the dress was made roughly the same way as the bodice, the shear floral part was just darker. I slung that over my arm and followed Mom around the store.

We looked at all the colors, except for orange and yellow. We found a pretty blue dress that had a bedazzled bodice and a flowy skirt part made out of blue and purple tool. Mom found a deep red dress that was strapless with a sweetheart neck line. It had pretty swirly designs all over the bodice. We found a lavender one that looked just like the read one. The last dress we looked at was cream colored that only had one strap. It got flowy just where the bottom of my rib cage would go.

Mom and I found the dressing rooms and I started trying the dresses on from my least favorite to my favorite. The lavender one was first. It was pretty, but I felt like I'd be pulling it up the whole night so my boobs wouldn't come tumbling out, Mom agreed that it probably wasn't the best choice. That dress ruled out the red one so I tried on the blue one next. For something that looked so elegant, it was so freakin itchy! I showed Mom and she just shook her head and told me she didn't think it was my color. I changed out of that one and tried the cream colored one. It was pretty and all, but it sorta blended in with my skin, so that dress was out.

Finally I took the rose pink dress off it's hanger and slipped it on over my head. The gown hit the ground in just the right way. It wasn't itchy at all, the inside was actually really soft. I didn't really mind that it was a backless dress, mostly because I didn't really have boobs, so it wouldn't show that much in the front. I smoothed the dress with my palms before opening the change room door to show Mom. Her jaw dropped when she saw the dress on me. I stepped out of the dressing room and did a little twirl for her, so she could get the full affect. "You look beautiful Sloane!" She smiled, a little tear rolled down her cheek.

"Oh mom!" I gave her a hug. "You don't need to cry!"

"I know sweetie," She sniffled. "I just thought I'd never get to do this with you, that's all!"

We pulled away and she smiled. "This is definitely the one!"

***

Once I'd changed back into my normal clothes we put the dresses I didn't pick back and searched for a tie for Nate. There were only hot pink ties so we ended up picking a nude tie for him. I don't think he'd mind, considering his other choice was pink.

On the way home Mom told me that the genies could get Colton Steele to come sometime next week, when I was hospital bound. That'd be cool. We drove and talked about how I wanted my hair and makeup to look. At some point we just fell silent. I started fiddling with fingers. Silence was something that I'd probably have to start getting used to, with me dying and all. We pulled into the drive way and parked in the garage. I took my dress up to my room and stayed there for awhile.

Dinner was quiet that night. When I couldn't stand it anymore, I asked dad if he wanted to see my dress for the dance. Of course he said yes, so I grabbed it and brought it downstairs. He said he thought it looked amazing, and it would look even better when I wore it. I felt like he was saying this because he felt like he had to, not because he actually wanted to. I went to bed after I showed him the dress.

The next day was Sunday, family day. Per usual it was spent watch movies. My parents tried to convince me that it was my turn to pick the movies we watched, but I knew it was Dad's. I eventually just picked the movies to humor them. I decided to go with Disney Movies for the day, you could never go wrong with those. We lounged around on the couch with bags of chips and the occasional fruit or vegetable. When we got to the third movie of the day(Aladdin) I paused it. "Will you guys promise me something?" I asked my parents.

"Of course." They both replied.

"Promise me that you won't spend your whole lives being sad when I'm gone." You could hear a frickin pin drop after I said that. "I'm not saying don't be sad, because that's a ridiculous thing to ask you guys to do, I'm just asking you to not let it consume you, because if you're to busy being sad, how will you ever remember the good?"

"We promise Sloane." They both said, sadness seeping into their voices.