Lily

The Tag-Along

     After that super strange day with the knocker, Sunday finally came. After a long time with my mom and I arguing about whether to go to some cheap store (my point) or to go to Be.you.tiful (my mom's point), my mom won, and when the day came, she dragged a reluctant me into the car and we were on the way to Be.you.tiful. I had argued that I only needed fancy stuff for occasions and didn't want all the overwhelming glitter and silk in my face like that, while my mom argued that when you go to a new school you have to make a good first impression and that the place wasn't the place that I was imagining it as and all that other shit.

     When we got there, I found out that the place wasn't that bad after all. It was pretty designer, but it had some more less-known designers than stuff like Calvin Klein and shit. The prices were still just as bad. I found a really cool red chiffon shirt with slits in the sleeves and a V-shaped dip in the back mad by this one designer named Popular:culture. But when I looked at the price tag, it said $567. Surprisingly, when I went to my mom crying like a baby about the shockingly unfair price tag, she smiled and said, "I have a lot of stuff from Popular:culture, and it'll be your first day of school. If you really like it, I'll get it for you. Now pick out some cheaper pants and pairs of shoes and a few more cheaper tops and some jackets. This will be your treat." I beamed, and then thanked her profusely and then ran off to find some more stuff.

     I ended up picking out a black cardigan, a corduroy green jacket, a leather brown jacket, a pair of red denim pants, some blue corduroy skinny jeans, two pairs of blue jeans, a linen green butt on up top that kind of matched Gale's favorite sofa, a zebra-striped t-shirt made from synthetic silk, a crocheted white long-sleeve shirt with a white tank top to go with it, a pair of discounted Steve Madden boots with spikes on the heel, a pair of cool black-and-white 1800s loafer-like shoes with kitten heels and buttons on the side, a pair of grey lace-up booties with two-inch heels, and a pair of red heels with tiny little cool cut-outs in the velvet. I wouldn't have gotten them if it weren't for the cut-outs.

     After we payed for the clothes, my mom smiled at me and said, "I think we did well." I nodded.

     "I think we did well, too," I replied. "That was the longest time I have ever spent in a store in five years since my eleventh birthday, I swear." She laughed. Then she gasped, and her eyes twinkled.

     "You're almost sixteen! Only five days away!" she bursted, about as excited as she was when my dad announced that he was taking her on a rock-climbing trip in the Virgin Islands two years ago. To be honest, I had completely forgotten until now. She was even more excited than I was. 

     "So before school," I replied, deadpan.

     "What? You aren't excited?" she exclaimed, shocked.

     "I haven't had enough time to plan," I said.

     "That's okay! I've already brainstormed some ideas! You can tell me if you like them when we get home. I'll tell you in the car," she said, her eyes twinkling with excited joy. She smiled stupidly all the way until we got back to the car. She started talking faster than life; I could barely understand.

     "Okay, okay, mom, slow down," I put my hands up and pushed them away from me, giving her the signal to tone it down a little with the speed.

     "Okay. Sorry. So I was thinking that since you're making the transition into adulthood, you could host like kind of a dance party, since our house is more than big enough. I've already asked all you're friends to fly into town, and a lot of them said yes except for Emily and Amelia. They're busy. But everyone else is coming," she said.

     "Yeah, sure. I like that idea," I said. Amelia was my best friend, so it would be disappointing to not see her there. But what was there to do? She was busy, and flying across the United States like that costed money. You couldn't get a ticket like that in just five days. Emily and I were good friends, but we aren't always in touch constantly, so it wouldn't be as much of a big deal to not see her there than it would be to not see Amelia there.