Dance With Me (Norminah & Camren)

Chapter 26: Date Night

A/N: Thick thighs save lives, so tap that VOTE like you'd tap a thick thigh to save a life! *tap tap tap*

PS: Thanks to everyone who answered my IG question about what to say to your friend who doesn't feel beautiful. 

Dinah's POV

I tugged at the hem of my dress nervously. I was all dressed up, staring at the mirror, but unable to take myself in completely. In fact, I hadn't been able to properly look at myself in the mirror for these past 7 years.

Being cheated on and used for sex by someone who used to tell me I was the most beautiful girl in the world had snapped something delicate inside me. Maybe I would've understood if he'd fallen in love with someone else. But that hadn't been the case. The moment I'd gone off to college, he'd chosen different girls to be around. Maybe if I'd truly been beautiful, he wouldn't have betrayed me. Maybe if I'd been a better girlfriend, he wouldn't have-

"Wow...you look beautiful, Dinah..."

I snapped out of my thoughts and found Normani leaning against the doorway.

"Thanks," I said shortly, not believing her and averting my gaze from the mirror, not wanting to look at myself any longer.

"What's the matter? What happened to the 'I know. I'm hella cute.' Dinah?" Normani asked, walking into the room.

I let out a humorless laugh. "I was hella dumb, huh? Thinking that by just saying it out loud enough times would make it true."

"Well, saying it out loud must've worked then cuz it is true. You are hella cute. The only difference is that you knew it back then. You've just forgotten that over the years."

I didn't know what to say or think. I knew Normani was trying to make me feel better...but I couldn't get myself to believe her words. I just didn't feel beautiful.

"Do you think Beyoncé is beautiful?" Normani asked.

" What type of question is that? Of course, Queen B is beautiful! "

"Remember how the crew thinks you look and dance like Beyoncé? You think they'd tell you that if you were ugly?"

"I dunno..." I mumbled with a shrug, looking at my feet.

Normani inched closer to me, gently caressing my cheek and lifting my head till I met her gaze. "I know you probably haven't felt beautiful since that asshole broke your heart. Maybe some part of you is still blaming yourself for what happened. But Dinah...you have to realize that none of this was your fault. And if you can't see how beautiful you are, then maybe you should look at yourself from my perspective."

"Let's start from the top, shall we?" Normani said brightly, running her fingers through my hair to fix it up, "Brown hair really suits you, you know? But then, so did blonde hair back in college. I remember I used to find excuses to braid your hair cuz you can literally pull off any hairstyle. I just wanted to play with it all the time and I still wanna play with it." After she'd finished setting it up nicely behind my shoulders, Normani giggled mischievously and gave my hair a playful, sharp tug.

"Hey!" I yelped, before breaking into giggles.

"You have the most beautiful dark brown eyes too. My favorite is when you genuinely laugh like you're doing now. Then the bottom part of your eyes kinda become puffy, like your eyes are getting engulfed in your entire laugh," Normani said, using her fingers to fix the areas on my face where my make up had smudged a little, "Oh! And you get these three little cute crinkles in the corner of your eyes when you're genuinely laughing. That's how I can tell when you're genuinely laughing at my good jokes or forcefully laughing at my bad ones. But you know what I don't like? I don't like it when you try to hide your laugh with your hand. You have a beautiful laugh, Dinah, so make sure you show it off tonight, okay? Trust me, it'll drive Kalin crazy."