"Do you like this color?" Charlotte asked, holding up a tan dress.
I shrugged. "It's O.K. but I still like the teal one." Charlotte nodded and put the dress back on the rack.
I flipped through dresses on the rack. I've been out of the hospital about a week, which meant that Homecoming was about a week and a half away. Charlotte's mom drove us to the mall at about noon today so we could go dress shopping. My mom gave me a hundred dollars even though I told her I wouldn't need that much for a dress. Charlotte was loving this, running from store to store and making me try on everything she found in my size. It was two o' clock now and my patience rope was reaching it's end.
I like Charlotte plenty, it's just that the mall itself frustrated me. So many people, so much noise. I had one of my headphones in all day to block out some of the noise, but still hear Charlotte when she talked. So far, neither of us found anything that really struck us.
We had hit up three stores so far, this being the fourth, and Charlotte had pretty much run the place dry of everything good in our sizes. With nothing to show for my frustration, we left. Charlotte was still plenty happy, filled to the brim with excitement of Homecoming.
"Where to next?" Charlotte asked happily.
I shrugged. "I don't know dude but I'm getting seriously tired of this."
"Aw come on Alice!" Charlotte replied. "We have to keep looking. The dress has to be perfect." I said nothing, just kept walking. I was starting to think about a fruit smoothie when Charlotte stopped walking. I turned and looked at her, staring at a window display.
"What's up?" I asked, backing up to stand next to her. She pointed dramatically to a red dress in the window on a mannequin. "That the one? The dress?"
"That's it!" Charlotte squealed and ran in the store, dragging me through after her. "Excuse me," Charlotte said, breathlessly to a sales girl folding T-shirts. "That dress in the window, how much is it?"
"The red one?" the girl answered. "Fifty dollars. Would you like to try it on?"
"Yes, please!" Charlotte said nodding vigorously. "Size five."
The girl nodded and walked to get something from the back of th store. I changed the song on my iPod to Like We Used To by A Rocket To The Moon and smiled to myself as I thought of Zane. He stayed with me the whole time I was in the hospital. For a while there, I was afraid we wouldn't stay together, he was that mad. But we're O.K. now and it seemed like I thought about him more often.
I also got word of Tammy's condition. She was unconscious in the beginning, like me, but snapped out of it quicker. My powers were depleted, she was just weak from the royal ass kicking she received. Her mom was furious and insisted she was going to press charges but hadn't yet. She came out of it with a broken rib, sprained wrist, and mild concussion. Other than that, she's just black and blue all over. Tammy's mother decided she was to injured to go back to school, even though the hospital let her out a day before me. Over all, she was only in for three days. Wimp...
"Here you are," the salesgirl said as she emerged from the back with the dress. "Just shipped in this morning." The dress was beautiful, bright red and glittery, strapless and looked like, on Charlotte, would fall on her mid-thigh. She grinned and scurried into the dressing room. I followed her and waited outside the door.
"It's absolutely perfect!" she exclaimed.
"It's nice Char," I replied. "You gonna get it?"
"Duh!" she answered. "O.K., will you zip me up?"
"Sure," I replied as she unlocked the door. I slid in and zipped the dress up the rest of the way. She turned to face me. "Wow Charlotte, it looks amazing!" I exclaimed.
"Really?" she squealed, clasping her hands together and turning to face the mirror. "I love it, it's beautiful and totally perfect!"
"You should defiantly get it," I said, smiling at her excitement.
She nodded. "Oh, I am! Just let me change." I nodded and left the room so she could change back. About a minute later, she emerged, the dress draped carefully over her arm. "Let's go," she said, walking towards the counter. She payed and I stood behind her, feeling the happiness coming off her in sheets. She grabbed the bag and turned back to me. "Now we just have to find yours!" I rolled my eyes as she dragged me through the store. I found a few cute things but Charlotte said it had to be the perfect dress, that I would know it when I saw it.
"It's a dress Char," I said. "It's not that big of a deal."
Charlotte rolled her eyes and linked her arm through mine. "Please. I was right about you and Zane wasn't I? You have to learn to trust me on these things." I didn't say anything, mostly because I knew she was right. We had basically cleaned out the mall of all dress stores and were heading to the food court when I spotted a Hot Topic.
"Hang on, can we stop in there real quick?" I asked, stopping.
"Hot Topic?" Charlotte asked. "Do you really think we're gonna find a nice dress in there?"
I shook my head and grabbed her arm. "I love this place. Besides, you never know. We could find an amazing, bad ass dress in there."
"Yeah, O.K.," Charlotte said sarcastically.
Load music hit us as we walked in. Charlotte followed me as I walked around, looking aimlessly at Cd's and jewelery.
"Can I help you guys find anything?"a salesgirl said. She was short and had blond hair with blue and pink streaks in it and a snake bit piercing.
I shook my head. "Just looking, thanks,"
"Cool," the girl said. "Let me know if you need anything."
"Will do," I replied. There were earrings on sale and I browsed through them.
"You ready to go Alice?" Charlotte asked.
I ignored her question and looked at the other body piercings. "I want a nose piercing," I said aimlessly thumbing through colored nose studs.
Charlotte rolled her eyes and sighed. "That's gross."
"Belly button too," I said.
Charlotte opened her mouth to respond, then closed it and had a thoughtful look on her face. "You know, that might be kinda cool."
"Right?" I said to her. I held up a silver Tinkerbell belly button dangling stud. "Doesn't this look cute?"
Charlotte nodded and we started looking through the others. Then, I found the dress. We were looking at the other body jewelry when I saw it on a mannequin.
"Hey Char," I said, walking over to it. "Take a a look at this."
"Alice, it's black," Charlotte replied.
"But it's so cute!" I said, looking for my size on the rack It was short and made of a shimmering denim material. The dress had a scoop neck, no sleeves and a zipper all the way down the front, opening it. There were silver studs along the neckline too. I pulled my size out of the back and held kit up to my body. "Don't you tell me this isn't an amazing dress!"
Charlotte looked from my face, to the dress a few times and fingered the material. "Is this the one?" she asked seriously.
I rolled my eyes and smiled a little. "This is as close as it's gonna get!"
Charlotte took one last look at it and smiled. "It is cute. Now we just need jewelry. Silver, obviously." she walked over to the earring we were looking at and came back to me with a pair. They were a pair of silver lightening bolts that I had liked. "These would look good," she said handing them to me. "And we need something else too," she muttered to herself, walking away from me again. I smiled at the dress and earrings, thinking about how fun Homecoming would be. "Found it!" Charlotte yelled and ran back over to me. She handed me a silver chain bracelet with studs on it.
"This is perfect!" I said, hugging her. When I stepped back, she was smiling even wider.
"Now lets go pay, then we can get my shoes. I'm thinking red pumps. How about you?"
"Black Converse," I answered.
"With a dress?" she said in surprise.
"I'm not wearing heels or flats. Chucks or nothing."
Charlotte rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat. I smiled as we made our way to the counter. I laid my things down and the blind salesgirl rang me up. The total came to forty-five, with tax. Charlotte lead the way as we walked out the store to hunt for her shoes.
"So your outfit it complete!" Charlotte said happily. "I told you we'd find the perfect dress!"
"But if I hadn't dragged you in there, we would have never found it," I pointed out. Charlotte didn't seem to have heard me because she just kept talking about Homecoming. I smiled and turned my iPod off so I could listen.