It Finally Happened Part III

Kim smoothed her dress down over her hips, checking herself in the mirror. It wasn't as short as the little black dress she had worn for Ron at the Middleton Days Festival but it was almost as clingy. The neck line was just a smidgen lower as well. Not enough for cleavage, considering that was not her strong suit, but showing a little more flesh than she normally did. It was certainly a change from the demure navy dress she often wore when she felt like dressing up. It had been retired from dating service, only to be worn for church or dressy functions. To her it had become the 'we're out just as friends' dress.

She wanted to wear the black dress, but her mother had firmly vetoed it when she laid it out. For one thing, it was almost certain her father was not going to let her out of the house wearing it. She tried to defend her choice, pointing out that Daddy made no objection to it when she wore it the last time, but her mother pointed out that at the time she was just going on a date with Ron as, well, just a date. Now that they were an actual, official couple (the hip, accepted term was dating, though going steady would have been closer to the actual description of their relationship, though they would not be caught dead using it) all of that had changed.

"Kimmie, I think if you show up at the bottom of the stairs wearing that dress, you are going to do more harm than good to Ron. You saw how he reacted to it before, now compound that with the fact your father now has to worry about what you're doing while you're out with him."

"Mother!"

"It's a valid point. You're a sixteen year old, beautiful young woman who, for the first time in her life has a serious boyfriend, one who she knows, for lack of a better expression, almost intimately. You get to skip over all the awkward 'getting-to-know-you' stuff. Then add the fact I've insisted you take your meds since the really tense missions started…"

"I thought that was just for my acne." Kim squeaked as she rifled through her closet for the third time, pulling the odd dress out and holding it up to her body.

"They are, but we both know good and well what their main purpose is. That means the only thing keeping you from being completely 'intimate' with him is you. The only consequences you have to worry about are much more intangible."

"Mom, I think it's going to be a good, long time before I have to worry about something 'intangible.' I'm still trying to figure out what it means to have a real BF."

"That's good, I mean that's really good. So, about that dress," She pointed to the black dress still laid out on the bed. "Why is it you want to wear that particular one?"

"I don't know. I think Ron would really like it."

"Kimmie, I think any man with a pulse would like it. That's the problem. It's the message it sends out. So, answer me honestly. Do you want to sleep with Ron?"

"Mom!"

Anne just arched her eyebrows, still waiting for the answer.

"Well, maybe. Eventually. Most def not tonight but…I see us taking that road some day. But absolutely not tonight."

"What if Ron wants to sleep with you?"

"Mom, he's a guy, what do you think?"

"What I think is that Ron's a guy who loves you, has loved you for a long time. I can see it being very easy for him to get his signals crossed about what it means that you feel the same way about him and let me tell you, it's probably not going to be as easy to say no to him face to face as it is to say no now."

"You think Ron might try to…"

"No, I honestly don't. But he might ask you to and I'm just saying it may be a lot harder to do the right thing when you're face to face with him and he's got his arms around you."

"Mom, I promise! I'm not going to do anything but kiss him."

"If that's your decision, if that's what you think is the right thing for you right now, then good. Just remember that when the time comes."

"I think I'd better take it one step further."

"Oh?"

"No, not that, Mom. I mean Ron and I need to talk about things. We need to be honest with each other right from the start. I need to tell him how I feel about this and I need to know how he feels about it."

"Kim, I know this might sound a little strange coming from a parent, but I don't think that would be so good at this stage of your relationship. Even though you've been together with Ron for most of your life, this is, after all, your very first date together. I think you'd be better off leaving that kind of discussion for later and just have fun together tonight."

"But, do you think he…"

"No, Kimmie, I think I know Ron quite well. I trust him, I trust you but I think your father is the one having a little trouble with this. I've tried talking to him but he still thinks of you as his little Kimmie-cub."

"Mom, like you said, I'm sixteen. Most of the other girls in school have had boyfriends, well, for a pretty long time."

"Uh huh, and how many of those girls have spent the last four years taking down bad guys? Honey, much as you've tried, you have not had a normal life as a teenager. That also means your father hasn't had the process of boys easing into your life. How many dates have you been on in high school, not counting Friday nights out with Ron?"

"Uh, I guess a few times with Josh."

"You went to a dance with him your Sophomore year, you went out to dinner and a movie with him early this school year and you hung out with him at the mall maybe two or three times. I don't think that counts as very much dating and he certainly didn't seem to be much of a boyfriend. I honestly wouldn't even know his voice on the phone.

"What I'm saying is, your father is in uncharted territory. That, and he has one example of what a sixteen year old girl is like."

"How would he kno…MOM! That is so not an image I need!"

Anne got up from the foot of the bed and pulled a nice, off-white dress from her closet. "I think this would look nice, much more 'spring.'"

"Mom, I wanted to look good for Ron." She picked up the black dress, holding it to her chest.

"This will look good for him and I didn't tell you the other reason you shouldn't wear that dress."

Kim looked at her expectantly.

"The last time he saw you in it, you managed to chase him all over town, body slammed him, threw a popcorn stand at him."

"I didn't throw it at him, I shoved it out of the way."

"What I'm saying is, he might not have good memories about that dress, especially how heartbroken he was when he found out you weren't crushing on him."

"Mom, he was okay."

"Honey, that's just the face he was showing you. He's really good at that. Trust me, if he was any less of a friend than he is, you probably would have lost him, at least for a little while. And trust me about the dress. I think you could walk downstairs in a burlap sack tonight and he won't care." She held the light colored dress up to Kim's body. "Besides, in the right light, I think he might appreciate this dress quite well."

Kim waited until her mother went downstairs before she slipped out of her robe and put on the dress. Considering their discussion, she really didn't want her mother to see what else she had to go with it. It wasn't something she had ever considered before, but Monique had insisted. In fact, Monique had almost bodily dragged her to Alexandria's Confession when the subject of tonight's date had first come up.

"Girl, I know you're not going to wear those granny panties under that LBD." She said, making it more of a commandment than a statement."

"Mm, hmm. So you're just gonna go out with your man wearing something appropriate only for a pajama party? Let me guess, cotton, with little pink hearts on it?"

"Monique, what does what I'm wearing under the dress have anything to do with anything? It's not like he's going to see it…yet."

"Girlfriend, it's not about what he's seeing…yet" she added with emphasis. "It's about you knowing what you've got on, it's about feeling sexy under your clothes."

"But Ron has seen me in my underwear a couple times. I think he's used to cotton…"

"Kim, you're not listening to me." She held up something that was more lace than any other fabric. "When you wear something like this its YDLS."

"YDLS?"

"Your Dirty Little Secret. It makes you feel sexy and if you feel sexy it rubs off on your man and if he should get the chance to see…"

"Monique!" Kim half whispered, half shrieked at her GGF.

No, she so did not want her mother knowing what she was wearing under the dress. Sure Ron had seen her in her underwear, though mostly by accident. She didn't want to think about the time they switched brains, considering the things she learned about him at the time. Ron being Ron she could only imagine what he went through. After all, they were switched for a couple days. Bathroom breaks and clothing changes had been unavoidable. She really didn't want to think about her 'not-so-fresh' feeling afterwards, but she'd forgiven him due to ignorance. Just as he forgave her for the zipper incident. Then there was the time down in Florida when the alligator had ripped her Club Banana capris to shreds. Ron had been quick to grab her a double extra large 'Save the Manatees' shirt but he did make an off-hand comment on the way to Smarty Mart for 'emergency pants.'

"Not a real good day to have worn plain white panties?"

It didn't dawn on her until later what that meant. Suffice to say she turned redder than Ron's old hockey jersey. By the time she confronted him about it they were on another mission, one where his pants had already taken worse than her gator chomped capris. "Turnabout's fair play, KP."

She tuned and looked at her back in the mirror. The dress not only showed more skin in front, it did in the back as well. She pulled her hair up over her shoulder, looking at her back, at the faint freckles that were still there (usually hidden by her hair.)

A car was pulling up outside. Ron had his mother's car, making Kim wonder exactly how he had procured it. It had taken him half a dozen tries to get his learner permit and almost as many attempts at the DMV to get his actual license. She certainly hoped it wasn't going to be a case of his parents driving them on their date. If that were the case, she'd beg her mother for the mini-van and drive herself.

Like that was going to happen. Kim wasn't known as the sanest driver on the road. She liked to drive and drive fast and it was mostly her reputation that kept her from being stopped time after time for speeding. Fast planes, fast snowboards, fast off-road vehicles, they had left their impression on her. She was always the type to stomp on the accelerator and not let up until it was time to stop.

Outwardly calm, but with butterflies tearing up her inside like a ravenous school of piranha, she sat down at her dresser to do her makeup. Ron may have been there, but he would have to sit down and talk to her father, alone first.

She had plenty of time to make herself pretty.