31

Nikki

I spent the next few days with Erik at his place because I had off from school and Auntie Tonya was either with Deshawn or working, but on the day before Thanksgiving, Deshawn came over to my place and Barry had our midweek meeting. We sat in the living room with some tea and cookies like fancy people. Before we started talking business, I told him, "You know how weird it is to have your teacher having tea at your house?"

"Well, it's a damn good thing I didn't spike it with something and I'm gay," he replied before taking a bite of a cookie.

I nodded. "True."

"Really, Nikki, there's not much else we have to do for the show. We have everything. The next four rehearsals shall be dress and tech and after that…y'know." He had a hilariously wicked smile on his face that I returned. "The bad news is that Daryl has a funeral scheduled that weekend, so I'll be conducting the orchestra. That means it shall be your duty as assistant director to do the before show speech."

Yeah, the basic turn off your cell phone, we worked hard, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show talk. Sounded doable. "All right."

"It's not that simple, Nikki," he said firmly. "You…don't dress like an assistant director. You need to."

"So…wear, like, my church skirt?"

He gave me a dirty look. "No. A cocktail dress or something. Not dressing like a really clean homeless person."

I don't wear dresses. Ever. "I don't…own a dress, Barry."

"Too bad, you'll have to get one," he said.

"Auntie Tonya!" I called.

She came in through the kitchen. "Yeah, babe?"

"Do you own a dress?"

She was wearing one. "No. I don't. What the hell is a dress?"

"Can I borrow a dress?"

"No," she and Barry said at the same time.

"There's no way we're the same size. Don't even try," she scoffed.

Barry nodded. "I'll pay for it, seriously. Anything to get you to do your assistant directorly duty."

"Let's go to TJ Maxx!" Tonya exclaimed.

Barry got up and took his keys from his pocket. "We shall take my convertible!"

So it turned out I wasn't a size six anymore, but an eight, and tight fitting dresses either didn't fit or made me look fat where I wasn't before. Tonya and Barry coaxed me into a stretchy black dress that went to my knees and was strapless, showing a "perfect" amount of cleavage. The stylish ruffles hid the sticking out belly and to get them off my back, I agreed to it. I took off the dress and stood facing the wall of the dressing room stall, looked in the mirror and looked at the bulge in my lower torso. It wasn't like a potbelly or anything. It was a bulge, and I didn't know how it got there. I put on my shirt and tried to cover it by crossing my arms over it. My boobs stung. Something was wrong.

I still kick myself for letting Auntie Tonya and Barry distract me from it for even a few days.