Chapter 32: Good Idea Gone Bad
I think I’ve walked about five miles so far this afternoon and Elisha doesn’t appear to be slowing up. I have never in my life seen someone shop the way that she does. She just doesn’t stop and she buys at least five items in every store. I have yet to pick up anything. I don’t have the kind of money to be shopping on Rodeo Drive for goodness sakes. A simple blouse is like four hundred dollars! I can barely afford Target, let alone Gucci.
Liz tired on a few things, mostly just for fun since she can’t afford this stuff either. And poor Trace looks bored out of his mind. I don’t know how he got dragged along but I feel bad for him. He just searches out a chair in every store we go into and hangs out there, holding Elisha’s purse until Elisha is ready to leave. I think he may have actually looked in his section in one store, but that’s it. To any common bystander he looks like Elisha’s boyfriend.
“This is so boring,” Liz whispers in misery, “how long do we have to watch Elisha shop? Until she maxes out a credit card or two?”
I giggle at her sarcastic tone as we weave through the racks around us in hope of spotting Trace. “She has to stop sometime.” I answer back.
Finally catching a glimpse of Trace we rush to him. He’s slumped in a chair outside the dressing room looking half asleep. We sit in the chairs on either side of him I’m sure looking just as exhausted as him.
“Why aren’t you girls shopping?” He groans, slouching farther into his chair.
“We can’t afford anything here.” Liz admits, mocking his position.
Just as Trace is about to make some smart comment”I can tell from the look on his face”Elisha rushes towards us with a huge stack of clothes draped over her arm. Here we go. Now we get the pleasure of watching her model the clothes for us so that we can tell her how gorgeous she looks. She looks gorgeous no matter what she puts on and it’s really annoying.
“Come on Elli,” She calls entering the dressing stall and hanging the clothes on the various hooks around the stall. She never made me go in with her before. So I guess I now get to see her flawless body as she changes”oh joy.
I shoot a glare at Trace who is practically cackling like a witch over in his ridiculously comfortable chair. “At least I don’t have to hold her purse.” I whisper back with as smirk. He stops laughing then. Ha!
“Get in there and get busy.” Elisha smiles, pushing me into the dressing area. She pulls the curtain shut on me confused face. “These clothes are for you Elli.” She answers my question before I’m even able to voice it. This sucks! I hate trying on clothes, especially when I don’t have enough money to buy them in the off chance something actually looks nice on me.
I let out a small groan as I look over the stacks of clothing surrounding me. This is going to take forever. I grab the first hanger to my right, shedding it of the dress it’s holding. I can tell you right now that I’m not going to like it because it’s going to look terrible on me. It’s a sexy little red dress. Red is not sliming nor is having the dress so skin tight it shows every curve and when I say every curve I mean every curve. Tossing the dress to the chair located in the corner of the dressing room I begin to shuffle through the other garments. I’m not even going to try any of these on. It will only crush what little self-confidence that I have.
“What are you doing in there?” Elisha calls with a giggle. I know she’s just trying to help me out with taking me shopping like this but this just isn’t working for me. When I don’t respond the curtain blocking me from their view opens just enough for a body to slip through. Thank goodness it’s Liz. She laughs at the look on my face before starting to sort through the piles of clothes surrounding us.
“You have to at least try on a couple of things El.” She laughs and I scrunch my nose in disgust. “I know this stuff isn’t you but you might just like something once you see it on you.”
“Yeah right,” I scoff. I’m sure I would like this stuff better on my body. That makes a lot of sense.
“Stop that.” She scolds. “No putting yourself down. You have to know that you look good if Justin Timberlake asked you out.” She smiles.
Liz just about had a heart attack when I told her what went down between me and Justin yesterday. I was afraid she was going to be mad because of her long time crush on Justin but she was actually really excited for me. See now I know that you all don’t really like Liz but her doing something like that should at least help to redeem her a little bit. She can be a little eccentric and selfish at times but she’s always there for me when I need her. Especially lately with all this Justin drama.
“I don’t even know what kind of stuff I’m supposed to wear.” I whine childishly. Just because Justin asked me out doesn’t mean he thinks I’m gorgeous. He could just feel bad for me and all the crap he’s put me through. Or maybe he can simply tolerate looking at me and he really likes my personality”I doubt it. I really don’t know why he’s taken any interest in me to be honest with ya.
“Where is he taking you?” Liz asks, holding the little red dress I had tossed to the chair up to herself. I bet she would look great in something like that. I shrug my shoulders at her question. I haven’t spoken to Justin since last night. All I know is to meet him at his house at seven. She sighs, dropping the dress and grabbing my hand to pull me out to where Trace and Elisha are waiting.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” Elisha asks.
“Because we do not know the details of just where Justin is taking her tonight so we can’t exactly pick something for her to wear. I mean are they going out for fast food or a fancy candlelit dinner?” Liz explains. Elisha nods in understanding and tells us that she’ll call him and find out. She whips out her tiny little cells phone but Trace grabs it from her.
“What the hell?” She growls reaching for her phone.
“I already know what he has planned and you don’t need to dress up that much.” He answers and then hands Elisha her phone which she hastily shoves back in her purse. “A skirt and nice tops should do it.” He answers standing from his plush white chair. We all watch in awe as he walks across the store picking up a few things on his way. “Here.”
I take the clothes he’s holding out to me. He winks playfully and pushes me back towards the dressing room. This is more like me than all the stuff Elisha picked. You know Elisha is really a lot like Liz with the clothes she wears and that they’re both gorgeous and very outspoken. I’m surprised they don’t get along better. Shedding my clothes I slip in to the green and white flowered Paulette skirt that flares in a wavy effect on the bottom and a plain, white, short sleeved polo shirt. Trace should be a fashion consultant. I love this! Before sauntering out to show the gallery I glance at the price tags. Oh my gosh, I cannot buy this. The skirt alone is $200.00. Oh well, I’ll show them and hopefully they’ll hate it.
Shyly, I pull back the curtain and step in front of them and wait for the critique.
“Very cute,” Liz smiles.
“I agree.” Elisha concurs. Well that’s nice but I don’t have anymore than about forty dollars total in my wallet”that’s including change.
Trace stands and jokingly walks a circle around me, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I love it darling!” He exclaims in a completely gay voice sending us girls into hysterics.
Once I’m able to control my laughter I grab his arm pulling him down so I can whisper in his ear, “I can’t afford this.” He pulls back to look down at my embarrassed face.
“I’ll pay for it.” He whispers back. I shake my head and begin to protest be he cuts me off. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
“But””
“No buts,” He smiles. “Let me do this.”
“I’m giving you my forty dollars.” I assure him and he doesn’t argue. Is he a great friend or what? I throw my arms around his neck giving him a tight squeeze which he returns. “Thank you.”
“Enough of this mushy stuff,” He teases, pulling away from me. “Go change to so we can pay.”
~*~*~*~
“So did you have anything particular in mind?” Elisha asks, releasing my hair from it’s ponytail prison. Now as much I was dreading the shopping part of this mini makeover, I’m dreading the hair and makeup part even more. I shake my head no to answer her question. She hands me a brush and instructs me to “detangle” myself. I watch my reflection in the mirror and how my hair’s volume grows about an inch with every stroke of the brush due to my intense frizz issues. Have I ever mentioned to you how much I hate my hair? “I’m thinking we should straighten it.”
That sounds painful.
“Oh,” Liz gasps pulling out her hair straightener and plugging it in. “She would look so cute with straight hair!”
Great, now I don’t even have Liz to protect me. I wish Trace hadn’t gone home. He would have helped me. Instead I’m sitting at Liz’s vanity waiting for these two maniacs to bake my hair. If they so much as burn one hair on my head, I’ll…I’ll….well I don’t know what I’ll do but it won’t be pleasant for either of them.
“You want to do makeup or hair?” Elisha asks Liz and I suddenly feel invisible or I guess more like a giant Barbie doll for them to experiment on.
“Makeup!” She smiles evilly rubbing her hands together. I’m really starting to get scared now. Liz opens the drawer to my right and pulls out a tube of mascara, some green eye shadow, and lip gloss. “We’ll go light.”
“Right,” Elisha aggress, smiling much like Liz. She lifts the first section of my hair, smoothing it with her fingers before pressing the straightener over the hair and pulling down slowly. “She doesn’t need very much. She looks better natural.”
“We’ll have you looking gorgeous in no time.” Liz giggles.
As opposed to how terrible I normally look? I don’t think that was meant as a compliment.
I’m starting to think this was a bad idea….
~*~*~*~*~
“Shit, shit, shit, mother f**king shit!” I curse running to the stove after take the overflowing pot off the heat. Who came up with the dumb ass idea that I should cook dinner for Elli? Wait, that was me. I drop the pot in the sink, turn off the stove and oven and just walk away. I give up.
I’ve been slaving over this f**king stove all afternoon and nothing I’ve made has turned out right or even remotely edible. I even watched the Food Network so that I could actually see how to make this shit and I still f**ked it up. Whoever said cooking was relaxing was full of shit. I am the farthest thing from relaxed right now. Elli should be here in less than an hour and I have no food, I haven’t set the table and I’m not even dressed yet. I knew I should have ordered in and just put the food in my own dishes. That’s what I usually do for girls when I invite them over. I don’t know what made me think I was suddenly going to be able to cook a five star meal just from watching a few cooking shows.
“What are you moping about?” Trace asks before suddenly bringing his hand up to cover his nose. “What the hell is that smell?”
“Supper,” I grumble, crossing my arms over my chest and beginning to pout.
“Are you sure this I food in here?” He asks poking at the food still in the pot I threw in the sink. I roll my eyes”he’s really not helping making stupid comments like that. “Why don’t you just order in? Isn’t what you normally do?”
“I’m going to have to now.”
He turns to me with a huge smile covering his face. “I get it now. You wanted to do something special for our little Elli didn’t you? Isn’t that just precious?” He laughs pinching my cheeks and speaking in baby talk. I push him roughly away from me.
“Shut the f**k up.”
“Hey, if you’re going to act like then I won’t help you.” He says, walking out of the kitchen. I should get him to help me. He may not be a chef but he’s a better cook then I am. I can’t even boil f**king pasta right. Too bad my ego won’t let me ask him.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…..
TBC....
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