𝐁𝐀𝐆𝐒 | 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐌𝐈'𝐈𝐊𝐄

twenty-two.

eden hated dress shopping. she hated having to try on multiple dresses and parade around the changing rooms in them where anyone could see her. it was awkward and embarrassing for her, she'd much rather just order one online and hope that it didn't look awful. her mother was never going to let that happen. so after one long argument, eden had given in and that's how her and her mom ended up spring fling dress shopping that saturday afternoon. she hadn't yet told her mom that she was going romantically with janis, she knew that she would have to tell her before spring fling so she planned to just blurt it out in between trying on dresses.

"what about this?" her mom held out a pastel yellow dress to eden who shook her head. not only was it not her style, it also did not work with what janis had mentioned to her. "she's wearing lavender so i'd like to not clash with that." her mom rooted through the dresses hung neatly. "you could wear pink," her mom suggested. "purple and pink is cute." eden ran her hand along the silky dresses on the rail in front of her and sighed. "pink is mostly plastic territory," she said. "i guess it depends on the dress." she walked along to a pastel pink dress, attempting to pull it out at the same time someone else pulled on it from the other side, the dress fell from the rack, the hanger clattering off the floor.

karen shetty stood on the other side of the rail, her hand still on the rack. "oh," eden bent down to retrieve the dress. "sorry." she held it out to the girl automatically, she didn't even know why. she probably wasn't ever going to wear it to spring fling but the reflex to immediately hand it over to one of the plastics was strange to her. "no, you can have it," the girl smiled. "it's fine, really," eden shrugged. "it's not the colour i was going for." karen hesitated for a moment before she took it from her. "thanks," she said. "can you tell me how it looks on me?" she asked suddenly. eden froze for a moment, her focus purely on karen and that big grin she was wearing like her and eden had been friends all their lives. "um, ok?"

eden wondered if this was usually something the plastics did together, but regina was recovering and eden hadn't seen gretchen in school for days. so a part of her felt sorry for karen and the logical part of her brain reminded her that it was never karen that had done anything to her or to janis. so she let the girl pull her towards the dressing rooms, her mom didn't seem phased at all by her following after one of the plastics, waving her off as a small part of eden hoped she'd stop her.

the girl lingered outside the dressing room door, staring at the closed door in front of her, karen was rambling on the other side about spring fling and eden wondered why she was even talking to her in the first place. it seemed strange for eden to be anywhere near any of regina's friends, but maybe this was the type of change that was needed. "so do you have a date for the dance?" eden asked, trying to take an interest in the conversation. "not really," karen replied from the other side of the door. "i'm going with gretchen." eden wasn't that surprised that gretchen didn't seem to have a date either considering jason weems had been screwing her over all year which was infuriating to watch, regardless of whether she was a plastic or not. "what about you?"

"um, yeah, i do," eden shifted awkwardly from one foot to another. "ooh, with who?" eden didn't have to see karen's face to know her interest had been piqued, she also didn't know how she hadn't heard about her and janis considering it had been whispered through the school before they even had the chance to confirm it. "with janis," eden replied slowly. "you know janis, right?" there was silence on the other side of the door for a moment before it clicked open, karen yanking it open to show the girl the dress. "yeah," karen nodded, her eyes not meeting eden's. "it's pretty," eden diverted the subject away from janis. "it looks really good on you." the smile spread back across karen's face. "ok!" she clapped her hands excitedly, taking a look at herself in the mirror.

"do you need help unzipping it?" eden asked, karen shook her head. "no i'm like really flexible," she said. "ok?" eden held back her laughter. "i'm gonna-" she gestured back to the shop floor. "my moms helping me so i should get back." karen nodded. "have fun," she smiled at her. "with janis." eden returned the smile. "yeah," she replied. "have fun with gretchen." she smiled slightly. "and for what's it worth i hope you get spring fling queen," she said. karen smiled widely at her before she reentered the dressing room, closing the door behind her as eden exhaled slowly. she'd never thought that karen was the meanest one of the plastics, but she had wondered if she was secretly mean to other people that weren't her or janis. now she just wondered why the hell she'd ever been friends with regina to begin with.