The Girl in Blue

13- The Girl Barters

Lana

"This has to be the perfect dress," I say stubbornly as I'm swimming through racks and racks of elegant dresses back at the mall. I'm with Carmen today on the hunt for the perfect dress for the Animal Welfare Gala, her brain child. I want that blue dress that Sutton found the last time that we were here so in order to talk her into giving it to me, I have to find a dress that she'll like even more.

"What's her favorite color?" Carmen wonders on the other side of the rack.

"Purple. I don't think there are any purple dresses that don't look cheesy though."

"We'll find something," She assures me. I'm not so sure but I try to keep an optimistic look at things and I keep looking through the racks. There's a lot of white dresses but those won't do because it looks like I'm a bride or something and that's not the feel that I'm going for. The black ones look elegant and sexy but I know that Sutton doesn't like black dresses so I skip over those ones too.

"Now that she has a date, maybe she'll want something a little slutty," I suggest, holding up one dress with a lot of risqué cutouts on the sides and back with a lot of cleavage—a dress that Sutton wouldn't wear in a million years.

"Has she actually said that she has a date or are you making assumptions?" Carmen asks me with raised eyebrows.

"They aren't actually dating yet but they are hanging out today," I offer her. "They haven't even kissed yet but I'm hopeful that she'll woman up soon enough. She really likes him and he obviously really likes her too so it has to happen. I've kissed the guy more times than her and that's not something that I'm comfortable with."

"That's still hilarious by the way," Carmen laughs at just thinking about Jonah kissing me. It's only slightly funny, mostly just uncomfortable though. "If I was him, I'd never be able to live that down."

"I feel bad for him really," I mutter as I'm scanning through the dresses. "He had one burst of confidence to ask my sister out and he really went through with it but it was all a bust. Not for nothing because at least it started something but it might stop him from making a move ever again."

"Well if they're as meant to be as they seem, they'll figure it out eventually," Carmen tells me. "And maybe they can do that in this dress?"

She holds up an orange dress that cascades into a fading blue that almost resembles a sunset. "Orange is definitely not our color. We need winter colors—blues, purples, maybe green if it's really pretty and wintery."

"You make me feel colorblind," She complains. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"This one," I say quickly, grabbing a long purple dress off of the rack and immediately, I am in love. Maybe it's not technically a dress because it's two parts—a long elegant skirt and the top is a lacy bralette with short sleeves that are the same lilac color of the flowing skirt. It's perfect. It's elegant, it's purple, it's sexy but not too sexy that it'll scare Sutton away.

"I like it," Carmen smiles her approval at me. "Go try it on."

I do as she suggests and disappear into the dressing room after I find the right size of the dress. It's really easy to shop for Sutton because I always know how it'll look on her if I just try it on myself. In the dressing room, I slip on the two piece garment and I'm even more in love with it now.

"Okay," I open the door to the dressing room. "Imagine this dress but with silver heels, hair up in a bun, some dramatic makeup and a Jonah standing right here."

"I don't know what he looks like," She reminds me.

"You know what I mean, what do you think?" I ask her, looking back into the mirror again.