Mosdenea

Chapter 22--The Art of Tattoos

Coral Gables Miami, Florida. Three words sum it up: Exquisite. Exotic. Expensive. So of course this is where Victoria and Kellie decided to take me to find my dress.

Victoria agreed to meet us at one of the Starbucks that was located on the street. She had to help out at her mom's salon before meeting up with us in the afternoon. After Kellie's morning class let out, we hopped into my car and drove a solid twenty minutes. In reality, the shops weren't far away. But naturally we were stuck in traffic half the time. Kellie kept jabbering about how excited she was. I would be lying if I didn't say I was excited too.

When we arrived at the Starbucks, through the window Kellie and I could already see Victoria sitting at one of the tables. She smiled as soon as we walked through the door, then yelled to make sure everyone knew she had been waiting for us. "My amigas!" She said causing people to look.

I was used to her loud personality and Kellie was slowly getting accustomed to it. Occasionally, we would have to hush Victoria because she loses control of how loud she talks sometimes. Whenever we do hush her she defends her loudness by exclaiming she's Latina. "I'm going to get a drink before we head out," Kellie told me as she headed to the front. I followed her and ordered the Shawn Parris special.

"We should totally go see his new movie once we're done," Kellie said we both took a sip of the sprinkled drink.

"Yes," Victoria and I both agreed.

"I don't read ever," Victoria stated as we headed out the door. "But I did read his book. It's amazing. It's actually phenomenal."

We all agreed and once we were on the sidewalk, both girls pulled me along to hurry up. I couldn't help roll my eyes. These two love their shopping. They're always ordering things online and they're subscribed to about every store possible. The moment they hear the word 'sale' it's like a bloodhound suddenly finding a track to follow. Their heads go up and their wallets come out. We just all don't have enough money to come to places like this which is why I think they're even more excited.

Miracle Mile. Imagine an empty street in the middle of Kansas that just goes straight for what seems forever. You got that image? Good. It's nothing like that.

Miracle Mile is in fact, a straight road that goes on a for a distance. It's an outlet with beautiful stores that line up either side of the street. But it's not in the middle of nowhere. It's not desolate. And unlike Kansas, it's filled with an abundant amount of people. Girls our age were window shopping while drinking their own beverages. Occasionally, we would see a high school girl with her mom—probably looking for prom dresses. And of course, the women a few years older than us who were looking for wedding dresses.

"I don't know if this is the place for me," I answered honestly. Even just going down the sidewalk, I couldn't even find something that remotely interested me. Granted, a lot of the dresses were for weddings. But still, I didn't want to try on everything only to realize I don't like anything.

"You're going to find something here Parker," Kellie reassured me.

I took a deep breath but before I could say anything Victoria added, "If you don't I've got a few other places."

"More than here?" Kellie asked looking over me towards Victoria. We were all walking down the sidewalk before entering stores. This way we could eliminate stores we didn't want to bother going inside. As we walked however, I naturally placed myself between the girls.

"Yeah," Victoria shrugged. "But first, let's look here."

She opened the door to one of the many stores. I took a deep breath before walking in. There was a front desk where one of the employees asked if we had an appointment. That instantly sent me into a state of shock. I was bewildered. Appointment? Am I at the doctor's office or something?