To All Those Brave and Lovely

Girl's Day

Nora still wasn't used to having friends besides Eden that genuinely like her, so when she emerges from the dressing room with a pile of dresses slung over her arm to find MJ and Evangeline bent together and giggling, she has to fight down the voice that keeps telling her that maybe, just maybe, she doesn't belong here with them.  But then the two of them look up, MJ looking like she can't decide if she's annoyed or happy, and Evangeline barely able to talk through her laughter, and Nora decides that she's being silly to worry.

"You are not going to believe this!"  Evangeline gasps out, stumbling over, holding the phone out to reveal someone's Instagram page, MJ following behind her but not making it in time because she's still wobbling in the high heels they had forced her to try on.  "MJ has a boyfriend!"

"What?"  Nora takes the phone like its something precious (and it might be, she had once watched MJ hack through Tony's security with it because they had locked themselves out on the balcony one night ) and squinted down at the boy on the screen. He was cute, and tall, and seemed to have a lot of pictures that have to do with decathlon and science and political protest rallies, all of which were places that MJ could have met him.  "You haven't said anything about him?"

"It's a new thing,"  MJ said, clearly embarrassed.  She took the phone back but was smiling, which made Nora think that they hadn't upset her too much.  "I didn't want to act like it was something when it was nothing, and then all of a sudden... it was something."

She shrugged helplessly, and Evangeline squealed before talking about how they just have to meet, and how they should double date, asking all the appropriate questions that Nora should be asking upon finding out that one of her best friends has a guy she really likes and who appears to really like her back.  Instead, she could barely force her way through the bare minimum of responses, because she was too busy thinking of another guy, the one guy she liked but was able to keep at arms length because MJ is my friend, MJ had him first, I cannot do that to her, a barrier that has now gone up in smoke and probably had never been there in the first place.

"That's great, MJ,"  Nora makes herself say, tearing herself out of her own thoughts and overrated teenage boy drama long enough to even pretend to be a supportive friend.  And she would be supportive, later, once she made sure that Peter was okay with this new development and found a new way to remind herself that this thing she feels for Peter is officially a bad idea and never going to happen.  And then, because having a best friend who got a new boyfriend comes with certain responsibilities, she snatches the phone back and does her own run through of all his social media.  "Have you kissed him yet?"

Aside from MJ's announcement, the day went just like all the other girl's days that Evangeline had forced Nora (and subsequently, MJ) into going on.  They spend too much time trying on clothes that look great but they have no reason to buy, wobbling around on heels that would snap their ankles if they took a misstep, picking through make up they don't really want but feel compelled to look at anyways.  MJ and Nora inevitably get stuffed into things that are too tight, or too short, or too low for them to ever walk outside in, with Evangeline waiting just outside the dressing room, telling them in an increasingly louder voice that it's so perfect for you, that color is great, you have to learn to show some skin sometimes, ladies.  

It's not something that Nora would have pictured herself enjoying a year ago, but she's learned to enjoy the spotlight, so she tries on the outfits that Evangeline picks out for her and twirls around in front of all the mirrors while one of the other girls posts a video of it to snapchat, and maybe by the end of the day she'll have agreed to have bought something, too.  Shopping is a lot more fun when you actually have money to spend.