Featherscape Tickle Story Collection

A Ticklish Sleepover - Part 11

Robyn occupied the frame way of her daughter's bedroom, fighting back a motherly swell of emotions. Before her, Sara stood staring into a mirror, adjusting the dress she had picked out for her high school senior prom. Sara carefully brushed her hair through, worried that any wrong snag would ruin the golden waves she had spent an hour curling. Sara turned back to her mother and sighed.

"What do you think?" Sara asked. Her voice quivered, a phenomenon which explanation was lost on the girl. Robyn smiled back and sniffled.

"You're beautiful," Robyn said. Robyn had seen the dress on Sara before when she made the girl put it on the night she brought it home, but the sight coupled with carefully thorough hair and makeup application left forth a new wave of feelings.

"You think so?" Sara asked. She looked back in the mirror, checking both sides and the back of her. The light pink dress hung by lace sleeves around her shoulders. It hugged her slender hips before bursting downward in a blooming floral gown. The bottom just grazed the floor surrounding a matching pair of heels.

"You are beautiful," Robyn repeated. "And so is the dress." Sara looked her way and smiled.

"Thanks," said Sara. The girl looked herself over. Robyn came up behind her and began lacing the zigzagging straps across her back. Her daughter posed before her a vibrant young woman, as strong and brilliant as she was gorgeous. Robyn saw the girl once scraping her knees on the playground, now an alluring figure of pure grace. The woman remembered Sara playing in dirt and begging to have her watch how long she could hold her breath in the pool. The image in the mirror showed not just a flourishing return of the girl once so reclusive and broken, but the immaculate progression of her baby taking her first steps into a life beyond her care.

"My baby... going to prom," Robyn said, wiping her cheek. Sara rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Mom," said Sara. "It's really not that big of a deal." Robyn wrapped her arms around Sara and squeezed her tight from behind.

"It is for me," said Robyn. "I love you and I'm so proud of you." Sara laid her hand reassuringly atop her mother's.

"I love you too," said Sara. Robyn pulled away, sniffling beneath two pink eyes.

"You'll understand if you have kids one day," said Robyn.

"One thing at a time," said Sara. "I'm not even going with anyone tonight, so don't get your hopes up." Robyn smirked and nodded.

"Right," said Robyn. "And that's okay. I think you're going to have a great time tonight anyway. Who knows? You might enjoy it more than you think."

"I seriously doubt that," said Sara, nit picking at how her dress fit around her collar. Robyn smiled away from Sara, finishing tightening her daughter's dress across the back. She walked back over to the door frame where she liked to loiter. Sara looked over the pastel pink ball gown, a sideways look spread across her face. "Ugh, never did I ever imagine I'd be caught wearing something so girly."

"Hey, you picked it out, and the color," said Robyn. "Had I been there with you and Taylor, I might have pointed out how girly it looked, but I know you two needed the time together. Not that I don't like it. I think it's just right for you." Sara smiled her way.

"Yeah," the girl said. She looked back to the mirror. She lifted the gown by the sides and let it fall, playing with the strange new properties of her attire. "I feel... pretty." A wide, closed lip smile came to Robyn's face, pushing down more tears at hearing her daughter recognize her beauty.

"You are," said Robyn. "Really." Sara's thoughts circling how much she liked her new look soon gave way to a dismal idea, one that dropped the corners of her finely colored lips. "What's wrong, honey?"