An Accident, A Decision, and Destiny (Revised)

Chapter 13

After lunch it was on to yet even more clothing stores.

Was this what it meant to be a girl? Did all girls have to enjoy shopping this much? If that was the case then I wasn't so sure if it was for me.

Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying everything I had experienced so far, aside from my aching legs. I just wasn't sure if I could get used to this much shopping, on the regular.

If it were my decision we would have left after lunch and come back again in a few days.

At one point, Kelli mentioned she was invited to a pool party with all her friends next month, that she didn't want to miss.

Aunt Jill asked about me. She said Kelli couldn't very well go without taking me too. "How would that look," she asked.

I could immediately feel I was being set up for something I wasn't going to like.

"So, you know what that means," Kelli gleefully announced with a huge grin spreading across her face.

"What," I asked in reply.

I'm sure she could see the fear in my eyes.

"You'll need a bathing suit."

Yep, there it was.

"Gee, thanks, cousin, but I don't know if I'm ready for that." I quickly shot back. "In fact, I know I'm not."

She stuck her tongue out at me with a big grin.

"You said you wanted to experience everything you could, so you've got a month to get comfortable......wearing a bikini."

"A BIKINI?"

I really was freaking out now.

"Why not a one piece at least," I enquired. "Please?"

Lucky for me, Aunt Jill came to my rescue.

"Kelli, Destiny's right. A conservative one piece with a little skirt ruffle will be just fine. We don't want to go overboard too quickly. And try to find one with foam-molded cups."

"Oh yeah. Good catch mom." She turned to me, "It'd be embarrassing for a girl your age to show up with tittys as tiny as yours. That would make everyone wonder. Don't worry I'll find you one with cups that'll make you look like you have norms sized ones. Oh, and a skirt to hide to hide your lil' bulge"

We ended up picking out two one-piece suits, both with skirt ruffles and cups. This made me feel a little better. Although, just to satisfy Kelli I did try on a bikini and let her take one, just one photo.

Okay, so I was curious to see how I'd look, too.

From there we went to another shoe store where I ended up with my own pair of girly canvas lowtops, a pair of strappy heels, and a pair of pink trimmed, white running shoes.

When we left the shoe store I thought we were finally done for the day, but no.

Of course not.

I'm quickly finding that girls are never done shopping. Either that or they are doing this just for me. It does appear that I need a lot of stuff.

Unfortunately for me and my aching legs, there were other shops we hadn't been in yet.

One in particular, Aunt Jill really, really wanted to get to.

This got my curiosity up and I began to anxiously want to know what more there could possibly be that we hadn't already shopped for.

We entered several more stores before we got to 'the one'. Luckily for me, we didn't find anything else to try on in either of these and quickly moved on.

When we finally got to the one Aunt Jill was looking forward to, we entered and it was a total surprise. I immediately knew what the store was and why we were there but it was something I never even considered.

I did say I wanted to experience it all, so I didn't protest, I was nervous about it but didn't protest, when I realized that I was about to have my ears pierced.

I insisted on picking out the earrings.

As I browsed through all the different styles of earrings, a chill ran down my spine and I wasn't sure if it was a sign of excitement over what I was about to do or an effect of the fear I felt. At that moment a thought crossed my mind. Was I letting this go too far? Was I about to cross a line?

Maybe I should politely decline. I told myself, just before the young girl took a marker and placed a single dot on each of my ear lobes.

When she picked up the piercing gun I smiled dutifully, trying to hide my conflicted feelings and the fact that I was scared of how painful this might be.

Suprisingly, the piercing didn't hurt much at all, just a quick pop, a brief hot stinging sensation, and moments later I walked out with six pairs of earrings in my purse and another pair dangling from the bottom of my earlobes, tiny gold triple hoops.

I know, simple ball studs is all you normally start with. A starter set, the girl called them, but auntie insisted I be given these instead. The girl was going to refuse but because these were made of the same material as a starter set, she said it would be okay. I get why auntie did that, I don't have time to mess around with starter balls for six to eight weeks.

We shopped all day long that day. I've never tried on that many clothes before in my entire life.

By the time we paused for dinner I was desperate for a break and so grateful all the walking and trying things on was finally over.

It hadn't helped that one of the first things Aunt Jill bought me right after the nail salon this morning had been a pair of multi strapped cork wedge-heeled sandals that she insisted I wear the rest of the day.

I've practiced walking in regular heels, but never for this long, maybe ten minutes at a time, at most. My legs were so sore and my feet throbbing by the time we stopped for dinner.

I complained about the shoes and no one had sympathy for me. Kelli said to stop whining, I'd get used to them and that I was doing a great job of looking naturally feminine, walking in them. She said it was obvious I'd been practicing. Aunt Jill just smiled and nodded in agreement.

As soon as the server left our table after taking our order, Kelli made an announcement that really embarrassed me.

"Oh my gawd, mom, did you see how that guy was checking Destiny out?"

"What are you talking about, Kel? He was just taking our order," I replied.

"Oh no, he was looking at you with hungry eyes. He wants a side order of you. KnowwatI'msaying?"

My cheeks began to burn.

"Oh look at her, mom. She's embarrassed. That's so cute. You want me to give him your number?"

"You better not," I told her sternly.

"Chil, relax, I wouldn't really do that to you, but I do enjoy watching you squirm."

After that, every time he came to the table I could feel my face flush and I couldn't bring myself to look at him. I couldn't believe that I actually looked good enough, convincing enough to have that kind of an effect on a guy.

I was also confused by my own nervous reaction. I asked myself did this mean that deep inside I kinda did like the attention and . . . was . . . Well, I couldn't bring myself to finish the thought.

The rest of dinner was a blur. I barely tasted my food and spent most of the time fidgeting with my napkin and glancing over at the guy whenever he wasn't looking. Kelli kept nudging me and whispering things in my ear, but I tried to ignore her.

By the time we were on our way home, I was starting to feel really tired and my feet hurt so much from walking around all day. I could barely stand up in these shoes anymore and the first thing i did when we got back to the car, was to kick them off and massage my feet.

Wow, I couldn't belive how good that felt with hose on.