Holding On To Happy | ✔

12. No Spontaneous Combustion

Sunday afternoon I found myself in a position I never thought I'd be in. Coming to the mall with Keisha wasn't my idea. Even though I was trying to warm up to having her in my life, I wasn't expecting to jump into things so soon. I hoped that I'd have more time to adjust before becoming shopping buddies.

Dad let it slip that my homecoming dance was happening soon and Keisha insisted that we go dress shopping. It was funny to think that 24 hours ago I would have rolled my eyes and said "no". I agreed, though, just to give our friendship a shot.

"Long or short?" Keisha asked as we walked through the mall.

"Short," I replied, referring to the text from Jasmine. "And it must have cheetah print."

Jasmine wanted us to be coordinated and since the dance would be jungle themed, animal prints were a must. She also insisted that I send her a picture of the dress before purchasing. I forgot how anal she could be when it came to clothes and to be honest, I didn't miss this side of her.

"Animal print," Keisha mused, eyeing a window display full of mannequins in colorful dresses. The dresses were gorgeous, but none met the criteria. "You sure that's what you want?"

I read over the text one more to make sure I got it right, "Yeah."

"Maybe they have something inside," she suggested, walking into the store and I followed.

It took us about thirty minutes to browse the entire store and didn't find anything. There was a large variety of beautiful dresses, but very few of them were cheetah print. Three stores later and countless dresses rejected by Jasmine, I lost all hope of finding a dress here.

"Is there anything you like?" Keisha asked as we made our way out of the shop.

Honestly, a few dresses caught my eye, but none of them matched the theme Jasmine was going for. The dance was going to be the first school event I attended with them this year and I want to at least look like I belonged in the group.

Instead of spilling that to Keisha I just shook my head "no". Despite that, I couldn't take my eyes off a certain strapless, yellow dress with a tulle skirt ruched bodice. It was gorgeous and in my favorite color.

"Buy it," she chimed, nudging me a bit.

Again, I shook my head, "It's not what I'm looking for."

"Still, it's always good to have options," she said, plucking the dress from the rack and holding it up to me. "And this color looks good on you."

The dress was really pretty and there were other dances happening, so it wouldn't hurt to have an extra dress. Keisha watched me eagerly to see what I would decide to do.

"I'll get it," I grinned, searching the rack for my size.

After buying the dress Keisha and I stopped for frozen yogurt. Apparently, it's what the baby wanted. As we ate our yummy concoctions she filled me in on her short list of baby names. She was hoping for a boy since she grew up around a lot girls. The same look she had at the barbecue flashed across her face and I wondered where that pain came from. I didn't ask though. Maybe one day she'll tell me, but for now we just enjoyed our froyo and laughed at the cringy baby names Dad suggested.

+ + +

It was getting dark when Dad pulled into our driveway. The weekend seemed so short and I felt like I hardly spent any time with him. 

"Did you have fun?" He asked and knew that was only part of the question. The full question was: Did you have fun with Keisha?

"Yes, I did," I answered honestly as I unbuckled my seat belt. "My bratty days are behind me."