Twenty Four: Chic
The following Wednesday I arrived home to two large trash bags in my room. What it some kind of practical joke? Upon further inspection I noticed the trash bags were filled with clothes… tons of clothes. I ripped one open and pulled out an Old Navy sweatshirt. Underneath it was a pair of Levis. What on earth?
“Diana,” I called as I went down the stairs to begin to help the kids with their school work. “Diana, why are there trash bags of clothing in my room?” I asked when I found her in the kitchen sorting through a pile of mail.
“They’re hand-me-downs,” she replied, tearing open a bill.
I stood there and just stared at her- dumb struck.
“Have you never heard of hand-me-downs?”
“I’ve heard of hand-me-downs,” I replied, going to the fridge and helping myself to a Dr. Pepper. “I just don’t understand why they’re in my bedroom.”
“A friend of mine from church has a 17-year-old. She sorted through her clothes this weekend and got rid of what she didn’t fit in anymore or want. My friend figured you might want them. They were going to go to charity anyway.”
“Who’s this friend?” I asked, popping open the Dr. Pepper and sitting down next to Mackenzie who was working on math problems. “That’s really nice of her. I’m sure I could give her some money in exchange for it.”
Diana gave me annoyed look over the top of the paperwork she was holding. “Gabrielle, just sort through it and keep what you like, okay? She was happy to give it to you.”
“Does she have kids? Maybe I could baby sit for free for her? I’d really feel a lot better if I could somehow show my appreciation.”
“Gabrielle!” Diana actually raised her voice and dropped the mail on the counter. “Enough. She doesn’t want anything in return.”
“Okay,” I swallowed.
“And I don’t need your help this exact second. Mackenzie is taking a quiz. So go upstairs and try some of it on. Come down and show me some of the things that look cute on you.”
“Okay,” I nodded, trying to be obedient and not frustrate her anymore. “Do you think Jessica might want some-”
“Gab-”
“Okay!” I replied before she could yell at me again. I gave her an apologetic smile and ran up the stairs. As soon as I entered my room, I closed the door tightly and grinned at the bags eagerly. This was going to be fun.
Taylor didn’t decide to make an appearance that evening until 7:00- long after dinner.
“Why weren’t you here for dinner?” Diana accused as he strolled through the front door swinging his keys at his sides.
“I called,” he frowned. “I called and spoke to Zac and told him to tell you that I had to work on an English project with some girl from class. I went over to her apartment this evening to work on it.”
He was at some girl’s apartment? By himself? And he didn’t tell me about it? I tried not to be jealous. I tried not to worry about it. But I couldn’t help but feel a hint protective of him.
Diana sighed and glanced up the stairs to where Zac was playing loud music. “If you said you left word with someone here, then okay. Are you finally catching up in that class?”
He probably would have answered if he didn’t see me standing behind Diana putting away some dishes. Upon noticing me, he ignored his mother completely, sauntered over to me, and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Boo,” he smirked, his mouth up against my neck.
“Ah!” I pretended to be surprised by his presence. “You scared me,” I teased.
He laughed to himself and separated from me, opening the fridge and looking through it. “Are there left overs? What’s this?” he asked, pulling tinfoil off of what I assumed was the plate meat loaf I’d put in there about an hour earlier. A moment later he emerged with a pack of deli meat and began shoving slice after slice into his mouth.
“You didn’t tell me you were going to some girl’s apartment this afternoon,” I tried to say as casually as possible. He would get too much pleasure out of knowing it had ruffled my feathers.
“I didn’t know until she called me while you were at school,” he shrugged, and then the smile I knew was coming formed on his lips. “Why? Are you worried about me hanging out at girl’s apartments?”
“Should I be?” I raised an eyebrow and began to put the silverware away into a drawer.
He shoved another piece of turkey into his mouth and smiled, “Nope. Sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t know.”
“Forgiven.”
“So I have a question I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
He spotted a glass of apple juice across the counter, that happened to belong to Mackie, and took it for himself. After he’d taken an obnoxiously long sip and exhaled loudly, he cleared his throat.
“When were you planning on asking me to the Spring Social at your high school?”
How did he know about that? I dropped a fork onto the floor I was so caught off guard and then tossed it back into the sink to be re-washed. My school was notorious for stupid dances. I swear, there was a school dance every month just so those of us who couldn’t afford to go, didn’t have the time to go, or didn’t have dates could realize how pathetic our lives really were. I never minded, really, as dressing up and standing around a cramped gymnasium wasn’t my idea of fun anyway. I was never really asked by anyone since I hardly every talked in high school, but the two times I was asked throughout the course of my high school career I politely said no. I simply didn’t own a dress.
“Because I already asked someone else from school.”
“Who?” He raised an annoyed eyebrow and froze in the middle of shoving another piece of turkey into his mouth.
“Some kid I worked on an English project with,” I snorted. It was all a lie, but I wanted to tease him about the escapade with his English partner nonetheless. “Why, are you worried?”
He caught on and said through a mouthful of turkey, “Should I be?”
“How do you seriously know about the dance?”
He strolled back over to the fridge again so I couldn’t see him anymore- I could just hear his voice coming from the other side of the stainless steel door. “Cause I was invited by someone I would never want to go with.”
“Who?!” I gasped, although I think I already knew who.
He appeared again with the closing of the fridge door- this time with a few slices of cheese. My boyfriend was just so chic, I rolled my eyes as he stuffed his mouth with that too.
“Melissa,” he smirked. “She left me a message on my cell that said something along the lines of… I haven’t talked to you in forever, I was wondering if you were available Friday to go to a dance with you. Love ya!” He fell into a fit of giggles as he spoke the final part of that.
“What… a… bitch…” I spoke slowly. “That’s really unbelievable.”
“At least she asked me!” he exclaimed, offering me a piece of the cheese. I shook my head. “My own girlfriend didn’t even ask me. Maybe I should have told her yes.”
I rolled my eyes. “You go to the dance with her and…”
“And what?” he challenged me, a devious look on his face.
“And… I’ll have you castrated in your sleep,” I laughed to myself.
“Your loss,” he shrugged.
“I’ll hardly be heartbroken over the loss of two and a half inches.”
He rolled his eyes, “You were either blind or delusional that night… because my dick is definitely bigger than two and a half inches.”
“Sure it is,” I smirked.
“So are you going to ask me?” He cleared his throat.
“Am I what? Ask you to the dance…? No. Why would I? I don’t go to those stupid things, and I certainly am not going to drag you to one.”
He paused to come up with a properly manipulative response. When he decided on what to say he jutted out his bottom lip and put on his best hurt face he could muster before mumbling, “You’re embarrassed of me.”
“I am,” I nodded solemnly. “You disgrace me. I’m sorry.”
“Why don’t you want to go?” He frowned. “I want to take you. It’ll be fun. It might be a stupid high school dance, but there will probably be free punch or something… and we can get dressed up for the night and…”
“Exactly.”
Realization hit him and he leaned back against the counter and dropped his eyes to the ground. “You don’t have a dress?”
“Ding ding ding. What does he win Bob?” I joked, and then tried to be serious with him so he knew it was nothing against him. “Thanks for thinking of me, Tay, but I just don’t have a dress or anything like that.”
“You’re like Cinderella,” a smile formed on his face. “And I’m your handsome prince.”
He was… he most certainly was.
“Handsome?” I raised an eyebrow in his direction in attempt to keep him grounded. “Dream on, pretty boy.”
“Pretty?” he smiled and began to creep over me. He wrapped his arms around me again seeming as if he could physically not resist himself. I liked knowing I gave him that loss of control. “I’ll settle for pretty.”
I couldn’t help but give into him too as I wrapped my arms around him and gently rubbed his back. He was so safe, and warm… and everything felt right when I was with him. I wondered if he liked knowing that I lost all self-control around him too.
“I want to buy you a dress…” he mumbled, looking down at me and kissing my lips squarely. “I want to see you in a gorgeous dress with your hair off your neck and… I want to dance with you.”
“You are such a sap,” I mumbled as my mouth gradually submitted to his.
We stood there kissing, holding each other close, completely overwhelmed by our wanting for each other until it became increasingly obvious by the sounds around us that someone was around. With the open of the fridge door, we pulled apart to see Zac standing there in gym shorts and t-shirt as he took a Dr. Pepper out of the fridge.
“Do you mind?” Taylor groaned.
“Do you!?” Zac said. It often seemed he was bitter about the fact that I got to live with Taylor and he could only see his girlfriend every few weeks when they flew back and forth. He was always pretty civil to me, but Taylor was another story. “You have a bedroom. Go… have sex up there or something.”
Taylor rolled his eyes, “Does it look like we’re having sex?”
“About to,” Zac shrugged. He gave his brother a final devious look before leisurely strolling out of the kitchen with his drink. “By what I hear, I wouldn’t be surprised…”
Was that against me? Had he heard something about me? Surely he couldn’t have known anything about it and it’s not like I’d actually… had sex before… but I couldn’t help but wonder if somehow he knew about Bobby or…
“Jackass…” Taylor muttered.
“Did he… did he mean that… was he saying that about me?”
“What?” Taylor frowned. “No. My brother is just being a dick in general. Ignore him. It definitely wasn’t about you, though.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive…” he smiled and leaned back into me. “Where were we…?”
I stepped away and smiled back at him, grabbing a spatula from the washer and holding it up to him. “We were putting away the dishes. Zac’s right. Not down here.”
“Fine,” Taylor crossed his arms at his chest. “Spoil all the fun why don’t you…”
“I think I will, thank you,” I smirked at him and tossed him the spatula to put in the container behind him.
“About that dance…” he said as he used it to drum against his legs instead of be helpful for once. Taylor, helpful? Not in my wildest dreams. “Mom will take you shopping for a dress… I’ll buy the tickets… please please please. I want to see you all dressed up and I want to treat you like a princess for one night and…”
“You are the strangest boy I’ve ever met,” I mused. “When we first met you wanted to give me a make-over… now you want some kind of fairy tale dance date?”
“Yes,” he grinned.
“I’m just going to pretend I’m not sort of weirded out.”
“Brilliant,” he nodded. Since when was he British? “Say you’ll go. Please, please, please say you’ll go. Say you’ll go or…”
“Okay!” I gasped, exasperated by him. When Taylor wants something, he’ll do everything and anything he can to make sure he gets it. He will drive you nuts until you give him exactly what he’s asking for. “Oh my god- I’ll go!”
“Gabrielle Carter…” Diana reprimanded as she sauntered into the room and gave me a pointed look. “Use nicer words.”
I’d heard her lecture her children time after time about their use of the Lord’s name in vain, and hereI was as the culprit. Perhaps there were parts of living under the roof of actual parents that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I gave her an uncomfortable smile and mumbled a sorry.
“Mom, can you take Gabrielle shopping tomorrow evening?” Taylor gave her a sweet look. There was no doubt in my mind that eventually Diana would say yes. He’d worked his magic on me, and he was about to manipulate his mother as well. “I’m taking her to her school dance Friday night and she needs a dress.”
She digested the information and then gave him an apprehensive look. “Taylor, I would like to but I just don’t know if I’ll have time tomorrow night. It’s a school night and I have dinner to make and kids to put to bed and…”
“I’ll do it!” he promised. “I’ll make dinner. You want me to put Mackie and Zoe to bed? I’ll help you.”
“Trust me, you don’t have to…” I mumbled. “We could just not go to the dance.”
“Oh no!” Taylor gasped and pushed my comment away with his hand. “Don’t even act like this doesn’t mean the world to you because I know it does!” he turned towards his mom. “Mom! You wouldn’t do that to her! Gabrielle has been wanting to go to a dance since-”
“What!”
“She has never gotten to go before and this is the Spring Social… that’s a big deal!” he lied through his teeth.
“It’s really not…” I muttered.
“Don’t do this to her,” he shook his head sadly and gave his mother pleading eyes. Well, this was just a riot. He was lying through the entire thing just to get what he wanted, and he was putting on a stellar performance at that. “Don’t ruin this opportunity for Gabrielle…”
I stood there shell-shocked, my mouth agape and unable to form a complete thought. There were no words for his deception. He had gone above and beyond his usual petitioning. Diana nodded firmly before an expression of excitement came over her. “Gabrielle, we’ll hit the mall tomorrow night. Just you and me… Taylor… you’re in charge around here tomorrow.”
“You know… about making dinner,” he began, instantly regretting his offer as laziness crept back underneath his skin. He noticed the unimpressed expression on his mother’s face and then nodded confidently. “I’m sure the family will like spaghetti.”
“You’re wonderful,” Diana smiled, approaching her 19-year-old son and giving him a sweet kiss on his forehead. He groaned. “And so are you,” she said, surprising me when she gave me an identical kiss on my own forehead. This time Taylor sneered from behind her.
When Diana left the room, Taylor looked at me and wiggled his eyebrows mischievously.
“Boy, that was close,” he commented. “You would have been devastated if we couldn’t go to the spring social.”
I laughed at him, grabbed the dishtowel on the counter, and smacked him in the rear with it. I can tell you one thing about dating Taylor Hanson; it never gets boring. Living with him? Well that’s a whole other kind of fun.
*****As Diana and I walked around the mall, I had to admit I almost felt excited for the dance. I had never really dressed up before, but it was mostly dressing up for Taylor that made me the most excited. I wanted to impress him, and I was fairly confident I would. Anything was better than the t-shirts and jeans he usually saw me in.
I had never been to the Spring Social before so I wasn’t sure what exactly people wore, but I had seen pictures being passed around the classroom the Monday after years before and I remembered the dresses to be sort of dressy, and yet sort of casual. That was what I told Diana we were looking for at least as we perused around the mall.
“What color are we thinking?” she asked as we walked- each sipping on the smoothies she’d bought us. As you might imagine, I threw a fit about her buying me a smoothie to which she threatened to stuff me back into the car and leave the mall completely. I ended up smiling and thanking her for the drink.
“I have no clue… I’ve never picked out a dress before,” I confessed. “Black?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Everyone will be wearing black. You were meant for a color far more vivacious than black. I’m thinking… pink.”
“Pink?” I laughed. “I don’t wear a lot of pink.”
“Then pink it is,” she smiled as we strolled into a large department store.
The two of us easily found the dress section and Diana began pulling out every pink dress she saw holding them up to me and waiting for my approval. I tried to sneak a look at the price before I gave her a yes or a no, but she gave me a look that told me to stop obsessing over money like I always did. I notice that when you’ve never had a lot of money and you begin to get it, money all of a sudden seems so important.
After we found six pink semi-formal dresses that we both liked, she shoved me into a changing room, and sat outside of it holding our smoothies.
“Okay,” she lectured. “Now you better show me every one. I don’t want you deciding on your own that it doesn’t look good without showing me. You let me see first before you put it back on the hanger. Try on that one with the sequins first.”
“Alright,” I laughed as I examined the price on the first dress. 75.00. That was ridiculous for a piece of fabric! I sighed and began to undress and try it on.
“Come out and let me see,” Diana said a few moments later.
I stood there awkwardly shrugging at the mirror, adjusting the straps and straightening the dress I was wearing. It looked good. It actually looked better than good. It looked great. But 75.00? That was ridiculous.
“Gabrielle!”
“Okay,” I finally replied, opening the door and awkwardly standing before her, folding my arms at my chest. I frowned at her, noticing she was drinking my smoothie.
“Sorry,” she laughed, placing both of the drinks on the ground next to her. “You ordered a much better flavor. Now take your arms down so I can see the dress.”
It occurred me as stood there and Diana looked me over how similar she was to her son. Perhaps that was why I liked her so much. She was strong-willed and outspoken, and yet kind at the same time. Her comments were daring enough just to make me feel a little bit uncomfortable, but never so much to that it was a bad uncomfortable. She warmed up to people quickly and in turn it was easy to warm up her to her.
“Well,” she said with an impressed raise of her eyes. “You look absolutely stunning, Gabrielle Carter.”
I did? I turned and looked in the mirror.
“You have got some body, girl!” she grinned. “I’m glad you tried that one on first because… oh it’s gorgeous. Try on the others, but this one gets my vote so far.”
I spent the next 20 minutes trying on every other dress. Fortunately, they were all in more like the 50.00 range and I felt more comfortable becoming attached to the cheaper dresses. Each and every time I showed her a dress she said she liked it, but she kept going back to the first dress and how fabulous I looked in it. She was right. It was by far the most flattering. It was the perfect length; it went just above my knees. The cut fit me perfectly, the color was a muted pink that looked almost sophisticated, and the carefully placed sequins were graceful. It seemed perfect for the occasion and it looked the best on me; we both knew it. But the price was holding me back.
“Okay, so which one is it?” Diana finally asked me as I carefully hung all the dresses back on the hangers and brought them out to her. “Which one is going to make my son weak at the knees?”
I blushed, although talking to Diana was becoming less and less awkward by the day. It was amazing how she was beginning to fill a void that had been empty in my life for so long.
“How about the third one…?” I said, nodding at the brighter pink dress that I had tried on third. It was nice… clearly the second choice out of the bunch and much closer to an appropriate price.
“You think…?” She said hesitantly. “No way, Gabrielle. The first one looked good… the first one looked HOT.”
I laughed and glanced at the lovely dress that was anything but ‘hot’, but accepted the compliment nonetheless. I was with her. I liked it very much, but how could I ask Taylor to spend that much on a dress for me? Diana seemed to have no clue which dress was most expensive.
“The first one was nice… but I think the third one might be prettiest.”
She gave me a hesitant look before realization struck her. Damnit.
“Give me the dresses,” she said, taking them from me and beginning to flip through them glancing at the price tags. After she looked at them all and discovered the difference in prices, she gave me the annoyed look she always gave me when I obsessed about money.
“Gabrielle… Carter…” she sighed.
“Taylor’s paying for it!” I squeaked. “I didn’t feel comfortable.”
“Taylor’s not buying it. I wouldn’t let him. I’m buying this for you.”
She put all the unwanted dresses on a rack, slung the prettiest dress over her arm, and then took me by the arm. She dragged me along with her as we looked for a register, lecturing me all the while.
“You know Gabrielle, I want us to be comfortable with each other. If you’re living with us I don’t want you feeling like some… some inferior family member. Like it or not, you are part of this family now. You are stuck with us now, and I refuse to have to keep acting like you’re an outsider. I’m actually getting frustrated with you, you know,” she grumbled as we walked through the active wear section in search of a register with someone behind it. “I feel like what I say to my children is never enough because everyone in the household seems to do things just to irritate me! I tell Zac not to slam doors, so he slams them louder. I tell Avery not to make long distance calls, so she phones a friend in California twice a week. Mackenzie eats snacks during the school day despite my rules… Taylor has to be forced to clean up after himself despite the fact that he’s 19 years old. You know… I’m tired of telling you to stop fighting me on everything.”
I was torn between feeling bad for her frustration and how I had contributed it, and completely petrified that she was angry with me. Making her angry was never the point. I didn’t even think when I thought about prices and owing people back all the time. It just happened. I’d never been handed anything in my life, and quite frankly I just didn’t know how to handle it. My mother had always taught me to ignore the people offering to charity; they think they’re better than you anyway. I supposed I was conditioned to naturally turn down gifts. Frustrating people was never part of the plan though.
Diana handed the dress over a counter at a register where we found someone working and crossed her arms, looking at me gravely.
“I never… ever meant to frustrate you,” was all I could say, remorse filling my voice.
She smiled and sighed loudly, reaching out and pulling me into a tight hug. “You know, I wonder if your mother realizes what a beautiful, considerate daughter she ended up with. I know you didn’t mean to frustrate me… just… seriously this time. Take it easy, okay? You’re going to drive us all nuts… including yourself!”
I nodded thankfully. It was perhaps one of the hardest things anyone had ever asked of me, but it was a lesson that stuck with me for the rest of my life. Sometimes even though it is hard to accept things from people… things you know you need and they’re happy to give… sometimes you just have to smile and say thank you.
“Thanks,” I said, stepping back from Diana’s hug and smiling at her. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”