One Day at a Time

I got out of class early Friday morning, which I was very much thankful for. Jenn decided to come over after her class that day with her Nike bag because the other she was busy studying for an exam. She brought along the larger version of her Nike bags, making me curious as to what was inside of it.

“Pack up your life this time?” I joked.

“Hah, no,” she dragged the bag into my bedroom. “But there’s tons if stuff that I brought for you to try on.”

“Sounds fabulous,” I said as she began to un-zip her bag of mysteries and pulled out random articles of clothing.

“Don’t start with the attitude; I’m doing you a favor. It’s always nice for you to know that you have someone close to you that wears just about the same size in pretty much everything, except sometimes shirts. Be grateful, please.”

“I am, I promise.”

I saw her smile as she continued looking through her bag. There were tops, bottoms, shoes, and even…bras?

“Why in the world would you bring me a bra?”

“Uh, it’s a push-up bra.”

“And, if you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly need one.”

She stared at my chest for a second and looked back at the bra she was holding, and then back up at my chest.

“Well, I’m so glad I decided to buy it in your size. I’m not stupid, Alexa. I know what I’m doing here.”

I sighed loudly, knowing I probably wouldn’t win the fight to not wear the stupid bra. She probably needed it more than I did. It was a wonder, sometimes, how I could even fit in her shirts.

“Perfection!” She yelled, holding up something in her hands. I turned around, still in shock from her yell, and stared at what she was holding. “This will be the outfit for your date.”

A skirt?

“That’s it? A skirt?”

“There’s a shirt, stupid. I just didn’t pick one out yet. But I want you to wear the skirt,” she threw it over to me. “Joe is definitely not Erik; you don’t need to show off any serious cleavage like I usually make you do. He already likes you for the…person…you are.”

“What was with that hesitation? What? Am I an alien or something?”

“No. You just don’t have the best taste in clothing when you know you don’t need to be somewhere. He’s probably only seen you dressed up once, and that was when you were at the movies. And, even then, it didn’t matter because theatres are dark. So, what’s it to him if you wear a skirt? I think it’s cute.”

Our conversation was confusing me, and I didn’t want to argue with her. She went back to looking for a shirt that I could wear when she then had yet another epiphany.

“Eureka!”

“Wow, I’m kind of mad you just used that word.”

“Alexa! God! Just go along with it, okay?” She glared at me with beady eyes and threw a shirt at me. “And take this, too.”

I sighed as I began to undress and put on the skirt and shirt. Jenn gave the most disgusted look as she stared at the outfit.

“I think I’ve lost my ability to make you look simply amazing. This outfit it horrible! Ugh, what am I to do with you now?”

I saw a glitter of hope for myself; I would be able to pick out my own outfit instead of being dressed up like a Barbie doll. To show my “condolences”, I stood there. I didn’t want to go right away and look for something in my closet. Of course my outfit choice would never compare to Jenn’s, but she seemed to have lost her touch. As I was about to walk over to my closet, she stuck her hand in the air to stop me.

“Take one more step towards that closet, and I’ll burn it,” she threatened. My hands immediately went up in the air in defense of myself. “I have an idea.”

She jumped up from the floor and rummaged through the huge pile of clothing that was now lying on top of my bed; all her clothes, by the way. Pants, shirts, skirts…everything was flying around the room until she stopped; one piece of clothing in her hands.

“This plus that jean jacket on the yellow hanger, and those flats. It’s not too fancy, but still dressy enough to show that you’re on a date. So, try it on.”

I grabbed the jean jacket from the closet and she handed me what looked like a dress…a purple dress.

“Seriously?” I held the dress out in front of me at arms length. It wasn’t hideous, but purple was never close to being one of my favorite colors.

Her hands immediately went to her hips and she leaned on one leg.

“You will go shower, you will wear the dress, and you will love it. Go,” she pointed to the bathroom and I dropped the dress on the bed and went in to shower.

I was too anxious to take a long time in the shower, but I was also too nervous to get out of the shower. The continuous stream of hot water was relaxing my nerves, until I turned the water off. That was when I heard light knocks on the front door. I had one foot on the floor and one in the tub, and I froze. The next thing I heard was a few knocks on the bathroom door.

“He’s here,” Jenn sang through the door, almost like the little girl from the movie Poltergeist.

It’s not too late to back out now, is it?