Double Date Dare -4- (Patreon)

4.

“No.”

“Nope.”

“Hell no.”

“If you wanted to wear a sack, there are free ones at the grocery store.”

“I really hope you weren’t serious with that one.”

Sandy walked out of the changing booth and threw the last dress she’d tried on at my head. “One more snide comment, and you’re walking home.”

I laughed, knowing there was no chance of that. “Well, if you’d stop grabbing dresses that looked terrible on you, I wouldn’t have to keep shooting you down,” I argued. We were on our fourth store, and I hadn’t seen Sandy try on a dress yet that looked good on her.

“Oh, really?” She huffed. “Well, if you’re such an expert, then how about you go pick a dress, and we’ll see if you fare any better!”

“Fine!”

“FINE!”

We glared at one another for a few moments, but I was the first one to give in and turned around to walk into the store.

If I’d stayed staring at her one more moment, we would have both broken down into a giggle fit, and prom dresses were no laughing matter.

I didn’t have to look hard to find what I thought would look good on Sandy. I’d spied a certain something peeking out of the discount racks, a flash of shiny champagne fabric that I’d wanted to walk over to immediately but held off from, not wanting to seem too eager lest Sandy expected me to try it on rather than herself.

That was why I was critiquing rather than doing a lot of shopping: every dress I had pulled off the racks for her had come with the stipulation that I try them on too, which wasn’t going to happen: my budget was less than half hers and I wasn’t about to be talked into increasing it.

I found the flash that had caught my eye and pulled it off the rack, and gasped.

It was better than I could have imagined. Long with a fitted bodice but elegant folds in the skirt and an asymmetrical hem that hung lower in the back than the front. It was sleeveless, too, with low neck and back lines that would show Sandy’s skin off nicely but not be inappropriate for our age. 

There was a little bit of fussiness in the ruching along the hem of the skirt and at the edges of the shoulders, and a bit of darting under the bust to give it an almost princess-like appearance, but the result was still elegant and fun.

It was one part bridesmaid, one part quinceanera, and one part elegant.

And, as though the fates were aligning, it was more than half off, one size too big, and didn’t look like it would be hard to alter.

I managed not to squeal, though I did bounce on my toes a few times, incredibly pleased at my find.

I gave the rest of the rack a quick glance through, and found another dress that caught my eye, and grabbed it too before heading back to the dressing rooms, where Sandy and Aunt Julia were standing and waiting.

“Well?” Sandy asked, tapping her foot impatiently. Her impatience evaporated the instant I handed her the dress I had grabbed for her. “Ooooooh. Isn’t this a bit fussy, though?”

I rolled my eyes. “You were the one going on about taffeta and lace and stuff before we left your house. The color will look great with your skin, and if it looks okay, we can bring it in ourselves to be the right size.”

“I haven’t been doing much sewing or anything,” Sandy admitted, frowning as she looked at the size.

I sighed. “I can do it then.”

Sandy gave me a sidelong glance. “You think?”

“You don’t think that jacket I gave you for Christmas magically made itself do you?”

Sandy gasped and gave the denim bolo jacket she was wearing a discriminating eye. “I didn’t know you made this yourself! I was wondering why I couldn’t find a label and just figured you’d got it at a thrift store or something.”

I rolled my eyes again. “Just go try on the dress, please?”

“Alright already!” She said, throwing up her hands, then gave the other garment I had brought over an interested look. “Should I take that one in too?”

I shook my head and waved her off. “Go!”

Aunt Julia laughed as Sandy pouted and fled into the changing room, then gave me a surprised look when I held out my purse toward her.

“Can you hold this for me? I need to try this on,” I said quietly, waving the edge of the other garment I had brought along.

Aunt Julie grinned. “Sandy’s gonna have a fit,” she said, taking my bag.

I chuckled. “That’s the point!”

With that, I stepped into the changing booth next to Sandy’s and began to strip.

My nerves grew as I studied the dress I’d brought in with me more closely. I’d never worn anything so fancy. It wasn’t the first dress I’d tried on on our trip – I was sticking with my agreement with Sandy, at least for the moment – but it was a far cry from the almost frumpy (Sandy’s words) dull black dresses I’d tried so far. 

Instead of being cotton, this one felt like it was silk or at least a convincing synthetic. It lacked the sleeves or high neck I’d looked at in other dresses so far as well, sporting a pair of thin straps with some nonsense laces on the back and shoulders that made me question whether I could wear a bra with it in the end, though I’d have to try it on to find out. 

It had a side zipper, which was something else I’d never dealt with on a dress I’d worn myself before, a necessity given that the way the fussiness of the laces looked, I didn’t imagine there was any other reasonable place to put one. 

The skirt had a bit of the same billowy folds as the dress I had grabbed for Sandy, but came down to a diagonal asymmetrical hem, reaching to mid-thigh on the right and sloping down until I imagined it would be at or below the knee on the left, with a slit up the left-hand side to a point that was equal to the height of the hem on the right.

It was a slinky, sexy dress. Not only that, but it wasn’t black at all, but a shimmering color like the champagne of Sandy’s dress, almost vibrating between a cherry red and an oxblood before my eyes.

I undid the zipper, slid the dress over my head, and with my back turned to the mirror, did the zipper up, struggling a bit as the dress was perhaps a half-size too small for me.

Despite the issues, when I fluffed my hair out and spun around to the mirror, I couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Then frown.

The back was higher than I’d feared, but I would definitely need a different style of bra with the dress, the edges of the cups and straps of my bra glaringly obvious.

Probably different underpants too, given the VPL the slightly undersized dress showed. The seams looked like they had enough give I could probably let it out a little, but I was already considering just foregoing lunches for the next couple of weeks so that wouldn’t have to be the case. Instead, I just sucked my tum in a bit, and that helped with the worst of the sizing issues for the moment.

I heard the door to Sandy’s changing room creak and gave myself one last once-over before opening my own.

As soon as I stepped out and saw Sandy posing for her mom, I started beaming. The dress was everything I’d hoped it would be on her, and I could tell by her reflection in the mirror next to her that she felt so too. It was both more mature and more innocent than the other dresses she had been trying on, and as I looked at it, I didn’t think it would take much to bring it in to fit her perfectly. 

Aunt Julia was grinning ear to ear looking at Sandy in it too, so I was pretty sure we had a winner there.

Then Sandy caught my eyes with hers in the mirror and gasped as she spun to face me. “Ohmigod, Donna! That’s….”

I gave a slow spin, standing on my toes a bit to simulate the heels I figured I’d need to wear with the dress. “Think it’ll work?” I asked.

Sandy and Aunt Julia both gave me gobsmacked looks, but they nodded, so I figured they were good with it.

“Can you afford that?” Sandy asked since the dress was clearly in a very different quality and style category than the others I’d tried on so far in the evening.

“That’s the best part!” I said, smiling like the cat that ate the canary. “Marked down 80 percent, from an already 50 percent discounted price ‘cause they’ve had it for a while.”

I showed them the price ticket on the dress, and they gasped again.

“Why so much off?”

I lifted the edge of the skirt to show them the slit up the left-hand side. In truth, it wasn’t an intentional slit at all: it was a split seam. I then showed them the broken laces on the back I had tucked down, so they were out of sight, and the messed up teeth near the top and middle of the zipper that had made getting it up such a chore. 

“Someone thought they were a tinier size than they were, I’m thinking. None of it should be hard to fix, except maybe the zipper, but even it still works, so.”

Sandy shook her head. “You’ve always been good at finding deals, but damn. Fifty bucks for a prom dress is INSANE.”

“You didn’t even check the price on yours, did you?” I asked, smiling.

“Hmm?” She reached down and grabbed the price tag on her own dress and laughed. “Not as good as yours, but now I wish I’d spent more time looking at the discount racks at the other places! So what’s the issue with mine?”

I pointed at the hem of her skirt. “The lining is coming undone from the back of the skirt. It’s also an older dress, like mine, so they’re clearing out for more recent styles. I can fix the lining issue easily for you.”

I wasn’t prepared for the hug attack as Sandy launched herself at me and clung to me, giggling.

“Alright, girls, if you think you’ve found your dresses, we still have shopping to do.”

We split up, Sandy looking on the verge of tears as she smiled, and returned to our booths. It was harder taking the dress off than it was to put it on, mostly due to that zipper, but I managed, and I was out of my changing booth before Sandy came out of hers.

We made our way to the checkout counter and got only a minor grimace from the girl checking us out before she plastered her customer service smile back on when she realized she wouldn’t be making a huge commission off of us. I was waiting to follow Sandy and Aunt Julia, but Aunt Julia surprised me by reaching over and snagging the tag off of my dress and handing it to the cashier too.

“Aunt Julia….”

She shook her head. “I expected Sandy to connive me out of a few hundred dollars for her dress tonight, and adding both of yours together, I’m getting out for less than two hundred bucks. If you feel guilty about it, consider it payment for the alterations, deal?”

“I… deal,” I agreed, touched by the gesture.

Aunt Julia hugged me. “You’re buying the rest of what you need yourself, though. Shoes first, or lingerie?”

“Lingerie!” Sandy crowed, not even waiting for us as she took the bag with her new dress in it and raced out of the store.

Me and Aunt Julia looked at each other, rolled our eyes, and followed.