Outsider (Outsider Series) (38 page)

He led me to a hallway just before his mom’s office that I had never noticed. Wall sconces were set at intervals and cast an amber glow down the hallway. Caeden opened a door and motioned for me to enter. Bryce was pulling down a screen and powering up a projector. Four rows of five chairs each were set on different levels just like in a real theater. The seats were plush red leather. The walls were a thick burgundy fabric. I wondered when it would finally hit me that Caeden had
money
. I wasn’t sure it ever would.
After all no one ever seemed to work, except for Caeden at the cupcake shop. Where did shifters get their money? Gram lived like regular person. I just didn’t understand it.

“Where do you want to sit?” asked Caeden taking another bite of popcorn.

I slid into the back row and plopped down. “Please save me some popcorn,” I said kindly.

“You better take this then,” he said handing me the blue monogrammed bowl. It was already half empty, or half full, depending on your perspective.

The movie blared to life. My hands instinctively reached up to cover my ears from the bombardment of the loud noise. Caeden grabbed the popcorn bowl before it could fall.

“Sorry,” said Bryce turning the volume down. He plopped down on one of the front row seats. His curly head suddenly popped back up. “Uh, can you two please not make out back there? I really don’t want to be sick.”

Caeden grabbed a handful of the buttery yellow popcorn and tossed it at Bryce. His little brother ducked out of the way b
ut not before most of it hit it
s mark and lodged in his hair.

“At least it’s not gum,” said Bryce. He pulled a piece of popcorn from his hair and stuck it in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed. “Still good,” he said and shrugged his shoulders before hitting play.

I cuddled against Caeden’s side. I was right where I wanted to be. Nowhere was more perfect than in his arms. Of that I was certain.

twenty
.

“Ew no,” I said to the puce dress that Charlotte held up.

“Sophie!” she groaned. “You have to pick a dress! You did agree to go you know!” she squawked.

I was really beginning to regret my decision to go to prom with Caeden. The whole thing had turned into my worst nightmare. I didn’t like dresses. I didn’t like to dance. And here I was being
forced into both.

I groaned and put my head into my hands. “I’m not going to wear that,” I said. “I’m already going to be miserable I at least want to be miserable wearing something I sort of like.”

“You haven’t even tried anything on,” said Chris holding up a silver dress against her slender frame. I would never be as model thin as her. I was too curvy. At least Caeden seemed to like my curves.

“I don’t see the point in trying on something that I hate on a hanger. If I hate it on a hanger I’ll despise it on myself,” I reasoned.

Charlotte sighed and said, “You’re hopeless.”

They scanned through the racks while I
laid
back against the velvet covered ottoman I was sitting on. I tapped my black converse against the floor. They had dragged me to this ginormous mall in the hopes of finding a dress. But I knew it wasn’t going to happen.

The annoyingly helpful sales lady came by yet again. Her white blond hair was pulled back into a ballerina style bun. She wore a black pencil skirt with a tucked in ivory blouse. Her pale blue eyes bore into mine and she pouted her red lips. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can help you find?”

“We’re good thanks,” I said rudely. I wished she’d leave us alone. Didn’t she see that it was my plan to not find a dress? Could the annoying blond not take a hint?

Chris and Charlotte came screeching after her before she could take three steps. I groaned. This was bound to be bad.

“Actually,” said Chris, “we do need your help.”

“Certainly,” the sales lady said in a high soprano voice. “What can I do for you?”

“Our friend here,” Chris pointed to me, “needs to find a dress
. Do you have any recommendations for her?” Christian asked politely.

Recommendations? It was a prom dress not a college application.

The sales lady put her index finger against her plump red lips and silently appraised me. I desperately wanted to roll my eyes. Suddenly her eyes lit up and the put her finger in the air in an ‘aha!’ moment.

“I’ll be right back,” she said and disappeared into the racks of dresses.

“Christian I’m going to kill you,” I said
in a
monotone.

“
Ooooh
!” said Chris mockingly. “She uses my whole first name. I’m so very scared. I’m quaking in my little boots.”

The sales lady returned with a deep green dress in her hands. I sat up intrigued. She held it up and asked hesitantly, probably afraid I’d bite her head off,
“
Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” I said reaching out to feel the green fabric between my fingers.

Charlotte clapped her hands together and said, “Yes! She has some fashion sense.”

“Are you sure it’s not more your color?” I asked.

She glared at me and I swore flames sprouted from her red hair. She put her hands on her hips and said, “Having red hair and freckles does not make me a leprechaun.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Would you like to try it on?” asked the sales lady.

“Sure, why not,” I said and followed her to a dressing room. I eased out of my clothes and slipped the shimmery emerald fabric down over my hips. I gasped at my reflection.

“Let us see!” I heard Chris’ voice outside the door.

I opened the door. Chris, Charlotte, and the sales lady peeked hesitantly at me.

“Oh my God,” said Charlotte and Chris simultaneously.

“You look beautiful,” said the sales lady, clearly proud of a job well done. “It’s a one-shoulder draped goddess gown,” she said to the girls having obviously decided that I had no fashion sense.

“I like it,” I said.

Chris and Charlotte gasped.

“I never thought I’d hear those words escape your lips today,” said
Chris.

“We have the perfect shoes and earrings to go with that,” said the sales lady.

“My ears aren’t pierced,” I said.

“Oh,” she said clearly crestfallen. She asked me my shoe size. I rattled it off and she disappeared. A moment later she returned with a gold spiked gladiator looking heels in her hands. I thought they looked like a death trap.

I slipped them on to appease the three staring women and wobbled.

“You’ll get used to them,” said Charlotte.

“I doubt it,” I said. “But I’ll take them both anyway.”

The girls cheered and high fived the sales lady. As I pulled on my jeans and t-shirt I heard them asking her for suggestions with their own dresses.

The sales lady found a short gold dress for Charlotte. I thought it looked stunning on her. The corset top was fully beaded and accentuated her small figure and the gold skirt was a three tiered tulle ruffle. She also found a stunning dress for Chris as well. The dress she found for Chris was a midnight blue with intricate silver and black beadwork. It was ruched with a sweetheart neckline. The color of the dress made her honey blond hair look blonder and her
pale green eyes striking. The sales lady disappeared to find them appropriate shoes and jewelry.

By the time we finally left the store Charlotte and Chris had befriended the sales lady. Her name was Cheryl. I thought it was funny.
The three C’s.
Charlotte, Christian, and Cheryl. They could start their own club.

We had ridden in my car because
it had the mo
st room but Chris had driven sinc
e I didn’t know my way around the city.

We got in the car and I started programming the navigation system to be set for home.

Her chipper British accent demanded that we turn left and then right up ahead.

“Thank you, Beatrice,” I said kindly to the colored screen displayed before me. Chris did as Beatrice said and snickered at me.

“Beatrice? You named your navigation system?” she asked trying to contain her giggles. Charlotte was currently in a fit of hysterics in the back seat.

“Well, she is a woman and she’s British.  I also like the name Beatrice and I thought if we were going to be spending a bunch of time together she deserved a name.”

“You are aware that you named and are referring to an inanimate object like it’s a person. You must have been one strange child,” she commented.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Laugh at me all you want but Beatrice has never failed me. Unlike you two,” I added.

Chris guffawed, “When have we ever failed you?”

I pointed back behind us at the large mall. “Case in point, you declared you could find me a prom dress. If I recall correctly Cheryl found my dress.”

“That’s because you hated everything we pulled,” said Charlotte from the back.

“It was all ugly. Even my grandma wouldn’t wear the stuff you were trying to put me in,” I said.

Our carefree laughter filled the car. I had never felt better. I had real friends and a boyfriend and an extended family that loved me.
My wolf family.

We stopped on our way home at a Red Robin and got burgers and shakes. Night had fallen by this point and we still had a forty-five minute drive home. I was exhausted by the time I walked in the door. Shopping can do that to me.

“Did you find a dress?” asked Gram from her perch on the couch. She hit the mute button on the television and
Fox News stopped blaring
through
the room.

I held up my dress that was currently wrapped securely in a garment bag and my bag of shoes. “This dreadful day was a success,” I muttered.

Gram laughed. She took the bags from me and hung them in the closet. “You look dead on your feet,” she said and kissed my cheek. “Go to bed Sophie. Oh, and Caeden’s in there,” she said.

Sure enough Caeden was spread out across my bed in his pajamas. Or… um… Jammie Jams…

“How was it?” he asked. “As bad as you thought?”

“Worse,” I said and he pulled me into his arms. He kissed the top of my head.

“But you found a dress,” he said having obviously overheard my conversation with Gram.

“Yep,” I said.

“Can I see it?” he asked.

I
raised
up and glared into his blue eyes. “Absolutely not. I want you to be surprised.”

“It’s not like it’s a wedding dress,” he said.

“So,” I said, “I
don’t wear many dresses and
I want to have as much an effect on you as I can.”

“You always have an effect on me, Sophie,” he said and his voice was thick.

“I want it to be a surprise,” I said.

“Fine,” he said. “But you can’t see me in my tux until the day of,” he chuckled.

“Deal,” I said and we shook on it.

* * *

“Hold still,” admonish
ed Chris as she smeared some kind of glittery substance across my eyelids. I tried to wiggle away from her. “Charlotte!
” she called and the leggy red
head appeared in the bathroom. I was sequestered on a stool where I wasn’t supposed to move. The not moving wasn’t working out to well. “Hold her arms,” said Chris.

Charlotte’
s hands clamped down on my arms holding me in place. Chris looked at me with an evil glint in her eye. She had me now.

She had already forced me to scrub my scalp and my skin raw. Once I was buffed to her speci
fication
s she filed my nails and painted them in a shimmery gold. She painted my toes as well. I didn’t see the point. My dress was long and would cover them, no one was going to see them, but she insisted.

Chris finished dabbing on
a shimmery gold eye shadow onto my lids and then plucked my eyebrows. She put
a smoky
gray eyeliner underneath my eyes and then attacked me with a mascara wand. She made me pout my lips and swiped a pale pink gloss across my lips. She then attack
ed
my cheek bones with a bronzer.

“Now for your hair,” she said attacking my locks with a hairbrush. Once it was smoothed out she
curled it. She braided one side and then swept my hair into a side
up do.

“Voila,” she said standing back and surveying her handiwork with her arms crossed ove
r her chest. “What do you think?
” she asked pointing to my reflection in the mirror.

I gasped. There was no way that the goddess in the mirror could be me. The foreign creature in the mirror stared at me with large caramel brown eyes and pouty pink lips. Her chestnut brown hair was style
d
to perfection and cascaded down her slender bare shoulders. Her skin was flushed a pleasant pink and shimmered under the lights. The green of her dress made her look like a mythical creature. She was glowing and her smile was breathtaking.