White is for Virgins (58 page)

She smiled knowingly. “I know exactly what you mean. If you’re not set on it by now, you won’t be ever. The last thing you need is an uncomfortable dress on the one night you’re supposed to let go and have a blast.”

“Exactly,” I sighed. “So I guess I’m screwed.”

“Emmy skewed,” Holly repeated, smiling up at me. She scrunched her nose and flashed her teeth.

“Oh, no, Holly,” I apologized embarrassingly, “I’m sorry,
Milli–”

“She’s attempted worse, Emery, it’s quite alright. How would you like to play a little game of Cinderella?” she suggested suddenly. By her tone and the mischievous grin on her face I could tell she was scheming.

***

“Just call me Fairy Godmother,” Millicent exclaimed, applauding with Holly as I modeled a dress she had saved in her storage room. It was one she had just sent out to her European buyers; she’d kept a few extras, thankfully.

To say it was gorgeous was an understatement.

I felt like an angel, and looked like a true goddess. Greg would’ve loved it.

The strapless, pearl-white gown was soft as a cloud against my skin. It slipped around my body and flowed with every move I made. It held tightly to my body until the end of my waist where it tumbled down to the floor in a cascade of milky silk. There was a slit on my right side that reached mid-thigh and would expose my leg if I allowed it to. This level of sexiness I could handle, definitely. The sheer beauty and elegance of the dress filled me with a sense of utter confidence. I was neighboring conceit.

“Millicent… I – I don’t know what to say right now,” I admitted, staring at the gorgeous girl in the mirror before me.

“Say thank you, and promise you won’t break my Fox’s heart,” she smiled, standing by the mirror and admiring the sight herself.

“Thank you so much,” I laughed, hugging her. She returned the quick gesture and refused every price I began offering.

“You’ve been so great with Holly, and with Fox,” she said gratefully, “you’ve already paid for this dress a dozen times over, honey.”

“I really appreciate this,” I said again, unable to express my full gratitude.

“Have fun, Cinderella. It’s gonna be a night to remember.”

I gulped.
Maybe it
will
be a night to remember.

I wasn’t about to make any promises to myself that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep. Like Greg had said, baseball is pretty unpredictable.

Chapter 35

I looked like a bug… an ugly, creepy looking bug – makeup-less; pale; with my big eyes sticking out of my face in wonder at the mass atop my head. I shook my (extremely heavy) head as Lily clipped the last hot curl into my hair.

“Stop moving!” she laughed. “
Alrighty, you’re good to go, Curly Sue. In forty minutes we’ll take these babies out.”

T minus four hours until prom.
I got up off the toilet I had been straddling for the past thirty minutes and stretched my sore legs.

This hotel’s known for its gorgeous ballroom and complimentary breakfast, but it is definitely lacking in a comfortable place to sit while preparing for prom.

“What’s with the subliminal soundtrack?” I muttered, proceeding to join her in front of the long countertop of our suite’s bathroom. The mirror that accompanied it was equally long, and I marveled at my pale body and (now) big head once more. Lily and I were shirtless – we had our bras on, for sure, but we didn’t want to risk ruining our hair with the hassle of taking a t-shirt off before slipping into our dresses. We were wearing all other relevant articles of clothing (i.e. pants).

“There’s nothing subliminal about it,” she defended, “I just love these songs.”

“M-
hm,” I smirked, “Enrique Iglesias’s ‘On Top of You’ was a classic, as was Mohombi’s ‘Do Me Right’. Your taste definitely does not coincide with your dirty mind, my bad.”

She chuckled, applying various shimmery body lotions to her arms, legs, and back as she continued to try and lie to me. “They’re nice, relaxing songs,
Em – nobody said you had to listen to the lyrics.”

“Lily, it’s a song… Obviously I’m going to listen to the lyrics.” I followed her example and asked her wordlessly if I could use her lotion. She nodded.

“You’re gonna hear the song and hear the words, but you don’t necessarily have to
listen
to them,” she said suggestively.

“Whatever,” I huffed, giving up. I washed my hands of the excess lotion and we began applying foundation to our faces. Lily had brought all this fancy brand name makeup her aunt
Raine also conveniently had stashed in her basement. “All I’m saying is there’s not a single song on your playlist that isn’t about sex.”

She marched over to her
iHome and skipped Matt Nathanson’s ‘Come on Get Higher’ in search of a better song. To further prove my point, Trey Songz’s ‘Neighbors Know My Name’ ended up playing. She skipped that one, too, and Drake’s ‘Best I Ever Had’ followed. It was the dirty version. She groaned, pressing the arrow one more time before returning to the mirror and picking up her eye shadow pallet.

The song that was playing sounded almost dream-like and playful. I found myself nodding my head as I searched for the perfect combination of colors for my own eyes.

“Who sings this song?” I asked as I settled for a shimmery white, a very light pearl pink, and a silvery shade for accents.

“Alex
Guadino.”

“Hmm...” I mused, applying the white on my eyelids generously.

“
I’m in love, I’m in love,
”
Lily sang softly, lining her eyes with black kohl. “
I wanna do it. I’m in love, I’m in love, I wanna do it.
”

“Lily!” I scolded.

We both burst out in laughter and she shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t intentionally pick all the ones about sex, Em, swear on all things chocolate.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I smirked, “
Ooookay.” I dusted my eyelids with the pink, swiping lightly under my brows as well with it.

“Speaking of sex…” she started mysteriously.

I turned to her a curious gaze before returning to my eyes. While waiting for her to finish her sentence, I gently coated the area beneath my lower lashes with a thin line of silver before moving to my eye creases.

“Do you think the boys are in their room yet?” she asked, subconsciously forming an ‘o’ with her mouth as she applied mascara to her lashes.

“I doubt it,” I smirked. “They love waiting until last minute.”

I pumped the wand of mascara in its tube a couple of times before coating my lashes with the thick, lengthening substance.

“We’re gonna look so hot!” Lily grinned excitedly.

“You look hot, already,” a third-party voice commented from the doorway.

Lily and I screamed, just barely smudging our whole faces with mascara as we turned to find Nick and Fox grinning like Cheshire cats. They gave us multiple head-to-toe glances while we stood with our arms crossed.

It took me a moment to register that Lily and I were under-clothed, and crossing our arms was not the best idea. We’d been giving them an even better view.

“Get out!” she scolded, ushering them away.

“But babe,” Nick whined.

“Not ‘but babe’s,” I smirked, moving to close the bathroom door.

Fox stuck his foot in front of it, stopping my attempt to seal our ‘beauty room’ from their curious eyes.

“Ladies,” he proposed. “Why don’t we just
skip
prom, and head right for the after party, huh? You’re already dressed for the occasion.” His grin was tempting me, but I stayed strong.

“Why don’t you guys go shower and shave,” I suggested, “and put on your tuxes while we finish up in here.
Or there won’t be an after-party
,” I concluded evilly.

The look on their faces was priceless.

“See you in an hour!” Lily called as they left the room and headed down the hall to their own suite.

Lily applied my eyeliner expertly before getting to work on her hair. She straightened the ends, giving them a razor-sharp effect before applying hairspray to preserve her volume. Then we got to work on my mane, unraveling it lock by lock and spraying each one before it got the chance to fall flat against the weight of all the others around it. We took five small silvery spider-clips and placed them on top of my head in line to keep my hair from falling messily into my face.

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” Lily nodded with amazement mirroring mine. “That’s a mighty fine weave you got there,
lil’ mama.”

I smacked her and we guffawed on our way to the closet to retrieve our dresses. Making sure our hotel room was locked first, we proceeded to perfect our looks. Lily took the bathroom and I changed by the bed.

“Your dress is beyond gorgeous,” Lily said in awe, seeing me for the first time in it. “Way better than the black one, Em, for sure.”

We got our heels on and went back to the bathroom to collect some makeup for touch-ups before applying necessary hygienic products. All perfumed up, we put on a few simply pieces of jewelry. It wasn’t until after we remembered we’d forgotten lip-gloss and then
applied
said gloss that we decided we were ready to go. We snapped a few pictures with Lily’s camera.

“
Wanna go surprise the boys?” I asked, giddy at the thought of having Fox see me in my dress.

“Let’s do it!”

We opened the door of our room and I peeked left and right down the hall to make sure the coast was clear. It was a covert mission.

“Alright, we’re clear,” I whispered collecting my dress and running as safely as I possibly could in heels down the hall. Lily followed suit after locking the door and slipping our room key into her clutch.

“Should we knock?” she asked.

I tapped three evenly-timed knocks on the cherry oak door before covering the peep-hole with my finger.