Poison -11- by Melanie Brown

Copyright © 2024

Part 11

“Isn’t this just darling?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said with a shrug. Mom and I were in her favorite dress store trying to find me a dress to wear to my dinner with Gene’s parents. Sounds like a book title.

Mom frowned at me. “When does your brain finally turn into a girl?”

I sighed. “It’s totes adorbs. How’s that? I’m sorry, Mom. But to me, a dress is a dress is a dress.”

“I’m trying to help you, you know,” said Mom as she pulled another dress from the rack. “You want to make a good impression, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t see the point. I’m not likely to ever see his parents again and I’m not even likely to see Gene. Next week is the last week of school before summer. Gene and I hardly run in the same circles and when school starts in the fall, he’ll be the BMOC.”

Mom pulled another dress to look at. “Well, still. You want to look nice. Oh, don’t forget. After lunch, you need to do your nails.”

“That’s another activity I don’t get,” I said, looking at my finger nails. The polish that Mom and I had applied during our bonding moment was looking a bit tacky.

A sales lady walked up to Mom and looked from the dress she was holding to me. She said, “She’d be just gorgeous in that dress.”

Mom nodded. “If I can get her into a dress.”

Nodding knowingly, the sales lady said, “In that tomboy phase, is she? She’s very pretty, and she’s going to be quite the little heartbreaker.”

Mom held up two dresses. “Come on, honey. Go try these two dresses on.”

As I took the dresses from Mom, the sales lady said, “Let me know if you need any assistance.” Looking at Mom, she said, “She’s going to need a new bra soon as well.”

I growled at Mom. “I don’t like being talked about!”

Mom shook her head. “Oh, stop being such a teenager.” The sales lady laughed.

I slammed the changing room door open. I could hear Mom say, “I have two teen boys as well, and they’re nothing like this.” I bet you never made them wear a dress, either.

The sales lady said, “Oh, I know what you mean. I have a teen daughter, too.”

I’m trapped. There’s no escape. I have no choice but to try on a dress. Actually, I could instead throw a wall-eyed fit, but ultimately, I’ll still have to wear the dress along with some sort of punishment. I don’t remember being a teen as being such a challenge before.

Looking at the dresses, I was forced to admit the floral print sundress was pretty and that I looked good in it. I stepped back out of the changing room and stood in front of Mom.

I said, “I like this one.”

Mom grinned and said, “You look gorgeous!”

The sales lady smiled. “Perfect.”

Mom said, “We’ll take it.”

The sales lady said, “Excellent choice, ma’am. Your daughter is just beautiful in it.”

                    *

The waitress left with our orders. We were having lunch at the Perky’s located in the same strip mall as the dress store. Mom let out her breath as she leaned back in her seat. With her hand, she brushed her hair from her face.

She closed her eyes and said, “Oh my God, that was much more difficult than it should have been. How did you become such a teenager?”

I frowned after taking a sip of my soda. “I’m thirteen, as you so gleefully keep reminding me.”

Still keeping her eyes closed, Mom said, “Well, you don’t have to act like one on my account.”

I shrugged. “I’m just being me.”

Mom took a sip of her coffee. And why coffee? God made Dr. Pepper for a reason.

“Honestly, I think your personality will start to change into who you seem to be. Professor Grundy said to expect it. I think we saw that on display in the dress store.”

I frowned. “Oh great. I don’t want to become some ditzy teen girl.”

Mom shrugged. “You might not have a choice.”

                    *

“Can I ask you a question?” asked Zach as I sat in the middle of my bed, applying a somewhat bold shade of red to my nails.

I looked up with a smirk. “You can always ask.”

He paused a moment and then sat on my bed with me, nearly causing a nail disaster. “I’m just curious. Why did you surrender so quickly and completely on being a girl? Is this something you always secretly wanted?”

I frowned at my son. “No. No, it isn’t. Look at me and tell me what you see.”

He shrugged. “I see a girl, doing her nails.”

“Did you ever see your dad doing his nails?”

Zach laughed. “No. Of course not.”

“Well, that’s the problem isn’t it? I’m kind of a Schrödinger dad. I’m your dad and not your dad at the same time,” I said, starting to confuse myself.

“In a very real and legal sense, your dad is dead. What’s left is me. Am I happy to be a girl? No. I’m happy to be not dead if you’ll pardon the grammar. After over forty years as a guy, it sucks being a teen girl. I’m sure your football coach has told you to embrace the suck when you had to play under less-than-ideal conditions. So I can either embrace the suck or be miserable. Does that make sense?”

Zach shrugged. “I guess so.  Who’s Schrödinger?”

I just stared blankly at Zach a moment. “I have to finish doing my nails.”

                    *

“Oh honey, you’re so beautiful in that dress. Now stand still while I put some make-up on you.” I was wearing my new floral print sundress, a new pair of white flat sandals and my baby tiger earrings.

I wrinkled my nose at Mom. “I thought you said I’m not old enough to wear make-up.”

Cocking her head to one side, Mom asked, “Did you want to start wearing make-up?”

I shook my head. “No. Just questioning the hypocrisy.”

Mom frowned. “I’m just trying to add some color to your face.” She lightly brushed some blush to my cheeks. “And lipstick would look too heavy on you, so we’ll just go with some gloss. Ask me again about wearing make-up after you start high school.”

“I’m really not interested in wearing make-up,” I said.

Mom stepped back and looked at me. “You’re absolutely adorable.” She handed me my new purse. “We need to go.”

As we entered the living room where the boys were playing Halo on the Xbox, Mom said with a grin, “Boys, take a look at your gorgeous sister.”

I sighed and forced a smile. I really don’t like being put on display, even if it’s family.

Zach turned around and grinned when he saw me. “Remember to embrace the suck.”

I stood a bit straighter and smoothed the front of my dress, though it didn’t need smoothing.

“That’s not a nice thing to say!” admonished Mom. Mom then checked my face and overall look one more time. “It’s almost seven. You don’t want to be late.”

It was a shorter drive to Gene’s house than I thought it was. Mom wasn’t amused when I claimed shotgun. It was just the two of us.

A few minutes later found us driving up the curb in front of Gene’s house. It was a nice house in a nice neighborhood.

Mom smiled at me. “Here we are. I expect you to be on your best behavior. Call when you’re ready for me to come get you.”

“Best behavior?” I whined. “That puts the kibosh on my plans.”

Mom frowned. “You are definitely your father’s daughter.”

“I can still bail on this, right? We just drive away?”

Mom shook her head. “Just go. I’m sure they’re nice people. Besides, you have a crush on their son. Just go.”

“I do not!” I protested. I really don’t care that he’s cute. Much.

I sighed heavily and got out of our Journey. “Bye, Mom. See you in a couple hours.”

Mom smiled. “Have a good time.”

I turned and walked up to the door. I looked behind me. Mom was still parked at the curb, I guess, in case no one was home. I pressed the doorbell.

What fresh hell am I about to walk into?

End of Part 11