Three Black Dresses
Kat doesn't believe in love at first sight, but ever sense Joe saw Kat that day in the dress store. He's starting too.
Kat stared at the dress through the window. It was beautiful, in the simplest ways. It was black with spaghetti straps and tied in the back. Beautiful. Her mom put her hand on her back.
"Do you want it?" her mom asked curiously. She shook her head, no. She didn't want it. She didn't want to know how horrible she looked in it. She wanted nothing to do that with that stupid, horrible, beautiful dress. She walked away in her jeans and sweatshirt. It was the middle of july in southern California, it was extremely hot out. Kat still wouldn't put on anything that didn't hide those stupid scars. The ones that she seemed to think about constantly. Two years ago her boyfriend abused her. A year later she was rid of him, but not the physical and mental scars were still there, and they never seemed to vanish. She never went shopping, she never looked in the mirror. Whenever things were alright again, things still seemed so wrong in her mind set.
"Kathrine? sweetie." her mom put her arm on her. "It's not going to go away until you let it."
Kat let her mom pull her into the store, where stood a row of those dresses, her mom picked one up. "I think you've gained enough weight to wear a medium now."
Kat's face turned red as she looked at her thin, pale body. Her mom led her to the dressing rooms. Where she stood in the small changing room with a hook for clothes, a bench to sit on, and a big fat mirror for all the vein people in the world to look at there beautiful bodies. She pulled off her pants and sweatshirt and put on that dress. She closed her eyes as she walked out into the dressing area where her mom sat and a few other people. "oh my.." her mom said. tears welled up in Kat's eyes. she looked horrible, she looked ugly, and stupid, and hideous. she felt sorry for her mom to have to look at her hideous body and to see all the ugliness she's been trying to hide. "i'm sorry." she spoke quietly to her mother. Her mother was in tears, that's how ugly she was. "oh my god baby don't feel sorry." her mother said. Her mother squeezed her tight. "you look beautiful, Kathrine."
Kat mustered up the thought and spoke once more, this was the most she's spoke in a very long time.
"no i'm not mom, i'm ugly. i'm really ugly." Her mother looked down gravely. "Your not ugly." She looked at the kid sitting on the red bench next to her. Kat felt like crying right there, she was going to die. Not only was she standing in front of a handsome boy, but she was looking as ugly as ever. "dear?" her mother said asking the boy. He looked at her mother, with as much excitment as he's seen all day. He was with his mom picking out a dress with her for some stupid party she was going to tonight. "um, how do you think my daughter looks in this dress?" he looked at the young girl, maybe seventeen with tears in her eyes. She had a few scars on her legs and arms but she was stunning. She was the most beautiful girl he had seen in his entire life. She had long light brown curly hair, blue/green eyes and the most pale skin he had seen in his entire life. She looked sad, but so beautiful at the same time. She made depression seem so glamorous.
"Beautiful." he said kindly to the young girl, and smiled. she didn't smile back, her eyes stared at him, maybe even right through him. She looked so afraid. She held her stomach and sobbed loudly this time. Opening the door to the dressing room and closing it quietly behind her. although everyone had seen the crying and was staring at the dressing room. She knew she shouldn't have let her mother talk her into wearing that dress. Her mom was a lier, and that boy...that boy had to be blind. She dressed in her normal clothes and picked up that stupid dress. She opened the door, everyone in the dressing area was staring at her. She hated them, she hated her mom, and most of all she hated that boy.
*two weeks later*
"Come on Kat, please come with me? If you don't my mom is going to come! If I don't have a reason why She can't come she will come. Plus we haven't done anything with each other, in like..forever." Kat nodded, reluctantly. "Okay, oh my gosh. I saw this really pretty dress at this store yesterday, and it would look amazing on you." She let her friend pull her into the car and they drove to the same store she was at two weeks ago. Her friend Rosie pulled her out of the car and into the store. "See? Isn't it amazing?"
she spoke quietly, "yeah, I guess." Rosie took it off the rack. "We won't bother having you try it on, it's pretty obvious it's going to fit." So Rosie payed for the dress and took her home. She walked up the steps slowly and opened the door, that horrible dress in the bag in her hand. She hurried up the stairs before her mom could see the bag and stuffed it under her bed. Never to be seen again. "Honey? Kat? Is that you?" she walked down the stairs and spoke. "yeah mom it's me." Her mom kissed her forehead and smiled, "I'm so glad your home I have a surprise for you." Her mom went to the coat closet and came out with a bag and handed it to her. "open it dear." She opened it. There in at the bottom of the bag was the black dress, the same dress Rosie bought today, the same dress she tried on two weeks ago, the same dress she now had two of. she felt the tears roll down her face, what was up with this stupid dress.
"oh i'm sorry sweetie, it's just the dress looked so good on you and I just had to get it for you." She wiped off the tears. "Thanks mom."
*one week later*
It was the night of that stupid concert Rosie forced her to go to, she knew Rosie would want to see her with the dress on, and she knew her mother would want her to wear it sometime. But she just couldn't bring herself to wear that dress. So she put on some dark jeans and a dark blue old navy sweatshirt and walked downstairs. The doorbell rang, it was Rosie. "I was hoping you were going to wear that dress." she said. Kat shrugged walking into the kitchen. Where her mom was cutting off the ends of some roses. "Hey sweetie, leaving already?" her mom kissed her forehead. she nodded. "Don't stay out too late."
Yeah mom, don't count on me living through the night.
She walked to Rosie's crappy old car and got in the passenger seat. Rosie drove to the arena where it read.
Jonas Brothers feat./ Demi Lovtato TONIGHT!
She got out of the car and walked up to the ticket place handing her the ticket, Rosie took her wrist and walked to the 4th row in front of the stage. They sat down and waited atleast twenty minutes before the lights went out and screaming was so loud she could barley hear herself think.
"this is going to be so cool!" Rosie screamed with the other girls. When she first saw him she couldn't really tell but then the lights flashed on his face and she could tell, he was the guy from the dress shop.
"ROSIE!" she screamed over all the screams.
"yeah?" she said taking her eyes away from the boys for a few seconds "WHO'S THAT?" she said pointing to the boy. "Joe Jonas silly!" and she turned back to the stage. She felt so stupid and uncomfortable in this crowd. She liked the band though, they were pretty good, and Joe's voice. Man, it was amazing.
She was glad when it was over though. Rosie pulled Kat through the crowd. "Wanna get a t-shirt?" she asked Kat, she shook her head. It freaked her out having that boy's face on a t-shirt. She had enough clothes that reminded her of him. Thank you very much to her mom and best friend.
Rosie bought a t-shirt and walked through the crowd to her car, they got in. Rosie tried to start the car.
"crap." as it failed to start.
Just what she needed.
As soon as the concert was over, Joe swerved through the people backstage. "Joe! what are you doing? we need to get on the tour bus!" Nick yelled after him. He knew it was stupid to go running directly into the fans, but he had no choice if he was ever going to see that girl agian. He came from the back on the side of the huge building. girls were lining up by the tour bus waiting for them to show up and get on. "crap." he spoke quietly to himself. Sneaked past the girls, those girls weren't the problem though. It was the thousands of girls coming out of the concert that were.
So he waited, he knew if it was right she would still be there. It seemed like weeks until most of the girls were gone and leaving for home he stood up. "OH MY GOD IT'S JOE!" he heard girls scream from by the tour bus. He turned around and ran, ran as fast as his legs could take him. Those girls were gaining on him and quickly. He ran a few blocks until he tripped on something. "sh*t." he spoke his first curse words because he knew he was dead. why did he have to be so ignorant and go after a girl who was probably long gone by now.? "in here stupid." the bush spoke to him. Did he actually just hear a bush talk to him? He climbed into the bush to find it wasn't a bush talking to him...it was the girl. he heard the screaming girls run past him, he looked around to see if the coast was clear. It was. "Why are you in a bush?" he asked her.
*Joe's pov*
"I heard screaming, and it freaked me out so I hid in a bush. I'm not alone though." another girl popped her head out from the other side of the bush. "Howdy" she said, climbing out. "um..okay, but that doesn't give me exactly the right answer I wanted." the girl's friend spoke again. "Our car broke down. We kinda don't have a ride, so we started to walk home. Then we heard screaming and hid in the bush."
"Ahh, I see. Well if we're really sneaky I can get you guys a ride home."
"Cool." the girl's friend said. "What are your guys names?" the girl's friend answered.
"I'm Rosie, and this is Kat. She doesn't talk much though." I nodded. "Nice to see you again, Kat." putting my hand out. She shook it off. "The feeling isn't mutual." I looked at Rosie. "yeah and when she does talk, it's usually kinda rude." I laughed. "That's alright, I will deal." I put my hand around Kat's waist. She looked at me, then looked down turning red.
*normal point of view*
Joe ordered Rosie to be taken home first. He wanted to spend more time with Kat, she wasn't really that rude at all. She didn't really talk at all though either. There was something she was hiding. Right now though, he didn't care. He just watched her. They pulled up to her house and she stood up, he did to. "I'll walk you in." he offered. She didn't decline. He put his arm around her waist trying to get as close to her as possible with only a few seconds left to spare. They walked slowly up the driveway and on the sidewalk. They stopped at the door. Kat bit her lip and looked up at him. He looked straight back at her, god she's beautiful, he thought to himself. Musting up the all the courage he had inside himself he put his hand on the back on her neck and gently kissed her lips. Their stomach's lurched at the same time, as well as their hearts. They were giving them up to each other. The kiss broke and they smiled at each other for the first time. Joe left without saying goodbye, but she knew she would see him very soon. She shut the door behind her and smiled to herself. "Honey? How was it? Oh you look so happy was it fun? You got a package while you were gone." she handed her a box she ran upstairs, closing the door behind her she unwrapped it and opened it flinging paper everywhere. There inside the box, was her third black dress. She read the paper inside.
Hi, I'm Joe. the kid who called you beautiful at the dress shop?
Yeah well, I couldn't stand you not getting something that makes
you look so amazing - not that you don't look amazing already
but yeah. So I guess here it is.
The black dress.
- joe
She pulled off her sweatshirt and pants and pulled on the black dress and for once in a very long time. She looked in the mirror. She didn't know what other people saw when they looked at her. But what she saw, was a girl in love, a girl she wanted to be, and a girl she was becoming.
And those three dresses helped her so very much.
