Anything but Normal - Melody Carlson [34]
“Come out,” Carrie Anne urged her.
Sophie looked at her image in the mirror and frowned. “It’s not working for me,” she called back.
“Just let us see,” Kelsey said. “I think that shade of coral is going to be great with your complexion.”
“Fine.” Sophie emerged from the room, held her hands out to her sides, and made a sour face. “I look like an overgrown pomegranate.”
Her friends laughed.
“And speaking of fruit . . . ,” she put her hands beneath her breasts and gave them a little push-up, “. . . these melons are about ready to bust out of here.”
Her friends laughed harder, and she joked more. Of course, her jokes were all at her own expense. Not that anyone noticed. Besides her.
“It’s useless,” she said finally.
“No, it’s not,” Carrie Anne declared. “We just need to look harder.”
“No.” Sophie shook her head. “Not until you listen to me.” “What?”
“I don’t want anything that’s low-cut or strapless or backless or tight.”
“Why don’t you just wear your bathrobe?”
“Good idea.”
“Seriously, Sophie,” Carrie Anne said. “You sound like you want to go as a nun.”
Sophie pointed at Carrie Anne. “And you look like you want to go as a slut.”
Carrie Anne blinked. “A slut?”
“Well, look at you. You’re like half-naked.”
“You sound like my dad now.”
“Speaking of your dad, what will he think of that dress?”
Carrie Anne frowned.
“I’m not trying to be mean,” Sophie said. “But you guys are all sending mixed messages here.”
“Mixed messages?” Kelsey tugged the bodice of her skimpy dress a little higher. “How so?”
“You know what I’m talking about.” Now Sophie wished she’d never opened her big mouth. Who was she to talk anyway?
“I know what she means,” Hannah said quietly. “We’ve all made the purity pledge, and here we—”
“Except me,” Jenny chimed in.
“Yes, except you.”
“Although, just for the record, I am still a virgin and I do not plan on having sex anytime soon.” Jenny smiled smugly. “Thanks for the news flash,” Carrie Anne said.
“But Sophie’s actually making a good point,” Hannah continued. “And what about what Jeanette and Phil told us at youth group last week? What about making a promise with our lips and not with our hearts?”
“They said that?” Sophie waited to hear more.
“Phil said that it’s better not to make a promise than to make a promise and break it.” Jenny nodded. “See, he’s helping to support my theory.”
“And if we really are serious about our purity pledge . . .” Hannah turned around and looked at herself in the big three-way mirror. Her hot pink strapless dress was so tight that Sophie wondered how she could possibly breathe, let alone sit down in a chair or eat. “Why are we dressing like this?”
“So what are you suggesting we do?” Kelsey directed this to Sophie. “Should we all go to the dance wearing baggy turtleneck dresses that cover every square inch of flesh?”
Sophie shook her head. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything. Just forget—”
“No,” Jenny said firmly. “I think you’re right, Sophie. We do need to tone it down a little.”
“Yeah.” Carrie Anne said. “My dad would probably have a cow if he saw me in this dress.”
Kelsey frowned at her own image in the mirror. Her formal was a sparkly turquoise number but cut so low in the back that Sophie thought Kelsey might have a serious problem if she actually attempted to dance in it. “But I like this dress. It brings out the color in my eyes.”
“Check out the back side,” Hannah said as she spun her around.
Jenny reached over and tugged the dress down another inch. “I can see your underwear, Kelsey.”
“Hey!” Kelsey smacked Jenny’s hand. “Watch it.”
“Well, would you rather reveal your behind to us or to everyone at the dance?”
“Or to your parents?” Hannah challenged.
The girls continued to argue, but Sophie managed to stay out of it. Finally, as they were bickering about which was worse—showing too much cleavage or too much back—Sophie slipped back into her changing room and got dressed in her own clothes. She was sick of trying things on. Something about