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“Nora’s clothes will be too small, and I’m too tall, so we’ll have to go with Frank,” she told me, sweeping open the door to Frank’s closet. “Besides, she’s…edgy…like you, so her clothes should work.”
Her nose wrinkled further on the word edgy and I got the distinct impression that she didn’t approve of Frank’s style, but I didn’t comment beyond, “Shouldn’t we ask first? I mean, don’t you think Frank will mind us borrowing her clothes?” I didn’t bother to mention that the last time I’d borrowed an article of clothing from Frank I’d managed to ruin it.
“It’s fine,” Julie said airily, flipping through the hangers, and though I wasn’t sure if she was actually basing that on anything I decided to take her at her word.
“Well, this isn’t completely tragic,” she said, holding up a cute beaded top.
“Long sleeves only,” I told her.
“But we’ll be inside. It’s not like it’ll be cold in the auditorium,” she protested, but I shook my head firmly.
“Long sleeves only.”
She rolled her eyes, but put the top back.
“She really didn’t bring much, did she?” Julie said, her brow creasing as she rifled through hanger after hanger, and I could barely stop my mouth from dropping open. Frank had more clothes overflowing her closet than I’d likely owned in my entire life. Not to mention a knee-high pile of shoes filling the closet floor and an additional chest-of-drawers in the corner also stuffed to bursting. I wondered with mild alarm what Julie’s closet looked like.
“Ooh, what about this? It seems like something you’d wear.”
By her words and tone of voice, I wasn’t sure if I was about to be offended, but when I looked up my heart skipped a beat. She was holding a short, strapless dress made of a beautiful, shiny, deep purple fabric covered in a black lace overlay. It cinched tight at the waist before flowing down to end at what I guessed would be mid-thigh, the lace continuing a few inches further than the underskirt and ending in jagged points. It was absolutely gorgeous, but…
“It has no sleeves,” I pointed out.
“I know, but it would go perfectly with…” She trailed off, thrusting the dress into my hands before darting out of Frank’s room and disappearing into her own. I carefully let the skirt of the dress flow through my fingers, my breath catching in my throat. It really was beautiful, and she was right—it looked like something I might choose for myself. If I had an unlimited budget, that was.
She returned a moment later, triumphantly holding out a cropped, black motorcycle jacket made of buttery soft leather. It never in a million years would have occurred to me to pair the jacket with the dress, but the second I saw them together they obviously worked.
“The sleeves might be a bit long, but I think it’ll fit you,” she said with an approving nod. “Why don’t you try it all on while I go do my makeup?”
I took the dress and jacket to my room and stripped down to try them on. The dress fit like a glove, molding over my bust and waist like it was made for me. It was a little short, but with the lace over top it was modest enough, and I smoothed the fabric over my thighs and twirled in front of the mirror. I hadn’t seen it before, but the purple shade of the underlying fabric would exactly match the purple in my hair.
I still had a towel wrapped around my head from the shower I’d taken after Micah had walked me over, so I unwound it and set to drying and styling my hair, twisting the top half into an elaborate braided updo so the purple strands underneath hung straight and glossy down my back. Julie was still in the bathroom, so I did my makeup next, going a little darker than I usually would.
Finally, I donned the leather jacket. Julie was right, the sleeves were a little long, but it wasn’t too noticeable or uncomfortable, and I admired the whole effect in the mirror. I looked…gorgeous. Both like myself and utterly foreign at the same time.
“Oh yeah, that’s hot.” The approval was clear in Julie’s voice from the doorway, and I spun to face her, marveling at how stunning she was in her own elaborate outfit. “Whichever of those freaks you’re dating won’t be able to keep his hands off you,” she said with satisfaction, and I stifled a laugh, finding myself too excited to even be offended at her words.
“Just two more things,” she told me, then vanished into Nora’s room. She returned a moment later with a heavy black choker, strands of sparkling glass beads dripping from it in an elaborate woven pattern that almost seemed to mirror the lace of the dress. Wait, those weren’t—
“Holy shit Julie, are those diamonds?”
She gave me an incredulous glance. “Well, obviously. What the hell do they look like?”
My jaw dropped. “I can’t wear that! And I certainly can’t borrow it without asking. That must be worth…” I trailed off. I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how much it must have cost, but Julie rolled her eyes at me.
“Calm down, Camilla. It’s Nora, she won’t care. She’d want you to borrow it. Besides, she never wears it. It wouldn’t even look good on her; she’s so little, it would be like the necklace was wearing her.”
I shook my head though, my eyes still wide, and she gazed to the ceiling as if she was asking for patience. “Oh my God, look, I’ll text them both and tell them you’re borrowing their clothes, okay?”
“Tell them which clothes,” I instructed. “Make sure they’re okay with it.”
She rolled her eyes again but obliged, pulling her phone out of God-knows-where she had it stashed in that dress, and firing off a quick text. Her phone beeped a moment later and she held it up to show me the message.
Nora: Hell yes, take whatever she needs! Make her look—
Nora had ended the text with a long string of fire emojis, and I laughed out loud. Frank’s message came through just a minute later.
Frank: There are shoes in the back that go with that dress. Help yourself.
