133 - Dress Shopping

*I’m afraid that she still hears her mother’s condemning voice. That she’s not pretty, not feminine enough. And I’m afraid to see what’s in this dress shop that she wants to go to first. It sounds like it’s straight up purity culture. - Darkness*

Camille agreed to go to the dress shop that Nicki found. The dresses on the website screamed purity and innocence. Michelle’s conservative dress from Camille’s senior prom seemed risqué for this store. The blonde woman with her hair in a bun and wearing a dress that seemed like what the Mennonite’s back home wore was friendly and helpful.

But Camille was certain that if she saw what either herself or Priscilla wore to prom, she would burst into flames. Or fall to her knees pleading for forgiveness for thoughts that exited her mind as fast as they entered.

Suddenly, the game that she and Priscilla had always played of making up a stranger’s backstory started in her mind. She chuckled to herself as she pictured the woman, just call me Sarah, having a pedestal table of her own in her bedroom. Maybe even having a hidden drawer of toys.

The sound of a door opening pulled her out of her thoughts, and she turned around. Nicki stepped out of the dressing room and Camille held her tongue with her opinion. The dress was hideous on the teen’s form.

The empire waist with a tea length A-line skirt made her hips appear wider than they were. The high square-neck looked like it was choking her. The long sleeves were tight around the wrists but loose elsewhere. Ruffles at the shoulders did not give the feminine flair that the designer probably intended. Instead, it just made her already strong shoulders appear larger, bulkier.

But the absolute worst part of the dress was the color. The soft, feminine blue looked like a dirty gray against her dark skin.

Camille tried to formulate a polite way of telling her daughter that the dress was not the one for her. Mitch just said what was on his mind.

“That’s ugly.”

His declaration was not meant to be hurtful or mean. It was just an honest opinion given with the innocence of youth.

Taking a deep breath in through her nose, she closed her eyes and fought against the laughter bubbling up her throat. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked at the young woman about to shed tears in the middle of a dress shop in Downtown New Orleans.

“I would have said that it does not compliment you at all. But your brother is right, it is quite ugly.”

Nicki’s shoulders slumped as she looked at her reflection in the three-way mirror, “Mom was right, playing softball gave me a man’s body.”

“No,” Camille assured her, “playing softball gave you a strong body.”

Camille looked around the room at dresses that belonged somewhere between an episode of Little House on the Prairie and a conservative planet on Star Trek. She shook her head and turned back to Nicki.

“Go on, go get dressed. We’ll go get something to eat and then try another store.”

Just Call Me Sarah came around the corner, dressed in a very puritanical pink dress, and gushed at Nicki.

“Oh, you look so sweet and demure,” the woman smiled at Nicki.

Nicki turned to Camille, “Um, yeah, lunch sounds great.”

“I don’t think that we’ll be taking this dress,” Camille told Just Call Me Sarah.

The woman offered to pull additional dresses that were in Nicki’s size and Camille finally agreed, telling her that they were going to go get something to eat. If they did not find anything at the other store, they would be back. Hopefully they will not be.

Nicki quickly changed back into her black denim shorts and T-shirt. Camille caught the disapproving look that Just Call Me Sarah gave the exposed legs and slapped a hand over Mitch’s mouth as he also saw it and started to speak.

The three of them got back in the Jeep with Mitch in the back seat with Tink. Camille put the address for the restaurant that she thought Nicki would like into the GPS and headed across town. Sitting in the vampire themed restaurant, she watched her two kids ooh and ahh over the décor. They giggled at the menu options, and they all decided that they needed a drink that was served in a blood bag.

They talked about the perfect dress and Nicki admitted that she did not know what she wanted. Camile found a picture from her senior prom with her, Priscilla and Michelle in it. They had all bought them at the same shop in Boston. It had been a whole day excursion with Sid, Becks and Tammy.

“I don’t know if I could wear anything that short,” Nicki admitted.

“You don’t have to,” Camille assured her. She scrolled until she found a picture of Michelle and Athos. He was looking at her as if her conservative dress was just as sexy as the two more revealing dresses were.

Nicki seemed to focus in on Athos’ lovesick gaze, “How do I get a guy to look at me like that?”

Camille laughed as their meals were served, “It helps if the guy follows you around for a few years just hoping that you’ll see him. And then, it also helps to have a guy like any of the musketeers.”

“Musketeers?” Mitch asked around a mouthful of a shrimp po’ boy.

“Those three did everything together,” Camille found a picture of all three of them when they got their full patches. Pointing at each one, she identified them, “Athos, Aramis and Porthos.”

She told them stories about the three friends and then some about her and Priscilla. They were holding their stomachs as tears rolled down their cheeks.

Now, it was time to find Nicki her perfect dress. If they were back home in Monroe, she would take the teen to New Moon. Inspiration struck her as she sat in her Jeep in the café parking lot. Pulling up her search bar, she entered ‘gothic prom dress shop new orleans’ and was not surprised at the thousands of hits.

One of the shops with a top rating was only a few blocks away. There was a comment in a review that stated that parking was limited. Grateful for the hint, she turned off the engine.

“Alright, we’re walking.”

Just inside the store, Nicki stopped as her eyes landed on a blank and red Victorian style dress. The two-piece set was made up of a corset top and split skirt in red velvet with black trim, lace and beading. A deep V-neck was contrasted with long sleeves. The floor length straight skirt had slits on both sides that went to the upper thigh.

“Try it on,” Camille encouraged.

The salesclerk looked at Nicki and smiled, “That will look beautiful on you. But I have a bright purple that will be set off by your skin tone.”

“Do you have it in a twelve?” Camille asked.

“I think that’s the only size I have left in the purple. Let me grab it.”