X-Kid

“Are you decent?” Luna asked once I answered my cell phone.
“If you mean still in my pajamas, eating cookie dough ice cream, and watching Supernatural, then yes,” I replied.
She groaned. “Nora, don’t you know what happens next Saturday night?”
I racked my brain to look for answers. Was it somebody’s birthday? Luna, Jack, and I all had birthdays in the summer, Alex and Rian’s had been the previous month of December, and Zack’s wasn’t for 3 months, so that couldn’t be it. “Apparently not. What’s going on?”
“It’s the Winter ball! That means you and I need to go dress shopping today!” she explained.
“Luna, Jack hasn’t asked me yet, and he hates wearing suits so I doubt he will,” I replied.
“I’ll make him ask you. Besides, you haven’t dressed up fancy since Homecoming for Freshman year, and we both know how much of a disaster that was,” she commented.
I remembered it well. I was there for a total of an hour with Drake, who didn’t even dance with me. I was still mad that he had ruined my first formal dance, and mad that I had let him do so. “You can’t make Jack ask me.”
“Hell if I can’t! Now, get ready! I’ll be over an half hour!” she said decidedly, hanging up the phone. I sighed, stopping my episode of Supernatural and beginning to get dressed. After I was done, I went downstairs to discuss a budget with my grandpa. After all, I needed money to buy a dress.
Luna arrived right on time, and the two of us got a ride to the mall. My best friend was beaming with excitement, grabbing me by the hand and dragging me to our first store. “Jesus, Luna! What’s gotten into you?”
“I’m just so happy. I have an adoring boyfriend that I love to death, I’m shopping with my best fucking friend in the entire world...I mean, life has been really shitty for me in the past but honestly, I’m a pretty lucky girl,” she explained. “I also ate like 5 packs of Gushers, and you know those make me hyper.”
I smiled at her, simply happy that she was happy. “I’m actually really glad you dragged me out of the house for this. I mean, we haven’t hung out just the two of us in so long. Don’t get me wrong, I love the guys, it’s just...sometimes I need just my best friend.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” she said, returning my smile. But of course, Luna couldn’t keep it serious for long. “Come on! Let’s go make everyone in this store drool over our sexiness!”
We began sifting through various dress racks, commenting on ones we liked or ones we thought were ugly. “God, what even is this?” I asked, showing her a gray and yellow dress mixed on a sickening looking dress.
She crinkled her nose up in disgust. “That’s like...lightening barf.”
I laughed, going back to the selection of dresses, but nothing stood out to me. I found ones I knew Luna would like, but none that I thought would work for me. She strolled over to me, shoving a handful of dresses into my arms. “Here, try these on.”
I did the same for her, and the two of us made our way to the dressing rooms. We each had 5 dresses of varying colors in tow, giving us quite a few options. After each one we tried on, we’d both emerge from our dressing rooms to look at one another. Our first batch of dresses didn’t work, so we kept rummaging through.
Finally, once we had both left the dressing room, we gave each other a look and said “That’s the one!” simultaneously.
“Jinx,” Luna shouted, beating me by a fraction of a second. “You owe me Lifesavers.”
I giggled. “Let’s go but these and then I’ll get you some.”
We changed back into our regular clothes before going up to the counter and paying for them. We both had dress shoes at home to wear, so we didn’t bother with those. I found myself getting excited for the dance thanks to Luna. It was going to be a night to remember between looking all fancy and getting to dance with Jack.
I decided to cherish my quality time with my best friend as we sat and ate pretzels and Lifesavers in the mall food court. After all, there weren’t very many moments like this for me. Now it was just a matter of impressing our boyfriends at the Winter Ball.

Notes