Page 17 of Reckless Liar

I didn’t want to tell Eloise that my best school dance story wasn’t with her brother, but with Xander. Aside from the one formal school dance I talked Max into, on the condition that I paid for his suit, it wasn’t the height of romance. Most of my dance stories with Max involved catching him making out with girls in equipment closets, him getting too drunk before we got there, or us fighting about some stupid thing and one of us storming off.

My smile faltered, but I worked at keeping it on. “So, I’m assuming you need a new dress? It’s still a formal, right?”

Eloise held up a short purple dress, pinning it against her body and looking into the mirror. “Semi-formal, whatever that means.”

I walked over to the rack of cocktail dresses, sliding them along the rod until I found one that’d look good against Eloise’s patchy black hair. “It means you can wear a shorter dress if you want to.”

Eloise took the dress from me, looking at it with suspicious eyes. “Well good, if I do this, I’m not wearing a long dress.” She walked to the dressing room with the dress as I turned to the store, looking around for other options.

I handed her another dress over the top of the door. “Try this one on. I think it’d look good with your blue eyes.”

The handle opened with a click and Eloise stood in the door frame, her round face serious.

“Oh, Eloise,” I whispered, smiling. I stepped back and beckoned her to come out and see herself in the three-way mirror.

The top was a sheer illusion neckline, fading down into a sweetheart decolletage. The cobalt blue lace was tight over the body, stopping right above her knee. She looked like she was all grown up and, in her twenties, “Oh, you look gorgeous.”

“I don’t know, it seems a little...” she tilted her head to the side. “I think most girls are wearing something a little more...”

“Revealing?” I asked.

“Well, yeah. It’s kind of long, isn’t it?”

“Maybe the mini dress is more in fashion these days, but I bet they don’t have a back like this.” I stood behind her, turning her around. The back of the dress dipped low, almost to the base of her spine. While the front was demure, the back screamed scandal. “This is the type of dress you take with you when you go to college. You go on big dates in this dress, you go to Christmas parties in this dress. This is a woman’s dress, Eloise.”

“You think?”

“I bet the boys will go crazy.” Snagging a pair of earrings off the table, I handed them to her. “You need something for your ears, no other jewelry. You’ll look amazing. I wish Max could’ve seen you in it.”

I expected the mention of Max to make me sad but talking about him to Eloise didn’t have that effect on me. Maybe it was because we both loved him, or because she perfectly understood the pain of losing him. She reached for my hand and squeezed it. “I don’t think he would’ve liked the back part.”

I laughed loudly, shaking my head, “No, probably not. But you’re seventeen, you’re practically a woman now. It was bound to happen, eventually.”

She reached down and grabbed the price tag, glancing at it before her face fell. “Of course. I find a dress that might make me consider going to this stupid dance and it’s impossibly expensive. I should’ve gone to Goodwill and picked out a millennial reject gown.”

I grabbed the tag, pulling it off with a quick flick of my wrist. “It’s taken care of.”

She looked at me, aghast. “No, Ana, you can’t pay for it. It’s over two hundred dollars.”

I flapped my wrist at her. “Consider it bought. I only have one condition to paying...”

She rolled her eyes at me as she made her way over to the dressing room. “I bet I can guess what it is. Don’t worry, I’ll go to the dance.”

I walked behind the counter as I rang up the dress. “And take lots of tacky pictures. That’s all I ask.”

She came out wearing her old jeans and a faded Ridgewood High select choir hoodie I recognized as mine. I must’ve left it at their house years ago. I was amazed it was still in one piece.

I handed her the bag. “Did you drive here? I’m about to close. I could give you a ride home.”

“No, I drove old Clarence,” she replied, referring to Max’s old beater car. I couldn’t remember why he called it that. But the ugly little car seemed like a Clarence and the name stuck.

“Well, wait a few minutes and I’ll walk you out.” Hurrying through the last of the drawer counts, I put everything back in the organized filing system I’d created for Scarlett during a sales lull. Locking up behind me, we made our way to the parking lot. I slid my arm through hers, pulling her close to my side. “I can’t believe you’re a junior already.”

“Yeah, a few more years and I’ll be out of here.”

“Have you looked into colleges yet?” I asked, sidestepping a big slush puddle.

“Not yet, but my teachers said if I keep my grades up, they’ll help me with the applications. So, I have a pretty good shot of getting in somewhere.”

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