Page 6 of Hot Mess

“Look, I’ve got boobs too. It’s not like any of us haven’t seen boobs before.”

None of them had a chest larger than a C cup. I was out past having double Ds. It didn’t really matter that they had seen breasts before. I hadn’t exposed myself before.

The band of my bra popped open as Jessie unfastened the hooks in the back.

I bit my cheek and pulled it off.

“You’ve got good boobs. I’m not going to need to really tape them up,” Clair told me.

“I didn’t think big boobs stayed up like that.” Jessie looked over my shoulder at my chest.

I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide. And then Clair was sticking tape to my chest. It was all very surreal. I would never be able to tell Mom about this. Amber, on the other hand, would die with laughter. That is if I didn’t die of embarrassment first.

I was stuffed and taped.

“Put your arms up,” Jessie directed before she pulled the flimsy dress over my head.

I shimmied into the dress. The top was loose and flowy, even around my bosom. There was no back. The bottom half was tight on my hips. I watched myself in the mirror. My reflection didn’t look bad. It just didn’t look like me.

I turned to face Jessie to thank her and then I completely forgot everything I was about to say. As I turned, my left breast fully came out from under the fabric of the dress.

“Oh no.” I pushed myself back into the dress and blushed again. That was somehow even more embarrassing than Clair putting tape on my body.

“You need fashion tape,” Kiki announced.

“Fashion tape?”

“I’ve got some in that top drawer,” Jessie said as she pointed at the drawer for Clair.

I was a little surprised by both Jessie having some organization skills and knowing where something was. She couldn’t find her car keys every time we wanted to go anywhere. Her wallet went missing constantly, and she never seemed to remember where she put her purse.

“What's a fashion tape?” I asked again.

“It’s Hollywood’s secret,” Clair answered mysteriously, as if she was charged with maintaining the secret.

“It’s how all those actresses never have a boob pop out of those low-cut dresses they wear,” Kiki said.

“It’s double-sided tape designed to stick to skin on one side and fabric on the other. Now hold still and put your arms back up,” Jessie directed.

She worked on one side, and Clair worked on the other, and they taped the top sides of my dress down along my ribs.

“Just to be safe.” Clair lay tape along the top edge of the neckline as well.

“Is this going to hold?” I was nervous. The dress tied around my neck with a thin halter strap, that I didn’t trust not to break.

“Let’s test it. Dance around a bit.”

I awkwardly moved about. The dress seemed to stay where I needed it to.

Jessie handed me the belt of cheap plastic coins. It didn’t fit around my hips.

“She needs something around her hips, or no one will know she’s Ishtaria,” Kiki complained.

Clair may not have liked me, but she really came through for fixing the costume. A few safety pins and a long scarf later, I had a coin hip wrap.

The headdress clipped more plastic coins into my hair and draped a row of them across my forehead.

Clair finished my makeup with plenty of input from Jessie and Kiki.

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