"You are beautiful. Own it. Walk like your hips move mountains."   

 

  “Okay, this one?”

     “No.”

     “What about this?”

“No.”

     “This one’s perfect!”

     “You’re crazy, if you think that I’m putting that on.” Tamera snapped from her place on the bench in a popular clothing store. “Mercedes, get it through your head that we don’t have the same taste in clothing.”

     The dark haired woman raised an eyebrow prior to putting the cocktail dress back on the rack.

     “What’s wrong with my taste in clothes?”

     “They’re trashy.” Bianca butted in while holding up a short white dress to her body in the mirror. “Just let her pick out her own clothes, for God’s sake. You two have been fighting for hours now and I’m not in the mood for a headache. Mercedes, leave her alone!”

     “I’m just trying to help!”

     “Tamera is perfectly capable of picking out her own outfit. She’s twenty-four, not two.”

Mercedes sighed and left the duo for a dressing room.

     As soon as she was gone, Bianca felt two arms wrap around her midsection and squeeze her tightly.

     “Thank you for getting rid of her!”

     Bianca giggled as she returned the hug to Tamera.

     “No problem. Just be frank with her and she’ll get the hint…most of the time, at least.”

     “I just wish that she would get off my back. I feel like she picks on me for everything! Especially, when it comes to dating.”

     Bianca noticed Mercedes bullying Tamera too, but she knew that it would only stop if Tamera stood up for herself. Maybe a little nudge on her end could help the situation.

     “I’m sorry hon, but have you ever thought of talking to her about it?”

     “I-I can’t Bianca. I really don’t know what to say to her and you know she’s stubborn. Do you really think I can get her to stop?”

     “Well, if you open your mouth, yes. I know that Mercedes can be a bit…intimidating, but you’ve got to know when to put your foot down before this goes too far. You know that I really could care less about Asian guys, but she shouldn’t be bullying you for what you like…shoot, the ones at the café were certainly eye candy. I’ll admit it, I almost reconsidered.” Bianca said, avoiding Tamera’s suddenly beaming smile. “Yah, I said almost. Wipe that smile off your face. I’m not siding with you.”

     “You know you want to. I think you could find a guy here if you improve your Korean.”

     The brown haired girl snorted.

     “I’m not interested.”

     Tamera rolled her eyes.

     “You just haven’t met the right guy yet, is all.”

     “Alright, enough about me.” Bianca eyed the dress in her hands again and nodded in approval. “Are you going to pick out a dress before Mercedes comes back?”

     Tamera sighed.

     She couldn’t find anything in the store that she liked and the ones that she did were a bit too small for her.

     Now, Tamera certainly wasn’t fat by any standards, but she did have a bit more to love compared to the slim Korean women that she would often see.

     “Maybe we should try another store. This one’s not for me.”

     Bianca shrugged.

     “Okay, not a problem.”

     One of the doors of the dressing room swung open dramatically and out stepped Mercedes, in a daring red party dress that clung to her curves in an appealing way.

The dress seized at her thighs and the V-neck was the most shocking part because Mercedes actually decided to cover her assets. It may have been just sheer fabric and lacy designs, but it was certainly a start.

 

http://i.imgur.com/kbp40sY.jpg

   

  “What do you think?”

     Bianca blinked.

     “Wow! That is surprisingly tame of you. You look good!”

     Mercedes nodded and turned to an equally surprised Tamera.

     “You look beautiful.” Tamera smiled.

     “It’s settled. This dress and I are a match made in Heaven.” The dark haired girl did a spin and clapped. “Okay, did anyone else find a dress?”

     Bianca held up her white dress.

     “I think I have. Hold on, let me try it on, first.”

    Mercedes and Tamera were left standing alone in the clothing store.

    “Where’s your dress, Tamera?”

     “I couldn’t find one here.” The other said, looking away. “We’re going to another store after this. So, no worries.”

      “Ok.” Mercedes sighed. “Listen, we need to talk. Let me just start by saying that I’m sorry for trying to pick out a dress for you. I was really trying to help spice up your style a bit...I guess I went overboard, huh?”

      Tamera nodded, inwardly groaning at the slight insult in the apology.

     “Yah, you weren’t supposed to agree!”

     The woman said as she hit the other playfully.

     “Well, I forgive you.”

     “That’s nice to hear!”

     “I second that!”

     Bianca swung the dressing room door open and walked out in her stunning tight fitting white dress that also seized mid-thigh.

Sections of white lace were seen mostly on the straps of her ensemble, but they were also woven in between the fabric on the side. It was a very simple dress, but Bianca pulled it off effortlessly and she was every bit as beautiful as Mercedes in her hot red number.

 

http://i.imgur.com/2OYJm7A.jpg

 

     “I’m hot, right?”

     Mercedes laughed.

     “Girl, you don’t even have to ask! You look great!”

     Bianca struck a fierce pose.

     “Thanks! I feel great! All we need now are accessories, shoes, and Tamera’s dress and we’ll be club ready! What do you think Tamera?”

     “Gorgeous. Need you ask?”

     “I just wanted to hear it again. Let’s wrap this up and get to Tamera!”

     Both girls quickly changed back into their regular clothes and left the store with their paid items.

     “Okay, where are we going now?”

     “Uh…”

     Tamera pointed to a clothing store down the street.

     “What about that one?”

     Mercedes squinted at the thin letters.

     “Yesstyle?”

     The other nodded.

     “Okay, let’s go!”

     Tamera and Bianca took off running, leaving Mercedes on the sidewalk.

     “Hey, you can’t just leave me! Girls!”

     Mercedes started to run when a ball of fluff and string wrapped around her leg.

     The next thing she knew, she was on the concrete with a small brown dog with curly hair her face. She smiled and rubbed the dog’s head, letting it nuzzle her shoulder.

     “Yah, Monggu you know better than to run off like that!” A familiar young man ran down the sidewalk and made his way to the dirt colored dog before he scooped him up quickly. “I’m really sorry for this Miss-”

     The man froze when he saw Mercedes on the ground.

     “Hey, you’re that server from earlier. You said that your name was Kai, right?”

     The man nodded and helped the woman up.

     “That’s a cute dog you got there, how old is he?”

     “U-uh…four. He’s four months old.”

     Kai clarified.

     Mercedes smiled.

     “His name is Monggu, right? As cute as he is, I wouldn’t let him run off like that. Keep a better eye on him, kay?”

     “Yeah, ok.”

     Mercedes rubbed the small dog’s head again.

      “Bye Monggu!” She squealed with enthusiam when the dog barked cutely at her. “Oh, and Kai too.”

     She added shortly before waving her hand dismissively to him and walking the other way down the street.

     Kai gawked at her as she walked away, not believing what just happened.

     ‘Did she really just ignore me for a dog?’

     Monggu stared up at his owner cutely.

     “You’re not cuter than me.” The dog barked. “I suppose I should thank you, though. You’re the only reason why she talked to me.”

     The poor man couldn’t believe his luck. He was handsome and he knew it, anyone who saw him could obviously see that, but this beautiful girl didn’t seem to notice or care, for that matter.

     Instead, Mercedes had looked right past him. It was almost like she was purposely ignoring him.

     As he watched her retreating form, he couldn’t help but to wonder...

     “What happened to make her that way?”

     Kai couldn’t tell if it was an unfortunate case of ignorance, stubborness, or something more. He was pretty good at reading people, but this woman was an incomplete puzzle with lost pieces.

     Monggu squirmed in his owner’s arms, opting for their walk to continue.

     “Alright, settle down. We’ll keep going.”

 

~*~

 

     “You guys , you know that?” Mercedes said as she entered Yesstyle with a very noticeable frown. “How could you just leave me in the street like that? What kind of friends are you!?”

     Bianca snorted.

     “Oh, stop being such a drama queen. We thought that you were behind us and besides, you aren’t a little kid. You knew where we were headed, so it’s not like we left you without telling you where we were going.”

     “That still doesn’t make it right!”

     “Oh, boo hoo! Where’d you go anyway? Tamera and I were waiting for you inside.”

     “I-uh. It’s nothing.”

“That’s a lie, but fine. This one time, you get to keep it to yourself.”

     Tamera cleared as she meekly held up a dress to the girls.

     “What do you think?”

     “I think you need to try it on.” Mercedes replied, as she boldly pushed the other towards the changing stalls. “I can’t see anything but black…hopefully, it’s a memorable dress and nothing bleh!”

     “Go on honey,” Bianca encouraged from the shoe section. “We need to see it on you.”

     As the door closed, Tamera spun around, automatically facing the reflection staring back at her.

     “Here goes nothing.”

     Tamera emerged from the stall fifteen minutes later wearing a short black dress with a lacy collage of flowers and designs starting from the straps and ending at her stomache.

The dress fit her like a glove and the sides of the dress were made with a thinner black fabric. The dress was y, but modest and that was something that Tamera loved about it the most.

 

http://i.imgur.com/VIzOrKV.jpg

 

     “I know it’s all black, but do you think its party worthy?”

     Bianca was blown away.

     Tamera’s dress was an understatement to party worthy. She had an attention grabbing dress and Bianca was positive that Tamera would be catching some looks tonight, if not just that.

     “That dress is hot!”

     Tamera smiled at her friend’s compliment.

     Mercedes was oddly quiet.

     When Tamera walked out, she was shocked at how good the dress looked on her.

     She was used to being the center of attention out of the three and tonight may just change because of that cursed dress.

     ‘I should’ve known better than to pick a dress before looking at other stores…’

     her teeth in envy, the woman complimented her before Bianca or Tamera grew wary of her.

     “It looks amazing on you, Tamera.”

     “Thanks, Mercedes.”

     Tamera said as she watched the other woman’s thoughts pass over her face. She couldn’t have been jealous, no. Of course not!

     “Oh, God.” Bianca unknowingly interrupted the atmosphere as she glanced from one stiletto to the other. “I don’t know what to pick.” The woman said as she held the shoes possessively. “White or silver?”

     “Go for the silver. It will make it pop!”

 

http://i.imgur.com/5N5a6Et.jpg

 

     Bianca nodded at Tamera and grabbed the box of silver pumps.

     “What’s with you and ridiculously blinged out heels?”

     “I love my heels, don’t judge me. The more diamonds, the better and Tamera said that they’ll be better, so blame her.”

     Tamera laughed.

     “Bianca honey, I think that you have a bling problem.”

     “Well if I do, then it’s my business.”

     The other replied sharply.

     Tamera shook her head as she went back to the changing stalls.

     Ten minutes later, Mercedes was eying a pair of glamourous red pumps that had chains interlacing on the backs of the heels and diamond studded lips hanging from the bottom of the heels.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ChP4E6O.jpg

 

     “Oh, these are perfect!”

     Bianca glanced at the shoe and continued to hug hers.

     “Just know that I’m borrowing those, one day.”

     Tamera browsed other shoe aisles to find some heels for her dress.

     There were a lot of beautiful shoes at this store, but one pair of fierce black heels caught her eyes.

     They were open toed and had circles and ovals stacked on top of each other all the way up to the ankle. It made for a very trendy look and Tamera couldn’t be happier with them.

 

http://i.imgur.com/u20fLb8.jpg

 

     “Wow, I love these!”

     Bianca was by her side in less than a minute.

     “Oh, those are niice!” Bianca purred. “I’ll be borrowing those, too.”

     “Let’s go buy all this and get going.”

     The women searched the streets one last time for accessories and returned to their spacious three bedroom apartment that they shared to get ready for tonight.

 

Author's Note: This chapter is so long that I had to split it into parts (I have no idea just how long it will be). I hope you guys love this and keep the comments coming! I love reading what you think and also, if anyone knows how to add pics to show throughout the story, can you tell me how? I really want to show you their outfits and shoes. (Which are super cute!)

Also, I just posted the girls' links to their outfits! Simply highlight the link and press the "Go to imgur" link and the image should appear in another tab.