by J. M. Miller
The remaining dresses in that armoire were of the same fashion, from the same era. As Izzy grabbed the last dress, I ran my fingers over the creases at the base of the armoire. I shook my head in Ben’s direction to let him know I hadn’t found any secret compartments, hidden stones, or an excessive amount of hope. He lifted one side of his lips and furrowed his brows while Spaz tried on top hats beside him.
“I’m outta here,” Gavin called out to all of us. “I’ve got a raid happening online at eight and I still have to call Taylor for a few so she doesn’t get mad at me.”
“Ah, you’re already whipped, good sir,” Spaz said in a confused accent that mixed British with French. “First the hair, now the phone. What’s next, man?” He swung the cane he was holding like a baseball bat, tapped it back to the floor, and then removed his top hat as he took a gentlemanly bow.
“I’m not complaining about being whipped. I’ll take whatever she gives me,” Gavin replied, running a hand through his hair before he moved to the ladder.
“My man!” Ben said with a laugh. Spaz and Gavin both laughed, too, then Gavin ducked out of the attic.
“Boys,” Izzy murmured next to me with a giggle.
After rummaging through the first armoire’s matching trunk—filled with shoes and bags—we moved on to a free-standing wardrobe that was hogging most of the wall space by one of the circle windows. That’s when we noticed the dress mannequins stashed in the low attic corner.
“Wow,” Izzy breathed out exactly what I was thinking. “These are hoop skirts, right?” She plucked one of the rings of the cage and the whole thing swayed when she let it go.
“That means there are dresses to go with these.” The idea of wearing Civil War era gowns was unimaginable. They wouldn’t even be replicas. This was real.
The wardrobe was unfinished, with a dark stain and no varnish. It had a few thin carvings along its borders, but overall it was as plain as the first. I opened it to more garment bags. The first few bags held plain, long-sleeved dresses that were for daily wear. We finally reached the last four dresses and found what we were looking for.
A blood red dress took me instantly. I placed the skirt to my middle and compared it to my waist. The silk fabric pinched on one side in the front, lifting it higher than the back. The bottom edges had some pleats and ruffles, but not overly decorative. The separate bodice had V-neck in the front and back, dipping low off the shoulders too. I reached back into the bag and found a petticoat, undershirt, and a corset.
Izzy chose one that was mint green. She held its skirt up like I had with mine. It was a multi-layered, tiered down to the floor. “This is unreal. Think they’ll fit?” she asked, stroking the material with one hand.
“It looks like they might, but there’s only one way to find out. Let’s pull the skirts over our jeans. It’s a good way to measure since the cage and petticoat will be underneath.”
“This is way better than cutting two eyes out of a sheet. Are you sure you’re okay with me wearing this?” she asked, stepping into the fabric. “I’ll try my best not to ruin it, but I never wear dresses so I can’t promise anything.”
“I don’t mind. They’ve been up here forever. We might as well have fun with them.” I knew they were relics and I should donate them to museums or something, but there were plenty of others. I wasn’t worried about two.
We both pulled the skirts up and let them rest on our hips. I needed to see the top too so I grabbed the bodice and tugged it over my T-shirt. Izzy did the same.
“Wow. That looks amazing on you,” she said.
“And that looks great on you!” I replied, admiring the way the pale green complimented her skin tone. With no cage, the bottom bunched at her feet. She lifted it and dropped it, enthralled with its beauty or simply entertained by the movement.
“Yes! I never thought I’d get excited about a dress, but that day has come. My mom will probably have a heart attack.”
I chuckled. “Well, it looks fabulous on you so you should be excited.”
She flipped her hair to the side and swept her bangs behind an ear. That’s when she looked down at the front of the dress, studying it with a worried look.
Pain sparked inside my head and I instinctively pressed my hands against my temples. Unlike school, I rarely had headaches at home. They always caught me off-guard here.
“I wish I had the guts to actually wear this,” Izzy’s voice said inside my head.
I sighed at her wish. She was usually so confident. Why would she be intimidated by a dress? I looked across the room to Ben and Spaz. They were lost in their own jokes and laughter.
It wasn’t life or death, but she was my friend. What good is it if I can’t help the people I care for?
“Izzy, I have to tell you something,” I said, drawing her attention back up to me and beckoning her closer with a wave of my hand.
“What?” she asked, lifting her skirt and stepping toward me. “Should we keep looking through the others?”
I grabbed her forearm and let the curse take over. Now that I knew the process, I could feel it happen. And it was exquisite. It was always the same whether I was granting courage, endurance, or any other personal strength. It was like a rush of good energy, pulling from every nerve in my body. It was raw, emotionally and physically. It could’ve filled a year’s worth of feelings, yet it was all packed inside a few sublime seconds.
“No more looking,” I finally replied. “You have to wear this one.”
I was so relieved LJ calmed down after we’d come up here. She’d been tense ever since lunch, when I brought up searching the attic. That was why she invited Spaz and Iz to look for Halloween costumes. It was a way to keep the disappointment to a minimum. I watched her search through stuff with Iz. She was having a good time while keeping her eyes open for anything involving the well. This place was packed with clothes, bags, and other junk deemed too nice to dump in the basement, though it was coming up just as empty.
“Dude,” Spaz said from inside a deep wardrobe I’d already searched. He got caught up in something on his way out and took a nose dive through the doors, landing on his hands and knees with hats and suspenders toppling out around him. I couldn’t hold back my laughter. He straightened up like it never happened and asked, “Are we really dressing like this for the party?”
“That’s the plan. You thinking about something else?”
“I was going to go simple, like a devil or gynecologist, but Iz really jumped on this idea when LJ offered.”
“What happened to ‘Do it because you like it, not because of your girl’?” I repeated the words he’d said earlier to Gavin with a smirk.
“Yeah, yeah. You know I’m full of crap,” he admitted with a laugh. “This stuff is pretty cool, though.” He picked up another top hat and tried it on.
“I’m not thrilled about the suit thing either, but if it makes the ladies happy, I’m game.”
“Man, don’t get me started. There were a few girls you could’ve made happy with just your Jason mask last year, but no, you chose to keep things rollin’ with Emily,” he scoffed.
I glanced over at LJ. She and Iz had started going through the next wardrobe, pulling out more dress bags. “What can I say? I didn’t really care, and it was a sure thing,” I said, moving the suit I’d picked in front of me.
“Still not a good enough reason,” he joked with a laugh. “I’m glad that ship sank, though,” he added seriously, then tossed the top hat like a Frisbee.
I snatched it mid-air and placed it on my head. “Yeah, I’m glad too,” I agreed, looking over at LJ again. She was everything I could ever want. Without a doubt, the best thing I’d ever had. And I was pretty sure I’d felt that way long before she helped me let go of Harper. These feelings trumped everything else. She was more for me.
I watched her and Izzy talk for a moment before I noticed the blood running from her nose.
Dammit.
I jumped up, leaving a shocked Spaz behind.
“Oh,” she replied with a tiny smile, dropping the top of the red dress from her arms and slipping the skirt down to her ankles to pat her pockets for a tissue.
I looked around, not seeing anything I wanted to use on her face. In the last steps, I pulled my T-shirt over my head and placed it to her face. “I got you,” I said. I wasn’t thrilled with what she’d done, but I couldn’t be mad at her. Whatever the reason, she’d obviously felt she needed to help Iz.
Her green eyes were wide as I held her nose with my shirt. She was waiting for a reaction from me, but we both knew I couldn’t say anything in front of Iz and Spaz.
I let out a sigh and smiled softly. I felt the tug of her lips beneath the shirt and watched her eyes crinkle with her own relieved smile.
“Okay,” Iz said, breaking up our silent exchange. We both glanced at her and she was holding a tissue. “You guys must have one deep connection if he’s willing to strip it all off to stop a little blood.” She didn’t laugh, she just stared, confusion pulling her brows together.
I thought about the first time I gave LJ my shirt by the well. It was meant as a distraction, but I knew I’d felt a connection, even then. I laughed at her joke, perfectly comfortable with the raw truth of it.
Spaz walked over and stood beside Iz. “Are you trying to make me look bad, man?” He took the tissue from Iz’s hands and blew his nose. “Thanks, babe.”
This made the girls laugh. “Some gentleman you are!” Iz said then hissed at him. “I feel cheated. You better make sure you’re on your best behavior at the party Friday.”
“Best behavior?” he asked. “I can’t promise anything if you’re wearing that.” He pointed to the corset beside Iz’s feet.
She shrugged as she dropped the top of her dress onto the garment bag. “Well you better or you won’t get to see that.” The skirt fell to the floor with a wiggle of her waist.
Grabbing her hips, Spaz stepped gingerly around the green skirt and backed Iz up to the wardrobe. He bent down, scooped her up, and then stepped through the opened doors. They disappeared behind some hanging scarves and bags. Izzy giggled then laughed fully when the whole thing shook. A couple of loud thuds followed.
“They probably fell,” I said with a laugh, turning back to LJ.
She lifted her hand to mine, taking my shirt so I didn’t have to hold it for her anymore. “Probably,” she agreed in a pinched voice. She cocked a brow and glanced at my chest.
“What? I didn’t have a tissue,” I said, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Too much?”
“It seemed to be to them,” she said, “but not to me. I’ll look at your chest any time. Thank you.”
I laughed, but it didn’t last long. I was too busy thinking about her bloody nose. “I know you did something for Izzy. And that’s great, but—”
“But,” she cut me off, “we still don’t know enough about the well so I shouldn’t be granting wishes. Except life-or-death situations.” She ended the mock lecture with a cocked brow.
I eased a hand behind her elbow and took a deep breath. “We still don’t know enough, babe. I know it’s disappointing that we haven’t found anything else, and I can see that it’s wearing on you, but we have to keep trying. Okay?”
She nodded and strands of her black hair fell around her eyes. I swept them back and tucked them behind her ears. “I know,” she agreed. “I’m not saying that I want to live with this the rest of my life. The voices and the headaches are a pain, but it feels like it might be worth it if I can do some good. It’s so hard not to help when I know exactly what the person wants and I have the ability to make it happen.” Her eyes shifted around the room, looking everywhere but me.
I cupped her jaw with both hands and shifted her face back to me. “Hey, I get it. I do. I just want you to be careful.” Her big eyes finally looked into mine. “Is this why you looked sad downstairs?”
“What?”
“We were talking about the car and you looked upset. I just thought it might’ve been about searching. Were you getting headaches downstairs, too?”
She shook her head inside my grip then removed my shirt from her nose, making sure she had stopped bleeding. She bit her lip nervously. “No headaches downstairs. I was just having some thoughts.”
“Should I be worried?”
“No, not at all. I just…” she paused with a deep breath. “It’s going to sound stupid, I know.” I didn’t respond. I just waited for her to finish. “You’ve been stuck with me, cooped up in this house. Izzy said you were avoiding going places so I just thought—”
“No, don’t even, babe,” I said, pushing my fingers into her hair, cradling her head.
“But how can’t I, Ben? I mean, seriously? I don’t want to be the reason you aren’t out having fun your senior year. I felt that way in Summerlin when I had to watch Gavin all the time. I never minded staying home with him, but I also never wanted to hold people back.”
“I’m not stuck with you. I want to be here, and I would be here even if we didn’t have all the extra crap going on. If you had to watch Gavin. If you were just some weird recluse,” I joked.
She ignored my humor. “I don’t know why. I’m a damn freak,” she whispered, staring at the wardrobe that Iz and Spaz had disappeared into. Her eyes glassed over and turned a deep, emerald green as tears welled inside. It made them even more captivating. But if I had to choose, I’d always prefer their lighter shade. That way I’d know she wasn’t sad.
“You’re not a freak,” I said. She looked at me again, arching her eyebrows skeptically. “Okay, maybe you are a freak. But I like that,” I teased. That got her. She cracked a smile and blinked. The tears escaped her lids and I quickly wiped them away. “I guess I’m not doing a very good job as a boyfriend. I should really take you somewhere out of this house. Like on a real date.”
“Boyfriend? Who said you were my boyfriend?” she teased with a sweet smile.
I clutched my chest. “That one kind of hurt.”
She tucked a corner of my shirt into my back pocket then reached up to my chest, replacing my hand with hers over my heart. Her fingers moved back and forth along my skin, warming my body with their touch. “I think you are doing an amazing job as a boyfriend.” She tipped her face back up to look at me.
I combed my fingers through her hair absently. “Oh yeah? I’m not so sure. If I was doing a good job, you’d never cry.”
“You know you aren’t the reason for my tears.”
“But I can’t prevent them, and that’s just as bad.”
“Not the same,” she said and shook her head. “What matters is that you’re drying them.”
“Still,” I added as her hands moved up my neck into my hair. “I’d rather prevent them from happening at all. That’s the reason I need to keep looking,” I admitted.
“And that’s why you’re not a douche. You’re an amazing boyfriend.” She pulled my face down to hers, effectively ending the conversation.
So I kissed her. I yanked her closer and she stood on her toes, like she couldn’t get close enough. It was what we both needed. To let go of everything else. To get lost in each other for a few minutes without worry or concern. Her body pressed firmly against mine and writhed in a way that made me ache for more. I didn’t want to take advantage of her. Since we didn’t know everything about the curse, it felt like that’s what I’d be doing if we slept together again. Maybe I was being stupid. Maybe I wasn’t. I’d been so conflicted with everything lately that I didn’t know what to think anymore aside from the way I felt about her.
I slid my hands down to her ass and squeezed greedily. She whimpered into my mouth and her hands tugged my hair. That response drove me on. I didn’t want to think about caution or reason. I wondered why I’d been hung up on them for so long. We were trying our best to find answers anyway, why keep her at a distance when I knew we both wanted so much more with each other? It all see
med so dumb right now. I wanted this girl so badly and I’d do anything for her.
More muted noises came from within Spaz and Iz’s wardrobe behind us, reminding me that we weren’t alone. It was probably a good thing, though right now I was screaming inside. With the way her mouth tasted and the way her ass felt, I wanted nothing more than to rip her clothes off and lay her down right here. Damn.
“Ahem,” Spaz said with a cough behind us. “I think we’re going to take off, guys. Should we just see ourselves out?” he added and Iz giggled when LJ and I kept kissing.
I slowed the kiss and opened my eyes to hers. Her lips were full and pouty. So sexy. I nipped her bottom lip and stole two more soft kisses as her lips turned up into a smile. “When’s your dad coming home?” I whispered, ignoring Spaz’s question. I needed more of her tonight.
Her smile flashed bigger, but quickly dropped into a frown. “Soon.”
I scowled. “I don’t even care,” I admitted and she chuckled.
“Okay, we’re out of here,” Spaz interrupted again.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said louder to him, but kept my eyes on LJ. I whispered to her, “This isn’t over.”
“Mmm,” she hummed delightfully.
I finally tore my eyes from her as Spaz and Iz started moving toward the drop-down ladder. “Are you guys going to wear any of this stuff?”
“Yeah,” Iz replied for both of them.
“You can take it with you if you want,” LJ said, tucking her dress back into its bag.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Spaz said and we both walked over to the wardrobe to grab the clothes we’d chosen.
“There are too many pieces to figure this dress out alone,” Iz said to LJ. “Can I just come over early and get dressed here with you? Unless you have to work, or you’re planning on doing something else before the party?” Izzy said to LJ suggestively.
LJ laughed then replied, “No, I’d love for you to come over to get ready. That would be a lot of fun.”
“Great,” Iz said.