A Prom to Remember(41)

“Well, that’s nice.”

“And I paid for my ticket, and everything is taken care of, but I don’t have a dress. I thought for sure I’d be able to find one by now. I went through every dress in this house, and I even called Aggie to see if she had anything.”

Lizzie slumped down in a kitchen chair.

Her mom went through the cabinets. “I have just the thing,” she mumbled as she moved around canned goods.

“I can’t even begin to fathom what you’re looking for in the kitchen cabinets.”

Her mom stood on her tiptoes and rooted around in the back of the cabinet before pulling out an envelope.

“Here you go,” she said with a grin.

“What?” Lizzie asked, taking the envelope. There was a small stack of singles and a couple of fives stashed away in it.

“It’s not much, but I’m sure it’s enough to get something on clearance or maybe from the thrift store.”

“Oh my god, Mom,” Lizzie said, jumping up to hug her. “What was this for? I don’t want to take money for the electric bill or something.”

“Nah, this is fun money that I’ve been squirreling away all year, knowing that you might need something for graduation. I was going to give it to you anyway. But now you can use it for your dress.”

Lizzie squeezed her mom even harder, and her mom squeezed back. “Thank you so much.”

“I’m just glad you came to me,” her mom said.

“You have no idea. I was close to selling off my hair or something.”

“I don’t know if that actually works outside of old movies,” her mom said.

Lizzie bounced into school that morning. All in all, there was forty-three dollars in the envelope, and she was sure she could find something for that much. When she saw Madison she ran up to her.

“Do you have plans later?”

“Aside from softball practice? No.”

“I need to go prom dress shopping.”

“Oh, me too. I was going to wear something from my closet, but I don’t know. None of it felt right. Do you think we go to one of those schools where they won’t let girls wear tuxedos to prom?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Lizzie said.

The rest of the day dragged on, and then waiting for Madison to finish with softball practice dragged on, and then it was finally time to go dress shopping. Lizzie had honestly never been this excited about shopping before. It was definitely the joy of having money coupled with the relief of having money.

They walked into the mall just after six.

“Can we shop first and then eat?” Lizzie asked. She wasn’t sure she’d even have money for food, but this way she’d have a better chance at being able to eat.

“Yeah, sure. I think it’ll help us choose quicker.”

Madison walked them toward Lord & Taylor.

“Any chance we could try Macy’s first? Or even JCPenney?” Lizzie asked. She struggled to find an excuse for this request, then shrugged. “They tend to have a better selection of plus-size dresses and are more in my price range.”

“Sure, but since when do you need plus-size dresses?” Madison asked, turning on her heel and walking in the other direction.

“Since I’m plus size.”

“But you’re, like, not fat,” Madison said. No one had ever quite been so blunt about this before with Lizzie. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being fat. It’s just not a word I would use to describe you.”

“I’m fat enough.”

“What size do you wear?” Madison asked.

Lizzie hesitated. She hated talking about stuff like this. It was why she avoided shopping with friends, even people she trusted like Madison.

“I swear I’m not going to put it on blast to the whole school or something. But it’ll help when we’re trying to find dresses together.”

Lizzie felt a little wave of relief. “Right. Um, a 16 or an 18, depending on the cut. And I can’t really wear junior’s sizes. They don’t exactly fit my stomach. Or my arms.” She blushed but Madison was still all business.

“All right, we’ve got this under control,” Madison said. “For the record, I’m an 8 or a 10 if you see anything good for me.”

Instead of veering toward the junior’s section in Macy’s, they took the elevator upstairs. But Madison didn’t go to the back of the store to the plus sizes, and instead went toward the formal dresses.

“Do you really think they’ll have my size over here?” Lizzie asked.

“It’s worth trying, right?”

They split up and started searching. Every dress that Lizzie looked at was way too expensive, and every dress that Madison held up for her had the same exact problem.

And that’s when she saw it. The promised land.

Also known as the clearance rack.

She walked over and found a section of size 16 dresses; most of them were still too expensive, but one of them was thirty-five dollars. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted. It was red and short and might not look great on her. But the price was right so she might as well try it on.

She showed it to Madison.

“That’s not exactly what I would have picked out for you, but I like it.”