Camp Shoni

by

Pamela

Chapter 4

 

He had plenty of time, so Lorin walked slowly toward Penny's house thinking over the events of the morning. He decided he would have to make a slight change in his plans. That night he would figure out what dress size he wore. Then Monday after school he would run to the store, buy the dress and take it home and hide it in his room before the rest of his family got home. All this would be done mechanically. He would not think, and not hesitate. It was that or his desire for the dress would just gnaw at him until he probably went crazy. Buying bras would take second place, and he would only do that after he had some time to come up with a new plan for buying them.

When he arrived at Penny's house he was ten minutes early. He debated whether or not he should wait before knocking on the door so as not to appear to be uncool. If the truth be told he was terribly nervous. Penny was so pretty and he so admired everything she did: how she moved and talked, how she made her hair and the clothes she wore, that it was kind of like being in the presence of royalty. He was used to seeing her at school, but now it would be so very different. He wished he could tell her how much he wanted to be like her. It really was that. It was envy pure and simple. If he could just be Penny it would solve all his problems. When he got to camp Shoni he would model himself after her. That would be the closest to her he could be, since miracles certainly never happened.

He glanced at his watch again. It was 12:53. Still too early. The front door suddenly opened and Penny's mom came out holding a dish of cat food. She saw Lorin and said What are you doing standing out there?"

"I'm here to see Penny."

"I know, Lorin. Come on in. I'll call for her."

Lorin reluctantly walked up the front path and entered the house.

"Penny!" Her mother called upstairs.

There was no answer.

"She's upstairs in her room, at the top of the stairs to the right." Her mother looked like an older version of Penny. The same pretty smile and long hair. She's probably on the phone. Its a wonder it doesn't become part of her head."

Lorin could not think of what to say. "Penny!" her mom shouted, "Lorin is here!"

"What?" Penny shouted.

"You better just go up," Penny's mom said to Lorin. Then she shouted a little louder than before, "It's Lorin!!"

Penny appeared at the top of the stairs. "Hi. I'm finishing up my hair. Come on up." She turned and went back to her room.

Lorin gingerly climbed the stairs and went down the hallway a few steps to the right to an open doorway that was clearly Penny's room. She was in a bathroom that was through a doorway at the far side of the bedroom.

"Hi Penny," he said.

"Hi. It'll be a couple of minutes. Just have a seat and get comfortable."

"Thanks," he said. He looked around. The room was not exactly neat. Her clothes, mainly some pairs of jeans and a few tee shirts were scattered on the bed, floor and on a desk chair. There was a poster on the wall of Vin Diesel. She had a large dresser. The only place to sit was on a corner of the bed near the dresser and he sat down.

"Janice will be a little late," Penny called out.

"No problem," Lorin said. He wished he could think of something to say. He racked his brain for a topic and could not come up with anything.

"He heard the water running. He noticed that the second drawer of the dresser was ajar and in it there was clearly what looked to be a number of bras in a pile that had been carelessly arranged, though next to it was a neater stack of folded bras. On the other side of the drawer were a couple of piles of panties. He couldn't believe how many bras and panties she owned.

"Why don't you put on a CD?" Penny called out. "I'll be another few minutes. I've been putting some highlights in my hair."

"What CD?" Lorin asked.

"Take any one you like."

Blake walked over to the CD player that was on the floor next to her desk. There was a large CD holder. He glanced through the titles and picked out an album by the "Who".

"How about the Who?" he asked.

"Who?" she said.

"Who!" Lorin said.

"Who?" she said again.

"Who, who, who!" Lorin said.

"What, are you an owl?" Penny said.

Lorin collapsed with laughter. "Its the group, the Who!"

"Oh, sure, I love them," she said.

Lorin put the CD in the player and turned on the music. He sat down again where he had been and again looked at the bras. He edged a little closer and then closer still and then stuck his face just above the open drawer and looked more carefully all the time trying to keep one eye focused toward the bathroom. One of the bras might have been the one he saw her wearing. The mixed up pile looked so disordered he couldn't imagine that Penny even knew what bras were in it. He tried counting how many there were. It was hard to figure, but he thought there might be at least eight. They were all white except for one blue bra. Some were kind of lacy and others were not. He backed away and stood outside the bathroom listening. He still heard the water running. What would happen if he took one he wondered. He could just put it in his pocket. She would never know. It would be more than a bra. It would be Penny's bra and he would cherish it and love it even. It would link them in some crazy way. And it also would help solve his problem of getting bras for camp.

"I just have to dry my hair," Penny called out and then she shut the door to the bathroom.

"OK," Lorin said. He went to the hallway and looked up and down it. No one was there. He went back to the dresser and reached in to the very bottom of the disorganized pile of bras and pulled out one of them. The bra was a bit worn and faded, and had a thin margin of scalloped lace across the tops of the bra cups. With pounding heart he balled the bra up and stuffed it into his pocket, and then got up and walked away from the dresser. He placed his hand in the pocket to make sure the bra was well within it and could not be seen. He would have to remember to not pull it out accidentally the rest of the day. It was soft to the touch and he fondled it lightly, savoring its range of textures.

It would be so nice to wear Penny's bra. It would make him feel like her girl friend. How pleasant it would be if he could visit Penny as her girl friend and not a boy that found dating so uncomfortable. He wondered if girls ever borrowed each others bras? Maybe he would find out at Camp Shoni that it was the norm. When he was finally alone that evening he would take out Penny's bra and put it on and he would think about Penny and himself as if they were girl friends.

He heard Penny make a sound in the bathroom and he felt a sudden pang of regret. Maybe Penny would end up missing the bra, wondering where it had gone. He hoped that it was one that she never wore anymore so there would be no harm done. In that case, his theft would be no more wrong that stealing from a trash can.

His hand once again inched along the outline of the bra. He would have to try it on as soon as he got home. Maybe he should also take a panty. He walked back near the drawer and glanced at the panties lying in the open drawer. There were so many of them. Suddenly Penny came out of the bathroom and he looked away from the drawer not before he was certain Penny had seen where he had been looking. She looked radiant and she smiled at him as she walked around to the dresser and shut the open lingerie drawer. She had done up her blonde hair with some reddish highlights and he thought she looked unbelievably sophisticated.

"Sit down," she said, sorry for the mess." Penny gathered up her jeans one by one and folded them neatly.

"It's no problem," Lorin said awkwardly. God, he thought to himself, when will I ever think of something intelligent to say. This was far and way the closest most intimate encounter he had ever had with a girl. Seeing Penny up close, being part of her daily life in her room, it was totally out of context. "You have a great collection of CD's," Lorin said. "It seems pretty eclectic to me. I mean thats great. To like all sorts of music is great."

"What do you listen to?" Penny asked.

"I like ..." Lorin hesitated trying to think of someone cool whom he knew about. Aware of Penny waiting for his answer, he froze up and his mind went blank. The fact was he liked a lot of different kinds of music himself. Finally he said, "Aerosmith. Yeah I like Aerosmith." The word had just popped into his head. Just recently his mom and dad had bought an Aerosmith CD and he had listened to it with them thinking it was pretty good.

"I like them too," she said, "at least as far as they're an old band. What are your favorite songs?"

"I like, um, "Girls of Summer" and also Dude (Looks Like a Lady)."" In fact, while his mom, dad and he had been listening to the CD, Lorin had looked over the album cover and these song titles had jumped out at him. It made him wonder if there was something psychic going on there.

Penny did not respond. Lorin was aghast at his inability to think of anything else to say. What could he talk about? Their classes together, people at school? What would he do if she didn't find anything he said interesting? Penny and he looked at each other in silence and then to Lorin's relief, Janice came into the room.

"Hi Lorin," Janice said laughing slightly.

"Hi Janice," Lorin said.

Turning to Penny Janice exclaimed, "I love your hair," and within in an instant she and Penny were talking together about her highlights and how she put it in and a hundred other things about hair that Lorin hadn't a clue about. But it was all very important stuff for him to know about. He listened intently and tried to memorize as much as he could. While listening, he realized that it was really his boy self Lorin who had the problem talking. If he could just imagine himself to be Lauren, then he would surely have many things to say. What kind of girl would he be this summer if he had nothing to say to the other girls? It was just girls being girls and he was certainly going to have to master that kind of conversation if he was to fit in and not arouse suspicion.

He felt energized and concentrated hard on Penny and Janice's conversation and decided he would become part of it. Janice was saying, "Lydia said she's going to get a perm tomorrow at Tangles."

"Where is Tangles?" Lorin said.

Janice looked at him surprised, "you know its out on Bentley Boulevard."

"Is it a nice place?"

"I haven't been there. Have you?" Janice said asking Penny.

"Just once. The stylist was kind of overbearing. I couldn't deal with it."

"Where do you go?" Lorin asked.

"Usually my mom drives over to the Fairfield mall. She knows the owner there like for 50 years."

"I go to a barber," Lorin said and then added hastily, "but I would like to go to a salon where I could get my hair styled."

"You have very nice hair," Penny said. "You keep it long."

"I don't know why I do," Lorin said, "but I guess I like it like that."

"You should put highlights in it," Janice said.

"You think so?" Lorin said with great interest.

"Sure," Janice said, "you see how pretty it made Penny."

Penny laughed and Lorin did not know if Janice was implying that he would be pretty too.

"I think Penny is pretty even without the highlights," Lorin said.

Penny and Janice laughed. "You shouldn't take her seriously," Penny said. "Janice is always teasing everybody."

Changing the subject Janice said, "did you hear that Raymond's brother Dave broke his leg yesterday?"

"For real? You're not teasing!" Penny said.

"You mean Raymond in our math class?" Lorin said.

"Yeah," Janice said looking up at Lorin.

"What happened?" Lorin said.

"Raymond took out Sarah last night. He's like so after her. Anyway Sarah told me this morning that Raymond said that the guys were playing hardball at the diamond and Dave is like showing off or something and he slides into home plate, but he caught his cleat on something and Raymond says it was terrible."

"How awful," Lorin said, "did he go to the hospital?".

"Yeah, Petey's dad was coming to get him and he took Dave to the hospital."

"Wow. Did you ever break a bone?" Lorin said to Penny.

"No, what about you?"

"No. but my sister did."

"Do you ever play ball with the guys?" Penny asked Lorin.

"Oh, no, I guess not," Lorin said. Penny looked surprised. Alarmed, Lorin went on, "I prefer other things. I like crafts and I play the flute a little."

"That's what girls like," Janice said.

Lorin blushed, "a lot of boys like those things."

"And some girls really like to play baseball. I really do," Penny said.

"I do like to swim," Lorin said but it was too late. He was on the other side of a divide from Penny. How could she like a boy who was less athletic than she was? And besides, he had her bra in his pocket and if he was honest with himself he would admit that he was very excited by the knowledge that he'd get to try it on later in the day.

"Yeah, Janice and I are both on our neighborhood pool swim team in the summer. Are you on a swim team?"

"No. I just swim at camp. There's a nice lake there. They have a mile swim every summer. I almost made it all the way last summer. I hope I'll make it this summer."

"Penny set the pool record for longest swim," Janice said, "it was 500 laps which is about 2 miles."

"Cool," Lorin said trying to sound upbeat. If Penny were going to Camp Shoni she would definitely be a wolf, that was clear. And he was even more of a bunny than he thought.

 

 

It was hard to figure out how the "date" went. Lorin dutifully tagged along with Penny and Janice on the trek to the lake park. There they met up with a few other kids, some guys and girls that Penny seemed to know pretty well. She introduced Lorin to them and while no one was impolite to him, neither did they take great interest in him. Considering how boring these kids turned out to be, it was more than a little disconcerting to Lorin that Penny seemed to like spending the afternoon hanging out with them. Lorin could think of a dozen things he would have loved to do with Penny but there was no opportunity to suggest them. If he ever got the chance to go out with her again he would try and insist that they go skating or to a movie or do something more fun than idly hanging out.

A large part of the conversation seemed to be about a party that had happened the week before where they had been able to get some beer. Lorin could not figure out if Penny had been there or not though she acted like she knew a lot about it. As the afternoon wore on, it reached a point where everyone was sitting on a fence in silence. The conversation had dwindled to the point that they weren't even talking about who could they get to buy beer for them. To Lorin's great relief Penny jumped down from the fence and said she had to go. For a second he wondered what he should do, but she looked at him as if to say he should come along and Lorin jumped down off the fence and joined her.

"See you later," Janice said without budging. Lorin smiled knowing that finally he would be alone with Penny.

As they walked toward Penny's house Lorin wondered if he should try and hold her hand, but then decided he had better not do that. Penny had not given any indication that she was so inclined. He thought of saying that he liked her friends, but it was too much of a lie. He thought they were utterly boring. He wanted to ask her what she saw in them, but figured she'd get insulted if he did. He looked at Penny and she looked back at him and smiled. She was very pretty, that was for sure.

At her house he said good bye and leaned forward a bit as if to kiss her but he did not sense any movement on her part and so he backed off. She said she had had a good time and they ought to do it again some time. On his way home he tried to figure out what he was feeling. Both elated and depressed and ultimately exhausted. Maybe he should have been bolder. Had she given him any signals or not? It was very confusing. Half way home he put his hand in his pocket and felt the bra. He had forgotten about it and now he felt a sudden lightening bolt of joy well up inside himself. He finally had a bra he could call his own. Yes, it was stolen and he felt bad about that, but it was Penny's bra so in a sense he had some right to it: because when he put it on, it would allow him to be closer to her. And he would wish only nice things for her, that was for sure.

When he got home he was alone. He went up to his room and into the bathroom and took out the bra so he could finally get a good look at it. Penny must have worn it many times. The lettering on the label was entirely washed away and he could not find out what size it was or what brand. He took off his tee shirt and put it down on the toilet tank lid. He held up the bra with one hand and arranged it so the outside faced away from himself. Reaching behind his back with his left hand he grabbed the other end of the bra and brought his two hands together in front so the bra was wrapped around his waist. He fastened the single clip at the largest opening and swiveled the bra cups around so they were in front. It was something he had thought about many times and he was pleased with himself that it had worked so perfectly. He pulled up the bra, put his arms through the shoulder straps and adjusted it slightly while looking in the mirror.

It fit pretty snug but it was not terribly uncomfortable. It was nice that Penny and he could wear the same bra. The bra cups were not very big but they still looked noticeably flat across his chest. What a pity that he did not have breasts developing on him like Penny and the other girls. There was something terribly unfair about that. He would have to get some sort of falsies to put in the bra cup. If he was to have some padded bras, then he certainly could not have his profile change from day to day.

He probably should have taken a pair of Penny's panties also. It would have balanced things. Wearing both her bra and panties would sort of been complete in some way. He fantasized going to school with her panties and bra underneath his clothes and sitting behind her in English class. It would almost be as if he were Penny. But then he'd want to wear her skirt and blouse and shoes and everything. It never ended.

The house was still silent. He put his shirt on over the bra and quietly went down the hall to his sister's room. In the past he had done some furtive investigation of her clothes but had never touched anything since she arranged everything very neatly and he was afraid of getting caught. Contrary to all stereotypes of teenagers, his sister seemed to put her panties and bras in her drawer with engineering precision. The most courage he had ever had had been to slide open her drawer and try and find out what size bra she wore by reading the labels that happened to be visible. He had learned this way that she was a 36C in size.

Her door was ajar and he pushed it open and went in. At the slightest noise downstairs he would have to run back to his room. Well, it was really not that dangerous. He often went into her room looking for a book to read or a pencil or something. He walked over to her dresser. As usual all the drawers were shut tight. He was about to pull open the lingerie drawer, when he noticed that there was some clothes in her waste paper basket that was next to the dresser. He stooped down to get a closer look and realized that there were panties that had been placed in it. It made sense since she had known that she was going to get some new underwear so she had thrown out some old ones. The top panty was white and kind of plain and well worn. He lifted it up and underneath was a blue panty with some lace around the band and below that another white panty. There was even a fourth one below that. It was white and more substantial than the others. The fabric was shiny and thicker. He pulled it out and held it up to look at. It was a panty girdle. There was a lace panel in the front shaped sort of like a medallion that fit over the stomach. This panty had not been visible at all from the top. If he took it his sister would surely not notice. Though it was possible she could change her mind and decide she wanted it. It would be a gamble if he were to take it. It wasn't really that worn at all. It almost seemed relatively new.

He went back to his room and into his bathroom, took off his pants and put on the panty girdle. It slid up easily enough to his buttocks, but took a bit of a yank to get it up and over them. The material was stretchy and once he had it on he knew immediately that it was probably a very good fit. Snug but not uncomfortably so. What good fortune he had had. In one day he had gone to having his own panties and bra. He looked at himself in the mirror and decided he looked pretty much like any girl he had seen. The only problem was his hairstyle which he would have to do something about. He thought about the three remaining panties. It was way too risky to take them. But he would have an opportunity to get them once her trash can was emptied the night before Wednesday's trash pick up. It was a job he sometimes had. Only this time he would have to make sure he got it. After thinking about it for a minute he decided that it was too risky to pilfer the panty girdle. If for some reason his sister changed her mind he would be a prime suspect for having taken it. The best strategy was to put it back where he had found it, and then attempt to get it the same time as the other panties. He took off the panty girdle and ran back to his sisters room and put it back in the trash can and then ran back to his own room and closed the door.

He took off his bra, got dressed again and thought about where he should hide the bra. It had to be a perfect spot that would never get discovered, and large enough to hold all the stuff he was going to have to get. He looked around his room at the dresser, the closet, under his bed. His mom had too many reasons to look in each of these places. He went into his bathroom and looked around. His mom kept cleaning supplies that she used under the sink so that was no good. He noticed that there was a metal plate held by four screws on the back left wall of the bathroom. He had never opened it before. Curious, he got a screwdriver and undid the screws. When the plate fell away he saw that it was an access panel for the shower/bath tub in the hall bathroom that was on the other side of the wall. He got a flashlight and looked in. It was a bit cramped at the opening but there was some significant space inside on the side of the tub. Absolutely perfect! No one would ever have any reason to go in there. He fetched a plastic bag, put Penny's bra in it and put it in the space and then put the cover back on. So cool, he thought to himself. This is going to be too easy!

Lorin jumped onto his bed and got out his diary and opened it up. He wrote:

Dear Barbie:

I can't believe my luck today. I was able to get my first bra. Well to tell you the truth I sort of did a terrible thing: I stole the bra from Penny. I'm sure its one of her old bras that she doesn't care about, but still I know what you're thinking and I promise I won't steal anything again!

Here is what I really want to confide in you. I just tried on the bra and I think it fits me really well and to tell you the truth I think I really look good in it. Like I should be wearing it, only of course I wish I did have more of a bust to fill it out with.

But anyway so much happened today. I went to the store to buy some bras and well that didn't exactly work out too well and I don't know what I'll do about it but I did find exactly the dress I want for the cotillion. I took one look at it and fell in love with it. I don't think I can bear to live without it. After school on Monday I'm going to buy it. I am so determined. I know its crazy and all but I don't know how I could sleep at night not knowing that I own that dress. I know I won't stop thinking about it until I get it.

Wish me lots and lots of luck Barbie.

I love you, Lauren.

Lauren drew a heart and some lips as if he had kissed the page. He shut the diary and put it away. He thought about at least trying on the other of his sister's panties but it was too risky. Someone could return at any time now. He would just have to be patient until Tuesday night when he would volunteer to collect the garbage.

When his parents came home they were anxious to hear about how his date went, and he gave them a fairly truthful account. Penny had been friendly enough and he thought she might want to see him again, but it wasn't exactly too thrilling to spend the afternoon doing basically nothing. His Dad especially seemed pleased by the report and Lorin felt sure that both his mom and dad would more than likely not raise the subject again any time in the near future.

While lying in bed before falling asleep Lorin thought over the events of the day. He would have to think more about how he could get the rest of the bras he needed, that was for sure. He'd have to go somewhere else than Jensen's. He felt that he had made some progress in learning how to talk like a girl, but he would definitely have to get more knowledgeable about a bunch of things before he'd be able to just go on and on like he was a real girl. He'd have to think more about what girls want to say about boys and about their girl friends and about shopping for clothes and make up. All kind of things.

 

 

Lorin carried all his money with him when he went to school on Monday. The grand sum of $192.37. Penny smiled at him in school but she did not mention the date and he didn't either. He was so preoccupied with buying his dress that it took precedence over any future plans he might have with Penny. During the day he glanced at the wall clock a hundred times waiting for it reach 3PM so he could run to the store. He felt that each passing minute gave someone else an opportunity to buy the dress he coveted. It was bad enough to have to endure the entire day Sunday but he had somehow gotten through it. A big help had been a fun trip he had taken on the internet looking for websites that gave information on dress sizing. He had found a chart of "Misses Sizes" that seemed appropriate to himself. According to this, girls with a small bust (32-34), a cup size of A-B, a waist 23 - 25 and hips 34 - 36 wore dress size 6 - 8. Since his bra size was 34NA or he could pretend it was 34A, then he might need a size 6 or 8 dress. He went and got the tape measure again and checked his waist and hips. His waist was about 27 and his hips were 33. Clearly, girls had thinner waists than boys and wider hips, but he figured that he would be able to at least squeeze into the size 8 dress, so that was what he would buy. In his daydreams while waiting for the final bell he wondered just how popular would the size 8 dress be. He hoped that it was not a common size.

When the dismissal bell rang Lorin set out for downtown as nonchalantly as he could pretend. He had already told Kenny that he wouldn't be walking with him due to an "errand" his mom had sent him on. Another small lie. Since he had no idea how big the dress would be after it was wrapped up to take home, he took the precaution of putting all his books in his locker so that his back pack was virtually empty. His plan was that he'd buy the dress after telling Miriam that his girl friend had come by on Sunday to try it on along with some others. After discussing it, she had said OK to that dress and she wanted him to pick it up for her. It was not the best story, and he thought that Miriam might have her suspicions, but what else could he do? He would not return home without his dress.

When he got near the store he scouted around looking to see if there was anyone he knew. His mom and dad would both be at work many miles from downtown and it was not lunch time so there was no possible reason he could think of why he would run into them. His sister was no doubt at her cheer-leading practice at the high school so he wouldn't have to worry about her either. The coast seemed to be clear and he entered the store and went right to the escalator. No time for thinking or anything else. He would charge ahead.

When he got to the top of the escalator his heart was pounding. He looked around for Miriam and did not see her. He walked in a straight line toward the dresses and he saw the same mannequin as on Saturday wearing the same dress. My goodness he thought to himself its even more beautiful than he had remembered. He trembled with desire to own such a precious thing. When he looked at the rack of dresses he realized immediately that it was so much sparser than it had been on Saturday. In fact there seemed to just be about 4 or 5 dresses left. A terrible knot formed in his stomach. There was a woman not too far away looking at dresses but no sales person. Feeling hot in his face he walked up to one of the dresses and searched out the tag for its size. The delicate fabric was soft and filmy and precious. The price tag had a bunch of numbers on it and he finally figured it said the dress was a size 12. Way too big for him! It even looked too big. He then saw that there was a tag sewn into an inside seam and there was a large 12 written on that.

The next dress over was a 14 and the one after was a 4. Panicking he wished with all his might that the last one was an 8 but it turned out to be a 4 also. A feeling of despair came over him. He looked over at the other dresses. None of them were as nice and perfect as his own Cinderella dress with gathered skirts and shirred bodice. He did not know what to do. Could it be there were more in a back room somewhere? But why would there be? It made no sense that they hadn't put them out.

"Can I help you?"

He turned around and saw that a relatively young saleswoman had come up to him. She was wearing a badge that had no name written in it.

"Yeah, um, I guess I was wondering if you had this dress in an 8?" His voice was wavering and kind of falsetto. He cleared his throat. "My mom sent me to get it for my sister. She tried it on yesterday."

"Oh, you don't have any idea how busy we were yesterday. This is such a pretty dress. So many girls were trying to get a jump on their prom dress. Have you checked these, none of them are 8's? That is the most popular size. Your sister should have put a reserve on it!"

"You don't have any in the back?"

"No, I'm afraid that for prom dresses we just get a few each year and put them out."

Lorin felt his eyes filling up with tears. The woman noticed it and Lorin fought them back as hard as he could.

"I really wish I could help you. Is it so terribly important? Your sister can't choose a different dress?"

Quietly, Lorin said, "yeah, I guess so. But she had her heart set on this one." A single tear came out of his right eye and he sniffled his nose. The thought of his loss was too much. If he didn't walk away quickly he was going to cry. The woman was clearly puzzled by his pent up emotion.

She stared at him and as long as she did Lorin could not turn away from her gaze. "What's the matter?," the woman asked gently. Lorin began to cry.

"Why are you crying?" she said.

This made him cry even more. He fought to gain control of himself and finally he did. The woman who had been shopping nearby looked over in surprise. I'm sorry," Lorin said, I guess I'm to blame for my sister not getting it yesterday. Its a long story. Anyway, I'm sorry."

He began walking away and the woman said, "Wait, did you look at the dress on the Mannequin?"

Lorin stopped and turned around facing the mannequin. He shook his head.

"Sometimes they put a middle size on the mannequin because the mannequin is a middle size!" Beth said. "Take a look."

Lorin walked up to the mannequin. Even though there were no features to the face he still felt like he was approaching a real girl and he felt the same way he did when he was close to Penny. The mannequin was standing on a small pedestal and when Lorin stood in front of it he was looking up at the head and he became aware of how powerfully feminine the dress was. It seemed to envelope him in its softness and flowing design. He noticed just how prominent the breast of the mannequin was and he felt some envy. He stood on his toes and reached around to the back collar and looked in to see the size. He was stunned. There in front of him was a perfect number "8" clear as day on the tag. "Its an eight!" he said way to loudly. "Its an eight! Can I buy it? Can I buy a dress on the mannequin?"

He looked at the saleswoman. "I don't think I've ever seen even a girl act so excited about a prom dress," the woman said, "but, sure you can buy it. We just have to take it off the mannequin." She unzipped a back zipper on the dress and very gently lifted it up and off. "Lets go to the counter and we'll ring it up for you. How will you be paying?"

"I have enough money with me," Lorin said.

"You mean cash?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess."

The woman stared at Lorin a full minute thinking. Then she said, "I don't suppose its any of my business, but I just want to say to you, be careful. Do you understand?"

Lorin looked at her fearfully. "You mean carrying so much money?"

"You know what I mean."

Yes he did know what she meant. She knew the dress was for him. He wanted to run away as fast as he could or vanish into the floor. But the dress was splayed over the counter and it was so beautiful and he could not imagine leaving it behind. He was so in love with the dress he would find some way later to think about what the saleswoman had said and maybe then he would try to be a better person.

Once again he felt tears forming behind his eyes. He must be a terrible person at heart for all that he was doing.

"I don't mean for you to cry," the woman said as she now placed the dress in a plastic garment bag with the store's logo on it.

A few tears slid down Lorin's cheeks while he took out his wallet and put 109 dollars on the counter.

"There's $6.54 in tax also," the saleswoman said.

Lorin counted out the additional money and added it to the $109. The woman took the money and rang up the dress on the register and handed the receipt and some change to Lorin. Then she gave him the dress which he slung over his arm.

"Remember what I said," she said.

Lorin tried to force a smile as he shook his head up and down in agreement.

Outside in the street Lorin collected himself. Luckily he could not see anyone he knew. He walked around to a side street, took off his back pack and proceeded to fold the dress up so that it would fit inside. He had to break some holes in the plastic to let out air, but he did end up getting the dress, a little bit more crudely than he had intended, to fit inside the backpack. He zipped it up and proceeded to walk home thinking to himself that he was either the luckiest boy in the world, or perhaps the stupidest.

End of Chapter 4

  

  

  

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