It is a week till Christmas, and three days till I finally turn 21. I had already started winter break, got this week and half of next week off. It was gonna be awesome. I had planned most of my 21st birthday prior to break. I had a few colleagues and friends going. My parents had said that we would celebrate my birthday later with just the family. Despite the fact I was in college, and had a job, I chose to live with my parents. I wasn't quite ready to be on my own, and I'll be honest, I don't think I had all the skills to either. I cooked dinner once a week, it wasn't always good. Most of what I made was simple, like grilled cheese, spaghetti, hot dogs, burritos. It really was things my 16 year old brother could easily make. 

I grabbed my phone, to look and see if Jane had texted me. We wanted to shop for dresses, things that would make us blend into the adult atmosphere of a bar, but not look like we're hookers. Jane has been my best friend since high school, she is about a year older than me. My phone rings, and I look at the message showing on the screen. "Hey Lilie, I'm ready for you outside." I type back "ok" and head out of my room.

"Mom, I'm going now, I'll be back later." I yell, waiting a few seconds for my mom to respond. She does not, must be busy this morning. 

I head outside, Jane's light blue Audi is on the side of the sidewalk. I head over to the car, open the door and get in. I look at her face, smiling. She has beautiful dyed blonde hair, green eyes, and the same fair complexion I have. She is wearing a white shirt with a thick leather jacket, and thick black leggings. "If you can help it, can you try not to find me a black dress?" I ask, looking at the grim color scheme. 

"Well, what if you look sexy in black? I won't hit on you, but if we find a nice one that you like then why limit the colors? Plus I intend to find a nice blue dress, and hopefully a guy at the bar." She is smiling, I know she is straight. Even though she is constantly telling me I'm beautiful, I find it funny she wants to get hit on. Usually its her telling me to get a guy. 

"So... then what happened with your boyfriend?" I'm confused, is she trying to find another guy, or is her boyfriend not paying any attention to her?

"Oh, that... yeah. We broke up, turns out that he wasn't giving me any attention cause he was busy hanging out with this other girl. I was hanging out with James cause I was lonely, and we were going to watch a movie. Well we saw them going into a movie. I texted asking what he was up to, just to make sure it wasn't him. And sure enough it was, he had the audacity to tell me he was at home. So being the lovely angel I am, I took a picture of him, sent it to him, and asked if that was familiar. Then he starts looking around. He I guess told the girl to go find them seats cause she left, and he headed towards me. Then tried to make it seem like I was going with another guy, behind his back. I told him, 'I'm sorry, I'm here with my brother, the only guy who will give me more attention than you without needing to date.' and then I had decided right there that I was done with him. So we broke up in a movie theater, while he was with another woman. And I did ask who she was, 'just a friend' who gives a friend more attention then their girlfriend? I'd understand if it were a group of guys, but not when it looks like he is on a date." Jane was upset, this boyfriend had lasted a month. To me, by the sound of this mess he is worse than the last one. The last one broke up with her due to his parents forcing him into an arranged marriage. She wasn't as mad, but went on a tangent about how parents are too controlling. About how arranged marriages shouldn't be legal. She wasn't crying, but I could tell in her eyes how sad she was. 

"Well he was just a jerk, and if he felt it was right to cheat and be a complete ass to you then he'll probably get a woman just like him. And I'm certain you will get a man that will genuinely care, and give you all the attention in the world." I wasn't lying, there is probably someone out there who will love her. They might even have the same type of goth looking apparel. Plus, who is to say that she has been looking at the wrong gender, or group for that matter, to find the love she deserves. All of the previous guys, were into sports, the most recent was a football player. 

"I bet your right, and you'll probably find a good man too, who will do all the cleaning, cooking. Maybe they'll be rich and you could just lie in bed, and watch tv, and not have to worry about a single thing." Her smile got even wider, her voice is all cheery again. 

"Ok, Jane. We both know I don't want a guy. I wanna be strong, independent, and not have little monstrous children hanging from my neck. It'd be nice to not have to cook, and work, but that's not realistic. It's not the 1800's women don't sit in their house all day knitting, and watching monsters." I know I'm being blunt with that. Maybe a little too blunt, but least I'm being honest with her. 

"Ok, it may not be the 1800's but arranged marriages still exist, why can't a hot, rich husband exist to? Plus your only 21, who's to say that you can't work a few years before relying on him to do everything for you?" I can't tell if she is being sarcastic or if she is serious. You have to be kidding right? Sometimes she acts like she is ready to sell me off to some dude. If I ever end up with a boyfriend or kidnapped, I know who I shouldn't go to. I can half imagine her telling me, to just make them fall for me, and then they won't hurt me. 

"Some days you make me concerned about whether or not its a good thing that I'm still single." I'm more terrified that she would try to put me on a blind date or make me get a boyfriend. I never had one in all almost 21 years of my life. Granted me and my brother were not allowed to have a relationship in high school, and it was no friends in the bedrooms. The only exception was if it was a close family friend, or they knew the parents. Otherwise all sleepovers were in the living room or basement. I'm almost certain if I ever did get a boyfriend my brother would be the judge of that. 

"It's never good to be single, you'll end up lonely. And you will turn out like the crazy cat lady, or I guess in your case dog lady. You'll be like 76 and have like 15 dogs cause your lonely, and be super fit cause they need exercise. And maybe super broke cause they eat a lot." Now she is exaggerating, but I guess it might hold a grain of truth. We both end up laughing, 

The last 10 minutes are spent in semi-silence, we jam out to music, singing along. We get to the mall, fairly quickly, and head to the dress store. "Ok lets find a few dresses, and try them on." We look for a few dresses, I find a blue lace one, a red silk looking dress, and a green and red dress. Jane is looking at the blue and black dresses. "Hey, I'm gonna go try these on, if you find something I might like, go ahead and put it over the top."

"Ok, I will if I find something, though I'm not sure I will. Gotta find something sexy that will really highlight my curves." Only Jane could say that with dead seriousness and not laugh. 

"Ok, I'll make sure to put a thing on the outside so you know it's me." I leave taking my three dresses. I claim the room at the end on the left. I try on the red and green dress, and didn't really like how it was short. Then the red dress, and it was too long, I knew it was longer than the green and red, but I didn't think it would touch my toes. I wasn't that short, only like 5'5" but the bottom of the dress was long, and had a slit on the left. I tried on the blue lace one, the dress went to about an inch above my knee, and the lace top was from above my stomach and all around my back. The back was open a couple of inches from the top of the dress. I liked it, but I wasn't sure about the color. I took the dress off and turned towards the door. I hadn't realized there were two dresses there, hanging on my side of the door, obviously being thrown over. I didn't think Jane could give me clothes without scaring me. One dress was black and very similar to the blue. The black had a more open back and unlike the blue the cloth that was behind the lace was more of a silver than a see through tan. I tried that on and it fit perfectly, looked super nice, I found it hard to believe that Jane found a dress like this. The other was a silver color, and was like the red silk, only it went to about mid-calf, and had a slit on the right that went to about three inches above my knee. I took the black dress, and put all the rest on a hanger in the fitting room. I found Jane, looking for more dresses. "Have you found something?"

"I'm not sure, I like this blue dress. Though the color is too light for my skin." The dress she is looking at is a pretty sky blue color, it looks a little short, like it might go to her mid thigh. Looking at her skin and the dress it makes me think of the color of clouds in the sky. She is super pale, and compared to the soft blue, she looks like white paper. 

"Why not look for a red then? Or maybe a darker blue?" I know most her wardrobe is black, but when you almost blend in with a dress, I don't think that it's a good match. We walk over to the reds, and out of no where this guy approaches us. 

"Why not try this dress? I think it would look nice with your fair skin. It is a little revealing, but not so much so that you could get mistaken for a stripper." The guy is also fair skinned, jet black hair, he has beautiful azure eyes. He is wearing a red fitted shirt that would look well with a black suit jacket, and black slacks. 

Jane takes the dress and we both look at it. The dress is red, it has silver lace flowers, the sides are a silver and red lace. The front of the dress has a fabric that would cover her chest, and goes down to down to her stomach. Though other than the middle of her stomach the sides show entirely, the design on the sides wraps all the way around. and the fabric that would be around her chest wraps around the back. Above the chest piece has more laced shoulders, the shoulder top is about 2 inches on each side with the pretty lace design. The bottom of the dress is red fabric with many lace flowers, and a red lace that separates the individual flowers. "It's a very beautiful dress sir," She looks at me concerned, and slightly relieved to not have to look for another. 

"Go try it on, and if we can't find something here we can look elsewhere." I don't want to be alone with the guy, but I'm certain the dress would look absolutely beautiful on her. 

Jane nods, and walks away with her head down. 

Me and the guy are left in awkward silence. "So... do you work here?" I'm not trying to pry, but that was all I could think of to ease the tension. 

"No I don't, my brother is the owner. I just happen to have designed almost every dress in here." He isn't looking at me, and his face is nonchalant. 

How the heck does one guy create all these dresses, and not own the store? "So... then if you don't work here, then why would you help us?" I'm not being rude, but it's kinda creepy to have some dude help you. 

"I was just extending a hand, your friend seemed to be struggling to find a dress that she really liked. I assumed it must have been important, or some kind of social event. I wasn't trying to scare either of you." He is looking at me now, his eyes show that he is sad, or offended, but the rest of his face displays no such thing. 

Jane comes back with the dress in hand. "Ok, definitely doing this one. I like the way it hugs my ass and makes me feel like I'm not suffocating, or carrying some rocks on my chest." I burst out laughing, how she could say that with a straight face and not feel embarrassed is beyond me. Both of them look at me, I was laughing to hide my embarrassment. Jane catches on, "Oh... uh... sorry, thank you for the help. I didn't mean to make things weird."

"No problem, glad to help. And uh... I'm glad the dress fits?" He is kinda chuckling, and trying to keep a straight face. 

We both put our head down, and walk to the cashier. Both dresses are a lot less then we thought, so we decided to look for shoes. I got a nice pair of black heeled boots that went just above my ankle. While Jane settled on a pair of black heels similar to mine, only they went to her mid calf, and were lined with fur.

We then left the mall, and went out to lunch. "So what did you think of that guy? If I had to choose a type for you, he would probably be it." I have my hamburger in my hands, look up, and am completely dumbfounded. 

"I mean, he's hot, and seems like a nice guy. But like I have said I don't want a guy. I won't lie, I would be interested if I wanted one. But I do not, so my interest is not valid." I won't lie if I wanted a man, he would be my type, but he would probably be out of my league. Plus I'm not interested in everyone belittling me, and trying to make it seem like I did something shameful just to get them. I'm close to my Jane's brother James, and even though he has been assumed has her boyfriend numerous times. Never once did a stranger think we were together, others had said 'oh they have to be friends, how else would such an average chick get a hunk like him.' James didn't hang out alone with me often, he was my brother's friend. Elias, and James were about the same age. They often played games, or watched movies. The few times me and James were alone, was cause we were getting gifts for his sister, or my brother. "Now don't get me wrong, whose to say he would even like me? I mean, I don't even know the first thing about relationships. I'm like a novice of novices. I don't even think I have an ounce or romance in these genes. I did better in academics then I did at getting guys."

"Honestly Lilie, whose to say he wouldn't. You may not be interested, but that does not mean he might be. Plus I bet Eli, would want you to some type of person to be with. Doesn't have to be a guy, but I'm certain no one in your family want's you to be alone. You are always putting too much on your shoulders. Your mom, tends to complain to mine, about how she feels you aren't eating like you should, or how you spend too much time at work, and doing homework that you don't have time for yourself. And almost every time my mom asks me to check in on you and make sure it's all ok. Cause lets be real, our parents don't know our problems. Back in their time was like a hundred years ago in technology sometimes." She is serious, and I agree with what she said, all except for every part that involves a guy.

"You do know that they had technology right?" I have to point out something to get off of the topic of guys and my life.

"Yes, I do. Just like how I know how you avoid things. We have been friends for how long? Like 6 years, and your still doing the same thing. Geez, Lilie. I'm sure we all would hate something to happen cause your alone. Just promise you will be careful."