Slow Burn(33)

    “No, you don’t. Not until I see it.”

    “Fine,” I said. I opened the door. “I’m showing you. What do you think?”

    Stacey popped out of her dressing room. “Oh! Gosh, it’s way too frilly, isn’t it?”

    “Told you,” I said.

    Stacey turned to Griffin. “What do you think?”

    He eyed me. “Um, I like it.”

    Stacey rolled her eyes. “Boys. They’re useless. You’ll have to try on something else.”

    “Okay,” I said. “I like yours, though.”

    Stacey preened. “Thanks! I like red. Matches my hair.” She darted back into the dressing room.

    I went back into my side. “I don’t know why we’re trying on these dresses anyway. I don’t have anywhere to wear it. I can’t go out anymore. Too easy to get tempted or to run into the regular crew.”

    “They’re sober dresses,” she said. “A reward.”

    I tugged a different dress over my head. It was yellow. Really yellow. How had this ended up in my pile of clothes to try on? I didn’t think I’d picked it out. “But what use is a reward if you can’t use it?” I opened the dressing room door. “I’ve got another one to show you.”

    “Okay, give me a second,” she said. “You know, Griffin, if you’re bored, you could go hang out with Jack in the arcade.”

    “I can’t do that,” said Griffin, grinning at me. “I have to stay close enough to watch Leigh.”

    Stacey came out of the dressing room. She had on another red dress. It was cute.

    “Oh, I like that one,” I said.

    “Me too,” she said. “But yours is so... yellow.”

    “I know,” I said. “I swear I didn’t pick this out. You did, didn’t you?”

    “Maybe,” she said. “But it looks yellower now that you’re wearing it.” She squealed. “Oh my God, I just had a really awesome idea!”

    “Is it about making it not so yellow?”

    “No,” she said. “Don’t be silly. It’s about where we can wear our fabulous new dresses.”

    “Where?”

    “A party.”

    I shook my head. “No, I can’t. It’s a bad idea. The last time I had a party, I ended up going straight to my dealer afterwards.”

    “It’ll be a sober party,” said Stacey. “A party to commemorate your one-month sober. Isn’t that awesome?”

    “I can’t,” I said. I looked at Griffin. “Back me up, here.”

    “Where would the party be?” asked Griffin.

    “At Jack’s and my place,” she said.

    “How many people are we talking about?” he said.

    “I don’t know. Just NA people,” she said. “People our age. Not the meth ladies from Grafton or anything.”

    I laughed. “Still...”

    “I think it’s fine,” said Griffin.

    “You do?” I said.

    He shrugged. “Sure. As long as it’s small and contained and you’re not strung out on cocaine.”

    “But I thought that you would think it was a really bad idea.”

    “Well, I don’t,” he said.

    Stacey clapped her hands together. “Awesome. This is going to be so cool, you’ll see. Jack and I are going to the Morgantown NA meeting next week, and we’ll invite all our friends from there.”

    “This is really going to happen? I haven’t found a good dress yet.”

    “Try on the blue one,” said Griffin.

    “The blue one?” I ducked back into the dressing room to look through the dresses that were hanging up there. There was a blue one. I took it off the hanger. “Okay, I’ll try it.”

    It was periwinkle blue, with sparkles. It was simple, but nice. It had thin straps, and it hit about mid thigh. The color looked nice with my skin. I pushed my way out of the dressing room.

    “How’d you know?” I asked him.