This will be my summer

Chapter 6 - clothes make people

The next morning we got up early. At least in Ashley’s terms. For me getting up at 8 am to leave at 9 wasn’t exactly early. But Ashley wanted to drag me to at least a thousand stores.

She usually wore brand clothes. She hadn’t always done that, but it started in high school when all the rich kids did it and continued in college. Most people at her private university had rich parents and showing off was just part of the deal. So now almost everything she had was by a brand.

I already told her I wouldn’t do the same. I was thankful she wanted to buy me new clothes, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to spend a lot of money on it. Luckily, she knew a few thrift stores with brand clothing, as that was apparently a new trend here. It gave the rich kids a sense of being responsible and helping the environment and stuff when they repurposed older clothes. And it was convenient for me, as I could get some brand stuff to mix with normal stuff at lower prices.

But first she dragged me to some brand stores. It started with more normal brands like S. Oliver and Benetton, but after a while we ended up in a Chanel store. I tried to think of the last time I had ever felt so out of place, but the only thing that came up was when I had gone out with Benjamin and his friends. If he had let me come with them at least. Usually he would tell me I was too ugly and he couldn’t be seen with me as he was a football player and had a reputation. Ugly was on the nicer side of the things he said. But other times he let me come out with him. He would usually get me one cheap drink for the whole night and put me in a corner with some other player he didn’t like so he didn’t have to take care of me. Then he would proceed to flirt with basically every girl he could lay his eyes on in front of me, while all I could do was just sit there and watch.

Thinking back, I really don’t know how I could live like that for so long. But it wasn’t always like that. When we started dating, he was the sweetest guy ever, always a gentleman. And when the bad things slowly started, I was already in love with him. I would have done anything for him. I would beg him to take me out with him, because this way I could at least spend time with him. And when he flirted with another girl, I thought it was my fault because I wasn’t good enough for him. It took me a long time to realize it was the other way around.

But I really didn’t want to think of that now. And being in this cold, expensive store with sales staff staring at me and my cheap clothes almost in disgust didn’t exactly help it. Just when I was about to tell Ashley I would leave and she could keep on getting more bags with new clothes to add to her ever growing pile, she turned to look at me. And one look at my face was all it took for her to realize how I was feeling. We immediately left.

Back in the humid heat outside I breathed in deeply to calm down and shake off the bad thoughts. Ashley looked at me with sorrow in her eyes, but I made it clear to her that I didn’t want to talk about it. Instead she just took me to another store. At first, I wanted to protest, but as soon as I stepped in, I was fine with it. It was exactly the kind of store I liked. Located in a basement, 80s music on the speakers and rows and rows of thrift clothes. No overly nice and disgusted sales staff, just us looking through the clothes. And it was actually fun. We discovered a lot of nice things. The first thing that I found and liked was a black leather jacket, just a little to big for me. It was biker style and had lots of spikes on the shoulders and in the front. On the back it had an embroidered red skull. I loved it at first sight. I could wear it with normal clothes or with a dress and heels. Even though it was on the pricier side as it was real leather, Ashley was okay with getting it for me as long as I would let her borrow it from time to time, which was fine by me. Usually I wouldn’t want anything made of real leather or fur, but as it was rather old and actually looked kind of used, I figured it didn’t really hurt anyone anymore.

The next thing we found were some black basic high heels for me. I had had quite a few high heels, but some of them were unreachable at my parent’s house and the rest Benjamin made me get rid of. He said he looked to small next to me when I wore them, so there was no point for me to have them. It wasn’t like I could go out without him.

After that we found a cute crop top that was black and had a cutout right between the breasts. It looked really sexy on me and we found a high waisted black pencil skirt to go with it. After finding several other tops and pants, we finally made it to the section with party dresses. I could tell because I heard Ashley yell “Hell, yeah” in excitement.

She found a cute flaming red dress with black flames for herself that went great with her hair. Then she made me try on several others. The first one was purple and had a lose fit but was rather short. Too short for my taste. “If I bend down, you’re gonna see my mouth all the way from my butt”, I told Ashley while trying to hold it down.

“Girl, that’s the point. There better be a guy or two behind you when you do that.”

I rolled my eyes as an answer to her reply. “It’s too short.”

Ashley frowned. “Well, purple isn’t good anyway. It is the color of the unsatisfied women. We don’t need to be that obvious.” She grinned.

I sighed and quickly changed into the next one. It was green with a completely open back and lace. It looked really mature and I immediately loved it. Plus it was great with my long blond hair and greenish eyes. We also got me a basic short black dress, a really sexy black dress with cutouts that made me look like a hooker (Ashley loved it), and finally a dark red short dress with a heart shaped cleavage and small straps that looked absolutely gorgeous on me. Ashley also found some things for herself as well.

When she got the bill for our shopping spree my eyes got as big as plates. Even though the clothes were thrifted, most of them were brands. With the amount of money she left in the store I probably could have paid rent for a month, maybe even more. But for her it wasn’t a big deal. Her mother even encouraged her to spend money on clothes, she always said that clothes made people. If you dress like you’re homeless, people will treat you as such. If you dress like you are rich, people will treat you with respect. And it will give you a boost of confidence.

And I think it really worked. Ashley and I were never really that shy, but definitely on the quieter end. Her more so than me. But since we left high school she got really extroverted and didn’t have any problem with talking to people anymore. Maybe I could learn that from her, and those clothes were another step to becoming more independent, even if it might not seem like it now.

I thanked Ashley profusely, then we hurried home because I was almost late for my afternoon shift. I actually got to work on the register quite a bit today as there were many people coming in, but I managed it well and Natasha later told me I did fine. But after it I was way too tired to go out. That didn’t hold Ashley back though, and the next morning she told me I was only leading by one anymore. Not without serving me an evil grin of course. So, I would definitely have to one-up her today. And I was actually excited for it.