Read Glimpse for Free Online

But then I tried to pull my hair back again and he grabbed my wrist and told me not to!”
    “What?  Why?”  Claire took the lavender dress off the hanger and handed it to me.
    “This is my favorite part!”  I stepped into the dress and turned so Claire could zip it up. “He said that it wasn’t bothering him and that he thought my hair was nice!”
    Claire zipped the dress up.  “Oh, my God!”
    “I know, right?  What do you think it means?”  I looked at myself in the mirror, also crinkling my nose at this dress. Yuck-o-rama, I looked deadish. I turned back around and Claire unzipped it.
    A quiet chuckle escaped from the next dressing room.
    My eyes met with Claire’s and we burst out in laughter. Sometimes we got way out of hand with our “oh my god’s” and “totally’s”.  We did actually have brains in our heads.
    The door to the other dressing room opened.  We stuck our heads out of the room and saw a well dressed older lady with grey streaked auburn hair and an enormous brown leather pocketbook.
    “Sorry we were being so obnoxious!” Claire called, “I guess you couldn’t help but hear us.”
    The lady looked back. “You two remind me of my daughter and her best friend when they were teenagers.” She smiled at us and then walked out into the store.
    We ducked back into the dressing room. I held the lavender dress out to Claire and took the green one from the hanger, sliding it on.  It flowed over my body, grazing all the right areas, brightening up the color of my eyes.
    Claire grinned.  “That’s the one Zel.  How much is it?”
    I pulled the tag out from under my armpit.  I hadn’t even bothered to look earlier. “$59.99, it was meant to be.”

 
Chapter Four
     
     
    In youth group on Sunday, I hoped that Avery would talk to me again, but all he offered up was a kind “hello.”  Had I been reading too much into our conversation on Friday? Claire, too? As we had proven at the mall, we were prone to being spazmatic and teenagery when it came to him. Maybe Avery was just being nice. That was probably it.  I was such a dork, standing there letting my generic shampoo smelling hair blow up his nose.  What’s that smell?  Oh, eau de pathetic Jesus home-school girl?  Check ya later. Ugh.
    The school week dragged on, more of the same, practice tests and peanut butter sandwiches.  By Saturday, my birthday, I was ready to bust out of my skin. Avery or no Avery, I was finally sixteen.  Thank freakin’ God.
     

    “I’m not really sure if I want to put the streamers up, Dad.  What do you think?  Does it seem too, uh, juvenile?”  I stood in the middle of the church basement, surveying the pink and green streamers that Dad had spent the better part of an hour twisting and affixing around the room, dragging his ladder from corner to corner. 
    “Honey, streamers are not juvenile.  I had them at my fortieth birthday party in this very room, don’t you remember?”  Dad ripped a strip of tape from the dispenser he had tucked under his arm and secured the last length of streamer above the door to his office.
    “The ones you had at your birthday were black, Dad.  It was a joke.  Don’t you remember old man?”  I smiled and ran to him, hugging his legs.  The streamers looked beautiful, whether they were juvenile or not.
    Dad put his hand on my head and ruffled up my hair.
    “Hey!” I pulled away from him, smoothing my hair back down. I had already washed it for the day and wasn’t going to have an hour to wash and blow-dry it again.
    “Just wait ‘til your mom and I are outta here before you and your friends decide to rip them down, okay?”  He climbed from the ladder, folded it up and stowed it in his office. He stooped under the doorway. “All right kiddo,” he said, ducking back out of his office. “Let’s get you home so you can get gussied up.”
     

    Claire and Melody were already dressed for the party and waiting for me in the family room.
    I came