Chapter 31 || I Half Lied
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**Nicole's POV**

"Thanks for coming with me on short notice" Alice chimes as we enter the mall.

"No problem," I smile "I can't believe Dan asked you to the winter formal!"

Alice stops and puts her hands on her hips, "What does that mean?"

I laugh, "I mean that you two are so cute together! It's so exciting!"

"I know we are," she laughs and with a flip of her hair she taunts, "I am definitely the hot one in the relationship."

I laugh back at her.

She gives me a playful look, "Now you on the other hand. You and Jake both equally hot! You're a power couple."

I lightly punch Alice in the arm and she responds by giving me a pretend hurt look.

"Ekkk we are here!" She squeals as she grabs my wrist and drags me into a store.

Once we were dead center in the store Alice lets go of my wrist. My eyes scarcely wonder the store as I see millions of bra's hanging all over the place there was only one place where we could be.... only one place where I have been avoiding... Victoria Secrets.

I shift uncomfortably and look at Alice who is grinning.

"Aliceeee" I whine, "I thought you needed a dress for the winter formal?"

She shrugs with an evil smile, "I half lied."

Alice grabs my wrist and pulls me along while grabbing several things along the way.

As we get into the dressing room area Alice shoves me into a dressing room along with several bras.

"Alice, why do I need these?" I whine.

"May I remind you that you are going on a weekend trip with the hottest guy in the world"

"So what do I need these for?" I ask.

She gives me a blank stare before giving me a sly smirk.

"What?"

She begins nodding her head.

"Wha- Wait- NOOOOO!! Alice no!!!"

"Jake won't know what hit him. Go go! Try them on!" Alice shrieks

"Alice No. I am not doing that!"

"Just shut up and put them on. Humor me. I'm trying some on too" She winks and walks into a dressing room of her own.

"Why do I let you do this to me?" I ask as I shut the door.

"Cause I'm your best friend and I know what's best for you." She shouts back.

I pick up the first set of lingerie, "Alice this doesn't even have any fabric to it! Why would I pay 80 for a piece of cloth!"

Alice bursts into an uncontrollable laughter.

"It's true!"

"You clearly have never put a Victoria secrets bra on! It's like wearing a cloud." Alice says through heavy breaths.

I roll my eyes and finish changing. Not gonna lie the bra was comfy, Alice was right about that.

"Sooooo how do you like it?" Alice shouts.

"I feel so uncomfortable," I say looking into the mirror.

"Let me see"

"What!? NO way!" I shout.

She groans, "Because I will tell you if its good or not."

"But-"

"No buts get your butt out here."

I whine as I slowly unlock the door and Alice creeps in her set of lingerie.

"Girl what the..... I didn't realize you were a freaking model! If I had known I would have burned all your clothes and bought you better things to wear!"

My face became beet red.

"Navy blue is your color" She adds as I look into the mirror again "But really tho... Jake will die seeing you in this." Alice says while clapping.

"I think I died too." I choke.

Alice slaps my back, "You look good kid, you look good."

"How are you so comfortable walking around like that?!"

"Confidence! Which you need."

"Can I have some of yours?"

"No, you need to build it yourself."

I sigh.

"It will come Nicole, it will come," She says "Now go try the rest on!" and runs out.

I laugh as Alice runs and throws me more things.

I look into the mirror. Alice was right, Navy blue does suit me and I don't look half bad in this set. If anything I actually liked it, but I didn't want Alice to know.

As time went by Alice and basically tried on the entire store rating the lingerie.

"Work it girl!" Alice shouted as I walked out in the next set.

I laughed as Alice began to do model like poses but really emphasize them.

I even ended up having fun and getting more comfortable in my own skin.

"Which one is your favorite?" Alice asks as we finsh up.

I shrug, "I would never wear this type of stuff Alice, besides I can't afford it."

She shakes her head, "I didn't ask about buying I just asked which is your favorite?"

"I don't have one."

"Yes, you do now tell me or I will pick and you won't like that."

"Ugh fine the navy blue set. The first one I tried on."

She grinned, "I KNEW IT!"

I laughed, "Shut up."

"Tell you didn't feel like a model!"

"I didn't"

"Well, I don't believe you." She huffs

We put all the bras back, Alice picked her two favorite sets and bought them.

"Dress time!" She squeals as we exit the store.

"Haven't you had enough shopping?" I groan.

"No such thing!" She states as she grabs my hand and pulls me into a store.

"I'm hoping for a red dress dress but I open to anything" as she begins running from dress to dress grabbing anything she semi likes.

"I'm going to try these on! Look for more dresses then come back and give me opinions!" She says in one breath.

I nod and begin searching the racks carefully inspecting every dress, I want Alice to look the absolute best.

I keep pulling out dressed that all look the same just in different colors and designs. They are all boring and none of them says BAM!

None of them speak to me.

I continue searching until something catches the corner of my eye causing me to walk over.

I pull out the dress seeing it's a dark red color. The top is almost like velvet and would hug Alice's torso perfectly. The bottom is a little lighter shade of red that is more flowy than the top. My eyes widen as I quickly run the dress to Alice.

"Alice I-"

She comes out in a black skin-tight dress saying "Hey, how do you like----- Where did you find that?!" Her eyes jumping out of her head.

I shrug, "I don't know. It just called me. Try it on!"

She squeals and skips back into the dressing room. Five minutes later Alice comes out with an ear to ear thousand-watt smile, "This is the one!!"

"Alice that dress looks stunning on you! It's perfect! It was made for you!"

"I knoowww!!!" She jumps, "This is the one!"

I laugh as she continues to walk up and down the store looking at herself.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" She runs into her dressing room and comes back out hold another dress "I thought this would look amazing on you!"

I hesitate, "Aliceee... that's a little uh scandalous dontcha think."

"Oh pish posh. You already tried sexy panties might as well try on a dress."

I roll my eyes as she shoves the dress at me and pushes me into a dressing room, "I expect to see it after missy."

I shut the door and hold this dress in my hands. It was completely the opposite of me. The dress was cherry red that glittered in the light.

I slowly put the dress on and admire it for a second. The dress is amazingly crafted but it's not me.

It is a very tight dress that goes down to the ground and hugs me all over. It has a very low cut. I'm just glad I didn't wear a sports bra today.

I take a deep breath and walk out to a squealing Alice, "OMG I could just drop dead at this sight!"

My face reddens out of shyness and embarrassment.

"It's like your alter ego ate you and decided to come out!" She claps, "You look AMAZING" she sings.

"Alice can I take it off?" I ask.

"No, now walk over there and turn around" Alice orders me and if I don't she will never shut up or make me do something worse so I listen.

I begin to slowly walk in the direction she pointed me in mainly because I was scared to move but also I did not want to rip the dress.

I stop and pose for her and she claps with joy, "Now turn!"

I roll my eyes with a smile and do one of those model turns.

"Happy?" I ask.

"No! Again!"

"Really?!"

"Yes because you will never wear something like this again! We must treasure the moment." She tells me.

"Fine, but you owe me ice cream."

"Deal"

I nod my head and take a breath before doing one more model turn with a smile. Not going to lie I feel like this dress did bring out another side of me. I felt.... almost..... confident.

"Nicole?!" I hear from the entrance of the store taking me immediately out of my little daze.

Welp.... good feeling gone...

"What are you doing here Jake?" I saw completely embarrassed while crossing my arms over myself.

He didn't seem to hear my question... or look at me for that matter. Wasn's sure what he was staring at till I follwed his gaze to realize he was checking me out.

"Jake?" I try to jog him back to reality.

He blinks several times before looking at me, "Wow you look..."

"Amazing!" Alice chimes in while grabbing my arms and putting them behind her in such a suttle way that I couldn't tell what she was doing until she gave me a smug smile. Which was when I realized she was showing off the low cut which made my face turn beet red.

Jake's guard is completely down and he seems completely baffled "I- I was going to say beautiful..." he paused and looked again "But that works too."

I awkwardly laugh completely embarrassed.

"Welp I am going to get out of this dress and leave you two lovebirds to talk," Alice states and skips away.

My mouth drops as she runs away.

When I turn back to look at Jake I find him even closer than he was before, "Wow. Just wow. You really do look amazing Nicole. Really." He says breath-taken.

"Thanks," I say while shifting uncomfortably.

We stare at each other in silence for a moment, neither one of us saying a word.

"I'm going to go uh get out of this dress now...." I say not knowing what else to do.

"Can I come?" He says with a cocky smirk.

I slap his shoulder, "No"

"Worth a shot." He grins.

"Shut up" I fire back playfully.

He gives me a hurtful look as he puts his hand on his heart.

I roll my eyes and walk to the dressing room... I could feel Jake's gaze on me which wasn't the worst part... The worst part was... I liked it.

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A/N

Long time no see! I won't do this to you guys again sooo very sorry!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 10.4k+ READS WOWOOWOWOOWOWOWOWOW!!!! Almost died when I saw that :) ILYSM

Things have been a bit crazy rn.

I have finals soon so I will get the next chapter out as soon as I can! I want to make it good not quick and bad! So I will put everything into writing for you guys!

If i don't update please remind me because I get the notifications which remind me! Thank for all who did!!

Next chapter they will start their weekend trip!! Get pumped!!! I am!!!! I got some little surprises for you ;)

Shoutout to @grace_book-worm_05 for all the votes and comments! Thank you!

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Alyssa Rose