like a little girl. I twisted in front of the mirror, checking out the back. Not too bad.
"You should pull your hair up," Dee said, appearing beside me. She reached up, artfully twisting my long hair atop my head. "You have such a long neck. Show it off. I can do it for you if you like and your makeup, too." I nodded, thinking it would be fun. "Thank you. I would've never thought I'd look good in this dress."
"You'd look good in any of these dresses." Dee let go of my hair. "Now you need shoes." She nodded over to the shoe racks. "Anything red or clear would work. The more strappy the better."
I poked around the shoes, thinking of a pair of strappy heels I had at home. God knows this dress was going to cost every last cent my mom had happily handed over this morning. I picked up a pair of red heels, though. They were divine.
A skeevy feeling coursed over me as I stood there. I glanced around. The girls were in the back, looking at clutches, and the clerk was behind the counter. The door opened, making a wind chime sound. No one was there.
The clerk looked up, frowning. Shaking her head, she returned to reading her magazine.
I shivered as my gaze crawled past the door to the windows in the front of the store. Beyond the garbed mannequins, a man stood on the sidewalk, looking in. His dark hair was combed back from his pale face. Most of his features were covered with a pair of oversized sunglasses that seemed out of place on such an overcast day. He was wearing dark jeans and a leather jacket.
And he gave me the creeps.
I moved behind the racks and pretended to be checking out another dress. Causally, I lifted my head and peeked over the rack.
He was still there.
"What the hell?" I muttered. Either he was waiting for someone in here or he was a total creeper. Or an Arum. I refused to consider the last one. Glancing around the near-empty store, I was going to go with creeper.
"What are you doing?" Lesa came out, tugging on the zipper to a pink trumpet dress that gave her boyish figure curves. "Hiding behind racks?"
I started to point out the stalker, but when I looked at the window, he was gone. "Nothing." I cleared my throat. "You guys ready?" She nodded, and I darted back to the dressing room and quickly changed. The whole time we checked out, I kept glancing at the window. That eerie feeling was still there, following us back to where Dee had parked. I expected the dude to jump out and scare the living crap out of me at any moment.
We folded up our dresses carefully and placed them in the trunk while Carissa and Lesa climbed in the backseat. Shutting the trunk, Dee turned to me. A small smile was on her face. "I didn't tell you this because I'm sure you would've changed your mind about the dress."
"What?" I frowned. "Does it make my butt look big?"
She laughed. "No. You looked stunning in it."
"Then what's the deal?"
Her smile turned downright mischievous.
"Oh, you know, just that the color red is Daemon's favorite."
Chapter 22
The night of the dance I was full of nerves.
A huge part of me wanted to call Simon and beg off, especially since he nixed the whole carpool idea from the get-go, but my mom had bought the dress and Dee had done an outstanding job making me look pretty.
My hair had been curled and twisted up, exposing my neck. A few strategically placed curls hung over my temples and rested on my bare shoulders. She even sprayed this vanilla-scented glittery stuff in my hair, so when I turned, my hair shimmered. My eyes were a warm brown due to the smoky outline she'd given them. I was also pretty sure she'd applied fake eyelashes, because my lashes had never been this long or thick. Her final touch before she rushed off to meet up with Lesa was the gloss she painted on my lips, turning them a perfect shade of ruby.
I inspected myself in the mirror before I went downstairs. It was like staring at a stranger, and I made a mental note to wear makeup more often.
Mom started crying the moment she saw me.
"Oh my God, honey, you look so beautiful." She went to hug me but stopped. "I don't want to ruin anything. Let me grab