Nicole goes with Erica

Fuck it, Nicole thought. "You know what, sure. Let's go." Nicole motioned for Erica to follow and began the walk towards the parking lot.

Erica almost squealed and grabbed Nicole from behind. "YES! Thanks, girl. Let's go. You are driving, obviously," she said with a half laugh as she resumed her half skip after releasing Nicole from her grasp.

Nicole shook her head but smiled all the same. "Yeah, I figured. No car still?" she asked as the pair made their way towards her silver Honda Accord.

Erica scoffed. "Yep."

Erica's father had caught her smoking pot in the house and took away Erica's car. He hadn't, however, reported it to the school for various reasons. One of which was she was one of the best strikers on the team. Secondly, he didn't want to run the risk of ruining his daughters academic career over a little weed.

The pair entered Nicole's car and began the drive towards the strip. The drive itself was pretty uneventful as the two made small talk and let the radio blast. Ten minutes later, they were at the strip. It was a series of stores located in a partial 'outdoor' mall. It was relatively new to the area but it offered some more of the upscale stores with more expensive brand names. After parking and a lot of window shopping as they went, they found Valentina's, the shop of choice for Erica. It offered a lot of the more recent 'trending' outfits and styles. To be fair though, it did have quite a nice selection of 'party goer' attire. Erica was lost in her own world as she chatted with Nicole about fashion, who was dating who now, the gossip around town etc etc. Nicole mostly tuned it out. Mostly.

Having both her arms full of possible outfits, dresses and other fashion accessories, Erica turned to face Nicole. "Bitch, you gonna shop or you gonna watch me shop?" she said with a half laugh.

Honestly, Nicole hadn't picked out anything for herself yet. She really wasn't so eager to shop for the party but she did make the drive. "Yeah, I guess I just haven't found something that caught my eye." It was a sort of lame excuse and she knew it as soon as she said it but she put it out there.

"Please. You are a knock out, girl. I saw no less than twenty things that would show off what you got. And believe me, you got it," Erica said with a laugh. "Here," she said and dropped all of her items on a bench inside the store. "This is what you are buying." She pulled a black ribbed tubed mini dress in Nicole's size. "This is you," she said and virtually **** the dress on Nicole.

With laugh Nicole shook her head. "You're crazy. I'm not wearing-"

Erica shot her a look that beckoned Nicole to disagree. "You are taking this shit into the dressing room, trying it on and admiring your fine ass before you say, and believe me, you gonna say it, 'Damn, Erica, my best friend in the whole wide world, is the smartest chick in Seaside and she knows best what I look good in cause she got the style.' You get all that, cause that's the shit you WILL say, I promise you."

Without being able to even refute the claim, Erica pushed Nicole with the dress towards the dressing room. Taking the dress, Nicole sighed and made her way into the small cubicle. Before she could even close the door, Erica wormed her way inside as well. "Really?" Nicole said somewhat deadpan and cocked her head to the side. "You gonna watch?"

Crossing her arms across her chest, Erica nodded. "Duh. I wanna be here when you like, 'Damn, she right.' And then I am gonna stand here and be like, 'Yeah, dumbass, I told you. Strip. And don't pretend to be coy with me, we are on the same team, I seen your shit before."

Knowing that it will only end one way, Nicole nodded. She set the dress down on the bench inside the changing room and began to unbutton her blouse and pulled the shirt tails out of her skirt. She slid her arms out of the sleeves and set the blouse down on the bench revealing her simple white bra and began to unfasten the button and zipper to her skirt. Erica made an audible grunt as Nicole removed the skirt and revealed a matching set of underwear.

"What?" Nicole asked with a half smile, knowing already what Erica was about to jump at.

"That shit is boring, and you ain't wearing that. First, you ain't wearing a bra with this piece here. Them strapless bras are worthless. Second, you are either going commando girl with this dress or you are getting something to go with it, cause your shit is seriously boring." Erica shook her head somewhat disappointedly.

It was almost a knee jerk reaction but Nicole laughed. "You are ridiculous. Erica, I'm not gonna skank up for school." Nicole turned away from Erica and unclasped her bra and let it slide from her arms before tossing it on the bench.

"Fashion knows no 'skank up' and you will learn that someday. I'm getting you something to match this dress and you are gonna wear it." Erica didn't wait and exited the dressing room leaving the door wide open.

Nicole froze for a moment as she saw a man walk past and not notice her. FUCK, Erica! Her mind was screaming at her friend but she opted to not actually scream for obvious reasons. She didn't want to draw attention to herself. Or did she?

Suddenly the thrill of being somewhat exposed did excite her, even if only slightly. She was presented with a few choices. She could close the door and resume trying the dress on, try the dress on as is with the door open or be a bit more bold.