Dress To Impress

Ivy watched as a younger version of her ran off into the distance, she finally felt at peace. She had become the person that would have helped her as a child. She felt amazing. She went to bed that night feeling like she could do anything. 

Then the morning hit and hit hard. She groaned as the sun lit her room and her alarm blared, “No…” She mumbled as she hit soon. After twenty minutes she finally committed to getting up. She got dressed and walked into her bathroom to put on some makeup. 

“Since when do we dress like Mom?” Ivy jumped and in the mirror, she saw a version of her teenself. 

“What? Really? I just helped child me, can’t I get a break?” She yelled up at the roof. 

Teen Ivy rolled her eyes, “Dramitc much?” Ivy couldn’t help but cringe a bit at this version of herself, sure child her had been cute and a little sad but she could see the good it did her adult self. But why on earth did she have to deal with this version of her? “But like seriously why are dressed like Mom? She is such a buzz kill.” 

“Hey, Mom worked hard so we could do all the things we wanted.” Ivy continued to work on her makeup. “And I happen to like this outfit. It makes me feel professional. People take me seriously when I dress like this.” Ivy smiles at herself and grabs her bag. “Well come on, we’ve got to get to work.” 

Teen Ivy rolled her eyes again, Ivy made a mental note to apologize to her mother because man was that annoying. “So you still dress for others?”

Ivy momentarily paused, had she done that in the past… no she hadn’t… right? “No, this is just the dress code for my office.” Teen Ivy raised an eyebrow and slumped into a seat in the car. “Music?” 

“Of course, and you know I think still have that playlist we made!” A quick search on her phone and found the list she now called her angst list. The two girls sang at the top of their lungs. Then they were at the office, “Are you following me around today?” 

Teen Ivy huffed, “Not sure what else I’d do.” Ivey said nothing and led her to her office. “Oh, you have like a legit office. What do we even do?” 

Ivy chuckled, “I was wondering when you’d ask me that. I do graphic design for a big marketing company.”  

“So… so Mom and Dad let us do art?” Teen Ivy sloched into on of the chairs. 

“It took some convincing but yeah, eventually they came around to the idea.” She shrugged, she hardly remembered that Mom and Dad hadn’t wanted her to do this. “They even bought us a new laptop for college.” She pointed to a photo on the wall for her graduation, both her parents beaming. 

“D-do they brag about us to their friends like they did for Tony?” Teen Ivy glanced at the photo and crossed her arms. 

Ivy paused, they had always bragged about her big brother's accomplishments more than hers when they were teens - hadn’t they? Well, Tony had struggled more in school, but it came easier to her, it’s why they wanted her to do something ‘more than art’ they saw her potential. Tony needed the encouragement, but she didn’t. But it would have been nice… Ivy felt her heart sink, and then she looked up at the photo, “All the time.” 

“As they should!” Teen Ivy snapped and pulled out headphones and shut her older self out. 

“I guess we are done talking.” Ivy shrugged and got to work. 

As lunch approached, her boss knocked on the door, “Ivy? A minute of your time?” 

“You couldn’t have picked a better time boss, I was just getting ready to hit pause on this sample for that makeup company. Come in.” 

“Thank you.” He pulled out an envelope. “Remember that hair care company you did the last-minute design overhaul for?” 

Ivy chuckled, “How could I forget, it caused me so much stress I didn’t sleep for like forty-eight hours. What about it?” 

“They sent you a bonus thank-you gift, it’s a voucher for the Le Fancie. I can make some calls and get you a reservation, think you and your boyfriend can be available this Friday?” He slid the envelope across the desk. 

“Woah, he’s been saving to take me there for months! Yea! We’ll make Friday work. Thank you, sir!” She beams and picks up her phone to call Kent. 

Teen Ivy watched her with wide eyes as she filled Kent in on what happened. 

“Are you sure? You can keep saving that money for another date, I don’t need a new dress.” 

“Darling, how often do we get to go somewhere that nice? Let me spoil you and go get a new dress. I already sent the money over, please go get yourself something nice.” He tried to do his best rich man accent. 

Which only made Ivy laugh, “Fine but you had better where that suit we got tailored last month.” She teased. 

“Deal. Enjoy your lunch break darling!” He hung up. 

“We have a boyfriend?! How did you not lead with that?” teen Ivy yelled, “What’s he like? What music does he play? Is he hopelessly romantic? How often does he buy flowers? Do Mom and Dad know?” 

Ivy couldn’t help but bend over in laughter, “Slow down, girl. Here, you can look at some of the photos.” Teen Ivy snapped the phone out of her hand so quickly. “He buys me flowers every so often.  He is romantic in his own way. He’s not a musician-” She mumbled, “Not making that mistake twice.” then cleared her throat, “And of course, Mom and Dad know about him. Dad introduced us.”

Teen Ivy immediately handed back the phone. “Oh. So he’s lame then?” 

“No! He’s wonderful!” Ivy didn’t remember disliking her parents this much as a teen, but she couldn’t even ask teen Ivy more questions, cuz she’d shut down again. 

So Ivy made it through the workday. And she led her teen self back to the car. “Do you wanna go dress shopping? We have a few hours till the mall closes.” 

“Sure whatever.” Teen Ivy let out a huff. So they drove to the mall and Ivy walked to her current favourite store, “Really you shop here?” Teen Ivy deadbanded. 

“Hey, I am this store's target demographic now you know.” Ivy walked in. Teen Ivy sulking behind. “Hey Melisha! Can you get a change room ready for me? Kent gave me money for a new dress.” 

“Of course Miss! We just put out the new dresses for the season, I would even buy some of those.” The teenager who ran was working the till chuckled. 

“You are on a first-name basis with the employees?”  teen Ivy rolled her eyes.

“She does great work and she came to the office for an experience day so she’s easy to remember.” Ivy started looking through the dresses. “Let me know if you see anything I should try on. 

They looked through the dresses, and nothing really stood out the them, then teen Ivy picked up one, “I’d wear this one.” It was dark blue and had a light shimmer. 

“It looks familiar…” Ivy felt the fabric, “Oh it’s shockingly soft. I think it's the only one worth trying on.” Once she was looking in the mirror she loved it. “Oh, it’s so perfect.” 

“Woah. It’s amazing.” Teen Ivy seemed to be whipping tears away.

“I should send Mom a picture. She’ll love it!” Ivy snapped a photo and sent it to her mom, asking for her thoughts. 

“Why do you care what they think so much? They can’t give us the time of day before! They don’t care!” Teen Ivy’s anger seemed to radiate off her. 

“Woah.” Ivy watched as her teen self fell to the ground. “Melisha, hold this dress for me alright? I’ll come pick it up another day, something came up and I need to go.” Ivy quickly changed and raced her and her teenage self home. 

Once they were in the safety of her room, Ivy pulled out an old scrapbook. “Look through it.” 

Teen Ivy looked at the photos. “What is this? We didn’t make this.” 

“No, but Mom did, dad even added some notes to it. It was a grad gift.” Ivy knelt in front of the girl, “Look I know it feels like Mom and Dad didn’t care back then, but they did. They just had a lot going on.” teen Ivy rolled her eyes, and Ivy set a hand on the girl's knee, “But that doesn’t make the pain you feel any less real. You are allowed to feel alone and forgotten.” 

‘I just wanted someone to see how hurt I was!” the teen's voice was dry and horse.

“I know. I know.” Ivy spoke softly. “They should have seen the hurt, and they didn’t.” She hugged the girl. “You know something tho?” 

“What?” Teen Ivy sniffled. 

“They apologize for all of it. And they become our biggest and loudest fans. They share every design we work on, it’s actually kind of embarrassing.” Ivy giggled, “I had a breakdown after an award show and…” Ivy stopped as she looked down at the page the teen had stopped on, “It’s the dress.” 

Teen Ivy looked down, “Oh wow! It looks so much like the one in the store.” 

“I wore that dress all the time, well after the award show I didn’t wear it again. It hurt too much, I think I still have it in storage.” Ivy felt a familiar hurt well up. 

Teen Ivy put her hand on Ivy’s hand. “Maybe it’s time for new memories?” 

“I think so.” Ivy smiled as her phone buzzed and her mom’s praises for the new dress came pouring in, “See I told you still embarrassing.” The two girls simply giggled.