Chrystal was so excited, getting ready that afternoon for the prom later that night. It was her senior prom and having just turned 18 a few months before, she really wanted it to be special.
She didn't have the grades or test scores for college, so she knew that in a few months, once she graduated, she would have to start working full-time and find an apartment of her own.
The idea of working full-time didn't scare her, but she was determined to have as much fun as she could before that time came.
Chrystal was too poor to be popular in school. Her high school was mostly filled with upper-middle class preppy kids, and she lived on the "other side of town". She had a few close girlfriends, but no boyfriends yet.
Funny thing is: most of the other kids accused her of being a slut, despite her never having even been on a real date.
Safe to say that Chrystal was, by far, the most "developed" girl at her high school. About 5'7, all of about 120lbs...with clothes on...soaking wet, but she also had a pair of perky, round FF-cups that were impossible to hide, no matter how hard she tried.
Chrystal's thoughts about her own body had always been torn. She both loved and hated all the attention she received from the boys at school, even older men, teachers included. She often felt like nothing more than a piece of meat, but she still couldn't deny the thrill she felt when a random passerby would "cop a feel" as she walked by in the crowded school hallway.
She had long, dark hair that she liked to dye dark red. It made her feel rebellious, like a punk rocker, but the red hair was socially acceptable enough that she was able to find part-time work at the mall after school and on weekends.
She had naturally tan, olive skin with big, brown doe eyes behind a pair of glasses with thick, black, plastic, square frames. Her nose was large and triangular, but thin, and looked just a little out of place with the rest of her face. She had pretty, white teeth that were perfectly straight, but each time she smiled, she appeared just a bit nervous and self-conscious and awkward.
A month ago, Chrystal and two of her girlfriends were sitting in a wooded area located inside of a local park, smoking weed and discussing their plans for prom. They all agreed that none of the three of them would get asked to prom by any of the boys at school, when Chrystal mentioned that she was thinking about not going at all. She knew that she wanted to go, to get her hair and nails done, get dressed up all fancy in a beautiful gown and heels, but the thought of going alone was just too depressing.
It was then that her yellow-haired friend Lisa said, "Well, maybe I'll just slide into Lil Wayne's DM's and ask him to be my date."
The three of them all laughed.
Her friend Jenn said, "Yeah, and I'll ask Drake."
Finally, Chrystal replied, "Yeah and I'll ask Migos."
The three of them all laughed at the idea for the few minutes it took to roll another joint, then the subject quickly changed to something else, but the thought stuck with Chrystal.
When she got home, she decided that she really was going to DM Migos on Instagram. Maybe it was the pot, but she figured, "What's the worst that could happen? They think I'm a crazy fan and just ignore me? What's new? What have I got to lose?"
She grabbed her phone and picked out four pictures where she thought she looked the cutest and included them in a DM that read:
"Hey Quavo, Offset and Takeoff, my name is Chrystal and I'm your guys' biggest fan. I'm sure you guys hear that all the time, but I seriously love you guys. I know this probably sounds so pathetic, but I just turned 18 and my senior prom is coming up next month and nobody has asked me to be their date. I don't want to sound like a charity case, I don't even know if you guys are on tour or whatever, but I was just kinda wondering if you guys might be willing to take your biggest fan to prom. I've attached a few pics of myself to this message. I swear I'm not a crazy person or anything, but I'll understand if I never hear back.
-Chrystal"
That night, Chrystal went to be fantasizing about showing up at prom with Migos and surprising all her classmates, then woke up completely dismissing the idea, convinced that she would never hear back from them, even laughing at herself for how foolish she could be sometimes.
The next day, in 6th period algebra class, Chrystal was sitting in the back row, as she always did, and daydreaming that she only had one more class after this before she was done for the day...daydreaming about getting high with Lisa and Jenn at the park after school again.
She reached down to her purse on the floor beside her desk and snuck out her phone without her algebra teacher noticing. She unlocked her phone to her home screen and saw a big red circle with the number 1 hovering over her Instagram icon. Her heart started to race. It felt like the room temperature had been turned up 25 degrees. But she tried to calm herself down, partly because she wasn't supposed to have her phone in class, and partly because she still believed there was no possible way it was actually a reply from Migos.
She clicked the Instagram icon and then on her DM's and there it was...an actual reply from Migos. She wanted to scream, but managed to contain herself, kind of looking around the room to make sure nobody was noticing what she was doing. She clicked on the reply from Migos and read: "Hey Chrystal, we're very interested in taking you to prom. We're always down to help out our biggest fans. We just wanna make sure this isn't some trick to try to get us to play a show at your school's prom for free. That shit's not cool. Hit us back up and let us know."
Chrystal smiled from ear to ear, and excitedly kicked her legs under her desk, but she was determined to keep her cool. She started typing:
"Oh, no, of course not. I would never do that to u guys. I mean, I've never seen u guys in person before, so it would be awesome to see u guys perform sometime, but I could care less if u guys do any songs at my prom. I'd mostly want u guys for myself." And she finished it off with a heart and wink emoji.
The rest of school was pure agony, waiting for Migos to reply back. She couldn't think straight. She felt almost light-headed. She didn't mention the message to anyone, not even Lisa and Jenn in the park. Then, as she was taking a big puff from the joint, the Instagram notification on her phone went off and she reached for her purse, fumbling for her phone so quickly that she dropped the joint on the dead leaf covered floor of the woods.
Lisa laughed but was visibly upset that Chrystal dropped the joint on the ground. "Jesus Christ, Chrystal, is it your parents or something."
Chrystal finished reading the message before even acknowledging that she heard Lisa. Then she looked up, blushing bright red, and smiling big and proud and excited. "So, um, guys, you remember yesterday when we joked about DMing rappers to be our prom dates? Well, I actually DM'd Migos, and they actually wrote back."
Jenn cried out. "BULLSHIT! Let me see!"
Chrystal happily handed her phone over to her two best friends and they both looked up at her in amazement. "Oh my God, Chrystal, you're gonna go to prom with Migos! This message says that they're gonna pay for everything. Your dress, your shoes, a day at the spa. You're so lucky!"
"Do you guys think I should do it? Like go through with it? I'm so nervous. What if they don't like me?"
Lisa scooted over and gave Chrystal a big hug. "YOU HAVE TO DO IT! FOR US! You're so beautiful, they're going to love you. Why do you think they said yes?"
The three of them started laughing and celebrating, then Jenn grew a sort of grave, serious face, like a horrible thought had just occurred to her. "Not to ruin the celebration guys, but we're talking about famous rappers. They're not going to come take a random girl to prom for the fun of it. They're probably going to be expecting to party and probably have sex."
Chrystal grew bright red and a sort of sly, evil grin and shrugged and said, "There are worse guys you could lose your V-card to than Migos." Lisa and Jenn shrieked with cheers and bear-hugged Chrystal.
That weekend, Chrystal drove to the dress store that Migos had recommended. When she looked it up on her phone, she could tell that it was in a very wealthy part of town, but when she walked in, she couldn't believe she was in the right place. She was even more nervous walking into this store than when she was messaging back and forth with Migos. She was wearing jeans and a gray zip-up hoodie and a pair of pink and white Puma sneakers and slowly, awkwardly, shuffling her feet, made her way to the front counter.
She wasn't sure if she should name drop or not. The woman at the counter had a judgmental look on her face and seemed to be about two seconds from kicking Chrystal out of the store entirely. "Ummmm...hi. My name is Chrystal. My prom dates told me to come here and tell you my name, and they said you would know who I am."
Almost like flipping a switch, the woman turned from irritated and impatient to bright and cheery. "Oh my gosh, Chrystal. It's so nice to finally meet you. Yes, I spoke with your prom dates. Lucky girl. They told me to tell you to pick out anything and everything you want. We have dresses, heels, lingerie...and it's all already taken care of. We already have a card on file." Chrystal couldn't help but notice that the woman winked when she said 'lingerie'. "Take a look around and if you see anything you like, even if we don't have it in your size, just let me know. We can figure it out."
Chrystal browsed around the store for a while, almost wandering aimlessly, completely overwhelmed. Luckily, the woman seemed preoccupied talking on the phone, so she wasn't worried about how long Chrystal seemed to be taking. Finally, combing through a rack in the middle of the store, she found her dress.
It was simple, elegant, but she just knew she would look sexy as hell in it. Black silk with spaghetti straps, a scoop neck that would show just enough cleavage without being distracting. The dress would probably come up to her mid-thigh, with a slit on the right side that came up quite a bit higher and was obviously meant to be worn skintight. There was not a single extra stitch of fabric intended to be loose.
She waved at the woman who held up a finger, letting Chrystal know that it would just be a second as she hurried to try to end her phone conversation and hustled over. Chrystal held up the dress still on the hanger and the woman's eyes grew wide and she smiled big and happy. "You're right. This is the one. You are going to look incredible in this dress. But you can't rock a dress like this without the perfect pair of heels. Let's pick those out, and then I'll get all your measurements."
Chrystal smiled and nodded. Picking out her heels took less time, since she already knew what color her dress was. Black open-toed stilettos. Two thin straps of leather over her foot, and two more up around her ankle, with a 5-inch spiked heel.
Once she picked out her heels, they walked over to a collection of mirrors to get Chrystal's measurements. As Chrystal kicked off her Pumas, she asked the woman. "How much would it be for the dress and the heels? I don't have a lot of money, but I feel bad having the guys pay for my stuff."
The woman said, matter-of-factly, almost bluntly, as she unrolled her tape measure, "Um, the dress is $12,000 and the heels are $2,900, I believe."
