It was 7:25, and Carolyn was as nervous as she'd ever been before a date. Just because she didn't have to worry about what to wear, didn't mean that she didn't have to worry about what to wear. In fact, it was worse. She'd spent most of the afternoon preparing. Even as early as this morning she had stripped and freshly repainted her toes and fingernails with a sparkly, metallic--blue polish she'd been saving for a special occasion. She had gone back and forth about what to do with her hair for at least an hour, finally selecting a blue bow to match her eyes. The whole thing with the bow had been such a decision. She'd felt compelled to wear
something
, but knew the bow would make her look younger; something she definitely wanted to avoid. Yet it was pretty, and it was something, so she went with it. For a necklace, she chose a simple gold heart on a chain her dad had given her, and she'd even talked her mom into loaning her a favorite pair of sandals. Since she didn't have to spend so much time changing and rechanging clothes as was her normal anxious compulsion prior to going out on a date, Carolyn had spent that time in front of the bathroom mirror worrying over her makeup to the point that she'd redone herself three times before she was satisfied enough to leave well enough alone.
The entire time she worked on her makeup, her mind was awhirl. She'd try to concentrate on the task at hand, as she worked carefully on her eyeliner, but found her eyes would keep dropping to her breasts reflected in the mirror. Looking at her nipples, that anxious chill would set back in.
God! Carolyn! You're naked! Do you really think you can go out on a date, naked?
But even with the anxious chill, the cloud of butterflies raging in her tummy and that voice in her head trying to talk her into backing down, the thrill of knowing she simply was going to do this was what held everything else at bay.
When Carolyn had finally finished up, and was back in her room and standing before her dresser's mirror and trying not to tremble, the image she cast back to herself was one of mixed messages. Her light brown hair was brushed to perfection, falling about her shoulders and actually shining in the light. She had to admit she'd done a really stellar job on all her make up, but especially her eyes; the soft cornflower blue seemed to shine out. The little heart necklace looked so sweet, as sometimes going simple and understated simply is better. yet, in terms of a fashion understatement there just wasn't any getting around this was a naked girl in the mirror. Since Monday a week ago she had fought a constant running battle of conscience over her pubic hair, or lack there of. This afternoon she'd been so careful with the razor as she worked on keeping herself bikini line trim, yet still, here again she felt as if she'd gone to far and her lips were painfully naked.
Carolyn had decided to go ahead and carry a purse. Whether or not to carry a purse had been a big decision in itself. She'd chosen one with a long, fine chain and silvery sequins. It wasn't too formal, but it wasn't like her well--worn, "I--don't--care--I'm--just--going--to--the--mall--with--Marcie" bag, either. Here, looking at her reflection in the mirror and seeing herself as she would appear to Ryan, the whole purse thing remained somewhat an issue. It was just that she felt she should carry a purse, and as an accessory, it did match her hair bow, lipstick, nail polish and sandals. Yet it had to be the psychology of the thing, but it did look out of context to be completely naked and have this bag hanging off her shoulder and positioned at her hip. She tried posing with it on the left and then right, and then a little in front and then a little behind, and finally decided on letting it just hang off her left hip so she could hold it in place with her hand. She really didn't have all that much in it anyway, just a compact, her lip--gloss, a brush, her wallet, and a package of the hygienic towelettes.
Next, Carolyn's eyes focused on her ID security bracelet. The thing just did look tacky as there had been no attempt by the designers to make it the least bit feminine friendly as an accessory, and it really looked like a guy's cheap watch. Yet that was one item that couldn't be helped. She could nix the bow and ditch the purse, even the sandals for that matter, but the ID bracelet was there to stay.
As she drifted back to her image in the mirror and now concentrating on her eyes, she flashed back to her very first real date. Those same eyes had looked back to her as reflected in this same mirror those few years ago, and oddly, so many of the emotions behind them, then as now, also were the same. Technically, her parents had said she couldn't date until she was sixteen, but she and Paul Beringer had gone to the eighth grade graduation dance. Of course, his dad had driven them there, and the whole affair had been heavily chaperoned by parents and faculty alike. Yet, for Carolyn, in her mind's eye, that would always be her very first real date. She could recall it now so vividly, standing in front of this very same mirror, the very same butterflies tickling her insides. That evening she'd been wearing a pretty, blue dress with white lacing. That was one big difference between then and now. But a similarity was her anxiety and excitement and that so much had been racing through her mind. Little things, like:
If we sit in the back seat should I sit up close next to him or as far away as I can get? What if he wants to hold hands? What if there's a slow dance, should I let him hold me close if he wants to?
Of course, the big question was:
What if he tries to kiss me?
Now, though all that seemed a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away; so many of those questions were still running through her head, especially the one about the traditional goodnight kiss. In her mind, she'd been tumbling this issue over and over almost ever since she'd told Ryan, "yes" and then hung up the phone. The very thought of it, in picturing herself naked and letting him kiss her was fraught with every kind of excitement and apprehension. In her worst case scenario she'd imagined him being so bold as trying to make out with her in the movie, or out parked somewhere in his car. But then, finally she'd imagined the more traditional and conservative scene out on her porch at the end of the night.
Quite frankly, the first two concepts she wasn't about to let happen; but the third, imagining standing out on her porch under the stars and both of them being so nervous while they held hands, looking into one another's eyes and then coming together to touch lips, this gave her quite a little thrill.
Finally though, Carolyn went down to the living room to sit in silent anticipation on the couch, her purse strategically placed over her lap and looking at the time on her ID band every few seconds. Of course, her mom, her dad, and Charli were all right there with her. Her dad had been pretty much against the whole idea ever since she'd burst into the den last night with the news. Right off, he'd said he just couldn't imagine it; and kept repeating over and over, "How can you go out on a date if you're naked?" It's just not right!"
Tonight, just minutes before Ryan was supposed to arrive, the argument had flared back up again.
"Carolyn!" Like a caged animal with no room, her dad was pacing back and forth in front of the TV. "I can't believe you're going to go through with this. I mean," he swept out a hand, "come on, look a you?"
"She looks pretty," her mom had come back.
"She's not pretty! She's naked, for Christ's sake!" Her dad fired back. "There's a difference!"
"Yes, Carolyn is unclothed. But, I don't for the life of me know why you're so against this, John?"
In another quick revelation, Carolyn suddenly realized that her mother strictly avoided ever using the word, "naked." She'd say, "un clothed," or "undressed," or sometimes even "nude," but never "naked."
"Yeah, dad," Carolyn had argued back. "Dad, it's just a date. It's not sex."
Just saying the word sex, he'd flinched and missed a step in his pacing.