I thought I looked great.
I was wearing a tight blue tank top with no bra. My boobs were the size of honeycrisp apples, but the elastic from the top held them in place just fine, and you could barely even see the bumps of my nipples. My cutoff denim skirt (which I had worked on all weekend) also looked good. It looked great, actually. This was an awesome outfit.
I told Meg I'd be at her party by 7:30. She was the last of our group to turn 18, so we were going all out for her. Half the school was coming. We were meeting at the Old Gym, which is this weird old sports building that our student council converted to a party space. (We have a pretty cool high school.) There was going to be an Extreme Foursquare tournament, and a DJ, and they were probably going to sneak in kegs.
The only obstacle was my dad in the kitchen, making spaghetti. I'd have to get past him to reach the door. My dad was a big guy who was always smiling, but for the last year, he'd been getting kind of pushy with me. Like always trying to get me to eat meals with him, and telling me what colleges I have to apply to. I was pretty sick of it, and I really wasn't up for his opinions tonight.
I checked the closet for the jacket that would hide my outfit, and grabbed a knee-length black raincoat. Then I barged down the stairs talking fast, and aiming for the door. "Hey dad, smells great! I promised Meg I'd meet her at 7:30, so I gotta go. See you at breakfa--"
He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back with a "Woah there!"
I stopped.
He looked me up and down. "Where's the rainstorm, girl?"
I didn't know how to answer, so I stuck to my original story. "Daaaad, I promised I'd meet Meg at 7:30, and I'm running late. I have to go."
He gestured to the kitchen. "I've prepared this wonderful meal for us, and you're just going to leave me all alone with it?" A large pot of water was on the stove, getting ready to boil. A smaller pot of spiced red sauce simmered next to it. On the counter, a loaf of bread was freshly sliced, and a bowl of olive oil sat beside it.
It actually smelled amazing, but I had places to be. And his hand was still on my shoulder.
"Sorry, Dad, I gotta go." I tried to twist away, and his grip tightened.
"You're staying right here young lady, and enjoying this delicious dinner with me." His voice was still friendly, but it was clear he wasn't asking.
I couldn't deal with this tonight. Not on Meg's birthday. So I did something I've never done with my father before. I yelled.
"NO. DAD. I DON'T NEED DINNER. I HAVE TO GO. NOW."
He flashed a look I had never seen before: surprise and anger and control. Maybe it was rage. "DON'T YOU DARE. EVER. YELL AT ME. DANIELLE MARIE THOMPSON." He used his free hand to grab my other shoulder and stood square in front of me, looking me up and down again. "And what the HELL are you wearing?"
I stood there frozen as he untied the belt of my raincoat and threw it open. His mouth dropped open, and he was quiet for the longest five seconds of my life. Then he looked me in the eye, and his voice went cold. "You're dressed like a slut."
"Dad..."
"Danielle, you are dressed like a goddamned slut. Do you just walk around town like this, inviting every guy you see to have their way with you?"
"Dad, no."
"No? Then do you even know what you're wearing? Do you know what it does to people? Jesus, how have I not taught you this? I make you these great meals, I buy you nice clothes, I'm helping you get into college, but I missed the part about how not to be a slut."
"Dad..."
"I've failed you as a father, haven't I? Clearly. If you're dressed like this, I've done something horribly wrong."
"Dad, you're a great fath..."
"SHUT UP," he barked in my face.
I went quiet. He was scaring me. This wasn't the dad I knew, and I didn't know what he would do next.
"I'm going to fix this right now. I failed you, but I can fix this. I'm going to be a good father, and teach you about the world." He seemed like he was talking more to himself than to me. "I'm a good father. I can teach you." He gripped the raincoat and yanked it down my arms, off of me. Then he grabbed my shoulders again and pushed me back against the door of the pantry. He held his grip.
He shook his head, looked me in the eye again, and started talking to me in a voice he would use for a ten year old, except that it still held a sharp edge. "When you dress like this, Danielle," he said, "you communicate to the men around you that you want to excite them. This arouses them, and it makes them give you the wrong kind of attention. It's basically an invitation for any man to fantasize about you."
He leaned in, his voice getting quieter. "And if you get close enough to them, it's also an invitation for them to do things do you."
"Dad. Stop," I said. "You're scaring me."
"Good," he said, back to his normal fatherly tone. "You should be scared. You'll be scared when they get close to you, because you won't be able to control them. They'll want to put their hands on you. Like this." He released his grip on my left shoulder and moved his hand to cup my breast.
"DAD!"
"SHUT UP. I'm teaching you a lesson. If you dress like this, things will happen to you. You need to understand this on a core level, because decisions to protect yourself need to be instinctive."
"Okay. I get it," I said.
"No," he said. "You clearly don't." He continued to touch my breast, kneading it gently with his big meaty hand. His thumb grazed circles over my nipple.
I struggled to break free. He moved his shoulder-gripping arm across the top of my chest like a restraint bar, and kept me pinned against the door. Then he moved his free hand to my other breast, and repeated the caresses.