[nyc; mp] teenage dream [cathy]

As big as New York was, it seemed at times inexplicably small. Annie was crammed into a changing room in a muggle shop in Brooklyn, trying on a black leather dress that she could never afford. The five-hour train ride from Boston early in the morning had passed quickly, Annie's head resting on Cathy's shoulder as she dazed in and out of dreams. There were parts of the borough that Annie knew well -- that she would probably never be able to erase from her memory -- but she'd had no desire to take her best friend there. No, they were to spend the day sipping coffee and trying on clothes and going to rated-R films and conning their way into bars.

Annie pulled up hard on the tight leather fabric, trying to find just the right amount of coverage on either end. She turned sideways to look in the mirror at another angle, and snorted. She could imagine what Sampson would say if she tried to pull this off as a part of the all-black dress code they maintained on holidays. But the only people who would have the opportunity to see her dressed up like this were patrons of the establishments she and Cathy would be frequenting that evening.

"I think I need boots," she called out, trusting her friend would hear her over the stall wall. Annie leaned in toward the mirror and carefully ran her fingernail along the edge of the dark lines she had drawn beneath her eyelids, removing the tiny smudge that was impeding the perfect symmetry she had spent twenty minutes fixing in the train station bathroom. "Does yours fit?"

Annie propped the door of her room open with one bare foot for Cathy to grab, still leaning in to the mirror and now reapplying her lipstick. She saw Cathy come around the dividing wall and stood up to make room.

As her friend slipped in the door, an odd feeling rushed through Annie. The girl in the reflection was familiar, of course--her best friend, the girl she had spent every possible minute with over the past year--but it was more than that. Annie blinked, trying to figure out what was so reminiscent about the red cocktail dress that so complimented Cathy's frame.

--

When Aly woke in the night screaming, Annie was hardly phased anymore. Though the two did not officially share a room at school or during the holidays, Annie took whatever chance she got to sneak under the covers with her younger sister and sleep close together on a too-small mattress like they had done as children. The staff at House Irons might have thought the sisters were too dependent on one another, that spending some time apart would help them grow, but Annie knew better. Her sister needed her, and she was damned if she was going to let Alyson wake from a nightmare in a cold sweat alone. Annie might not be able to keep the dreams at bay, but she was there to make sure Alyson's moments awake were as peaceful as possible.

Although Alyson had fallen back asleep nearly an hour ago, Annie was still lying on her back with her eyes open, staring at the ceiling as she gently stroked her sister's hair. Snow was falling outside and just enough moonlight reflected off the wintery blanket to make the features of the room visible. All was calm.

Her sister's breathing deep and slow, Annie delicately extracted her arm from around Aly, removed her legs from the tangled and heavy blankets, and touched her toes to the cold floor. She moved gracefully across the room, barely making a sound. It was only the first night of Christmas break, but the layout was familiar and Annie navigated the room with ease. A jug of water and clear glass that stood on a cluttered table by the window were her goal.

For a moment, she was paralyzed. Her hand had wrapped around the jug and half lifted it to pour when the world around her seemed to slow. Leaned slightly over the sill to ensure she didn't spill, Annie had glanced down and seen not the clear water she had been expecting but a wild rush of colors and movement. It was only the thought of her sister that prevented her crying out as the foreign images flashed over the surface. She wanted desperately to shut her eyes, to block out the alien sensations that were running through her veins, but before she could begin to summon the will the vision had passed.

The pounding in her chest wasn't just the shock or the fear of disturbing her sister; it was a different but familiar and uncomfortably-pleasant rush of adrenaline. Chills ran up and down her arms, and Annie shivered violently, clutching the water jug tightly while she desperately tried not to drop it with her suddenly weak arm. The flash of blonde hair and bright red dress had disappeared almost instantly, but the colors were still burning in her eyes against the darkness of the bedroom. The abrupt wave of warmth that seemed to come from within her was shocking in comparison to the cold air that leaked through the bedroom window.

--

Yes, the dress was oddly familiar.

"Did you try that on at that store earlier?" Annie asked, turning around to look at Cathy full-on rather than in the reflection. "Or does Val have that dress? I feel like I've seen it before." She cocked her head thoughtfully, trying to put her finger on it. All she knew was that there was something nostalgic about the dress; it placed an inexplicable longing in her heart that made her ache for something she had done or seen that was forgotten, something that filled her stomach with butterflies.

"Weird."

Annie turned back around, bringing her hand back up to finish her reapplication of the bright red lip color.

There was a delirious feeling of freedom in being outside of school without her parents. It would probably sound stupid to a lot of people, at least it surely would to Annie. With Annie she was always aware of how stupid she’d sound whenever she felt just about anything. But this was new to her. The city felt fresher, the air crisper and stinging. Even the hours of bullshit landscapes she’d watched when her friend fell asleep on the train were exciting. It was unusual that Cathy felt the universe was on her side, and it was an invigoratingly satisfying feeling.

Somehow everything had managed to go right enough to get her here. She’d waited until after Christmas to ask to see a friend in the hopes that it was no longer designated family time, but she still hadn’t expected much. Her mother didn’t know anything about Annie—not by name, anyway. Occasionally Cathy would mention some thing her “friend from school” did or liked or was allowed to do, usually in some sort of defense. But there wasn’t much she could, or wanted to tell her parents about their friendship. She would have to give a location, though, and figure out what to say when her mother inevitably wanted to speak to Annie’s. If she personally found the Iron Witches and their matching outfits creepy and cultlike, then surely her mother would have some similar opinion.

But her parents had been Bostonians before she was born and they knew House Irons did good work, not to mention that to their knowledge, most of Cathy’s friends were good kids that she should try harder to emulate. Daisy knew very well otherwise. But from her armchair on the other side of the coffee table, she’d spoken up on Cathy’s behalf. That had infuriated her almost more than she’d been grateful for it. Daisy had so many opportunities to ruin her life and was too good a person to take them. Somehow that rubbed it in even worse.

She’d been dropped off by her father on his way to work, in her homemade flannel dress and rain cloak, and she’d changed in Annie and @Carrie Marshall’s bedroom before they left. And now she was changing again, skirt and blouse hung on the dressing room peg. They’d been looking at party dresses. Cathy had been overwhelmed with the experience and picked up seven or eight, but had chosen to try on her favorite first: red satin, deep neckline, not too much but enough. Just the feel of the fabric made her feel glamorous, despite her wind-ruffled hair and ruddy skin and childish figure. She ran her fingers over the ridge on her stomach where the waistband of her black tights showed through. This was a dress for bare legs. A dress to be taken off, probably. The thought was a little bit thrilling. But she let it go and slipped out of her room in stocking feet when Annie called.

When she arrived in the neighboring stall, however, Annie just stared at her. Cathy shifted awkwardly and turned to look in the mirror, waiting for her friend to refocus. Annie was just like that sometimes. It seemed strange, that such a sharp and determined person would be prone to spacing out. But at least it never lasted long.

Sure enough, Annie was asking her about the dress before she knew it. “She’d better fucking not,” muttered Cathy. “Maybe I won’t get it.” Narrowing her eyes at herself in the mirror, she readjusted her bust. She’d left her bra on just for convenience, but the straps showed, and the band all across the sides and back. Without it maybe she’d be sold. “I mean, I guess red is a cliché,”  she said, placing her hands on her hips. “Maybe I should try the blue one.”

She glanced toward Annie in the mirror. Her friend didn’t need any adjustments. There was something about a leather dress that Cathy knew that she would never be able to pull off. “Ugh,” she said affectionately. “You’re so hot, I hate you.”

“I don’t think you need boots,” she added. “You probably shouldn’t tempt me, at least. I don’t think I’ll have money for shoes if I get something here.” She reached back into her stall for her bag and riffled through her bills—she’d asked her dad to get her money exchanged, for if they wanted to go shopping in a no-maj part of town. “Town,” of course, had been implied to be Concord. But that wasn’t important.

“Where would we wear these, anyway?” she asked. “Do you know a place?”