My Best Friend Made Me Dress In Plain Clothes For The Ball Selection

The Selection and the Hidden Betrayal

My best friend made me dress in plain clothes for the ball selection. She went mental when the hottest man chose me to be his date.

Every year, the Marine Academy students would come to our university to pick dates for their formal ball. It was this huge tradition where they’d walk through our main courtyard in their dress uniforms and formally ask someone to be their date.

My best friend, Alexis, had been obsessing about this since freshman year. She’d spent three years planning what she’d wear when they came, how she’d position herself in the courtyard, and even practiced her surprised face in the mirror.

She was convinced multiple Marines would choose her and would graciously pick the best-looking one. When senior year finally came, she made me wake up at 5:00 in the morning to do her hair and makeup.

She wore this red dress that she’d bought specifically for this day and spent $200 on it. She made me wear my regular jeans and a plain shirt because she said she didn’t want us to compete for attention.

And besides, the Marines never picked girls like me anyway. She actually said I was the supportive friend type, not the chosen type, and I should be happy with that role.

We stood in the courtyard with about 200 other girls, and Alexis positioned us right in the center where everyone could see her. When the Marines walked in, everyone went quiet.

There were about 30 of them, all in their formal uniforms, and leading them was this guy who looked like he walked out of a movie. He was 6’3″ with perfect posture and these green eyes that you could see from across the courtyard.

Alexis grabbed my arm so tight she left bruises and whispered that he was hers. She began posing and flipping her hair, ensuring he’d notice her.

He walked straight toward us, and Alexis stepped forward with her practiced surprised face ready. But he walked right past her and stopped in front of me.

He said his name was Colin and asked if I’d do him the honor of being his date to the Marine ball. Alexis literally gasped out loud and tried to step between us, saying, “There must be some mistake.”

Colin politely moved around her and kept looking at me, waiting for my answer. When I said yes, he smiled and handed me a formal invitation with his contact information.

Alexis stood there frozen while other Marines chose their dates all around us. Not a single one approached her for the rest of the day.

Alexis didn’t speak to me when we got back to our apartment. She finally exploded.

She said I must have done something to trick him, maybe talked to him before somehow. She accused me of secretly preparing for this and pretending not to care so she wouldn’t suspect.

She said I knew how much this meant to her and I deliberately stole her moment. She actually used the word “stole,” like Colin was property she’d claimed.

She demanded I text Colin and tell him I couldn’t go, that I was sick or had a boyfriend or anything to get out of it. When I refused, she said I was the worst friend in the world and that plain girls like me didn’t deserve guys like Colin.

She said he probably felt sorry for me or lost a bet and had to pick the ugliest girl he could find. She spent the next two days giving me the silent treatment while texting everyone we knew that I’d betrayed her.

She told people I’d been planning this for months and deliberately sabotaged her chances. Then she did something unforgivable.

She texted Colin from my phone while I was in the shower. She told him I’d changed my mind and didn’t want to go with him, that I’d only said yes to be polite but I wasn’t interested in military guys.

She deleted the conversation so I wouldn’t see it. When Colin didn’t text me for three days, I thought he’d changed his mind until his roommate reached out asking why I’d been so cruel in my rejection.

That’s when I found out what Alexis had done. I contacted Colin immediately and explained everything.

He was relieved because he’d actually been really excited about taking me. He said he’d noticed me volunteering at the campus veteran center and thought I was beautiful and kind.

He’d specifically come to our university hoping to ask me. We made plans for the ball, and I didn’t tell Alexis I’d fixed things.

Instead, I told her she was right and Colin hadn’t contacted me again, so I probably wouldn’t go. She immediately perked up and started being my friend again, saying she knew he didn’t really want me.

The night of the Marine ball, Alexis was in our apartment watching movies and eating ice cream, fully believing I was also home moping in my room. I was actually at the ball in a gorgeous navy dress my sister had lent me, dancing with Colin, who turned out to be funny and smart and genuinely interested in me.

I got back to the apartment around 10:00 in the morning, still feeling like I was floating from the night before. The ball had been perfect; Colin had been perfect, dancing with him, talking with him, and laughing at his stupid jokes about Marine life.

My feet hurt from the heels my sister lent me with the dress, and I had glitter from the decorations stuck in my hair, but I didn’t care. I opened the door as quietly as I could and saw Alexis exactly where I’d left her last night.

She was on the couch in her pajamas with a blanket, watching some romantic comedy and eating directly from a pint of ice cream. The apartment smelled like the popcorn she’d made, and there were tissues scattered on the coffee table like she’d been having a sad movie marathon.

My stomach twisted with guilt even though I knew what she’d done to me was worse. She looked up when I came in.

“How was your moping evening?” She asked it with this fake sympathetic voice that made my skin crawl.

I clutched my small purse behind my back where she couldn’t see it. The purse had my phone and the formal invitation Colin gave me at the ball with his number written on the back in neat handwriting.

“It was fine,” I said, heading straight for my room, “just watch some stuff on my laptop.”

“I knew you’d get over him eventually,” she said. She turned back to her movie.

“Guys like that don’t actually go for girls like us anyway; they just do the whole formal asking thing because it’s tradition.”

I closed my door and leaned against it, my heart pounding. The navy dress was still in my car where I’d hidden it that morning.