Story Time - The Giggling Girls

When I was about 12 years old, my friend Katie (name changed to protect the innocent)  and I were hanging out at my parent's ice cream shop, and decided we were going to go shopping at CVS.  It was in the same shopping commons as the ice cream store, and we had some cash to burn.  Katie really wanted to buy a new-to-us product called Clearasil Foaming Face Wash.

Similar to this, if I recall correctly!

We were, after all, growing up and needed to start taking care of our skin.  Katie was always a little more advanced in these areas, and I happily followed suit since I needed all the help I could get.  I had just been allowed to wear deodorant and a training bra and my legs were still covered in blond peach fuzz.  I was an awkward pre-pubescent hot mess.  

We walked over to CVS on that hot summer day on Cape Cod, bought the coveted face wash and headed back to the ice cream shop.  But then Katie had a great idea!  Let's try it out right now!  So instead of using the bathroom in my parent's shop, we decided to walk over to the public bathrooms in the middle of the commons.  Why?  I'll never know.

We went into the public bathroom, which had two stalls, and Katie wet her face, then took the face wash and went into one stall to start applying it.  God forbid anyone would see her washing her face in public!  I was to stand guard and let her know when she could come out of the stall to rinse off her face.  But as luck wouldn't have it, as soon as she started applying that tingly soap all over, two women walked in.  

Women: "Are you in line?"

Me: "Nope, just waiting for a friend!"

Woman 1 goes into the stall and starts, ahem, stinking up the place.

Woman 2 and I begin awkwardly looking around as we wait for our friends and try and mouth-breathe.  I start sweating because I know Katie needs to get out of the stall ASAP to wash that soap off her face, but then Woman 2 would see her, and she might die from embarrassment!  I couldn't allow that!  Woman 2 is wondering what the heck is taking Katie so long to come out of her stall, and this silent hell goes on for a couple minutes which felt like AN ETERNITY!

Finally, Woman 1 leaves her stall and Woman 2 goes in (bless her heart, the stench was horrific).  Katie is still stuck in her stall because now Woman 1 would see her if she came out!  Woman 2 moves a little quicker and as soon as they are about to leave the bathroom together, another lady walks in!  Nooooo!  Katie was almost free!

Lady 3: "Are you waiting to go?"

Me: "Haha, no, haha (nervous giggle) just waiting for my hahaha friend.  You can hahaha go ahead."

Lady 3 scrunches up her nose at the smell apparently coming from my friend (Katie was innocent!) and enters the stall.  As I go to knock on Katie's stall to tell her it's safe to come out, she walks out of her stall and straight out of the bathroom to the outside.  I follow after her and ask what happened?  She said the soap was stinging her face so badly that she finally just had to wipe it off with toilet paper!  I told her she was so smart!  She said she needed some fresh air (we both did!).  

As soon as Lady 3 left the bathroom, we ran back in and Katie rinsed her face with water, dried it, and we headed over to see my parents, swearing we would never tell anybody what had just happened. We walked into the store and my Mom looks over at us and says "Katie!  You have such nice rosy cheeks!"  And we dissolved into giggling puddles on the floor.  

The End.

P.S. I googled an image of giggling girls, and found this sweet one of a soldier reuniting with his wife...

(You know they're laughing because one of them just washed her face in the airport bathroom.)