Chasing a New Sunrise

Chapter 23

Shae stands in front of the mirror, she turns and looks behind her like she's seeing how much her ass sticks out in the dress.

"Does my butt look good in this?" she questions.

Jackie almost looks like she's drooling, her eyes are wide as she stares at her prom date in awe.

"I think it looks awesome on you," I tell her.

The dress she chose is a metallic blue mermaid cut, with a slit up the right side of her leg to right about her knee. She glances over at us.

"I think this is the one," she squeals.

"I think it's perfect," Jackie finally says.

"Yay!" Shae claps her hands together with excitement, then turns to me, "your turn."

We decided it would be best to take turns and help each other. We've already been here for over two hours and so far she and Jackie now have their dress. Now it's my turn and I'm not really sure what I want. I don't want it to be too fancy, because I'd like to save that for prom, but I want to look good.

"Can't believe you're going with Levi," she says, stepping down off the small riser where she was standing.

"I can't believe it myself," I say. "The first time I met him I thought he was going to turn out to be one of those guys that like to play the field, he's different though."

Shae smirks, "Levi has changed that's for sure. He was a mess for a long time over the whole Angela and Ethan thing. He was the guy who played the field. I've never seen him so in love before," she says.

I nearly choke on my spit at her mention of love, "it's... it's not love."

Shae snorts, "oh girl... it's love," she says. "Do you see those adorable puppy dog eyes he has every time he sees you?"

"I can vouch for seeing them," Jackie says, holding up her hand.

"Ugh, why are you guys ganging up on me," I say, my face warming.

Shae comes over and sets her hand on my shoulder, "I'm happy for you. You deserve to be happy and Levi as well. He needs some happiness in his life after the whole mess with his parents. Honestly, I thought you were going to end up with Ethan," she says.

My heart stops in my chest. Ethan. Things have been weird all week since the fight. We talk , but there is definitely something up. He's been driving me to school, but on Friday he told me he was only staying for half the day in school, so I had Levi take me home after practice.

"Speaking of," I say, attempting to change the subject from me and Ethan to finding out where he went. "I haven't seen him around since he dropped me off at school Friday morning."

"He didn't tell you?" Shae asks, as Jackie helps her unzip the back of the dress.

I shake my head. Shae bites her lip and seems weary to tell me.

"He went to visit his dad."

I gasp, "he never said anything. How did you know?"

"He told me," she says, releasing her lip from her teeth. She watches me closely and I can tell she knows something is up.

"Oh," I say, looking down. "He never told me," I say in a low whisper.

"He's been a bit off lately," she says.

"You've noticed that too?"

She nods.

"You should try on the dresses you picked out." Now it's her turn to change the subject and as much as I'd love to rant about how Ethan didn't tell me, I'm thankful for the change.