The Story of How We Met

Chapter 9

"Macklemores' house," I answered the phone and though I could hear there was someone on the other side of the line, no one said a thing. "Hello?! What can I help you with?"

"Hi, Sarah." I recognized the voice before she introduced herself. "It's Alana."

"Oh. Hi, Alana!" More or less two months had passed since our fight in the cafeteria, and we had never spoke again until now. Julien and I had been together since the day we kissed. We tried our best to not show it at school, but it didn't take long before everyone knew about us. "How are you doing?"

"I am doing okay. I am calling just to remind you about my mom's beneficent dinner; it will be tomorrow at eight p.m. You are on the list, so I thought I'd call to let you know."

"Look, Alana. I don't know if it's a good idea. I mean..."

"Julien is on the list as well." She paused. "Please."

I held my breath, trying to think of the consequences. What if she just wanted to embarrass me in front of everyone during the party, as some sort of revenge? No, I said to myself. Alana was not like that.

"I'll be there then," I heard myself saying.

"Good." She hung up on me before I could apologize for the horrible things I said.

Even though I promised, I spent the next day thinking whether I should go or not.

I didn't want to. I was too ashamed to simply show up at her house before apologizing first.

After almost driving myself crazy, I called Julien to see if he wanted to go. I didn't have courage to do it alone.

"Hey, babe. Is everything okay? You sound nervous," he answered after the second ring which to me took an eternity.

"Yes. More or less." I bit my lip, breathing deep. "Alana invited me to her family's dinner tonight."

"Really?"

"Actually, you are invited too," I added.

"I am? Holy cow. Wait." He paused before carefully adding, "Are you thinking about going?"

"I don't know! I called to ask you what you thought." My voice came out as a squeak. I was as desperate as I sounded. "I don't even have anything to wear!"

"Does that mean that you do want to go but won't because you don't have anything to wear?"

"I don't know if I should. Alana hates me!" I was about to break down in tears at this point.

"That is not true." He paused again. "Perhaps it is a good idea. You two could finally talk."

"I guess we could, except that I don't have anything pretty enough to wear."

"I have an idea. I'll be at your house in five minutes."

By the time Julien got to my house, I had already gnawed all my fingernails.

"What took you so long, Julien?" I asked when I opened the door, but the first person I saw was actually his brother.

"Hey, hey, Sal." I rolled my eyes. I didn't like this nickname Gary came up with for me. No one called me Sal, but Gary seemed to always get his way with whatever, so I was simply Sal for him. "Julien said you had a problem, so I came here to solve it, as usual." Gary hugged me tightly and walked inside.

"Don't pay attention to Gary. I brought him with me only because he has secret magical hands." Julien gave me a quick kiss before coming in.

"He has what?" I was so confused. How could Gary fix the fact that I didn't have a nice dress to wear and no money to buy one.

"Well... We had this idea." Suddenly Julien looked ashamed. "You can say no, and if you don't like it, we can try to find something else, okay?" He gave me a white package.

"What is this?"

"When Mom and Dad got divorced, she left everything behind to start her new life from scratch. She didn't want any emotional baggage and apparently not her actual baggage either. Dad burned most of her things except for a dress or two. This is one of them. It's from the day they met." Gary explained the story with a sad half-smile.

"Go, try it on." Julien was serious, and I could tell this was important to him.

I left them in the living room and went to my bedroom. I felt my blood running faster when I took a dress out of the package.

It was white with a colorful floral pattern all over it. It had a subtly puffed shoulders, a tailored bodice, and a crisp pleated skirt. I wished with all my heart for it to fit well, as I quickly undressed myself and slipped it on.

It was so delicate.

"Wow. You...you look stunning," Julien stuttered when I left my room to show them the dress. It did fit, but it was a little bit big for me.

"But these sleeve though," Gary said, pouting. "And we are going to cut the bars. You will look like an old lady from the eighties if we let you go without fixing this. Also, it's a bit loose, but that won't be hard to change."

"Are you telling me you know how to sew?" I asked, skeptic.

"Why wouldn't we?" Julien asked with an offended voice. "We both do. However, Gary is the real genius among us." He gave a tap on his brother's shoulder with a proud smile.

I felt like a fairy-tale princess when they measured me and started cutting and sewing it all. Gary was whistling, and my mom got a good surprise when she came home from work and saw them both sewing with concentration while I was doing my nails.

The only sound was Gary's whistle.

"Okay, put it on again, please." Gary handed me the dress, and I put it on again for the tenth time. They took the sleeves off so it became a notched neckline and the flowy pocket skirt bars were now above my knees.

"This is what I was talking about, brother! A masterpiece." Gary smiled, proud of how he made the dress so much prettier. It was now fitting perfectly on me. "You are a very lucky man, Julien."

"I am indeed." Julien was not smiling; he was looking at me as if I were a rare specimen. Or as if he was seeing the love of his life right in front of him. Perhaps both.

"We gotta go now, Julien. It's almost seven thirty, and you still have to take a shower and get yourself dressed. While you do that, I'll steal Dad's car again. Don't worry, Sal. I'll put water in it this time," Gary said, winking at me.

"I'll be here in thirty minutes." Julien gave me a quick kiss before following his brother outside.

"I didn't hear anything about stealing a car," my mom said, appearing in front of me out of nowhere, as she used to do. "But please tell me that dress was not stolen."

"No, no. It belonged to their mother. She left it behind when she abandoned them and their family."

"Ouch. What a sad story, those poor boys. But it's a precious dress. You look gorgeous, darling." I couldn't believe my mom had tears in her eyes. "How come you grew up so fast?"

"Don't cry, Mom! Or you will make me cry too."

"No. It's just me being old and stupid; we don't have time for that. Come on, let's do your makeup now."