The Unexpected Happily Ever After

Chapter 1

Three hundred and fifty dollars later and I was the proud owner of the black dress.

The Next Day

"Hey Arden, can I talk to you for a sec?" Dylan asked as he approached Andrea and I the next day at school.

"Sure." I replied before glancing towards Andrea.

"I'll meet you in science class." She said before turning towards Dylan, "Arden found the perfect dress yesterday. It looks absolutely amazing on her. You're not going to recognize her Dyl. It took some convincing, but I finally got her to buy it."

With a Cheshire cat grin, Andrea turned and headed towards science class. I could have sworn I saw a look of guilt cross Dylan's face at the mention of the dress.

"So you bought a dress already?" He asked casually as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Well, yeah. Prom is this weekend, so I kind of had to unless I wanted to go naked." I replied with an awkward shrug.

"Shit." Dylan muttered.

"What?" I asked as the sinking feeling grew in my stomach.

"Nothing." He replied too quickly.

"Something." I argued, "Just spit it out. Are you having second thoughts about going?"

"No, not second thoughts. It's just, well Holly isn't going with that Brett guy anymore and asked me if I wanted to go with her. You hadn't seemed too thrilled about the idea of going, so I thought I'd let you off the hook." Dylan rambled.

"You want to cancel?" I hated how small my voice sounded in that moment.

"No, not cancel. I just thought you didn't want to go, but you bought a dress so I'm guessing that you do. And we will. It's totally fine. Holly can find a date no problem." Dylan rambled.

Before he could say anything else, Holly approached us and slide her arm around his waist.

"Hey Dyl." She chirped, "I was going to tell you that everyone is meeting at my house at six thirty for the limo to pick us up on Saturday. I'm so glad that you agreed to go. I was worried that you might already have a date since it's so last minute."

"Nope. Not Dyl." I said with a fake smile, "He was hoping you'd change your mind about going together and look at y'all now. Everything really does always work out. I've got to head to class, but good talk Dylan. You two have fun on Saturday."

"Arden-" Dylan started, but he was too late. I was already head down the hall. I refused to let him see me cry.

Later That Afternoon

"I can't believe that he would do this to you!" Andrea roared as she paced her bedroom floor.

I had just finished telling her about the whole ordeal before bursting into tears and she was not taking it well.

"I just really thought that he was better than that. I didn't expect him to like me back, but I did expect more from him than to cancel on me the Wednesday before prom. 'Oh you bought a dress already?' No I thought I'd show up in my underwear." I raged as more tears streamed down my face.

"Fuck him Ards. You deserve better. You have waited around on that idiot long enough. It's obvious that y'all aren't even really friends because a friend wouldn't do you like that. Get up." Andrea declared.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you're going to go wash your face, and we are returning that dress. We will get your money back and then we're going to go do something fun and stupid. Also, you're going to cut off all ties to Dylan. You don't need a 'friend' like him. Then in four weeks when we graduate, you and I are headed to Harvard. I know we had said that we weren't going to leave until time for school to start, but fuck it. I say we head on up. We can go ahead and settle into our new apartment and spend the summer getting to know our new city." Andrea announced.

I pondered what she had said for a few minutes. Andrea's family was very wealthy. I was going to Harvard on a scholarship, and Andrea had decided to come too. She said that she wasn't giving up her best friend, and honestly it had worked in my favor in more ways than one. I would have at least one friend in this new city and her grandparents just so happened to have an apartment in the city. Boston was only a twenty minute commute to the university. I would never be able to repay Andrea and her family for what they were doing. My mom could never have afforded to help me pay for housing. I had almost turned down the offer to attend Harvard because it had been books and tuition only. I had needed room and board included, but then Andrea swooped in and her grandparents offered up the apartment to us for free. To hell with Dylan. He really was a terrible friend. I deserved better. Anyone deserved better than what I got. Looking over at Andrea, I couldn't help but smile. I really was blessed to have her in my life.

Grinning I replied, "I'll start packing this weekend."