Deal With It

fifty two

Abigail had asked myself and mum to accompany her when she picked up her dress, wanting to show us before anyone else. We were the only family she had.

I was eating breakfast when Abigail walked through the kitchen door. Drew's face lit up instantly and he went over to kiss her cheek. "Hey, beautiful," he wrapped his arm around her. She smiled warmly back at him.

"Are you ready?" She asked me. Nodding, I got off my seat and took the last bite of my toast. "I'll go get Vic," she said.

We made our way to the cute little shop in town. Mum drove. It was at the end of a row of small, independent shops and had a couple of dresses on display. The name was Always and Forever. I had passed by many times but never needed to enter; this was the first time.

A little bell rang as Abigail pushed open the door and entered, followed by mum and me. The shop was quite big compared to how it looked on the outside. On the right, was a tall desk in one corner and a black sofa in the other. Racks full of dresses were by my left as I walked past and descended down the stairs. Here, there were more dresses out on display but mainly lots of walking space and a couple of white leather seats. Fitting rooms were situated at the far end.

Abigail was eager to show us her dress so she went to change. A few minutes later, she walked out of the fitting room slowly, careful not to tread on the dress. Mum and I gushed and fawned over her, and rightly so, as she looked magnificent.

The dress was traditional white, a silky material that fell perfectly over her body. It had a plunging V neckline that ended directly below the bust, where it met a thin off-white waistband covered in intricate silver-threaded designs. There was a small train to the dress, adding the finishing touch. The girl had really good taste.

It was hard to imagine how beautiful she would look on the day, with the hair, makeup and jewellery. Drew would be blown away.

Mum continued to praise both the dress and the seamstress who captured Abigail's vision so well as I quietly slipped away to the front. I found myself looking through the dresses in awe when I was tapped on the shoulder.

"Boo," Mum said. "This is beautiful," she pulled out the dress I currently had my hand on. It was a strapless white dress and the skirt had big ruffles which made it look much puffier than Abigail's. I held it against myself and admired how it looked in the full-length mirror behind me. Then I turned to face my mum who was smiling the biggest smile I had ever seen. "You look like a princess at a ball! All you need now is a prince to whisk you away," she said dramatically and I laughed with her.

"In that case, we'll be waiting a long time," I replied. For a second, my eyes glanced outside as I had the strange feeling of being watched. My breath stopped. I blinked several times to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. Maybe the stress was causing hallucinations, I thought. Does that happen? Then he circled his index finger and thumb, holding the remaining three fingers up and smiled at me.

Pushing the dress against my surprised mum, I shot out of the shop faster than the speed of light, still unsure of what I had seen. Quickly, I made a turn to the right as it's where he was stood before, just gazing at me.

"In a hurry?" He asked. He really was here. After all this time, he was back. His hair had grown back and he looked more gorgeous than ever. He was dressed a little smarter than usual, his black jeans paired with a navy blue dress shirt that was snug on his torso. I could tell he had been working out, having gained back all the muscle he lost after the shooting plus more.

"Your hair grew back," I said, pointing at his head as if he didn't know.

"Yes," he laughed. "It did. That does happen." Now I felt even more stupid. Couldn't I have acted normal, like seeing him didn't affect me whatsoever?