"Guys come take a look at this!"
I stepped around the rack of dresses, to direct my attention to Rachel. She held up a teal mermaid tail gown, adorned with a silver sequined belt wrapping around the waist.
"Love it," I shot her a smile. She twirled in a circle, the dress fanning out around her.
"Me too," she lifted the tag and made a face. "But not the price. Four hundred dollars? I don't think so."
She hooked it back on the rack. I gave her an understanding smile while thinking about the five hundred dollars tucked into my wallet. None of it had come from book sales. As soon as I uttered the word 'prom' to my mother she drove straight down the road to the bank to cash a check for me. It was before I had the chance to tell her that I might not even be attending.
Aly stepped out of the changing room with an array of dresses slung over her arms.
"Ugh," she grimaced, stacking all twelve of them back onto the rack outside of the dressing room. "None of these do anything for me."
"What happened to the dress you found online?" I asked, remembering the rose gown that she'd shown me during lunch. There was no point of her wasting her time here when she already knew exactly what she wanted. Aly wasn't one to settle for anything.
"They're sold out," she said with a pout, crossing her arms together.
"Aww," Rachel patted her on the back. "Well, we can always try that place down the road. I don't think any of us are getting anything here."
That was her way of letting us know that she couldn't afford it. Aly rose her perfectly plucked brows at me.
"What about you Kaya? I haven't seen you try on a thing."
"Oh," I plastered on a smile. "I agree with you and Rachel. This store doesn't have what I'm looking for."
Aly scoffed, as she began scouring through her discarded rack. She withdrew a crimson open backed satin gown.
"Try this. I bet you'd look ten times hotter in it than me. Red just washes me out, but your hair's darker so it works for you."
I didn't comment that her hair was barely a shade lighter than mine, thanks to her fresh highlights. I just took the dress from her without a fight. Just like it wasn't worth fighting my way out of prom. I didn't have a choice but to attend. Aly and Rachel would make sure of that.
I headed into the dressing room that Aly previously occupied. The door had barely closed to a crack, when another hanger shoved its way through.
"Oh and this one!" Aly had sprung another dress on me. I hung the dress onto the hook along the wall. Before I could turn my face to the mirror, I caught sight of a white piece being tossed over the door.
"Aly!" I warned her.
"Last one I promise!"
I slid the dress over the door, and hung it up in front of the previous one. I kept my eyes on the door as I undressed, so that I wouldn't be caught by anymore surprises. As I reached for the crimson gown, I caught sight of its plunging neckline.
It was a no before I'd pulled it over my head. But, on second thought, I slid into it, hoping that it wasn't at bad as it looked.
It was worse.
I pulled the straps down letting the satin gown fall to the floor. Next up was a blush strapless babydoll number. As I pulled it on, I couldn't help but think that I would fit in perfectly with tinkerbell and her fairy friends. Not as bad as the first one, but more ideal for freshman year homecoming.
On to number three.
This one was an ivory floor-length gown embellished with a faint, white-gold floral design. It fit snug, with a sweetheart neckline and an open slit at the knee that I didn't notice until I had it on. When I looked into the mirror, I hadn't expected to fall in love with the sight staring back at me.
My mouth lifted into a smile as I surveyed the dress from all sides. Looking over my shoulder, my eyes focused in on my tattoo. It had healed over within the past few months, and now the skin around it was no longer flushed red. The dark blue contrasted against my complexion, especially in this white gown. I let my hair out of it's ponytail, so that it fell over my shoulder. That way it didn't stand out so much. I would have to find a temporary way to cover it for the dance.
"So are you gonna let us see it?" Aly's voice came from behind the door.
I twisted the handle open, and took a step out.
Rachel covered her mouth with her hands, eyes gleaming with glee. She muffled an 'oh my gosh!' Aly shook her head at me with an open mouthed smile.
"Wow!" she glossed. "Do you ever stop? I'm so sick of you Kaya, always showing me up!"
I wasn't immune to their contagious excitement.
"Does it really look that good?" I spun back around to face the mirror.
"I swear if you don't buy that, I'm getting it for you! Plus it was on the sales rack, so you better not pass up such a good deal!" Aly said, only adding to the piling list of reasons to go to prom.
"Okay!" I caved. "I'm getting it."
"Good! Now Aly come help me find something with that price!" Rachel said, looping her arm through Aly's. The two were about to head off towards the clearance section when Rachel stopped in her tracks. A look of disgust flashed across her face as she turned up her nose.
"Heads up, lying backstabbing bitch at three o clock," she said.
"Huh?" I turned my gaze to the front of the store. Right away, my eyes zeroed in on the tall brunette headed our way. Although I saw her, Leah didn't see me. Her attention was trained on the rack of dresses that stood before her. I fought the urge to roll my eyes, but Aly didn't. Her distaste was present all over her face as she looked Leah up and down.
"And here I thought this store was for people with class," she grimaced.
Both she and Rachel were familiar with the events that had led up to this point. I'd filled them in on everything after Rachel questioned the recent public outbursts between me and Chase. For the most part, I tried to leave Mason out of it, as I didn't want to go into details of that part of the story. After all, it wasn't something that could be explained within a thirty minute car ride. But, at a certain point his name was brought into the conversation because it involved him just as much as everyone else. I told them about him being with Leah at the party to which Rachel responded with,
"I knew it! I knew there was something fake about her from the start! I saw them together remember? I never trusted that bitch."
All at once, Leah rose her face to us. I guess it wasn't long before she noticed the daggers that Aly and Rachel were sending her way. She started towards us with a black dress folded over her arm. I watched her every move, never taking my eyes away until she stepped up to the dressing room beside me. She eyed me up, from my toes to my head.
"Nice dress," she commented before twisting the handle into her dressing room. As soon as the door closed, Rachel put on a mocking face.
"Nice dress," she mimicked in a pitch much higher than Leah's actual voice. Aly covered her mouth in laughter. I tried to withhold a smile, but failed as I turned back to my dressing room.
"I'm gonna get out of this and meet you guys when I'm done, okay?"
Aly gave me a nod.
"Alright," she said. "You know where to find us."
With that, she led Rachel away, their snickers following after them.
I undressed in the stall, securing the dress back onto it's hanger. I took a look at the price tag to find that it was only worth a quarter of the funds that I'd brought with me. If she couldn't find a better dress, I wouldn't mind spotting Rachel the extra cash. This thought was on my mind, as I left my dressing room. I took one step outside to find Leah walking out at the same time. She took a stand in front of the wall mirror, her slim figure accentuated in a high-neck midnight gown, with an intricate beaded lace design woven across the bodice. The slit on her dress rose a whole foot higher than mine.
Her eyes watched me in the mirror.
"Chase told me that the two of you talked the other day," she said.
Of course he did. Why didn't this come as a surprise to me? I'd done my best to avoid the two of them throughout the entire week, and I bet she just couldn't wait for her chance to tell me this.
Whatever. I wasn't going to entertain her.
"Okay." My voice lacked interest as I turned towards the opposite direction.
"Kaya, don't you think this is ridiculous?" she went on to say. It took everything within me to turn back around.
"What is?" I asked.
"You know," she ran her hands along the seams of her dress, admiring herself. "This thing between the two of us. And now you've brought your best friend into it. Can't you see where the real problem lies?"
I folded my arms over my chest.
"Enlighten me."
She shook her head at me, and I swore I caught a flicker of amusement in her voice.
"You know exactly who I'm talking about. You can try to run away from it. You can pretend. But, we both know that's not gonna work. After all, you know him even better than I do. You know he would do it."
I bit down on my lip, and drew back as my teeth sunk into my healing wound.
I thought about the time that we spent together Thursday night. He'd taken me out to dinner before we want back to his house to see his mom. Throughout the whole night he'd been everything I could've asked for. He payed for my dinner without expecting a thing in return. He didn't even look at me the wrong way. He kept the same distance as a friend would. And when we got home to his mom, the first thing he did was announce my acceptance into college. He took a step back, to make the night all about me. Not us. Just me.
I looked at Leah then. Mason might have done that before, and I couldn't deny it. But she didn't know who he was now. She didn't know him at all. She'd said the words herself.
I did know him better than her.
"I don't have a problem with you Kaya," she said as if she were doing me a favor. As if she had the right to. "I have a problem with him, and Chase does too. You know how he is. So protective."
She flickered her eyes back to the mirror, adjusting the neckline of her dress.
"He tells me everything," she continued. "He cares about you, Kaya. Why are you pushing him away?"
And that's when I couldn't take anymore.
"You don't know anything! What goes on between me and Chase...that's between us. You have nothing to do with it, so stay out of it."
Her eyes widened at the force of my voice, causing a red flush to fill my cheeks. What a better way to win an argument than making an embarrassment out of herself in front of the whole store. My temper only rose as she aimed a smile at me.
"Fine. I'll stay out of it. Just don't come crying to him when things don't work out. He might not be there waiting for you."
I walked away from her then, before I could say anything else to make the situation worse. It wasn't bad enough that our friendship had run into the ground, she just had to dig it farther in didn't she?
Good to know that he talked to her about me behind my back. I couldn't count on things getting better from here.
I found Aly and Rachel by the check out line after storming away. Looks like Rachel didn't need the extra cash after all because she was holding onto a violet dress with a content smile.
"Hey," I said, reaching them.
"What took so long?" Aly asked.
"Nothing." I lied. I didn't want to waste anymore seconds of the day with Leah's name. "Just making sure I had the right size."
I glanced over at Rachel.
"What happened to going with blue?"
She turned her dress to face me, rising and lowering her hand over it, as if she were showing off a red carpet piece.
"I was, but do you see this? It was calling out to me."
As she held it in front of my face I saw that the top and bottom were separated. It was different than all the other dresses that I'd come across which made it perfect for Rachel. Seeing her getting exactly what she wanted lightened my mood.
"It's made for you," I said with a smile.
"I know right? I don't think prom's ready for us," she added spreading her dress across the counter.
"And I'm not ready for prom!" Aly exclaimed with a wild look in her hazel eyes. "Guys we have to get out of here! I need my dress!"
As soon as I payed for my dress I linked arms with the two of them.
"Don't worry Aly!" I made a beeline for the door. "All hope isn't lost!"
The three of us left the store, without a glance back.
-------------------------------------------
A/N: So there's another update all within one week's timespan! I looked at the date that I uploaded chapter 29 and I never want to make you guys wait that long again! I think you all deserved another update since you waited so long for the last one, and I thank all of you who have stayed with this book since chapter one! I have so many ideas for this book and sometimes they all just crowd my brain so much that I don't know what to do! This story has been taking off in directions I didn't imagine from the start so I really truly thank you all who have put up with the plotholes, typos, bad character development and so much more that I need to work on!! We're passed the halfway mark for this book, but there's still so much more to come! Enjoy reading!