The sky was darkened with clouds and rain when I woke up to go shopping with Gemma, but I didn’t care. As long as we wouldn’t be at an outdoor mall, chances were, the rain wouldn’t really affect me. With more grogginess than I thought possible, I pulled on my jeans and slipped on a simple T-shirt and cardigan. My phone buzzed with Gemma telling me that she would be there in fifteen minutes, which caused me to start racing around the apartment to finish eating and getting ready.
“Where you off to so early in the morning?” Mom asked as I began to head out the door.
“Gemma’s taking me out shopping for the holiday party on Saturday.”
“That’s so sweet of her!” I’m pretty sure Mom always wanted me to have a sister, just like I did, so Gemma doing this was the kind of thing she expected if I did have one.
“It is.” I smiled at the thought. “But she’s waiting outside, so I will see you later. Bye Mom!” Rushing out the door, I spotted Gemma in, I’m guessing, her car. She waved to assure me that it was her and she flashed a smile my way as I settled into the passenger seat.
“Good morning Camille, my name is Gemma White and I will be your personal shopper, chauffeur, and bank for the day. So just sit back, relax, and leave the work to me.” I started laughing.
“Wow, I feel so special!” I remarked. Gemma merely smiled again as she started driving.
Three hours later and we were so far unsuccessful in dress hunting. We did, however, find the best sushi place either of us have ever been to. All the dresses were either too much or too little. I’m pretty sure some of those dresses could be considered shirts.
“Wait.” Gemma put her hand on my shoulder, freezing me in place.
“What?” Her eyes widened as if she just remembered something brilliant.
“I know a place. I can’t believe we didn’t go there first. To the car!” She started pulling me along, until we were back in the car driving to a new location.
“How did I forget this place? I love it so much!” She reprimanded herself and then turned to me. “I’ve bought probably ninety percent of my dresses from there. I love their collections. All their dresses are perfect, I’m not even kidding.” We pulled up to a small boutique, but I could tell that it was expensive just by the store front.
Upon entering, we were greeted with the smell of cinnamon and vanilla, with a slight spice. Everything was done in warm hues and the windows were large, allowing daylight to stream in. I had been in there for a total of ten seconds and I was in love with it.
“Good afternoon, how may I –” A raven haired, middle-aged lady came around the corner, a piece of measuring tape draped across her neck.
“Lucy!” Gemma exclaimed.
“Gemma! How are you? I haven’t seen you here in ages!” Lucy’s eyes were large with surprise and her entire face seemed to light up. It was strange, to say the least, to see Gemma so friendly and warm. It was as if Lucy was her own mother, the way she reacted.
“I’m good! I’ve just been really busy with a film lately. How have you been?”
“I’ve been well, too. Business is always best around the holidays.”
“Ah, yes, speaking of which. This is my friend, Camille, and she doesn’t have a dress for the holiday party on Saturday.”
Lucy looked at me shocked. “This Saturday?” I nodded in reply. “My goodness, you’re in for an interesting afternoon.”
“We’ve already been to ten differents shops, Lu, and I still can’t figure out why I didn’t come here first.”
“You’ve been distracted, it’s alright. Now Camille,” she turned back to me and folded her hands in front of her. “Do you have any idea what you’d like?”
“Not too glitzy, not too bright, not a full-length gown, something appropriate,” I rattled off. I always found it terrible when people could only mention the things they didn’t like, but I found myself in that position. After all the dresses before, I knew that a million jewels sewed on to a hot pink, hoop skirt dress were going to make me throw up.
Lucy continued to ask me about what I was interested in so she could narrow her search until she found herself content with what I had told her. She then ushered me into a dressing room which eerily reminded me of the ones from Say Yes to the Dress as Gemma settled on the plush seats outside. Within minutes, Lucy was back, her arms full of dresses.
“Alright, so I selected ones with minimal to no beading, they should fall maybe a few inches above your knee, and they will look gorgeous with your coloring. If you need anything, just let me know.” She exited the room and I stared each and every dress down, scrutinizing each stitch.
“Do you have one on yet?” Gemma called from the other side.
“Hold on!” I slid the first dress off the hanger and pulled it over my body. It was a dark blue with layers of fluff underneath the skirt, giving it a full look. Without taking a second glance, I flung open the door and stood before Gemma and Lucy.
“Ooh!” Gemma exclaimed. “I like the blue. It’s a great color on you.”
“I don’t like all the fluff though. It reminds me of a sophomore’s winter formal dress or something.” Gemma tilted her head as she took in the dress a little more.
“It swallows you. You need something with less poof. But dark colors are a definite.” I nodded in agreement and headed back into the dressing room.
Each dress that followed, I found something I didn’t like. Whether it was the color or the style or the way it sat on my body, something wasn’t quite there. And then I spotted it. Hidden behind all the other dresses rest a simple black dress. Without another thought, I slipped it off the hanger and onto my body, zipping it quickly. As I looked into the mirror, I couldn’t help smiling. It was beautiful. The dress was minimal, nothing but lace fashioned around as short sleeves. The rest was loose and flowy, falling just below my finger tips. It was the perfect mixture of everything necessary for a holiday party. The black lace worked for the hot factor, but it was still classy enough for nobody to get any ideas. This dress was ideal.
“So, another no?” Gemma sounded weary from the other side.
“Gem. I think I’m in love.” I opened the door and instantly Gemma’s eyes widened, her mouth dropping slightly.
“What do you think?”
Instead of a response, Gemma merely started laughing. Hysterically.
“You don’t like it?” I exclaimed in astonishment. This dress was gorgeous, what was she on about?
“Are you kidding me? I’ve never seen you look so beautiful!” I felt my entire face beaming with happiness. “That’s the one we’re getting. Oh man, you are going to be fit.” Gemma giggled excitedly. I turned every way in the mirror, admiring myself from every angle.
“Oh, stop checking yourself out and let’s buy the dress.” I smiled and headed back into the dressing room to change. I slid the dress back out to Gemma as I pulled my clothes back on. I rushed out of the change room, just as Gemma took the bag from Lucy.
“Alright. Next stop, bling,” Gemma said dramatically, handing me my bag.
“Hey Gemma?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you so much for this.”
She merely smiled back at me and then said, “Cam. You are more than welcome. I… I have a confession to make actually.”
I rose a single eyebrow, waiting for her to go on.
“I’m doing this to make up for the way I’ve treated you. Back during the filming, I was just so jealous of you.”
“What? Why would you be jealous of me?” She was the most gorgeous person I had ever seen. This didn’t make sense.
“You were just so easy-going with all the boys! From the second you met them, they loved you.”
“Well, James is my brother. It’s kinda cheating.”
“But even then, Carson and Liam didn’t have to like you and hang out with you. They did that on their own. So I did what any girl did who wants that attention.”
You were a complete jerk? I thought, but that didn’t feel fair to say aloud.
“I was cruel to you. And threw myself at all the boys. Maybe not Carson, he’s good to party with, but that’s about it. He’s too young for me.”
I laughed silently. Even if Carson was nearly two years older than me, he was too young for the rest of the group.
“And then I noticed how well you and Liam got along and in my brain, I saw that as a threat.”
“What kind of threat could I possibly pose?”
“You’re funny! And American and interesting and talented. What’s not to be intimidated by?”
“Everything? You’re stunning and I’ve never seen a guy not fall in love with you.”
“Except the three lads that I was with over the past six months. One especially seemed completely captivated by you.”
I wasn’t sure if she was referring to Carson or Liam, because I didn’t know how many time I’d have to emphasize that Carson and I were friends.
“If you’re waiting for me to realize who that was, you’ll be here all night.”
“Liam! He obviously liked you and you must have had feelings for him,” she deduced and I didn’t like where this was going.
“I did,” Do, my brain added “have feelings for him, but Liam seemed to pay way more attention to you than me during the last few months, so I just gave it up.”
“Not really. He was always distracted whenever I talked to him.”
Dwelling on past mistakes and missed opportunities, probably.
“That’s weird,” I said instead, trying to not talk about Liam too much. I needed to stop this conversation before it got to a dangerous topic.
“In fact, the only time I saw him not distracted was when he was talking to you.” Her voice kind of trailed off. She squinted at me a moment, like she was trying to solve a problem.
“You two totally snogged, didn’t you?”
My eyes widened as I looked at her in complete shock.
“How did you know that?” I exclaimed.
“Wait, you two actually snogged?”
“Yes!”
Gemma started laughing again.
“I was guessing! You just seemed so hung up about him and seemed like there was this whole other thing going on. Now I have to hear this story.”
“Absolutely not. I am not reliving it for the umpteenth time.” I had to be assertive.
“Oh come on!”
“Here’s all you need to know. He kissed me in June and then neither one of us did anything about it and it sucks.”
“Well then… we have to make sure he knows what he’s missing,” Gemma said, nudging my shoulder, a mischievous smile plastered on her face.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re going to make you so hot for Friday,” she stated, getting into the car and revved the engine to life.
A few more hours later, my outfit shopping was complete, all thanks to Gemma and her unique set of skills. The jewelry was simple, but elegant. Nothing better than tiny stacked bracelets, a bold ring, and dangly earrings. Despite my anxiety towards the possibility of running into Liam at the party, I was excited. When would I ever have another opportunity to get extremely dressed up like this ever again?
Gemma pulled up to the apartment and put the car in park.
“Before you go, I forgot to ask if you had shoes.”
“I was just going to wear my black heels that I brought.” I’ve had those black heels for the past four years. My feet hadn’t grown since I was fourteen and it was kind of ridiculous. I’m pretty sure Gemma knew this, or at least had seen my black heels, because her face contorted into a not-too-happy look.
“That’s what I thought. That’s why I took the liberty of buying you a new pair.” She pulled a mystery box out of the back seat and plopped them in my lap. Raising an eyebrow, I opened the box to reveal a pair of classy black heels. Black lace coated the entire shoe and the heel was gold. I took a shoe and flipped it over to get a better look at it when I saw the bright red sole. My mouth dropped open as I turned wide eyed to Gemma.
“These are –”
“I know. I’m pretty sure they are your size and remember to try and break them in before Friday or else your feet will be a bloody mess.” I wasn’t quite sure if she was using ‘bloody’ in the British slang way or if she was actually referring to how my feet would be bleeding. Either way, I took note to spend the next few days walking around my room with the shoes.
“They’re gorgeous, Gem. Really. I love them.”
“Good. Now, I’ll pick you up around nine on Friday for breakfast and our spa day! See you then, Cam.” Without thinking twice, I pulled Gemma into a, albeit awkward, giant hug. I smiled one last time at her as I grabbed my things out of the car and then happily skipped into the house.
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HEY I KEEP UPDATING BECAUSE I PRETTY MUCH HAVE THE REST WRITTEN. In fact, you might get another update tomorrow because I am just that on top of things. Awwww yeaaahhhhhh.
The party is coming up and things are going to get so interesting and that means ALL YOUR FAVORITES. Obviously, I am referring to Finch, fyi. Who's Liam? IDEC.
Please vote and comment and let me know your thoughts!
Love you all and stay classy,
- Kate