“You have to get a dress,” Hannah was saying.
Cally just shook her head, and the words seemed to say themselves, “It’s bad luck for the groom to see the dress, so I can’t get one today.”
The two sisters both just stared at Dakota, both wanting to argue, but neither one was willing to tell him he had to go. Dakota offered them their out. “Mom’s going to be mad you went shopping without her as it is. At least give her this.”
Hannah just nodded. “You’re right, she should have something.”
The rest of the afternoon, they just stayed in and watched T.V. Cally thought it was clear that she was tired. Dakota left around eight, and she didn’t fight it anymore. She went to bed, thankful that another day was over.
* * * * *
Cally didn’t know what time it was, but she couldn’t believe Savannah was waking her up. She was always up before her sister, and here, the evil queen was standing over her, ordering, “Get up, we’re going to get you a dress today.”
She moaned and pulled the blankets over her head. “Great, now I get to be a freakin’ doll for you to dress up.”
“They’ll be here in half an hour, and I still have to do your hair and makeup.” Savannah handed her clothes that were deemed acceptable for her to wear.
She didn’t want to go and she wasn’t going to hide it. She took a quick shower, and when Savannah was working on her hair, she heard the front door open and her mom saying, “They’re still getting ready.”
She mumbled, “No, Savannah’s getting ready. I’m going back to sleep.”
By the time she was given the approval to go, she smelled the coffee. The smell alone pulled her into the kitchen. Cally wasn’t even sure anyone was in the rooms as she passed them. The only thing that existed was that coffee pot and the hot liquid goodness of life that it held.
It took her two full cups going down like soda before she even heard what was being said in the living room. The third cup was going down slower as she listened harder.
His mom was asking, “Dakota came home early last night, so why is she so tired?”
Savannah answered, “She went to bed around eight.”
“Are you sure she didn’t sneak out? Dakota told me that Jay said she tried to sneak out the other night,” Hannah offered suspiciously.
Cally looked around the corner and leaned against the counter and watched that conversation turn. “No, she was in bed all night. She just didn’t sleep the night before.” Savannah gave her a suspicious look.
The next words were the ones that made her scream, and yes, her own damn mom had to go there. “Are you sure she’s not—”
“I’m not!” She screamed loud enough to wake the dead. “If you don’t believe me, then you can go check the bathroom trash. Now, I have to be at work at four, so if you want to go, then we had better leave now.”
All three of them were looking at her like someone had just cut her head off. His mom just nodded. “We should go.”
Cally grabbed her work vest before following them out to the car. Yes, she was crabby and tired, but that didn’t mean anything compared to what they were saying. It was no secret that she had no interest in dress shopping, but still they were determined to drag her along, so she was going to continue to be crabby and cranky, and they were just going to have to deal with it.
Cally closed her eyes and just sat back and half listened to the two moms berating the two girls for going out and getting dresses without them. At least the focus wasn’t on her at the moment, and that suited her just fine. Well, that was until she was asked, “So what kind of dress would you like?”
She didn’t open her eyes as she lazily answered, “I don’t know.”
They just couldn’t keep it to themselves. Savannah insisted, “She would look good in an Empire dress.”
“She would look better in a Cinderella dress,” Hannah countered.
Cally quietly mumbled to herself, “She would look better back in bed.”
Savannah gave her an evil look from the seat next to her, and her mom asked, “What was that?”
She looked Savannah in the eye, rephrasing her comment, “Why don’t we just see what they have?”
The conversation turned away from her, and she was more than happy with that. All she wanted was to go back to bed, and every second they left her alone was a good one.
She felt the car stop and she opened her eyes to see that they were in front of the bridal shop. She had no idea that was where they were going or she wouldn’t have agreed to go with them at all. She looked at her watch and was thankful it was only eleven. They had a few hours to make up their minds before she had to be at work. And since she wasn’t going to get a say in any of this, she really didn’t have to do anything difficult.
She dragged herself behind everyone else as they headed into the store. The store was small and overcrowded with dresses. She watched as the four of them started looking through the dresses. She was happy when she found what she wanted—a set of chairs in front of the register. Not really caring what anyone else was doing, Cally sat down as a tall lady with blond hair walked out and asked, “Can I help you with anything?”
Her mom took the woman up on that. “We’re trying to find a dress for my daughter’s wedding.”
Cally stopped paying attention as she started drifting off.
Hannah was shaking her arm, “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Nope,” she finally confessed.
Hannah looked at her like she was trying to figure something out.
“What do you want?”
Hannah looked to where Cally was staring off into space, and then to her. “They need to measure you.”
Cally stood up and followed Hannah to where the woman was standing with a long snake-like measuring tape. This so didn’t look good for her. The woman showed no modesty as she started wrapping the thing around her in places she knew she shouldn’t be touching, but there wasn’t anything Cally could do about it.
When the woman finally stood back up, she asked, “What kind of dress are you looking for?”
Cally looked behind her, shrugging, “Something that won’t fall off and will cover what should be covered.”
Everyone started laughing, and she took a step back. She didn’t see what was so funny about it, but it seemed they did, so she let it go. The woman turned and started pulling dresses off the rack, offering, “Come with me, we’ll find the right one.”
Everyone seemed to follow as she led them to a very large dressing room that had a pedestal in the center. Every wall was covered in floor-to-ceiling mirrors and plush chairs and a love seat. She just stood there as the woman hung the dresses on a bar in the back of the room.
The woman looked at her, instructing, “Try this one first. I’ll be back with a few more in a minute.” Then the strange woman disappeared, and Cally looked behind her to see four sets of eyes on her. No there was no way she was changing in front of all of them. She stood there, not sure what to do or say.
Savannah just got up and rolled her eyes as she pulled out a folded up divider, huffing, “There, get dressed.”
The first dress was huge and hung in puddles around her feet. She walked out, just as the woman came back in with another armful of dresses. The woman looked at her and asked, “What do you think?”
She just stood there while everyone judged the dress. There was no point in telling them she wouldn’t wear it, even if it was the last dress