"Wow, I never thought that I would ever go to Las Vegas again." Rin stated as the tour bus past by the Las Vegas welcome sign.
"You mean you been to Las Vegas before?" Luka, who was sitting next her her, peered over her shoulder to look at all the sights.
"Just once, it was on our way to California. Let's just say Len and I had an adventure."
Luka shrugged, not really wanting to know what their adventure entailed. The tour bus traveled for another few miles before stopping at a glizty hotel.
"Alright guys, as you know we'll be performing in Las Vegas for the next three days and I want everyone on their best behavior." Crypton began, earning a 'yes sir' from most of the group. "I don't mind if you guys explore, but your butts better be back at this hotel by five."
Rin, Len, Luka, and Miku found themselves grouping up and walking through the city together. It didn't take long for Miku to start getting on everyone's nerves though. Rin and Len tried their best to ignore her as they were reminiscing about their visit to the city three years ago.
"Remember that street performer and how you thought you could upstage him?" Rin joked around.
"I totally could have, you wouldn't let me."
"You would've made a fool of yourself and you know it." Rin playfully smacked his arm.
"It's not hard for Len to do that, he's already the biggest fool on this side of the planet." Miku rudely entered into their conversation. "Just his existence alone makes me laugh." She began laughing.
"Shut the hell up Miku and butt out." Len snapped at her, which only caused her to laugh harder.
"Just ignore her; she craves your attention." Luka put a hand on his shoulder in an effort to keep him calm.
At some point the group passed by a wedding chapel. But not just any old wedding chapel, it was the wedding chapel that Rin and Len got married at three years ago.
A look of disgust crept on Miku's face, "Grody. Imagine getting married here." Rin heard her and began to feel a bit uncomfortable with herself.
Len was instantly offended, "Imagine you getting married." He stuck his tongue out at her. "I'd feel sorry for him."
Luka and Rin decided to keep walking to avoid being associated with Len and Miku's loud, childish bickering. The two girls began on a trek around the city. The second time around was much more exciting for Rin as she wasn't on a mission to get married. She was able to take her time and see all the interesting buildings and sites. While she wished that Len was accompanying her and not arguing with Miku in the middle of the road, she had a good time with Luka. After an hour of exploring and meeting at least five Elvis impersonators, the girls already managed to use up all of the film in Luka's camera.
"Well, I guess we can get a snack or something. I am kinda hungry." Luka piped up after feeling her stomach rumble.
While not hungry, Rin agreed as maybe a snack and a drink would be good before doing a show. While on the lookout for a place to get a bite at, they passed by something that made Rin stop in her tracks. She turned her head up to look at the building's sign. There she was. In the exact same spot and looking at her reflection through the exact same window from three years ago. It was a surreal feeling to her, like an out of body experience. She touched the window, smearing her finger prints over it.
"Rin, come on; we still have a whole city to explore after we eat." Luka noticed that Rin wasn't right beside her and walked back to her. "Come on its just some cruddy pawn shop; there are plenty of awesome places we can go shopping at." She took her hand and tugged at it, but Rin wouldn't budge.
"I have to check something." Rin brushed Luka off her. The bell of the shop dinged, alerting the cashier of her presence. Rin made a beeline for the wedding dresses and began shuffling through them, not exactly thinking of her actions.
"Rin, what has gotten into you?" Luka followed Rin in and watched her shuffle through the same five dresses in a trance like state.
"It has to be here somewhere," Rin went through the dresses for the sixth time, not wanting to accept the fact that the dress she was looking for wasn't there. "It just has to be."
"What are you talking about? And why are you looking at the same grody wedding dresses?" Luka took a dress off the rack and pointed to a red wine stain.
"I neeeed to find the dress." Rin scanned the dress that Luka pick up. "Nope not that one."
"What dress?"
"My dress."
"Your dress?"
"My dress. My wedding dress."
"Why would your wedding dress be here? Plus you're already married, why would it even matter?"
"Well, I never got to wear my wedding dress, I had to sell it in order to pay… for… umm… things," Rin diverted her attention back to shuffling through the dresses.
Luka just now noticed that all the times she spent going through Rin's wardrobe, she never recalled seeing a wedding dress. She always just assumed that the dress was in a storage unit somewhere. "Well its obvious that its not here. We can go to dress shop and buy a new one. Maybe even a better one." Luka suggested, wondering why Rin would even sell her wedding dress in some random pawn shop.
Rin was offended by her comment and suggestion, "I don't want just any dress, I want my dress." She snapped at her and went back to the dresses.
"Fine! Just stand here all day and be all warped. I'm going to enjoy my day!" Luka threw her hands in the air and left Rin alone.
It took another thirty minutes of frantically searching the dresses for Rin to finally leave the pawn shop without any luck. Feeling defeated, she sat down, back against the shop, and hugged her knees. She cursed at herself, she should've known that the dress wouldn't be there, but why did she have to look anyways? She made a fool out of herself in front of Luka and ruined both of their day. With tears welling up in her eyes, she gazed at the people passing by across the street, but she really wasn't thinking about them.
Her mind was somewhere else. More precisely it was thinking about her wedding day. While she did enjoy the latter half of her wedding day, she couldn't help to wish that it happened differently. She thought back to six years ago when she and Len first planned their wedding right after their high school graduation. All the memories of those late night talks made her fell a pang of regret. She closed her eyes and imaged the wedding that she used to dream about as a girl.
They were in a church. Len was standing at the altar, watching her walk down the aisle with her father. She could feel the warmth of his smile as she slowly walked towards him. At the end of the aisle Len took her hand and her father gave her away. The idea of the priest blabbing away always bore her, so that part was skipped. Tears began to form as she thought about the reception and how she and Len would dance across the room. She buried her head into her knees and began to silently cry. Not just because of dreams that were never going to come true, but she also felt that she had let Len down. He probably expected something much better than what they had. He deserved better.
Luka eventually came back with an iced coffee in hand. She offered Rin a sip, which she gladly took as she was parched from her crying.
"I thought you were mad at me." Rin sniffled when Luka extended her hand to help her up.
"Eh, I was," She shrugged her shoulders, "But a walk helped me cool down. How are you feeling?" Luka took notice of Rin's red face and sat down next to her.
"Not so good, it just hurts. I'll never see it again." Rin felt even more defeated now that she has come to terms about the fate of her dress.
"Well, you know, it's just a wedding dress. There are thousands of wedding dresses out there." Luka not knowing how her words would affect Rin.
Rin was offended by Luka's ignorance. "But you don't understand, that was my dress. I saved it for three years, only to just sell it before I even got to the altar."
"Well think about it like this Rin. Some other girl was able to feel happy in your dress. And you know, she might not of had a dress, but thanks to you, she got one. If that makes sense."
"Yeah, I guess." Rin wiped any tears from her face. It didn't make her feel any better though.
"And plus, its not about the dress. It was about you and Len. Your wedding was special right? And you did enjoy it right?" Luka asked. Rin nodded. "Also you must've had a lot of hot steamy fun after the reception. Thinking of that alone should get that dress off your mind."
"Actually we were too tired to do anything… well Len was." Rin sheepishly grin.
Luka nearly face palmed, "Can't even do a wedding night right." she mumbled to herself. She looked over at Rin and noticed the frown was still on her face. "Look, I can understand why you're upset. Every little girl dreams about her wedding and her dress. You had the dress, but your dream was taken away. And that can tear anyone down." She paused to allow Rin to digest what she is saying.
Rin explained to Luka what exactly happened on that day in hopes that Luka would understand her dilemma. She told her everything from the Grand Canyon to the end of the service.
"Hmmm, sounds like the dress was bad luck. Like once you got rid of the dress everything seemed to be going just fine, actually everything was going great." Luka exclaimed. "But you loved Len so much, that you sacrificed your dream dress to get married. I bet Len really appreciated that."
"He did," She sighed. "You should've of seen the smile on his face when we were at the altar, he was beyond ecstatic." She smiles at the memory of his face on that day.
"And that's what really matters. You and Len." Luka smiles and chuckles before stating, "Not to mention that weddings are a sham anyways." Rin could only pulled a weak smile, not really agreeing with her friend. Luka took note of Rin's face. "Well..." She thought for a second. "I hope the fans are extra loud tonight." Luka changed the subject, hoping to distract Rin.
Rin only nodded. She knew that she was going have to pull a happy face within the next few hours. Luka tried her best to keep Rin distracted from her own thoughts and took a walk, hoping that the buildings would help distract her.
"Hey guys," Len found the two girls sitting at a park bench. "It's almost time to get going. The show starts in two hours." The trio began to make their way over to the stadium. They, along with Meiko, Kaito, and Miku all put on a spectacular performance for the crowd that night. Even with the fans screaming and the light shining on her, the memory of her wedding day was still at the forefront of her mind.
Despite their bodies aching from the performance, Rin and Len somehow managed to shuffle their way back to that little gimmicky wedding chapel.
"I didn't think that we would ever come back here," Len stretched his arms and wrapped on around her shoulder.
"Len, what did you think about our wedding?" She asked him after sitting down on a nearby bench.
"I liked it. I thought it was great." He smiled, but it soon faded away. "Luka told me about what happened. Are you still thinking about your dress?"
"Not so much as the dress anymore, but the whole wedding itself. I'm feeling conflicted about that whole day." She paused for a second. "I just think that we deserved better." she sighed
Len planted a kiss on her cheek. "Well you know a wedding doesn't define our relationship. What mattered to me wasn't the dress or the casinos; it was that you were with me that day."
"Luka said something like that." She removed Len's arm from her shoulder and held his hand. "Maybe she's right."
"Well, you know we are pretty well off now and if you ever want to do a redo wedding. We can easily do that." He ran his free hand through her hair.
"I'll think about it." She mumbled loud enough for him to hear.
"I just want you to be happy, okay?" He pulled her into a loving embrace. "You've already made me the happiest man in the world, so I'll make you the happiest woman in the world." He whispered into her ear. "No doubt about it."
She hugged him tighter; thinking about just how happy she made Len over the years. Luka and Len were both right. A wedding doesn't make the relationship and deep down, Rin knew that. She always knew that. Len does make her happy and she was happy that he was in her life.
Events from earlier in the day were recalled and Rin managed to pinpoint exactly where these feelings began and it was Miku. Even though Miku was being her normal, nasty self, her remark about the wedding chapel must of threw Rin off.
"I blame Miku," She jokingly said while still in the embrace.
"I blame Miku for everything." Len simply shrugged. They stayed in their embrace for a bit longer. "It's late." Len broke away. "Let's go back to the hotel and rest up."
On the way back to the hotel, Rin's mind for the most part was blank. It wasn't until Rin sat in the warm bath water in her hotel room where she began silently thinking again. Was Miku's comment really the origin for making her felt the way she did? Or were these feelings manifesting in the back of her mind and were brought to light by Miku's comment? Sure, she was more than happy with her marriage and relationship with Len; she wouldn't change it for the world. But what exactly caused her those deep repressed feelings? Maybe it was her parent's high expectations? Or it was the wishful dreams of her younger self? Maybe it was from all the movies she watched and books she read? Possibly society? It was hard to wrap her head around the reason for her feelings.
Len barged into the bathroom which disrupted her train of thought. "Oh, you're still in here?" There was an uncomfortable expression on his face. "I'll wait till you're done."
"Nah," She stood up and pulled the plug. "The water was starting to get cold." Len was relieved and he rushed over to the toilet. MTV was turned on as a distraction tool for her and she watched some new Bon Jovi music video as she was scrunching her hair with some mousse. At least her body didn't feel numb and tingly like it did before.
Later while laying in bed, she found herself in Len's arms with her head on his chest. The rhythm of his heartbeat made her feel calm. Len was fast asleep, or at least seemed to be, allowing Rin to enjoy the peace. At some point, she resumed her thinking and the numbish feeling returned. Even though the events leading up to the actual wedding were very much less than ideal, terrible to some, but she began to grow appreciation for the sacrifices they made to even get to that point. Rin's eyes were fixated the ceiling lights. She thought how her life, their life, could've been different if they did get married right out of high school. Maybe it was God or fate who decided that it was for the best for the two to simply wait.
She must've laid there for at least an hour before she came to the conclusion of blaming Miku. At least that way she can close her eyes.
Rin woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. Len was lying on his stomach, softly snoring. She sat on top of him and gently bopped the back of his head. He grumbled, but slowly woke up. "Come on Lenny," She took her night gown off. "We have to meet up with some big wig hotel bosses for a publicity stunt or something soon." She put a bra on and began to shuffle through her luggage, looking for an outfit. Len, still refused to get out of bed even after Rin finished dressing. "If you don't get out of the bed in the next 5 seconds, I'm gonna sing the song." Len still didn't budge and Rin took a deep breath, "Waking up to the 4AM call -" Before Rin could finish the next verse, Len jumped out of bed and got dressed in record time. Rin giggled at the over exaggerated actions he did in order not to hear that song.
The couple were having breakfast at a G.D Ritzy's. "We have about like three hours in between the… whatever it is that we're doing and when we need to get ready for the show. What do you want to do during then?"
Len was finished chewing up his burger, it had an egg in it so it could be considered as a breakfast food, "Are you still thinking about… you know?"
"Ahhh no, not really. Like you said: 'Blame Miku for everything." Len laughed which cause him to nearly choke on the food that was in his mouth.
"That is my philosophy on life," he chuckled. "You know, that offer is still in the air." He refereed to his suggestion last night.
Rin pursed her lips. "I mean, maybe in the far future, like thirty years or something." Len just nodded, he was fine with whatever she decided. "Plus if we got re-married, you Crypton would probably get it on TV and there'd be like millions of people there." She groaned, just thinking of the mess that could be.
"Okay so, on this date in 2016. Okay, I'll mark it on my calendar." He joked with her, but really he was glad that she figured out her whole dilemma. "Maybe we can go play in that fountain over there before the show?" He smiled as he pointed to a huge fountain way over yonder. She raised her brow at him. "And I'm not joking. I really want to go into that fountain."
She playfully rolled her eyes and gave him a peck on the nose. "I love you."
I feel like this chapter is redundant.
Anyways thanks for reading.