"I don't think so...," Selphie's
voice came from behind the velvet curtain.
"Awe, c'mon," Rinoa begged.
"Yeah, just let us see it!" Quistis agreed.
Selphie groaned, pushed aside the purple
curtain, and waddled out of the dressing room. Her head was facing the floor as her friends observed the horror she was
dressed in. Selphie was in, what looked
like, a silk, straight jacket. It was
buttoned in the front all the way up to her chin. The sleeves were wrapped so tightly around her arms that she
could barely move them, and the skirt had ruffles exploding three feet behind
her.
Quistis put her hand to her mouth to cover
her smile, but Rinoa made no such effort to cover the humor of the dress by
laughing allowed and slapping her knee. Quistis elbowed her in the ribs, only causing her to fall to the floor
laughing even harder.
Selphie sighed. "I know it's a dumb looking dress, but you don't have to be
insulting!" she protested, turning around and walking back into the
dressing room.
After Rinoa had regained her composure, she
sat down in a nearby chair. "Try
on the one I picked out for you!" she hollered to Selphie.
"That was the one you picked out for
me!"
"Oh." Rinoa paused and bit her lip. Then looked over to Quistis, "It looked better on the hanger,"
she said in her defense. Quistis just
rolled her eyes."
"Hey," Selphie yelled from behind the
curtain, "I wonder how Irvy's doing."
***
"You can't be serious!" Irvine whined as her
looked at the bright orange tux Zell talked him into trying on.
"You look great!" Zell cheered.
"He looks like a highlighter, Zell."
"Yeah, but great looking highlighter!" Zell
said with a grin.
Squall shook his head while Irvine
immediately turned away from the mirror and took the jacket off. "I'd rather look like a penguin then a
Popsicle!" he muttered. "I think I'll
just stick with black," Irvine told the others.
"Tch-, fine then," Zell said, taking it
offensively.
Squall turned and looked toward the manikin
in the window, "How 'bout that one?"
Irvine shrugged, "Might as well see how it
looks."
***
After trying on nearly every gown in the store, Selphie's voice came from behind the drapes, "I think this is the one."
"Well, lets see it!" Rinoa pleaded eagerly.
Selphie slowly emerged from the dressing room with her face beaming.
Quistis gasped, "You look gorgeous!"
"Beautiful!" Rinoa nodded.
Selphie smiled as she looked down at the strapless dress. It had small white pearls sewn in at the top that scattered down to the waist. The silk skirt draped down in front of her just skimming the floor with a small train trailing behind her. "Ooh, wait 'till you see the back!" She twisted around causing the short train to wrap around her ankles. In the back of the dress, a bouquet of light pink and cream silk roses dangled from her lower back, down the rest of the gown. Selphie looked over her shoulder at her awed friends, "Whada ya think?"
"All either of them could do was grin and nod.
***
"Hey, lookin' good!"
"Not bad, Cowboy."
Irvine smirked as he pranced across the room. He slid the jacket off and threw the end over his shoulder in a runway model fashion. He had a white clean shirt underneath with the top unbuttoned. His hair was pulled back in his usual leather strap, and, of course, his gloves were still on. Suddenly, Irvine broke his smooth attitude by turning back to his friends with a puzzled look on his face. "Alright, something's missing…"
Squall flung his arms out to the sides. "What could possibly be missing? We've been here for hours! You've got the right shirt, you've got the right pants, you've finally found the right jacket, and you're wearing the "perfect black boots"! What else could you possibly need?"
Irvine looked around the store. Suddenly, something in the back of the room caught his eyes. He smiled and walked toward a black cowboy hat sitting on the shelf. He picked it up and slipped it onto his head. Irvine turned back to Squall with his hand still to his head. "A hat," he said with a sigh of relief as he pulled the brim down to shade his eyes so all you could see was his smile.
***
Ten minutes later the group all met in the parking lot. Selphie nearly dropped the opaque garment bag containing her dress on the ground when she rushed toward Irvine. "Hey, Irvy," she smiled and kissed him lightly. "Ooh," Selphie said as she saw the garment bag similar to hers hanging over his shoulder. "Let me see your tux!" She reached for the bag.
"Eh eh eh," Irvine pulled away, "not yet. I've got to wait to see your dress, don't I?"
Selphie puffed her lip out in protest. "I guess so…"
Irvine smiled, put his arm around her tiny waist, and started walking back to the car.
"Hey guys," Selphie shouted over her shoulder, "Have you finished your speeches yet?"
The group looked at each other with a puzzled look, then back at Selphie.
"What speeches?" Quistis asked.
Selphie's eyes widened and looked to Irvine. "I thought you told them!"
"I thought you told them!" Irvy said innocently.
Selphie groaned and looked back to her friends. "We wanted you all to say a small speech at the reception. Ya know, something short and sweet."
"Oh, sure…Yeah, no prob…This'll be fun," they all agreed. All but Squall. He was not nearly as eager as his friends to get up in front of everyone and… He was making himself sweat just thinking about it. *A speech? They can be serious!*