Chapter 3-

"Hey, Arizona, wake up?" I hear Teddy say, giving me a shake.

"Go away," I growl. I rolled over to where my back was now facing her. I grab my pillow and place it over my head to drown out her voice.

"Come on, we have stuff to do today," she tells me, shaking me some more.

"What time is it?" I ask, face still covered.

"It's 7:30, now get up," she continues to shake which starts to aggravate me.

"What's so important that I have to be up so damn early?"

"We have to go dress shopping. I made an appointment with the bridal shop to try on some dresses for the wedding," That really got my attention. I never been a big fan of dresses, so once she said that I shot up so quick, nearly butting heads.

"You never said anything last night about a fucking bridal shop," I snap.

"That's beside the point. If I had said something last night, I know for a fact you wouldn't get up. Now come on, move that ass," she says, patting me on the butt.

"Fine," I toss my pillow to the side and got out of bed, "There better be coffee. God knows I'm going to need all the caffeine I can get today to keep from choking your ass,"

She just shakes her head and laughs.

"No worries, there's plenty out there, Oscar. Tim made a fresh pot as I was coming in to wake you up," She gets up off my bed and heads back out to the kitchen with me on her heals.

"Hey Good Morning, sleepy head," Tim says as we enter the kitchen. He was standing by the counter with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Yeah, Yeah, good morning," I reply, waving my hand at him, "You better not have drunk all the coffee,"

"There's some there. I made a fresh pot just for you," he says to me, "So, what do you ladies have planned for today?"

"Teddy decided that we needed to make a trip to the bridal shop this morning," I snarl, "She knows how I hate wearing dresses, but does she care? Nooo. Apparently, she gets off torturing me," Tim looks at Teddy and they both burst into a fit of laughter, "What?"

"Nothing," Tim laughs some more, "Kind of cute watching you squirm a bit,"

"It's not funny," I huff, "I need to get ready for the torture chamber," I stomp off to get showered and dressed so I can start my day out with Teddy.

"So, tell me about school," Teddy says as were driving to the bridal shop.

"Do I have to? It's Christmas vacation and I'd rather not talk about school right now,"

"Oh, come on Zo. I really want to know. What's it like? Do you share a dorm with someone? Have you made any new friends?"

"No roommate, and my only friend is Alex Karev. We have a couple classes together. But other than that, I don't really talk to anyone. I just stay mostly to myself. And I know what you're going to say, 'it's college, Zo, it's supposed to be the best years of your life. You need to get out and do more, stop being so boring,'"

"What? No, those are your words not mine. I don't think you're boring. I think..."

"Oh please..." I scoff, "You think I'm boring. I have you know; college isn't just about the parties or the fraternities. You go to college so you can get the skills and knowledge you need to build your career. I, myself, want to be able to have a career. And for me to do that, I have to stay focused,"

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to get a girlfriend either. Loosen up the strings a bit,"

"What did I just say? I would rather focus on my work then deal with the drama of having a girlfriend,"

"You need to get laid," she says under her breath.

"I'm sorry what?" I question, she thinks I didn't hear her, but I did.

"I said were here," she lies, shifting the car into park.

"What is this? This doesn't look like a bridal shop," I say, looking around.

"That's because it's not. It's Dress Barn," She says with a laugh, "I was only screwing with you. I figured I'd do you a favor and spare you the humiliation of being caught in an actual bridal shop,"

"Well, aren't you nice," I say sarcastically. I got out of the car and followed her into the store.

After an hour of shopping for dresses, we finally picked the ones we wanted. Teddy decided on a traditional white dress with cut off sleeve and I, myself, went with one that came remotely close to the colors her, and my brother picked out. Even though they decided on a small but casual wedding, they still wanted to have a color theme, so they decided on pink and baby blue. Luckily for me, they had a dress that was baby blue, so I went with that.

"Alright, let's go Christmas shopping. Ohh, we should go to the mall," she says excitedly, putting the dresses in the car, then climbs in behind the wheel.

"God, you get into these holidays way too damn much," I tell her.

"Come on, what's not to love. Holidays are great," she replies, practically bouncing in her seat. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the perkiness she has towards the holidays.

"What's so special about sitting around a tree full of lights and balls?" she just shook her head at me.

"Wow, Scrooge. I don't get it, what is up with you?" She asks me, "Why do you have to be so bitter towards Christmas. You used to love it,"

"Not anymore. It was way more fun when my parents were alive," I tell her.

"Is that what this is about? You hate Christmas now that your parents are gone?"

"Yeah. Like I said, it's not as fun anymore. When my parents were alive, we use to go all out, now that they are gone, I don't see the point of doing it anymore,"

"I want you to understand something, Zo, even though they aren't here, they would still want you to enjoy yourself and be cheerful. They wouldn't want you to be moping around and being all sad during the most wonderful time of the year. What are you going to do when you have a family of your own? You just not going to celebrate the holiday?"

"Umm...Teds, I'm still years away from having a family. I don't plan on having sex until after I get married and I'm waiting to have kids until after I graduate college,"

"Okay, whatever, but still, when that time comes, are you just going to avoid celebrating?"

"No, I'll eventually get into the holidays, but I'm not married, nor do I have any kids yet, so why does it matter right now?"

"Because it does, Zo. Your parents would want you to enjoy the holidays. They'd want you to continue the tradition. I know you miss them, but they wouldn't want you to be moping around during the holiday season. They'd want you to have fun and enjoy it,"

She was right, even though it was our first Christmas without my parents, I should still be enjoying myself and continue the traditions that they had started for us.

"I'm sorry," I say sadly, "It's hard to get into this stuff now that they are gone. But I'll do what I can to get into the holiday spirit. For you and for Tim. I'll still put on a fake smile and pretend that everything is fine. I just wish you would understand where I was coming from too. This has been really hard for me. I know things will get better one day, but right now, it's just too hard,"

"I do understand. I may not have lost my parents, but I do understand. And I'm also sorry for pushing you so hard. I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me,"

"Aren't I always?" I ask her,

"For the most part, yes. But seriously. Did you take those extra shifts on purpose? You know, to avoid coming home for Thanksgiving?" I had to think about her question. I never expected her to ask, but since she is my best friend, I couldn't lie to her.

"Yes," I answer honestly, "I went to my boss and asked him for extra shifts. It's not like I didn't want to see you or Tim, I did. But with this being the first year without my parents, I didn't want to be a prude or whatever, so I took on some extra shifts to avoid coming home and ruining the holiday for you guys," Teddy looked at me for a few minutes, then shifted her attention back to the road. She was quiet for a few minutes. It was never my intentions to flat out tell her the truth, but I did.

"I don't know what to say. Except that I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for pushing you into something you weren't ready for. I may not know what you're going through, but I want you to know that I'm always here for you no matter what. And if you had come home, I would've been here for you then too,"

"I know, and I'm sorry I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings when I admitted the truth to you,"

"No, No, don't apologize. You have nothing to apologize for, Zo. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," I say quietly.

"Good, well here we are," she says, as we pull into the parking lot of the mall, "even though you're not into the season, could you at least enjoy some Christmas shopping with me?"

"I think I can do that," I say shyly, "Can we not mention our conversation to Tim?"

"My lips are sealed. Now you ready to shop?" I give her a slight nod, "Good, let's go," she gives me a small smile, then gets out of the car.

"Definitely way too excited about this," I say to myself.