The Comeback Girl

Chapter 10: The Preparations

Amber POV

"I said I wanted a short dress mom, something a little semiformal." I repeated as we went through Macy's aisles again to look over the rows of dress they had laid out for size 2's.

"But this dress is so simple that it looks semiformal." Mom informed me again.

"But it's just a birthday party, near summer, in California. It's going to be hot." I replied back.

"Suit yourself." Mom whispered as she placed the ugly green dress back.

"I just want to have a normal party, not a beauty pageant." I informed her and I looked at a short white dress that had a chocolate bow that tied around the back of the dress. I pulled it off of the rack and held it up to my body. "What do you think?" I asked her.

"Well, it's just-"Mom started.

"I think it's freaking adorable." I heard a voice holler coming through the racks. Summer poked her head through and revealed herself wearing one of my Mom's brand sundress.

"Summer!" I greeted her with a European kiss on the cheek.

"Hello my darling Amber." She greeted me back. "I think you have to get that dress."

"Summer no. It's all wrong." Marissa went on.

"No it's not. It shows her curves and it really outlines her face. You go and try it on Amber." Summer pushed me into the closest dressing room and I quickly started to change into the dress. I could still hear them arguing about the so called dress in a whisper, but when I came out, it really shut my mother up.

"I think it looks really good on you Amber. But maybe you want something a little bit classier." Mom went on.

"Give it a rest mom. I like this one, a lot. And besides, I don't want to try on another dress; we've been here for almost two hours." I started.

My mother finally gave it and we proceeded to buy the dress. We head out of Fashion Island and to my mother's Range Rover. "Where's your car Summer?" I asked.

"Oh, well the boys just dropped me off on there way to the bakers. They get to do all the boring stuff while we get to do all the fun!" Summer responded.

We hopped in and made our way to the Yacht Club where we were to select the menu for my party from the caterers. "So," Mom started as she pulled out of the parking structure. "Exactly how long have you been dating Justin?

"What? How do you know?" I demanded sitting bolt right up in my seat.

Summer and my Mom looked at each other and just laughed. "You kids really need to check about who knows your little secret next time." Summer spoke up.

"Seth told you didn't he?" I asked her back.

"Of course my husband told me. And of course I told my best friend." Summer went on.

"Wait, does Dad know?" I had a worried expression on my face.

"God no. And I'm not going to tell him, you are." Mom spoke up and looked at me through the rear view mirror.

I sat back against the leather seat. "Well, we want to, but we don't know when the right time would be." I told them.

"Well you should just get it over with. The quicker the better." Summer advised me.

We arrived at the Yacht Club at quickly made our way inside, already being 15 minutes late.

Justin POV

"Why do we get all the boring work?" I asked mine and Summer's Dad. We were all packed into my Dad's Land Rover and had already dropped the order for Amber's birthday and were on the way to pick up the table wear order Marissa had placed weeks ago. Then we had a meeting with the decorators to make sure they knew the patterns to follow.

"Because it's Amber party. When it's a guy's party then we get to do all the fun stuff." Dad replied.

"Like dress shopping and eating 12 different types of cheese." Ryan replied back in a serious tone that just shot down everything my Dad had said.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, when it's our party, we get to meet with the caterers and pick out what we want and the girls can go and do all the boring work like ordering cakes and picking up China and plan the decorations that we have already picked out." My Dad went on.

"But it's Amber's Birthday, so we have to do all the guy fun stuff." Ryan countered back with.

"Of course, and Amber is a very special girl." My Dad looked back at me and almost gave me a wink. I shot him back a look that practically said "shut the hell up'.

"Yes, she's my special little girl. And whatever she wants she gets." Ryan went on.

I felt my phone ring in my jeans and quickly pulled it out. It was the familiar ring tone of "I'm Like A Lawyer.." by Fall Out Boy which could only mean one thing. It was a text message from Amber. "This is so boring, I don't want to have to pick between scallops and shrimp!"

I smiled at the thought of her thinking about me when all I could do was think about her. I quickly replied back "Sounds more interesting than picking up China."

"Who's that?" My Dad looked back at me and mouthed the word "Amber" followed by a smile. I almost hit him.

"No, it's my friend Jake. He's at the Hamptons this weekend with his parents. He's really bored." I quickly lied.

"Yes, because it's just so easy to get bored out there." Ryan spoke up from the driver's seat.

Seth let out a loud fake laugh that caused Ryan to look back over at him with one raised eyebrow. "Are you okay there?" Ryan asked my Dad.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just fine." Dad replied back in a high pitch tone and way too quickly.

Ryan looked away but I could totally tell that he still was suspicious about his behavior. My phone rang again and I hit okay quickly to check Amber's new message. "lol. Having fun with my Dad?"

I let out a silent sigh as I responded back. "I would if mine would quit acting like an idiot around him. He's totally going to blow it out any moment." I sent it without another thought.

"So Justin, how come you don't have a girlfriend?" Ryan suddenly asked all of a sudden. "Because with a ringtone like that it kind of sounds likes your texting one of them."

That's when my idiot Dad let out an anxious laugh and I actually hit him. "What has got into you lately?" I asked him.

He turned back at me and through his laugh he said. "Don't you hit, your father."

"What is your problem Seth, you've been acting loopy all afternoon." Ryan asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine, seriously guys." He sat up straight and tried to look like nothing had been hilarious but he still had a huge grin on his face.

"Whatever, so Justin, you still haven't answered my question." Ryan pestered on again.

I half expected my Dad to start laughing again but he actually just sat there, smiling and looked out at the ocean.

"Well," I began, "I actually really like someone but I don't know if she feels the same way about me." I lied to him.

"Well you should just go for it. I mean, you never know unless you just put yourself out there. I mean the worst that could happen is that she says no." Ryan replied back.

"Or she actually does have feelings for you but she's dating the water polo captain." Dad replied.

I was about to ask him what he was talking about until Ryan started to laugh with him. I didn't ask anything about it because my phone went off again and I quickly grabbed it.

"Well, I think when we meet up back at the house we should talk about it." Amber replied back in her text message.

I quickly put in my response.

Amber POV

As we all pilled out of the car with the massive bags from shopping, the boys' Land Rover pulled up behind us and parked. They came out with crates of China.

"Looks like you boys had a busy day." My Mom called out to them.

"While you girls had fun shopping and glamming it up with the caterers." Seth replied hopping out of the car.

"Cohen, shut up." Summer spoke up.

"Aw, common, you know you love me." Seth replied back as he leaned close into her for a kiss. Instead she pushed him away.

"You're going to drop that box." She told him as she started ascending the steps into the house.

"Oh, oh snaps." Seth replied back as he began to follow her.

"I guess nothing changes around here." My Dad spoke up.

"Well not everything." Mom replied back.

Justin finally came around the back of the car with a crate in his hands as well. "Did you girls enjoy yourself today?" My Dad asked us.

"Very much so." Mom replied. She leaned in and kissed my Dad.

"Eww, hello? Only child over here." I responded as I took my bags and followed Justin up into the house. I could just hear them laughing back at me.

Inside Justin was setting his crate down next to the one that Seth had brought in the house. I slightly hit the end of my ballot flat against the threshold and dropped my shoe bag as I stumbled on in.

"Whoa, watch it there." Summer spoke up. Justin grabbed the bag that had fell and looked me in the eye.

"Do you need some help with that stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah, I actually have to get it up to my room." I hinted over to him. But I guess Summer picked up on the hint too.

"Yeah, and take this stuff while your at it, you know. So you don't have to make two trips." She rambled on.

"Thanks." Justin half grunted as she loaded another Macy's bag in his arm.

We made our way up the stairs and could finally hear my mom and dad enter the house below us, while we were already out of sight. We practically ran to my room and threw the bags in my closet.

I turned back to Justin but he was already so close to me. With the bedroom door shut he held me in his arms and placed his lips up against mine. I fully enjoyed the moments we had together when it was just the two of us and nothing else really mattered.

We finally pulled apart and looked at each in the eyes. "I've been thinking about you all day long." Justin admitted.

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. "I'm tired of hiding around like this around my parents." I confessed to him.

"Same here." Justin replied.

"I think we should tell my Dad, at my party." I went on.

"That's an excellent idea." Justin responded quickly.

"I mean the sooner the better right?" I asked him.

"And you couldn't be more right."

I stopped talking and smiled at him. "Should we go downstairs? Your Dad will want to know where we are." Justin spoke up.

"I'm pretty sure my mom will have my back down there." I smiled at him.

"Wait, your mom knows?" Justin asked.

"So does yours."I informed him.

"Well duh! But the way my Dad's been acting lately you've expected that he had already told your Dad everything." Justin told me.

"Well only 6 days to go until it officially becomes official." I stated.

Justin smiled at me before our lips met again.

No I'm not dead although my writing was for months, almost a year there. So I know I should have had this in a lot sooner but a ton of things held me back.

The stress of junior year was painful. I managed to survive and with my writing in tact.

My computer died but I got a brand new one and it is working fabulously.

If I haven't been writing for this story, then I've been writing for another. I have to be quite honest that I wasn't 100 percent dedicated to this story all the time. But a faithful reader of mine has been translating this into Swedish for me and putting it up on another site in Swedish. Amazing how good people think I am.

Anyways, I'm back and I really wanna finish this story up.

Please review and stay tuned for the new chapter: The Time To Kill

Best Wishes!

Holly