Life Chapter 8

Sashie passed me a box of tissues as she said "I know just the thing to make you feel much better."

I looked at Sashie and blinked once. My mind immediately jumping to the conclusion of a girls night in complete with a male stripper and cocktails.

"A ball silly!" she laughed reading my thoughts. After all these years she still knew what I was thinking.

"I can't go to a ball!" I exclaimed, "I have nothing to wear!"

"No matter," Sashie said with a wave of her hand, "you can wear one of my dresses."

Her statement didn't throw me. Her family was rich and now, evidently, so was she and she loves shopping.

"Are you sure?" I asked tentatively.

"Of course!" Sashie answered as she grabbed my hand and dragged me to her closet. Only her closet was an entire room and could have passed as shop at the Warner Street Mall.

"Wow!" I whispered in awe.

"Come on," she giggled, "over here." She walked over to the corner of the room where there was a rack of ball gowns in every colour imaginable.

Sashie immediately began flicking throught the dresses.

"Help yourself," she said without turning around, "We only have few hours to get ready."

"When is this dance?" I questioned hesitantly.

"It's not a dance, it's a masquerade ball and it starts at 7pm at the Metropolis Hotel," Sashie stated while holding up a dress infront of her and looking in the mirror, "Oh and don't worry all the dresses have matching masks."

That was the least of my worries but come to think of it, it is kind of cool. My amusement vanished at the realisation of what day it was.

"I can't go to a ball tonight!" I gasped, horrified at the very thought, "It's the 27th of July!"

Sashie stopped looking through dresses and directed her gaze at me.

"Don't be ridiculous!" she admonished, "I know Ace died a year ago today but that doesn't mean you can't go out and have fun! You told me yourself that you wanted to get over him. So here's your chance!"

She had me there.

"But that was before I knew the date!" I whined, "I can't go, I won't go!"

Sashie raised a quizzical eyebrow as I looked her in the eye.

"I don't want to go" I said like a child that had just been told that Santa wasn't real.

"Oh Lexi," replied Sashie, playing the reassuring parent, "You know it will be good for you."

"That doesn't make it any easier" I pointed out as a stray tear made its way down my cheek.

Sashie reached out and wiped it away.

"Honey," she said gently, "noone said it would be easy."

I nodded sadly. 'Part of me doesn't want to move on' I thought.

"So are you coming to the ball?" she asked full of zeal, "Just think of all the gorgeous guys!"

I laughed, trust Sashie to think of guys at a moment like this.

"Ok, ok," I conceded, "I'll come. Show me the shoes!"

She looked at me incredulously, "You have to pick a dress first."

We caught each others eyes and succumbed to a violent fit of giggles which forced us to the floor and rendered us immoveable for 5 minutes.

Once we pulled ourselves together I walked along the rack of dresses passing the different colours.

Black? No, black seemed to say I'm mourning.

Red? No, red was saying I'm here for sex.

Blue? No way! It was too emotional and likely to make me cry.

Yellow? ARGH! No, too many memories!

Green? Yes! Perfect and so me. Green is the kind of colour I would have fun in.

I sifted through the green gowns and hit the jackpot. A gorgeous emerald green number.

"Perfect" I said to myself as I held it up in front of me.

"Oh , that is going to look so good on you," gushed Sashie, "I'll go and find the mask!"

The dress was emerald green in colour and floor length. It had a fitted bodice with a fold at the top and shoe string straps and there was a split up one side which reached the middle of my thigh.

"Here it is!" Sashie called as she reentered the closet, "You can have the first shower, I haven't decided on a dress yet."

"Ok" I replied as I picked up a pair of black strappie heels. Sashie and I had the same size feet, we used to shared alot.

Once I had had a nice hot shower and gotten dressed I gathered my belongings and left the bathroom.

Not used to wearing heels, I stumbled. Luckily, I didn't fall but I dropped all my clothes.

My purse fell out of my pants pocket and opened as it hit the floor. The contents went flying.

"Clutz!" I yelled at myself.

Sashie had heard me and walked out to see what the commotion was all about.

"Oh good, you're done. I was . . . Oh whoops," she said when she saw me picking up my things, "Hey, there's something over here."

"Your locket!" Sashie exclaimed a moment later.

"What?" I asked flicking my ears out of my face as she walked over to me.

"Your locket," she repeated astonished, "its burst open."

As she handed it to me, I noticed that it was, in fact, open but there was a piece of paper crammed into one side of it.

I walked over to the couch and sat down. I removed the paper and noticing that it was a note I opened it carefully.

I'm sorry.

I regcognised the messy handwriting immediately.

It was from Ace.

I stared at it for a moment of two. A wave of thoughts crashed over me. 'How could he?', 'What was he thinking?' and many other questions ran through my mind.

'Enough!' I screamed to myself.

I scrunched up the note with one hand, marched to the kitchen and tossed it in the bin without another thought. I snapped my locket shut and fastened it around my neck.

I walked calmly back into the lounge to finish picking up my clothes but found that Sashie had done it for me. My clothes had been folded and placed in a neat pile on the couch. Next to my clothes, Sashie had put the mask and a yellow ribbon.

I tied my ears back with the ribbon silently thanking Sashie for her thoughtfulness. She seemed to be saying 'You can pay tribute to Ace without staying home and crying.'

Half an hour later Sashie and I were out the front of her apartment block masks in place waiting to be picked up.