Chapter Five: Helping A New Friend
"So Alicia," after minutes of uncomfortable silence, Lil finally decided to speak up "when's the wedding?"
"Hopefully in a few months, things keep changing."
"Things like what?" Kimi asked, actually curious.
Alicia sighed and shrugged "I'm having problems deciding on colors, bridesmaids dresses, oh, can't forget, bridesmaids."
"Don't you have friends that could be your bridesmaids?" Lil asked.
Alicia shook her head "I have my sister as maid of honor and that's it."
"Speaking of, Tommy, whose your best man?" Phil asked.
"Dil. And if not him then Chuckie. You're one of the groomsmen though" Tommy said giving Phil a smile. He looked over at Alicia and actually thought about it. She wasn't one to get along with people with people in school, she kept focused on her studies most the time. "Why don't you get Lil and Kimi to help out, I'm sure they'd be willing."
Lil and Kimi exchanged glances before turning back to Alicia, hoping she would say no. Alicia smiled at him "That's a good idea!" she looked away from Tommy and then looked between Lil and Kimi "Would you two please do it?"
Kimi sighed and nodded "I'd love to."
Lil decided since Kimi was, she would too "Me too"
Tommy looked over at Lil, he knew being a bridesmaid in his wedding is the last thing she would want to do. He thanked her with his eyes and she gave him a smile. "How long are you planning on staying?" he asked Alicia.
She put her arm through his and smiled "I planned on staying until you were ready to leave."
Phil crossed his arms and leaned back into the couch "While you're here you can take these two to find those bridesmaid dresses." he got an elbow in the ribs from Kimi and he turned to glare at her.
"That's a great idea, Phil!" Alicia said with a smile, but continued to stare at him "Wait, Phil. DeVille? As in the owner of The DeVille Grille?"
Phil nodded and smiled proudly "The one and only."
"I stopped and ate there on my way over here, it was delicious."
Phil smiled again "Thanks."
"Kimi, where's your bathroom?" Alicia asked, standing up.
"Upstairs, second door on the right."
They watched as Alicia walked upstairs and as soon as they heard the door shut Lil turned to Tommy and punched him in the arm "Hey! What was that for?"
"For offering us to be her bridesmaids!" Kimi said leaning forward "We don't even know her"
"And I don't particularly like her." Lil said crossing her arms.
Tommy turned to Lil and raised his eyebrows "Why?"
"I don't know. Have you ever met someone and just not liked them?" they all looked at her before nodding "That's how I feel about her. There's just something that I don't like, I don't trust her."
Kimi nodded and shrugged "Seems logical, I guess. But really, thanks a lot Tommy. While you're at home or wherever you are while you're still here sitting around probably drinking with Phil, we'll be stuck with her at the mall."
"Oh come on, Phil's the one that gave her that idea." Tommy said pointing at Phil.
They stopped their conversation when Alicia came back downstairs. Kimi shot Tommy a look "We'll get you back for this"
A few days later, Lil and Kimi were sitting in Alicia's car with her off to the mall. "I can't tell you two how much this means to me."
Kimi forced a smile "It's not a problem. We're more than happy to help you out, after all you will be joining our group."
Lil nodded from the backseat "We wouldn't help you out if we thought you were bad for him."
Alicia smiled at her in the rear view mirror "I'm glad you don't think I'm bad for him."
Lil smiled to herself and looked out the window "Yeah, we've seen bad for him, isn't that right, Kim?"
"Oh yeah, like Rachel."
"Rachel was terrible for him."
Alicia nodded, she remembered Tommy telling her stories about Rachel and from what she heard, Rachel wasn't all that good of a person. She turned into the parking lot and shut the car off before getting out of the car.
The three of them walked into the mall and up to the dress store where Alicia talked to one of the workers about colors and dresses. Lil and Kimi where standing away from her, silently cursing Tommy and Phil. "I swear, if we get stuck in ugly dresses, I'm killing Phil."
"Don't forget to kill Tommy while you're at it." Kimi said crossing her arms.
Alicia motioned for them to follow her towards a rack of dresses and Lil ran her hand against them "Have you gotten a dress yet?"
Alicia turned to Lil and nodded with a smile "I took my sister with me to get it" she said pulling two dresses off the rack.
"Is it a ball gown type of dress?" Kimi asked as Alicia handed her one of the dresses.
"Of course."
Lil took the dress and walked to the dressing room with Kimi. She looked at the dress and shrugged "It doesn't look too bad." Kimi nodded in agreement.
They walked out and showed the dresses to Alicia and she smiled "I like these." she turned towards the rack and looked through them before pulling out two other dresses "But let's see about these."
Lil and Kimi looked at each other and Lil groaned once she was back in the dressing room and fell onto the chair "Could this day get any longer?"
After hours of looking for the perfect dresses they finally found them and carried them back out to the car. She drove them back to Lil's and then she went back to Tommy's. Lil and Kimi walked in the house with their dresses and put them in Lil's room "I can't believe we're actually going through with this. Tommy's lucky we're such good friends" Kimi said sitting on Lil's bed.
Lil nodded and sat next to her "So true. They're leaving tomorrow, so we should probably spend the rest of the day with him."
They went over to Tommy's and walked inside like they always did. Tommy, Phil and Alicia were in the living room and Phil waved them over. "Enjoying your last day at home?" Kimi asked Tommy who nodded.
"I'll definitely miss you guys though. And Chuckie, but he's not here." he said with a shrug.
"He'll be at your wedding though, which is when we'll be seeing you again." Kimi said.
Tommy looked over at Lil and made eye contact with her "Yeah, I can't wait until then."
The next morning came quick. Tommy was putting his stuff in his car when Lil walked over "Morning, T"
He turned and gave her a smile "Morning."
She could see it in his eyes that he was tired, he probably didn't sleep the night before "Are you ready to leave?"
He shut the door to his car and leaned against it "Not really. I've kind of missed it here. I've missed you guys, and it was actually really nice being back with you all."
"Well, you know we're going to miss you. Phil and I will go back to work, we'll probably fall out of touch with Kimi again until your wedding."
"Don't let it happen then" he laughed "You two use to be best friends, actually, you still are. And it's no secret that Phil is still in love with her."
Lil laughed and pulled her jacket closer to her as a breeze swept by "Yeah, it's not a secret at all. Phil told her the other day."
Tommy laughed again and pulled Lil to him "What did she say?"
Lil smiled, taking in the warmth of Tommy and wrapped her arms around his waist "She freaked out, thinking he was just saying things while drunk."
They heard the front door open and Lil pulled away from him "I'm going to miss you, Tommy. Stay in touch" she gave him a smile and a wave before walking back over to her house.