Ello all. So, I was having trouble writing this since our power kept surging, which meant my computer kept restarting. I didn't attempt to write until a good hour after the storm passed. I'm glad you all liked the proposal. I knew there were going to be a lot of people who were going to think they were too young way back in ATCR when I decided how he was going to propose. So, hopefully, I built their relationship enough to make everyone see that they should be getting married. I'm glad you all enjoyed the proposal. I must admit, it wasn't my idea. I was freaking out because it had to be original and I was lost. My mother actually came up with it for me. You see the standards I have to meet?? Anyway. Prom dresses and fighting.

Chapter 11:

Call us procrastinators if you want, but really Caitlyn and I just had our priorities a tad mixed up. You see, we had the limo and everything booked for prom, we knew who was going in the limo with us, and we knew who our dates were, obviously. The part we hadn't done yet? Yeah, buy our dresses.

Prom was a little over 4 weeks away, and we hadn't bought our dresses yet. While Shane and Nate offered to take us to all the expensive uptown boutiques, we opted to do the normal girl thing. We went to local places where we wouldn't be spending 500+ on our dresses.

This is how Caitlyn, Sierra, Mom, and myself ended up at David's Bridal on a Saturday afternoon. Caitlyn and I were browsing, while Sierra was there for input. We needed a third opinion, and Anastasia was busy studying for her final exams. I hadn't really had much luck, though Caitlyn had found 5 or 6 dresses to try on. Sierra and Mom each found me a few, but I couldn't seem to find anything.

One half of the store was covered in David's Prom collection. Excessive dresses only to be worn once. During the non-prom season, this is wear all of their bride's maids' dresses were. The other half of the store was covered in wedding dresses. And that part of me that wanted to run off to Atlantic City? Well, that part kept glancing over to the wedding dresses.

"Get through Prom first, Mitchie." I mumbled to myself.

"What?" Sierra asked, looking up at me. I smiled quickly.

"Nothing. I was just saying… I love this dress." I pulled out material of the dress my hand had been hovering over.

She looked at me oddly. "Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "I know Shane loves green and all… but that's… puke green."

My eyes widened, and sure enough, it was. "I meant this one." I quickly pulled out a red dress next to it.

"Come on, let's go try this stuff on." Caitlyn dragged me to the dressing rooms.

We each came out in our first dresses. Neither of us really liked the other's dress. Several dresses later, Caitlyn finally found her dress. "Perfect." We said together, admiring her dress.

The dress was fitted down to the middle of her rear, wear it flared out just enough. The dark purple looked really good on her.

I changed into my clothes and went to find Mom, who was trying to find me more dresses. When I went out to the main room, I found her admiring a maniquin in a wedding dress. I smiled. "Mom?"

"Oh," She seemed surprised to get caught looking at wedding dresses. "Did you find one?"

I shook my head no. "Caitlyn did though."

Mom loved Caitlyn's dress. While we were paying for it, a lone dress caught my attention. It was the last one on its rack. It was gold with green detailing. My eyes lit up as I moved toward it. I checked the size and squealed, though I will never again admit to that.

"Mom, I think I found it."

"Found what?"

"Prom dress."

I tried on the gold dress. It was a strapless corset top with a full, puffed skirt. The green detailing ran across the seem at the top in a beautiful design, as well as across the fold between the top and the skirt. Green netting was laid over the silky skirt.

I was in heaven. It fit perfectly. I was leaning away from a green dress, as sometimes it can get overbearing to wear the same color, but the gold and the green accented each other so perfectly. And it gave me a touch of green for Shane, yet not over kill on it, either.

We paid for both dresses, and made our way back home. Bored out of our minds now, we decided to watch HotTunes. We actually laughed at the show now more than let it bother us. We were constantly on there, as well as on the covers of magazines and tabloids.

"Connect 3's newest tour won't be coming to a town near you. The boys of C3 will be spending their summer in Europe, touring the continent. No word as of yet whether Jason Bishop's leg will be fully healed and ready to rock by then, but he will certainly be able to play his guitar. We're also curious as to whether or not the 3 lovely ladies of Connect 3 will be joining their boyfriends on tour this summer again."

"What?" I shrieked. "This summer? Caitlyn, didn't they say the fall… like when we left?" Caitlyn wouldn't look at me. "Caitlyn."

"They pushed it back to July." She said quietly. "The venues weren't cooperating. They understood because of Jason's leg… but… they didn't see why the shows had to be pushed back to the fall. They were afraid the sales would drop if people weren't on break."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded.

"Shane was supposed to. It's his place, not mine." She argued. I knew she was right. I needed to clear my head, though, so I put Jacob on his leash and took him for a walk. After a little while, my phone rang. I saw it was Shane.

As soon as I accepted the call, he began to speak, before I could even say hello. "I'm sorry." He said quickly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I told you I would try to push it back, and I wanted a definite yes or no before I told you."

"Shane…" I sighed. "You need to stop doing that."

"Baby…" He said softly.

"I'm walking Jake right now, I'll call you later." I hung up on him. Despite our numerous conversations about this particular problem, Shane still hadn't grasped the concept of keeping me clued in. I needed to know what was going on. He still felt the need to keep me separated from his problems. I understood why he did what he did, it just aggravated me. A lot.

"Daddy is stupid." I said, rubbing Jacob's stomach. Jacob just looked at me with a cute dog face. We were sitting at the park near my house. I'd been gone for a while already, as the sun was going to set soon.

"Yes, he is." A depressed voice said from behind me. I quickly turned to find Shane standing there with his hands shoved into his pockets. "You've been gone for like, 5 hours. Cait was worried." He explained.

"Oh." I replied.

"I was going to let you cool off and all, but she called freaking out, since you turned your phone off. I told her I'd come try to find you."

"How kind of you." I said tightly.

"Mitchie…" He sighed.

"I'm fine, Shane. Go tell Caitlyn I'll be home when I get there."

He sat next to me. "Can we please talk about this?"

"No." I said firmly. "We do, every time. And you still don't get it."

He shook his head, not looking at me. "I hate seeing you get worked up over nothing-"

I cut him off. "Nothing?! Shane, you promised me and then you never told me about the tour in the first place. And then you said you'd push it back to the fall-"

"I said I would try."

"Oh whatever. Shane, seriously. How can you expect us to get married if you don't tell me things like this? You let me find out in the most awkward and random of ways!"

"What does it matter?" He yelled back at me, jumping to his feet. "You don't even want to get married, so it doesn't matter how I can expect us to." He stormed off, leaving me alone and confused in the middle of the park.

My mind was racing. He didn't really think that, did he? Oh, god, he did. He thought when I gave the ring back I didn't want to get married. But that right there was what the biggest problem was. He still treated me like I was made of glass half the time. A marriage can't work like that.

I fought the hot, angry and depressed tears. I refused to cry over this. I quickly stood up, dragging a tired Jacob back to the house.

I entered the back door and took Jacob off of his leash. I stormed upstairs to my room, where Caitlyn happened to be.

"Oh, good, you're back. I was wor-"

"Leave me alone, Cait, please." I requested, pulling on my headphones and laying back on my bed.

But, like the dutiful friend she is, she didn't. Not quite. She sat on her own bed, doing homework, waiting patiently for me to talk about whatever was bothering me.

Finally, I got tired of arguing with myself and sat up on the bed. "What is his problem?" I demanded, pulling the headphones off.

"His problem?" Caitlyn questioned.

"He wants us to get married and everything, but he's constantly breaking promises lately. And he never tells me things. He keeps me in the dark until someone else rats him out with the truth."

"True, but he's not the only one with a problem, Mitch." She said so nonchalantly, not looking up at me.

"What does that mean?" I demanded.

"It means you're sending him, and the rest of us, mix signals about this. You tell me you can't wait for him to propose at Christmas, and then after Valentine's Day, you say you don't care when he does. Then at your birthday you seemed so happy about it, but turned around and gave him his ring back. What do you think that tells him? You are constantly throwing your pending marriage back in his face. 'How can I expect this…' 'How can I expect that…' It's confusing, Mitchie. And don't think I didn't see you looking at wedding dresses earlier, either."

I blushed, having been caught. "Am I really that bad? Do I say that a lot?" I questioned, completely unaware.

"Yes." She replied.

I sighed and hugged my knees to my chest. "I don't mean to. I'm just scared, Caitlyn." I said softly.

She sighed as well. "You can't keep hiding because you're scared, Mitchie. That was perfectly fine when it was just you and Sierra. It was okay when it was just you and me, and Shane, Nate and Jason. But now? Now there is you and Shane and Nate and Jason and Stas and me and Jacob and Nicky and Kevin and Sierra. We all get caught in the middle of your hiding. I know you're scared, but what are you so afraid of? Shane has bent over backwards time and again to show you how much he loves you."

"I don't know!" I yelled at her. "I don't know, okay?" I said more calmly. "I'm afraid this is all a dream. I'm afraid that I'm going to wake up any minute and I'm going to realize that I never went to Camp Rock, I never met Shane or you, I never made up with Nicole, I never finally found peace over Justin."

"Mitchie, that doesn't make any sense!" She sighed in frustration. "If you're so afraid this is all a dream, why not live it out? Live it to the fullest it can be lived. Though, this isn't a dream."

"Because if I give in to it, I'll wake up. You always wake up at the best part of the dream." I said softly. "And even if it's not a dream, I'm scared the rules of dreaming still apply. That once I give in, everything will bottom out."

"Mitchie, nothing is going to bottom out. But if you keep half living, it will. Answer me this. Do you love Shane?"

"Absolutely." I replied instantly.

"Good, your heart says that. Now, think about it and let me know in a few days what your mind says." She stood up from her bed and made her way to mine. She hugged me without another word and left me to my thoughts. Did I really doubt my own feelings?

For the first time in our relationship, Shane wasn't talking to me. Three days after our fight, I tried to apologize and he still didn't respond. I knew we were both at fault, but he didn't even send me his normal fight-texts. It hurt. It also just made me angrier.

Of course, someone in my town just so happened to be at the park when Shane and I started arguing and reported it the local tabloid. I got phone calls from Rich, Stacey, and Bradley. Each was a varying degree of anger and sympathy. Rich was the most sympathetic, where as Stacey was the most angry. Bradley was more concerned that everything get fixed. Stacey yelled at me for having such a public argument. Whatever. I didn't like her much, but I rarely ever had to deal with her.

By the end of the school week, I'd hit my limit. Between Rosie and the tabloids and everything, I was ready to hit something. I stalked into my house. Caitlyn followed me cautiously, knowing I was going to exploded. I stopped in the living room, unaware of the presence in the kitchen.

"You know what, Caitlyn? Yes. Yes I love him although he is the bane of my damn existence." I yelled at her. She tried to tell me to stop because Shane was leaning against the wall behind me, but I ignored her. "Because life has been hell this past week. Because he's too stubborn to answer me when I try to apologize. But, nope, can't help it no matter how hard I try. I love him and that's not going to change."

"That's nice." He commented from behind me. I whirled around. "Maybe I wasn't ready to talk to you yet, Mitchie. Ever think of that? How often do you stay mad at me way after the fact? Now you know how it feels." He paused. "Let me know when you're ready to be mature." He turned around and headed back toward the kitchen. I heard the back door close a moment later.

I screamed in frustration. "How am I not being mature? He just walked away, again." I yelled toward Caitlyn, before following him out the back door. "Shane!" I yelled, knowing he was in the backyard somewhere.

"What?" He snapped from where he was leaning against the house. His fists were clenched and he looked pretty mad.

"I hate you, you know that?" I said standing in front of him with my arms crossed. "Until you, I understood my life."

"Yeah, well, that feeling is mutual, Mitchie." He snarled back.

"Bull. You were a lost little pop star when we met." I threw back at him.

He laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, and you were lying to the entire camp about who you were. I'd say we were both pretty lost."

I felt the tears stinging my eyes as he mentioned that, but I wouldn't let them fall. "So? If you never came along, Tess would have never felt the need to destroy me."

"And? If you never came along I wouldn't be here right now having my heart pureed."

I chuckled despite the situation. "You've been spending too much time with my mother." I shook my head, get back on topic. "And we're in this argument because of you, so don't blame me."

"Because of me?" He asked incredulously. He tried to leave again, but I pushed his chest, causing him to fall back against the house again.

"Yeah. Because of you. Because you left in the middle of an argument. Twice already."

"No, that's why we're still having this argument. We're in this argument because of you." He shot back.

"Because of me? How? I wasn't the one who kept my girlfriend in the dark!" I cried. He shook his head, not willing himself to look at me.

"Last time I checked I was only holding the ring. I didn't know we weren't actually engaged." He said softly.

"Shane…" I sighed. "Either way-"

"No, not either way, Mitchie. Because you keep throwing this in my face. You have a million and twelve reasons why we shouldn't get married. And I'm sick of it. I love you, so fucking much, but that's not enough for you. You have to nit pick every argument we have and turn it into another excuse. Just… tell me, right here, right now. Do you want to marry me or not?"

"God, Shane. Of course I do." I yelled at him. "More than anything. It… it terrifies me how much I do. Every excuse or reason I have is because I want to make sure that when we do get married, the things that keep tearing us apart now, won't do that to us then. Shane, I need to know what's going on. You need to stop treating me like I'm going to break. Honestly, what seems worse to you right now? Me having a minor freak out because you broke a promise that wasn't your fault or us arguing because you didn't tell me and the damn TV did?" He didn't answer me right away. "Shane, I don't want to fight with you.

"That's why I don't tell you." He said quietly. "I don't want to fight. But somehow that keeps backfiring. I didn't know they were releasing the tour dates yet. I was planning on telling you before that. Stacey released them before Rich told us about it."

"Oh." I said quietly.

"I was planning on telling you, but until then I hadn't had a definite answer. That's why I wanted to talk to you about it. But you just blew up at me."

"That gets old, real fast Shane. You should have warned me that they weren't cooperating with pushing back the dates. If I knew you were trying, and it just wasn't working…. I can't hold that against you."

He tentatively reached out to grab my hand. "I promise to try to keep that in mind and not make promises I can't guarantee keeping."

"Shane, you've broken quite a few lately. Don't make me another promise you can't keep." I said softly.

He took a step closer to me. "Mitchie. I will willingly walk away from all of this if you want me to. Nate and Jason will kill me, but if it makes you happy, that's all I care about. I want to be with you and that's all that matters to me."

My eyes had snapped up to his. He looked completely serious in that moment. "No, Shane, I could never ask you to do that." I said shaking my head slightly. "I just need you to be here for me. And to let me know what's going on. I could never be that selfish to ask you to give up something you love."

He took one last step closer to me, so we were now almost touching. He ran his fingers across my cheek. "I love you more." He whispered. "I don't want my career coming between us."

"Shane." I said softly. "It's always going to come between us if we don't talk about it. We knew what we were getting into to begin with." I reminded him.

"I know. I'm sorry." He replied. "Fight over?"

I nodded. "Fight over. But I'm serious, Shane. One more time and I'm done. I don't care how much I love you. I can't live like that."

"I know." He whispered, kissing my forehead.

I sighed as I leaned against him. He held me tightly to him. I felt a little more confident in our relationship, but I was serious about my threat. Once more and really was done. I just prayed it wouldn't come to that.

Normally, I love thunderstorms at strong and awesome, but not when I was trying to write.