CH. 19: Dress Shopping

As we walk through the doors I actually feel myself relax for the first time in months. It's like everything got solved in a matter of seconds by having a girl's day out. We're all giggling and laughing as we each shout over the other one how we want to look like for the big day, especially Halley. She keeps talking about all different sorts of things that she wants.

She wants to look elegant but hot at the same time. She wants to be conservative but show off skin. She wants a really long dress that hugs her body and over all, she wants to be the bride that will be remembered even long after their fifth wedding anniversary. I just want to look decent. Nothing that over powers the bride but a dress that looks stunning when standing by myself.

When we meet the receptionist she looks nice. She's slim and has her blonde hair up in a tight bun as she says in an over sweetly tone, "Well aren't you all looking good today. I'm glad you choose to come to Bidi's Bridal Shop to get your dresses. I can assure you we won't let you done."

We're all giving her our full attention as we introduce ourselves. Halley saves herself for last as she says with an over enthusiastic voice, "I'm Halley. It's so nice to meet you. I can't wait to see all your beautiful wedding dresses and try them on."

We spend a few more seconds doing small talk when the receptionist separates us into two different categories as Halley goes look at the wedding dresses and the rest of us spend our time searching for our dresses. Halley told us she didn't really care what we wore as long as it was the same color and style for everyone and that it wasn't white.

With that in mind we all left to the dressing room where we would leave our belongings and start bringing dresses. As soon as we started walking everything broke loose as we started shouting what colors we were going to wear.

"Well I just think that we should wear royal blue since it all matches our skin tone."

"Yea but it's been so over used. Just think about it. I can already read in the magazines how Halley had a boring wedding because of our dresses," Alice remarked on Cristina's comment.

"Well why don't you suggest something Alice," Patricia said in a tone that seemed to be a little tense yet casual.

Alice rolled her eyes before crossing her arms. If I didn't know better I might have thought that Alice genuinely wanted to help us look our best. But after seeing her with Halley and the rest of the girls, I know that she thinks she's the best. So I'm not even surprised when she says in a snobby tone, "Well if you picked up a magazine Patricia you would have realized that right now all the bridesmaids are wearing mint green."

She even sighs to show how frustrated she is to be explaining such things to everyone' seeing Patricia ready to say something back to her I decide to step in as I say, "Well why don't we each grab three dresses we like and try them on. Then from there we'll see which ones stay and go as we eliminate them from the list. Does that sound good?"

Automatically Cristina starts smiling as she says, "Oh Ally where were you when I was getting married!? You would have been perfect." Patricia agrees with a nod and of course Alice hesitates before finally agreeing once seeing that she couldn't fight three of us at the same time.

As we each get lost in our own world of finding the perfect dress, we all get into a small conversation. It starts off by Cristina telling us her story of how she got married. Apparently she first met her husband in middle school. He used to annoy the hell out of her. It continued to be like this until one day in high school she confronted him. And from that day on they started dating.

"Awe, that is so cute. So you and your husband are high school sweethearts?" I ask her as I grab a pale pink dress.

She laughed a while before saying, "Well I guess so. But we didn't married out of high school. In fact we broke up before we even made it to the end of graduation. By the time we were heading out to college we didn't even say goodbye. We both acted like we had never spent the last four year of our lives being together. It was weird."

I was just about to open my mouth when Patricia beat to it by asking, "Wait but if you got married then why did you break up?"

Cristina came over to our aisle with five dresses on her hands as she took a seat to explain the rest of her story.

"Well we both have our reasons. We both say it was each other's fault but at the end it came down to college. It was us against the world. We knew when June came we would be miles apart. He had his eyes set on Arizona State University. Mine had always been Stanford. When we were applying it was tense but fine. Deciding we would push everything back until we had to absolutely talk about it.

When he heard that I had gotten into Stanford and he had gotten into Arizona we were thrilled. We celebrated that night but it all crashed and burned by the time I got home. He told me we would work it out with the long distance. I came up with the solution of staying in Arizona for a year or two before transferring out to Stanford. That enraged him. He started telling me how he couldn't let me do such a stupidity. I rebutted with the idea that I was an adult and he couldn't tell me what I was or was not to do. By the end of the night he drove me home. We spent most of the time yelling absurdities at the other, I left a dent in his car, and he left saying goodbye. Never once looking back at me."

By now the dresses were forgotten as we crowded around her. Even Alice seemed surprised as she uttered, "But you guys are the cutest thing ever. How you guys were apart is a wonderment to me."

Everyone nodded in agreement with her. Each of us were wondering how this could have happened as we all stared at Cristina to continue. Yet all she did was play with her hands and stay quiet. At least she did so until she gave us a small smile before saying, "I'm guessing you all want me to continue?"

We all nod our head in encouragement before laughing. Cristina sat a bit straighter before continuing on with her story.

"From that moment on, we erased every trace of the other. It was like nothing had happened between us, as if we had never met. By the time summer came around I was out with friends, meeting new people, and so was he. I wanted to tell him something, anything. Even if it meant just saying hi and looking stupid for not being able to keep a conversation with a person whom I used to talk with for hours. But I never could. There was always that awkward tension that would stop me. Or a girl that would always be in the picture. And before I knew it, I was getting on a plane to go to California.

I didn't see him for the rest of the year. By the time I came back home for the summer, I had truly forgotten about him. In fact I had a boyfriend in Cali whom I was excited to share with my family and friends back home.

But a week into the summer fate happened. I saw him grocery shopping at our local store. It was like everything that I had tried so hard to forget suddenly came back with force. Seeing him in front of me after all that time was strange. He looked exactly the same. Nothing about him had changed as he chose his cereal. I debated talking to him but decided leaving would have been best. I was making my way to a different area of the store. And I would have left unnoticed too. If it wasn't for the fact that as I made my escape I tripped and crashed into a nice stack of canned goods that were in a shape of a pyramid.

He came running to see what made such ruckus and we were left breathless as we stared at the other. It was soon followed by awkward small talk before he had a slip of the tongue and called me by my old nickname. And then suddenly everything clicked. And that night we went out. And the next one and the next one until summer was over. We didn't get back together right away but we started keeping communication. And the first thing I did when I got back to school later that year, I went to my boyfriend's apartment and dumped him. The rest you could say was history."

We were all yelling in happiness of how she ended up with her husband. And I couldn't help myself as I say, "Don't you just love love!?" By now we all had dresses and then I had to ask her one question.

"Cristina, I understand that you guys were going through. But why didn't you guys talk it out?"

The room became silent as we all waited for her answer. All eyes were on her and then she softly spoke. "I asked him that same question. And he simply told me that if we had stayed together I would have lost a great opportunity. That if we had talked it out I would have convinced him and he would have hold me back. I guess he has a point. Sometimes in a relationship you also need to know when you need to step back and let the other one shine. It can't always be just about you."

We all nodded in agreement with her. We let her soak in before she said, "I think we have enough dresses to choose one."

We all tried on the dresses when Cristina asked me about the subject I least wanted to talk about.

"So Ally, how did you and Zayn meet?"

My eyes grew big from her question and I couldn't help but start blushing. I only started getting redder as Patricia encouraged Cristina to keep asking me questions as Alice watched the scene unfolded with curiosity. Giving up hope I finally said, "Well what do you want to know?"

They all looked at each other before Cristina asking me how we met.

"Well my story isn't great as Cristina's. We met when we were in middle school and from that moment on our families got along. I guess we grew up a bit and became good friends. Somewhere in between we just sort of happened and now we're here with you all."

I turned quickly to the dressing room hoping that I could sneak away when Patricia grabbed me by the arm, making me drop my dress.

"Tell us the entire story Ally. Did you really think we were just going to ask you and not want details?"

I let out a sigh of own before saying. "Well there's not much to know. We're awkward. Our first date was so awkward that he hid in the bathroom and I was thinking about leaving halfway through. We just do things our own way and somehow we work. He's like my best friend turned boyfriend kind of story line."

I'm getting ready to leave when Alice speaks up out of nowhere and says, "So how did you meet Austin?"

His name captures my attention and leaves my mind blank. I even have to ask her to repeat the name when Cristina adds on, "Yea you guys seem to act like you've known each other longer than you let on. Where have you guys met?"

And at that instant I feel like I'm drowning in the middle of the ocean with no help at all to be seen. For some reason it seems like I shouldn't be talking about him at all as I say, "He used to live around here before he moved. We used to have the same group of friends and that's how we met."

Patricia quickly asks me, "Did you meet him before he got famous?"

I can't help it when a small smile forms on my face. "Yea. Actually I got to hear a lot of his original stuff before he became big. It was cool. He was such a different person back then."

They were all going to ask me more questions but luckily Halley came announcing she had found her dress. We all follow her to her dressing room when Alice whispers for just me to hear, "You know, if you hadn't told me that you and Austin were just friends. I would have thought that you guys went out at some point from the way you guys act."

I don't get a chance to ask her what she is talking about as she moves to Halley. It's only when I see everyone surrounding Halley that I realize some people might know more of Austin and me than the let on.

A/N: So yea. I know I've been gone and all but I'm almost done with everything before I just need to focus om grades. Either way here it is. lt's longer than planned but i hope that's good. I'm not sure how i feel about this chapter but considering this one is completely different than what i had imagined o hope its a good sign. that you guys so much for everything and I will upload either later or tomorrow night. Thanks so much for the support and to show it I'll just let you know that all of you that are rooting for Austin and Ally will be happy next chapter. i think there are only five more before it's all done. Thank you guys so much and hope you're all doing well! Don't forget to smile.

:)