Sandcastles

I awoke the next morning tucked into the bed that I had grown accustomed to sharing with Jonny. Like usual, the bed next to us was completely empty, meaning Sara had decided to stay with Kaner another night. Frankly, I didn’t mind in the slightest. Being able to wake up on my own instead of to her pouncing onto my bed every morning was a nice treat, and something that I highly enjoyed. This morning was no different. I had woken up by my own…and to my surprise, I was also on my own.

Looking around the room, I was trying my best to take in everything around me. It all looked the same, and it seemed like I hadn’t slept alone last night. The question was, why was I alone right now? Getting myself out of bed, I became aware of the fact that I was still wearing my clothes from last night. Slowly I walked into the bathroom and flipped on the light, trying to figure out what sort of disaster I had to attack this morning. To my surprise, a folded note sat on the counter, accompanied by a tiger lily. A small smile crept across my lips as I picked up the flower in my right hand and his note in my left.

"Sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up this morning, Bailey. The guys wanted to go and get breakfast before we went on our fishing trip. I didn’t want to wake you. But I’ll see you tonight. I have a surprise for you. Meet me at 8 p.m. on the dock. –Tazer
P.S. Have a fun shopping day with the girls. I’ll see you later."

It was simple, but it made me squeal in excitement. I began to dance in little circles around the bathroom until Sara appeared in the doorway, making me jump out of my skin.

“Shit Sara! You could have said something!” My hand went to my chest, trying to contain my heart. It felt like it was about to fly out of my chest.

Sara merely shrugged. “I made a ton of noise when I came in. And why would I miss this? You never let yourself go and dance around like that. It was worth the shock.” With that, she was out of my line of vision. Peeking around the bathroom corner I watched as she walked over to her pile of clothes and began looking for something to wear.

“Where have you been anyways?” I asked, following her into our sleeping quarters. Bouncing onto the bed, I pulled my legs up to my chest and watched her search through everything.

“With Kaner,” she said simply, not even looking at me.

“I figured. Doing what?” I asked again, twirling the tiger lily in my fingers.

I could see that devilish grin works it’s way only Sara’s features as she pulled a sundress from the pile and held it up to her tanned skin, checking to see if it would work for the day. “Stuff,” she merely said before she started skipping to the bathroom and closing the door.

Racing up from the bed, I began to knock on the door, knowing good and well that Sara had locked it behind her. “Sara! SARA! You only skip when something big has happened… Open this door and tell me!”

“Get ready! We’re leaving soon.” Sara said, and I knew I had lost. But this was just a battle. I would win the war.

-x-

As I looked through the clothes of the countless stores that we were walking through, I found myself looking at Sara more than normal. She was hiding something, and I was determined to figure out what. I was so focused on Sara's secret that I jumped sky high when Erin places her hand on my shoulder.

"Dude, why so tense?" She asked, giggling with every word.

"No reason," I said, going back to look through the shirts I hadn't been playing an ounce of attention to before.

"And why haven't you bought anything? You need something new and pretty to wear for Jonny," Christine teased as she brought over this little sundress, something that I would never, ever wear.

"That's adorable. Are you going to get it?" I asked, picking a shirt off the rack and looking it over.

"No, but you are," she answered, grinning from ear to ear as she shoved the dress into my hands and practically pushed me into the dressing rooms. I tried it on, and to my dismay, it was pretty much perfect. I didn't want to admit my life for the dress, but I couldn't say that I hated it either. They knew I was a rather bad liar. Stepping out of the dressing room with the dress on, the girls all clapped. "And now you have something to wear on your date with Jonny tonight."

I lifted an eyebrow at Christine's words. I hadn't told them about my date with Jonny tonight. Just as I was about to open my mouth to ask, Sara popped her head around the corner. "Hey guys. I have another store I want to check out. Oh, and Bailey, get the dress. It might come in handy later."

The shop that Sara was so desperate to take us to was actually a little lingerie store down the street. We had walked past it once, but I hadn't paid an ounce of attention to the mannequins in the window or the skimpy little outfits they had on. When we walked through the door, I instantly felt uncomfortable, but the other girls took to the store like any other. It was just another place to shop. I tried to look around, but nothing seemed to catch my interest.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, looking at Sara around a stand of particularly skimpy looking thongs.

"I need something to wear on the honey moon," Sara answered nonchalantly.

"Honeymoon?" Erin chuckled, peaking her head around another rack. "For who?" I could tell she was trying to hide her laughter, but it wasn't working like she had hoped.

Sara didn't have to answer. All she did was hold out the two rings that now encases her left ring finger. One was a engagement ring. That was easy to tell by the size of the diamond, but the other...the other was a simple, silver band. A wedding ring.