The Bride

“I seriously can’t get over your hair color,” Maria smiled at me. “It looks so good,”
“You’ve seen me blond before,” I laughed.
“I know, but it just looks good on you,”
“Thank you,” I smiled at my best friend. “I missed the natural,”
“I know you did,” Maria laughed as she pulled into the mall. “Now come on, we’ve got to get our shopping on,”
“How could I go from relaxing in a spa to shopping with you?” I joked.
“Oh whatever…you love shopping with me,” She laughed. “Besides, we just left the spa an hour ago.”
I laughed at Maria, causing her to shake her head.
“Point noted.” I stated. “I really do need to get some things though. I need to find a balance between my new girly clothes and the old tom-boyish ones I used to wear,”
“Good idea. I love the dresses that you’ve started to wear too,”
“I know that you did.” I retorted.
Silence fell between the two of us. I started to think about the dresses and then the modeling. I had notably ganged a few pounds or so after quitting gymnastics. I felt like I was getting way too big to be a model too. I don’t know how Maria puts up with all this pressure to be perfect in the modeling world. My pressure to be perfect was completely different than hers is. I was exercising and eating right, but I honestly don’t know how Maria did it.
“What’s on your mind?” She asked me finally.
“How do you stay so thin, Mar?”
Her face twisted up in discomfort.
“Th-That’s a h-hard question to an-answer.”
“It’s not that hard,” I mumbled.
Maria bit on her bottom lip.
“I-uh….I will skip some meals sometimes. Just like…right before a spread or something like that. Nothing terrible,”
“Honey, that is terrible,”
“I-I know, but I’m not starving myself. I used to do that a while back. It wasn’t the best in the world,”
“Maria…”
“It’s okay. I’m over that, but I do still skip some meals. It’s not too bad.”
“O-okay…” I trailed off, letting the silence fill the car again. This time, however, the silence was awkward.
We finally got to the mall. Maria and I walked in unison toward the store we were looking for first. I smiled at the huge sign was spotted. I love this store.
“Have I mentioned how much I love Forever 21?” Maria asked, whipping away all the awkwardness that consumed us a few minutes ago.
“A few times….it’s my favorite too,”
“I understand way. The clothes are super cute and vintage looking.”
“I’m in love with their boots.”
“Amen to that.” I laughed. We walked into the store and around it for a little while. I picked out a few dresses, some shoes, a few plaid shirts and even some scarves. Maria herself had a pretty big pile. We paid and left the store with plenty of bags in our hands. We headed to Journeys to pick out a few pairs of converse and vans. I felt a smile come to my face as I realized how much I really did need new shoes. I grabbed three or four pairs of each.
“You love those shoes,” The cashier commented.
I just shrugged.
“I was in serious need of some new ones,” I admitted.
He laughed and rung up my shoes. I paid with Maria following soon behind me.
“That was fun,” She smiled. “Are you hungry? I’m starving,”
“Okay, let’s go get something to eat,” I suggested. “How about we eat some Japanese food?”
“That sound delish,” She smiled before we got to the food court.
“This looks so good!” I stated the second we sat down with our food. “I can’t wait to eat it,”
Maria laughed.
“It does look amazing,”
We both started to dig into our food.
“E-excuse me…” A meek voice started.
We both stopped eating and looked in the direction of the girl standing there. She looked like she was nearly thirteen years old.
“Hey, sweetie. What can we do for you?”
“I was wondering if I could get my picture with you two?” She asked, shyly holding up her camera.
“Of course,” I answered her.
Maria and I both stood up and made our way toward the girl.
“Can I get my friend to take the picture for us?”
“Sure,” Maria replied.
“Okay, I’ll be right back,” The younger girl smiled before turning around.
“She’s so cute,” I cooed.
“I know she is. Expect that a lot more when you go out to bigger places. They’ll hound you,”
“That’s sort of awesome,”
“I guess so,” She laughed before the girl and her friend, a slightly older boy, returned. We all got close and smiled for the camera. The guy clicked the camera with a smile on his face.
“Thanks so much,” The girl stated.
“No problem. What’s your name?” I asked her.
“I’m Heather,” She smiled. “Thanks again,”
“Anytime,” Maria replied with a small smile.
“Come on Jeremy,” Heather started, grabbing his hand. He looked to be about fourteen or fifteen. He just looked fifteen because he’s so tall. I laughed, and shook my head at the two. Her blond hair started to disappear along with the tall and lanky boy with dirty blond hair.
“Oh my goodness,” I laughed.
“Yes, that did just happen.” Maria stated. “And yes, that is how John looked at you, and yes you were that oblivious,”
“Ah…young best friends who are in love with each other…” I trailed off. “I hope they make it,”
Maria rolled her eyes.
“Back to our food, you hopeless romantic,”
“Thankssss,” I rolled my eyes in return.
“You’re staying at my house tonight,”
“Oh yeah…I am?”
“You definitely are. I mean, your wedding dress is there, the Bridesmaid dresses are there, and everything you basically need for the wedding are at my house. So…are you going to stay the night? Kendra and Julie are,” She tempted.
“What about John?”
“He’s going out with Kenny, Jared, Garrett, and Pat.”
“What about Moose and Tim?”
“Who cares?” She stated with an shrug. Maria wasn’t a big fan of either of those guys for obvious reason. I really didn’t blame her at all. It was mostly just Moose that she almost hated, but Tim was just a dislike.
“Okay,” I laughed. “I’ll stay with the girls tonight,”
“Good, because you really didn’t have the choice,”
I rolled my eyes.
“Whatever, Mar.”