You Found Me

I sighed sadly as I ran my hand along the silky powder blue fabric of the dress hanging in front of me. Three days until the wedding. Just three more days. And he couldn’t have waited until the huge event passed to rip my heart apart.

“Leigh,” my sister, Ariana, broke through my thoughts, “you here?”

I blinked away the tears that were threatening to spill over before looking up at my tall, blonde, beautiful older sister. “Oh, yeah, sorry,” I responded, pasting a smile on my face. “Just spacing out.”

She studied my face, her dark brown eyes that matched mine narrowing. “What’s going on with you? Is something wrong? You’ve been out of it all day.”

I shook my head immediately. Under her gaze, I wanted to break down and tell her everything. About how I should have seen the signs and taken the hint. How I still panted after him like a pathetic puppy dog, ignoring everything that was being spelled out in front of my face. How I felt when I saw him walking hand-in-hand with the new Scottish exchange student the day after he broke up with me over fucking text message. After almost a year and a half of being a couple, he dumped me with a simple its not gonna work. I didn’t even deserve proper grammar.

Ariana was still waiting for a verbal answer, so I cleared my throat and added, “No, I’m okay. I just didn’t get enough sleep last night. That’s all.”

Her eyes stayed locked on mine, trying to search for any sign of a lie. And after growing up together for almost eighteen years, she knew me well enough to know when I wasn’t telling the truth.

But right when she was about to call me out on it, there was a panicked voice from a few stalls down. “Um, Ariana?” my aunt’s voice came out higher-pitched than usual. “We have a problem.”

Ariana shot another worried glance at me before hurrying down to where my aunt was having her meltdown.

It was the final bridesmaids’ dress fitting before the wedding at Kleinfeld, the boutique where Ariana bought all the very expensive dresses (her ten thousand dollar Pnina Tornai gown and all the dresses for the bridesmaids) and home to the original Say Yes to the Dress series. Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to be on the show, but they definitely should have featured her. After all, her taste was kind of amusing and extravagant.

In Ariana’s perfect fantasy world, love is forever, and marriage is something that only happens once in a girl’s lifetime. She wanted the whole wedding to be a huge splurge, basically clearing out her entire life savings, plus my dad’s and her fiancé’s. The gown, the location (a castle in Ireland, where her fiancé, Mike, is from), the catering…everything was the absolute best that money could buy.

“Alright,” Ariana burst out, startling me out of my thoughts, “your turn. And pray to God that you haven’t gained any weight.”

My face filled with a flush as I was pushed lightly into the dressing room, my outfit hanging up on the hook on the back of the door. Ariana shut it behind me, and her footsteps soon picked up again, obviously scurrying to find the alterations manager to help my poor aunt.

I shed off my jeans and gray t-shirt before slipping the gown over my head. Since I was the maid of honor, mine was a little different than the others, a little beading on the black band that cinched the waist of the dress.

I let out a sigh of relief when the zipper closed easily, not snagging in any places. Guess the tub of New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream hadn’t actually made me gain ten pounds like I thought it had.

“Leigh,” Ariana whined from the outside of the door, “please tell me that you’re taking a while to get into your dress because you’re admiring your beauty.”

“That’s not really my style…” I joked offhandedly as I stepped out of the stall.

Ariana looked me over carefully before ruffling my hair. “Oh, thank God. It’s perfect. And I was actually worried how your new hair out look with the whole style, but it actually works well. Very Keira Knightley.”

I laughed. “Funny. I don’t feel anything like Keira Knightley.”

“I didn’t say you were her.” Ariana shook her head. “Alright, you’re set. Go change back into your slobby clothes.”

“They’re not-!” I tried to argue, but she was already gone, running down to meet Vera, the woman who does all the alterations, to explain the issue with my aunt’s dress.

Grumbling under my breath, I slinked back into the dressing room and changed back into my regular clothes. I had to admit, in comparison to the dress, my regular clothes looked painfully plain.

Once I finished changing, I made my way back to the waiting area and planted my butt down in a chair, pulling out my phone immediately. I checked my Facebook, which came up with nothing. As usual.

Just as I was about to slip my phone back into my pocket, it started going off, playing a snippet of Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran.

Hai gurl haiiiii, the text read, the tone of the message thick with sarcasm. I rolled my eyes before responding back to one of my best friends, Jenny.

Hi. What’s up?

I was just about to ask you the same thing…how you holding up?

Eh…I’m coping.

Did you tell ariana yet?

No. I mean, she loved Jared, and I don’t want to ruin all the excitement about the wedding. I want her to be focused on HER, not me.

*sniffle* YOU ARE JUST SO SELFLESS. YOU GO, GLEN COCO.

I burst out laughing in the middle of the bridal salon, throwing a hand over my mouth to try to stifle the sound as my face filled with a deep blush. Leave it to Jenny to make me laugh when I figured such a thing was perfectly impossible.

Oh my God, no Mean Girls references. You’re going to make Ariana yell at me for embarrassing her.

Whoops…sorry, forgot you were doing serious stuff.

‘Sall good. I don’t think anyone heard me.

Good. So anyway, later, we up for an all-night movie marathon with a big ol’ bucket of popcorn and cookies n’ cream ice cream?

My mind drifted back to all the ice cream I ate the night before, drowning in my misery. I knew I shouldn’t eat more of it. I’d definitely gain weight, and Ariana would kill me if my dress made me look like a stuffed sausage.

Eh, fuck it. I wasn’t going to be young with a fairly good metabolism forever.

My place at six?

See ya there, chickadee.