Tears on the Runway

In the morning I awoke to an empty bed and the sound of flowing water that was emitting from the bathroom that was adjacent of the room Ben and I were staying in.

I sat up, groggily rubbing my eyes as the water abruptly ceased its flow. The night before came piece by piece back to my memory, Ben’s arms around me and his lips to my neck and chest once we were sure his parents had gone to bed. I gazed down at my nude body, collarbone covered in purplish marks that I knew to not be bruises.

The bathroom door swung open and Ben appeared in the doorway, body dripping with water, though he had a towel tightly wrapped around his slim waist. “Love.” His face lit up with a bright grin and he gestured to the nightstand as he spoke again, “I got you some coffee. It should still be a bit warm.”

Somehow I felt my eyes light up. Ben knew just how I liked my coffee, lots of french vanilla creamer was the secret, and he could make some pretty fantastic coffee. I took the still warm mug between my hands and sipped at the heavenly liquid, which had admittedly cooled down a bit.

While I was consumed with drinking the beverage that would give me energy Ben dropped his towel to the floor and dressed in ripped skinny jeans and a rather worn tank top.

Once he was clothed he slung himself onto the soft bed next to me nearly knocking the almost empty mug out of my hands. “Hey. Careful,” I scolded sternly as a frown came over my lips.

Ben chuckled giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Mom and Bex are downstairs whenever you’re ready. Might wanna get dressed.” He stood, flashing me a cocky grin and motioned to my chest and collarbone region. “And cover those marks up.”

I huffed as he left the room, door clicking shut behind him. I mumbled profanities to myself as I stumbled to the bathroom, ditching the sheet I was using as a cover behind me.

The scorching water felt oddly nice rushing over my exposed body, washing away how gross I felt when I’d woken up. Welts blossomed up over my skin as I scrubbed soap that smelled vaguely of lavender over my body. I offset the lavender with shampoo that smelled of vanilla.

Soon enough I cut off the flow of water and stepped onto the cold, white bathroom tiles. I simply towel dried my hair with a towel before I stepped onto the carpet, not bothering with a brush or anything.

Once I’d dried my body off I artfully smeared concealer and foundation over the marks Ben had left on my collarbone. I threw on a red summer dress that came to my mid-thigh and black ballet flats before I headed downstairs to meet with Ben and his family.

“There she is!” Ben grinned when I came into his line of sight.

“Ready to go, dear?” Deborah queried, scooping her car keys off the hook near the kitchen counter.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I confirmed, following Deborah and her daughter out the door. She led us to a very nice Mercedes almost like the one Danny drove.

Deborah hopped into the driver’s seat and Bex, instead of claiming the passenger’s side, climbed into the backseat behind me.

Bex spoke up once we’d been driving for a while, “how did you meet my brother?” Her voice was almost a whisper.

For a moment I hesitated. I couldn’t very well tell her that I’d hooked up with her brother at one of his shows before I knew the first thing about him.

Almost as if she could read my mind she said, “It was at one of his shows wasn’t it? He fucked you before he knew you-”

“REBEKAH BRUCE!” Deborah cut her off giving indication, for the first time, that she could hear her daughter.

“Whaaatttt?” Bex drew out the word, exasperated. “We all know the type of person that Ben has become…” She paused for a moment. “Well, before he met Dai.”

“That’s enough,” her mother scolded, clearly in denial of the kind of man her son had been.

Bex glanced in my direction and rolled her eyes just as we pulled into the parking lot of some quaint dress shop. There was a pretty pink sign at the top that read “Luella’s Dresses.”

Upon entry we were greeted by the chiming bell of the door and a very pretty, thin woman. Her dark hair fell, stick straight, to her shoulders and the left side of her lip was pierced with a sparkly stud. “Hello!” she bellowed, cheerfully. “My name is Beth! Is there anything at all I can help you with?” She snapped the gun she was chewing between her teeth and I faintly smelled spearmint.

I stepped forward. “My name is Daidara Stevens. I had an appointment at one thirty.” I glanced at the giant wall clock and it informed me that it was just two minutes past.

“Ah, yes, Daidara! I remember!” Her face lit up with recognition.

“Please, call me Dai,” I insisted.

“Of course! Well, where would you like to start? We have everything from bridesmaids’ dresses to bridal dresses!”

“Bridesmaids,” I answered, confidently. I’d collected Sammi’s, Caitlin’s, and Brandi’s sizes just for this moment. A thought occurred to me. Ben had four groomsmen and I couldn’t figure out a fourth bridesmaid. Bex and I had started off great, maybe she’d like to be a bridesmaid? I turned to face Bex. “Would you like to be a bridesmaid?” I asked.

Bex’s brown eyes lit up, brightly. “Of course, Dai!”

I looked back to Beth. “I have four bridesmaids and their sizes as well,” I told her, handing her the wrinkled piece of paper.

She nodded in understanding, taking the paper. “Alright. Do you have a color scheme in mind?” She began to lead me to a separate room labeled as “Bridesmaids” in black cursive letters over the door.

Ben and I had come to an agreement over a color scheme recently. “We’re going with a pastel color scheme.”

“Ooh! Pretty!” Beth cheerfully replied, coming to a halt at a rack filled with dresses of all lengths, mostly in pastel hues. She gestured to the rack as a cue to sift through the dresses it held.

I looked through dress after dress after dress. None of them were what I was envisioning until the third to last dress. I pulled it out of the mess of dresses by the hanger.

“This one. I like this one.”

The dress I’d pulled out was a pastel blue. The bodice looked as if it clung to the body very definitively, wide tank top like straps curving over the shoulders. The dress hit the floor in length and fell very subtly in its beauty.

“Beautiful choice!” Beth cheered.

“Would it be possible to get each one in a different pastel color?” I queried, looking the dress up and down.

“Of course! I can put an order in and you can pick them up before the wedding!” she told me, jotting a note down on a pad that she brandished from the back pocket of her skinny jeans. “Would you like to look for a bridal dress now?”

I bit my lip, nervously, as I nodded my head. What if I didn’t find the right dress?

Beth led me to a much bigger room located across the store.

Most of the dresses were stark white and the racks almost seemed like a never ending pile of fabric. I stepped into the giant dressing room surrounded by mirrors.

Beth, Bex, and Deborah brought me endless amounts of dresses. When none of them worked I felt the urge to scream. “None of these are the one!” I pouted, crossing my arms over the lacy bodice of the dress I was currently wearing.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find one,” Bex reassured me.

I heaved a sigh and my eyes wandered to a dress hanging on the wall, presumably a reject from somebody else’s endless pile of dresses. “I want to try that one on.” I extended my finger to point at the dress.

Once I pulled the dress on and attached the veil I knew that it was absolutely perfect. It was sleeveless with a well fitted bodice that ending with a flow of white fabric to the ground in a beautiful waterfall. The matching veil was long, it may have well had a train of its own whereas the dress did not.

“This one,” I told the girls, firmly. “I want this one.”

“Beautiful!” Beth squealed. I wondered how she dealt with this job daily if she got this excited over stranger’s weddings. “Well...” She flipped through her notepad. “It looks like I have everything I need to order the dresses and keep them here for you!”

“Thank you so much!” I squealed, feeling as if tears might well up in my eyes. This was it. I was going to marry the love of my life in a few short weeks.