“And we will always be, I promise.” Her words sounded sincere. I could count on them. I knew this. “So have you heard off Conway?” I blushed slightly and shrugged.
“Yeah we’ve been for coffee a few times. It’s confirmed that there definitely isn’t anything there…” I recalled the moment where the initial reaction of him had worn off. He was mysterious in more ways than one but above anything else his humour was his best asset. “He was supposed to meet me yesterday to go through my cv so that I could get the ball rolling with jobs but he didn’t show.” My brow wrinkled as an image of me sat waiting in Starbucks for over an hour waiting for him reappeared in my head.
“Doesn’t he usually say when he won’t be able to make it?” I snapped back into reality and examined Soph’s face.
“Usually yeah he did say he was going away on business soon but I didn’t know when?” She nodded at my statement. There was pity filling her amber eyes and I smiled bleakly at her. She feels sorry for me. I made my way towards the bathroom. Talking about being stood up made my feelings about tonight even worse. Who didn’t make an effort to text to cancel? Fucking ass. I ran my bath and jumped in. The view from where I was perched was amazing, the fields that backed onto Soph’s house always calmed me down and I closed my eyes.
Nance had arrived not long after I had my bath. She was flustered and was carrying bags. I frowned at the large white zipped up bags and pointed towards them.
“What’s in those?” I asked. Her face lit up almost instantly and I shook my head, squeezing my towel tighter.
“My mum brought them, for tonight, for us? She said we deserved a treat.” She grinned widely at Soph who was clapping her hands together in delight.
“Open them!” She giggled. Both their families were well off, the house I was sitting in was evidence of that and receiving expensive gifts from their parents never got easier. I exhaled loudly as I stood up to help her unzip the first bag. I glanced at the name tag. ‘Sophia’ was scrawled across it in fancy handwriting. I heard her squeal and smiled to myself. I watched as she emptied the contents of the bag to see a beautiful mid length dress in a dark emerald colour. She beamed.
“Oh this is absolutely wonderful!” She began to clap her hands together tightly again. Nancy then ripped hers open to see a lovely navy number. It was bodycon and looked so soft. I reached my hand out to touch the fabric and I smiled up at her.
“It will kind of match your eyes.” Her smile grew wider by the second and she held it against her perfectly slim body. Her legs will look so long in that.
“My mum knows I like them shorter.” She gave me a cheeky wink and smiled. I stood to open mine and gripped my towel tighter. I unzipped the brilliant white bag and smiled to myself as I caught my breath. The slightly blush pink dress was silk in material and draped down at the back. The straps were like spaghetti and I flushed red. Nancy whistled and touched the dress.
“That may be the best one yet.” I smirked at her and noticed the scrawled writing I recognised as Nancy’s mums.
‘Avaya, hold your head high you may be delicate but you are strong…’ tears welled in my eyes and I glanced at Soph. She smiled widely and flashed her teeth.
“You’ll get some looks in that it’s beautiful.” I took a seat on her plush grey carpet and exhaled as I looked at my reflection.
“Can you pass my hair curlers please?” I smiled at Nancy who was now throwing them in my direction.
“Don’t burn the carpet my dad will fucking kill me. Its new” Soph made her way into the bathroom, I ran my fingers through my hair that had dried on it’s own and frowned to myself.
“Thank your mum for the dress, it's wonderful.” I could hear myself gushing. I felt her sit behind me with a thud and she began to part my hair in order to curl it. It seemed as though she had had a shower and had sorted her hair out before she left for Soph’s.
“I think she knew you needed a boost…” My eyes lowered at her comment “I mean like you had all that shit with Ben and it just feels like you haven’t been yourself this summer.” She spoke the truth. I hadn’t been the same since Ben turned out to be an arsehole. Seeing my mum once in a blue moon didn’t help it either and I shook my head.
“Well it’s lovely, tell her I love it will you?” Her fire engine red hair swayed as she nodded.
“I will don’t worry, what did the note say?” She probed me and I shrugged. She stood and examined her mother's scrawled out writing. I watched as a large smile crossed her mouth. The curlers suddenly beeped. Fuck don’t burn the carpet…. I picked them up swiftly off the floor and curled my hair softly. This would take a while.
My girls looked wonderful. Soph’s hair was completely straight and almost touching her bottom. I exhaled before we entered the reception room. The building was old, castle like in appearance, men in suits were everywhere, women in wonderful dresses spilled out through the doors. I noticed the bride in the distance speaking to a large group of people. I felt two hands creep around
