Chapter 23
“Um, we can just skip the lingerie. The dress is much more important.” Rosalie was beyond nervous now, and she regretted taking Vanessa with her at all. She knew that Vanessa would make her get something for the wedding night and wouldn’t take no for an answer. She’d be damned if she tried on anything to show her friend. She probably wouldn’t be able to see herself in the mirror as it was.
“What? Are you kidding? NO! It’s tradition, and Eric will be expecting it. You can’t disappoint him, now, can you?” Damn Vanessa! She knew exactly which buttons to push to get Rosalie to dance along to whatever beat she was playing.
“I don’t feel comfortable shopping for something like that!” she hissed, feeling her cheeks heating up. Vanessa just waved off her objections, as if to say, they would see about that when they got to the store. Rosalie decided to change the topic. “Where are we going?”
“David’s Bridal is right down the street. I figured we could start there, and if you don’t find the perfect dress that makes you feel like a princess, then we’ll find a few more stores until we do.” That was one thing that Rosalie did love about Vanessa. She was persistent. Unfortunately, that also made her stubborn when she wanted Rosalie to do something that Rosalie didn’t want to…like buy sexy outfits. She shook her head, trying to forget about that detail of the day and shooed Vanessa out while she got dressed. When she was ready, she came out into the living room to see that Vanessa was done and impatiently waiting. She was holding a polaroid camera in one hand and idly spinning her keys on her finger with the other. “I thought you were going to take hours. Let’s go!” Rosalie waited until Vanessa wasn’t looking to roll her eyes. Granted, the enthusiasm was contagious, so as they walked down the stairs to the parking lot, Rosalie’s heart started to pound with it, too. The drive felt like it took hours, but in reality wasn’t more than ten minutes. Vanessa was so into the task at hand, that she cut off another car and took the first available spot, closest to the door. A mother and her daughter glared at them as they got out and walked to the front door. Rosalie and Vanessa dissolved into giggles, and couldn’t stop until the sales lady had cleared her throat three times to get their attention.
“Good morning, ladies, and welcome to David’s Bridal. Do you have an appointment?” Both of them sobered up. Did they need an appointment in order to shop? They didn’t know that, so they hadn’t made one. This day would quickly go from good to bad if they couldn’t look at dresses.
“Um, no, ma’am, we don’t. We didn’t know that we needed one.” Rosalie’s heart was in her throat as she waited for the woman to say something.
“It’s not required, but sometimes we get so busy that you can only get in by appointment. Luckily, today isn’t one of those days. I can take you over here to Daisy, and she’ll help you right away.” Rosalie let out the breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. The woman led them over to a slender woman with beautiful, almond shaped eyes. She smiled at them as she led the girls to a section of dressing rooms. Vanessa dive bombed into a pouf that was clearly positioned for the people waiting to see the dresses, earning a reproachful look from Daisy.
“Hello, I’m Daisy. What sort of a dress are you looking for? We have about a dozen different main designs, then we can narrow down the particulars.” Rosalie felt blindsided. She had no idea about fashion or anything. Her eyes went wide, and sort of glazed over. Vanessa blew a bubble with her gum, then popped it.
“She’s looking for either an A-line, mermaid, or princess. No feathers, lace is ok, so long as it’s not dominating the dress, and strapless is alright if she can get a jacket to go with it.” Daisy looked Vanessa up and down critically before nodding and disappearing between the racks that held hundreds and hundreds of dresses. Rosalie mouthed a quick thank you to Vanessa, who just winked at her and resumed blowing bubbles, making sure to snap her gum particularly loudly any time Daisy was close. Rosalie was handed a gown and ushered into the dressing room. She did her best to get into the first gown, then ended up calling for help. Daisy went in, tugged and poked, prodded and yanked, then led Rosalie out to stand on a little pedestal that was surrounded by mirrors. It was a beautiful dress, but it didn’t call out to her. In the movies, the mom or whoever was with the bride always started crying when it was the perfect dress, and Vanessa was just looking bored, giving the dress a fake yawn and a roll of her eyes.
Rosalie had gone through about ten dresses, and the day was wearing on. At this point she was afraid she wouldn’t find a dress that she liked at all. There was one left on her rack to try before Daisy disappeared back down the racks. Crestfallen, she picked the last one up off the hanger without even looking at it and stepped in. When she called Daisy in to finish fitting it to her, her head was hung low. She didn’t even look at Vanessa when she came out, she just stared at the floor. Usually, Vanessa had a comment to make. Rosalie stood there, waiting. When the silence stretched on, she finally looked up. Vanessa had a softness to her face, and a glow, looking up at Rosalie with a tear leaking out of her eye, and beginning to trail down her cheek. This was the reaction she’d wanted. Was this the dress? She slowly turned around to look at herself in the mirror. The dress was stunning on her. It was an A-line with little cap sleeves, that fell to the floor with ruffles trimmed in lace. It had a sash around the waist with roses embroidered on it in pink satin thread. Overall, it was a simple dress, but she loved it.
“That’s the one. That’s the dress, Rosalie. Tell them to start fitting it and I’ll tell Eric to have his dad come pay for it.” Vanessa had gotten herself composed again, and was busy typing away on her phone to cover up her momentary lapse in composure. Rosalie loved the dress, and she felt like a princess in it.
“Would you like to add a veil to it?” Rosalie nodded eagerly. Daisy disappeared and came back with a floor length veil, a veil that only covered her face, and one that fell just past her shoulders. Rosalie chose the one that fell just past her shoulders and Daisy added it to her hair with a little headband covered in crystals. Rosalie’s eyes were shining. This was the most beautiful that she’d ever looked in her life. The typing had stopped at one point, and when it resumed with feverish strokes, Rosalie took a minute to look at her friend. Vanessa’s makeup was smudged and she was trying to covertly wipe another tear from her face. This was definitely it then.
“Would you lay it aside for me please and start the alterations?” Rosalie couldn’t believe her own voice was saying these things. Daisy took her back into the dressing room and undid whatever it was that she’d done to get her into the dress, then left her alone to change. When she came out, she was feeling light and almost like she was floating across the ground. “It should take a few weeks for the alterations, but it will definitely be finished by the time you said you needed it.” Daisy disappeared through a back door with the dress and the veil draped over her arms, and Vanessa shot to her feet.
“Time for sexy clothes!” She grabbed Rosalie’s hand and almost pushed her out of the store.
“And where exactly are we going to go for this?” Vanessa opened her mouth to say something but the devious look in her eyes made Rosalie throw her hand up to stop her friend. “If this is going to happen, I refuse to go to an adult store. I want somewhere conservative where I can feel a little less embarrassed about it.” Vanessa’s face fell and she started to chew her lip.
“Fine. I guess that limits us a little. Maybe we can try Macy’s,” Vanessa grumbled. Rosalie pumped her fist in the air in victory. If she was going to be subjected to embarrassment, then she was going to do it her own way. Smiling, she got back into the car, feeling like she’d achieved a victory.
At Macy’s, Vanessa was instructed to find conservative outfits that wouldn’t embarrass Rosalie, then had to swear, on pain of death, not to enter the dressing room at any time. Vanessa was put out about it, but that was what Rosalie wanted, so she had to go with it. A half an hour later, Rosalie came back out of the dressing room, fully clothed, with a red lacy something bundled up in her hand as small as possible, so no one else could see what it was. Vanessa grinned at her and wiggled her eyebrows, insinuating lewdness, which only earned her a smack on the shoulder as Rosalie walked to the checkout, trying her best to hide what was in her hand. The checkout lady looked at them askance, and Vanessa eagerly told her it was for a wedding night, leaving both Vanessa and the cashier giggling while Rosalie shoved the money at the girl, grabbed the bag, and stalked out to the parking lot with her face as red as the lace.
“It’ll be fun, I promise. Sometimes it hurts a little the first time, but you’ll be ok. You should probably make an appointment for birth control pills though if you want to finish school before you have kids.” They were in the car now, talking casually on the way home. Rosalie’s face had gone from beet red to puke gray in the span of two minutes. She’d never even thought of that. She’d had no need for birth control before, because she was still a virgin. She scrambled for her phone, scrolling through her address book to call her doctor for an appointment.
“Thanks. I hadn’t even thought of that. Man, I guess I’m a bit more naïve than I thought.” Vanessa laughed.
“You’re good, honey. What are friends for? This is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, and I’m going to help you make sure that it is.”
“Thanks, Vanessa. It means a lot to me that you’re here with me every step of the way. I’ve never had a friend like you before.” For the second time, Vanessa teared up, but this time Rosalie pretended to ignore it, because she was as well. Things would be different in her life after she married Eric, but she hoped that no matter what happened, or where they went, she hoped that Vanessa would always be a part of her life. She’d been the first real friend Rosalie had ever had, and she didn’t want to lose her.
When they got back to the dorm, Rosalie ran up the stairs with her bag, unlocked the door to her bedroom, ripped open the closet door, and shoved the bag with the lingerie as far into the back of her closet’s corner as she could. It made her feel a little better now that it was out of her line of sight. When she came back out, pink cheeked, she found Vanessa doubled over on the couch, crying from laughter. Rosalie stuck her tongue out and promptly slammed the door.