I Pucking Hate You [Charlie Conway]

part 14- say yes to the dress

When you cry too much at night and wake up with sore eyes and a headache.

Mia's head was muffled as she stared up at the ceiling, head sinking deeper into the pillow. It was a Saturday, a Saturday morning to be exact. At any point, Derek was going to bust in and ruin her only shot at sleeping in. Maybe today is the day Mia would tell him to shut up and walk away.

But the clock ticked, the time moved and there was no sign of a morning run, no sound in the house. No movement, no jeering to jog, no morning drinks. Mia wasn't used to being in bed got so long and didn't know how people could just lay there without moving. So she got up.

Maybe Derek was dead, it would explain it. She didn't know if she could deal with the loss of another parent right now, no matter how much she hated the guy.

Only living here a month, Mia had already memorized where every creek and odd sound that her foot could possibly cause. She dodged them as she crept first into his bedroom, peering at the empty bed that was never made. Next, she headed downstairs, to see him still on that armchair, an empty green bottle in his hand. each snore he made was pushing the bottle further out of reach. Mia was surprised he was still holding onto it.

Lucky Charms that were three days away from going stale, half-eaten and box open, the perfect and only breakfast choice. She poured the last drop of milk into the bowl, reminding herself to pick up some more later. She ate in silence, apart from the snores in the other room. All quiet.

Until the phone rang.

Derek flung awake at the ringing sound, grinning the green bottle tightly and sitting up with a confusing headache. Mia jumped up to grab it, holding it to her ear.

"Hello?" She asked, who the hell was calling?

"Who the fuck is that?!" Derek groaned, his voice was muffled with a mix of sleepiness and drunkenness.

"Hey, are we still on for today?" The girl at the end of the line spoke.

Today.

Then it hit her, dress shopping. The dance was in a week and the girls wanted to go get dresses.

"Um- yeah alright I'll see you later, Connie.." I replied, after yesterday this was the last thing she wanted.

"Great, see you then!" Connie hung up first and Mia headed for the stairs.

"I asked you who the fuck that was, I want an answer!" Derek called out as she started walking up the stairs.

"Connie." She simply answered and kept moving.

The boutique was in the middle of town and Mi decided to walk there, meeting Julie on the way. They chatted before bumping into someone fun.

"Where are we going?" The man asked.

"Dress shopping, do you really wanna go to this, Portman?" Mia laughed, Julie, finding it very funny.

"It's either this or homework." He shivered at the thought of ever doing homework.

Connie was already waiting outside, she had a schedule and our Dean had messed that up. Even still, we headed inside and chose a few dresses, heading to try them on from a man who claimed he knew fashion but wore leather on leather on leather.

"Too yellow." He pointed to Julie, "too poofy." He pointed to Connie, "too ugly." He pointed to Mia."

"Too opinionated." She smirked at him.

Dress after dress, nothing was working for Dean. It's not like they didn't have their own opinions, Portman was just a bitch. She excused herself for a moment, walked down the street to grab water for everyone and a coke for Dean.

She walked around and picked up her items, headed for the counter to pay.

"Do you wanna bag?" A familiar voice asked and she peered up to see who it was.

Conway.

"I'm good," Mia replied, she was even more pissed off than she appeared.

"Williams can we just-"

"Respectfully, fuck you." She hissed at him, thinking how much the cashier was loving this.

"That's not very nice." He released how stupid he sounded.

"Neither is my dead mother, but whatever." She shrugged before walking out of the shop, Charlie following her.

"I'm sorry, okay I'm sorry!" Mia shut the door in his face but he called out to her still.

"And?"

"I'm a dick, I get that. I didn't know, I'm sorry I made a bad day even worse for you." He sounded genuine, like he meant it.

"Well, I didn't expect that. Thank you, Conway." Mia then did something she never thought she would do in front of Charlie, she smiled.

They only briefly spoke before Mia started walking back to the boutique. She was happy, happy that he was big enough to apologize to her.  Her happiness carried and her delighted daze held until she heard someone screaming for her.

That guy she had forgotten about.

"Mia, hey, look. I'm willing to go to the dance with you, because it's important to you and I'm your boyfriend. So, I'll go." It was Andrew.

"Oh, cool." Mia shrugged, this was the bare minimum.

"Cool? Alright then." And with that, he walked off.

Mia didn't even understand the conversation and just walked back to the shop, feeling as though she had been gone forever as when she returned, the two girls had their dresses picked.

The search and try on continued for Mia before finally, she found her gown. Nobody saw it, Mia loved it too much to have Dean make any criticisms. But she knew in her heart, this was the one.

Now all she had to do was wait to wear it.