Bon Bons to Yoga Pants

Chapter 46-The Best Wedding Gift

"OMG LEXIE! IT'S PERFECT!"

Kenzie squeal carried through the bridal store when I stepped out of the dressing room in a monstrous pink horror. I waded forward, through the miles of fabric.

"Except through the shoulders . . . and the waist." Mom said, plucking at the dress with two fingers. "And the chest."

I'd avoided looking in the mirror of the dressing room out of sheer desperation and hope that I was still in a nightmare and would soon wake up, but no such luck. The hot pink terror was even more pink than I remembered, if possible.

"It will match the cake perfectly," Kenzie declared with smug triumph.

"Kenzie, it's at least three sizes too big now," Mom said.

"Nah, they can take it in at the seams."

The woman working in the store cleared her throat. "Um, actually, I think it is too big," she said. "We could take it in a little, but—"

Kenzie's eyes widened in instant panic. While Mom sought to soothe Kenzie's ruffled nerves, I snuck a glance past all of them to the three mirrors waiting against the wall and found exactly what I expected. A fluffy flamingo. The dress hung off me like a pair of old drapes, gowning my arms and torso in pink chiffon. Seeing Bradley while wearing such a hideous gown would surely cement my place in second-date-hell.

"Can you order the right size?" Kenzie asked the store worker, pulling me out of my thoughts. "We're only two months away. That's plenty of time, right? Right?"

"Let me check," the store worker said, but the tug in her voice wasn't encouraging. She left with all too much eagerness to get away. Kenz had a hand in her hair, making her bangs stand straight up. Mom moved the fabric around my waist, folding it and playing with it, but it didn't make it any less of a monstrosity. I turned around to face my sister, the miles of fabric rustling around my legs as I moved.

"Kenz, I'm sorry."

"I knew you looked good," she said, "but I didn't realize you'd lost so much weight."

I'd been in the Health and Happiness Society for nearly four months and hadn't weighed in weeks. I didn't even know how much I had lost. I just knew that I felt better than I ever had in my life, and I'd just made an already appalling dress that much worse.

Maybe they won't have it in another size and I won't have to wear it, I thought with a glimmer of hope.

"No worries!" the bridal store worker chirped, returning with another dress the same color. "We have it in a smaller size. Let's give it a shot."

Kenzie clapped.

The bridal store worker slipped into the dressing room to help me, making me worry that we'd be stuffing my arms and torso into the dress. But it slid on with surprising ease, and I barely had to suck in while she zipped up the back. It did look better once it fit, but it was far from a great dress.

"Perfect," she said with a chipper smile. "I guess your dress size is a twelve now."

I whirled around. "What? What did you say?"

"This is a twelve. Your last dress was an eighteen."

"I've lost three dress sizes?"

She beamed. "Congrats!"

"But that doesn't make sense. I definitely can't fit into a size twelve pants. I just barely fit inside a size fourteen pair of pants and—"

She waved it off. "Dress sizes often fit differently and don't always reflect your pant size. Anyway, you should be proud of yourself. You've obviously worked very hard. And just in time for summer! June is only two weeks away. What a fun summer you will have!"