Childhood Crushes

Chapter Thirtyone - Junk In The Trunk

Ashley

“I’m sorry, Ash. I tried my best, but it’s just storming way too hard.” Sally tried to reason, and I understood, but why did it have to storm this week? There would be no more flights for the next week. This is why I hated her living in another country.

“It’s okay, Sally. I understand.” I held back my tears, trying to sound like a big girl. I am a big girl, I shouldn’t be crying over this. So what if my sister, my best friend, my maid of honor can’t make it to the wedding? ...Oh God. The tears fell, and I couldn’t stop them. “Listen, Sal, I’m gonna go. Love you.” I hung up the phone quickly, hating my cracking voice for giving me away.

I held my cell phone to my chest, staring out at nothing in particular and just letting my tears fall down. What now?

Then, an idea popped into my head... Annabelle would fit that dress... And I’d love for her to be my maid of honor. Would she do it though? Closing my eyes tight and trying to remember her number, I quickly dialed away.

Annabelle

“Please, Annabelle? Please! She’s the same size as you. I’m sure you’ll fit in the dress!” Ashley begged. What was I supposed to say? No, I won’t be your maid of honor; why the heck not?! I didn’t have to do anything, just walk down an isle and be there for Ashley. Maybe hold her flowers while she read off her vows?

“Um, sure, why not?” I smiled.

“Oh! Thank you! Thank you, thank you!” She squealed, probably making me go deaf in that ear for the rest of the day.

I laughed and told her I’d be there soon for fitting, for my other new dress... This is just weird.

After thanking me a thousand more times she finally hung up and let me go upstairs to change out of my pajamas.

It was kind of weird that I was gonna do this. Didn’t she hate me when we were kids? And now I’m about to be her maid of honor, and she’s getting married to a guy I used to absolutely love? Weird!

“Okay, just show me what I have to do.” I shrugged, looking around at all the poofy dresses. I thought those tacky peach dresses were only in movies... Nope, they’re in Ashley’s parents’ house.

Ash shoved one of the peach disasters into arms, then continued to turn me around and push me into a guest bedroom. “Just put the dress on, we’ll go over a few steps and things you have to do. Okay?”

“Steps?!” I choked. “Nobody said anything about dancing!”

“No,” Ashley laughed. “I mean steps like where to go in when you go to the church Sunday, where to stand; things like that.”

“Right...right.” I exhaled nervously. Thank God...

I closed the guest bedroom door behind me and began to strip down to put this thing on. After slipping it up to my hips, I knew they wouldn’t go in without a fight. While still wearing my bra, I called for Ash to come and uh... Help me out.

When she came inside she took one look at me before bursting out laughing. “Aww, I’m sorry.” She giggled.

“Help me out! I think I can get it over these damn things...”

Ashley pulled on the dress from behind, while I pulled up from the sides and the front.

“Suck it in!” She said.

“I can’t really suck in my hips, dude.” I laughed.

With one good yank, we finally got it over my hips and my butt. We pulled it up a little more and I found out her sister had bigger breasts than I do, even with my bra on. About a good inch of material was empty. “Holy crap!” I said, looking down.

Ashley couldn’t contain herself this time; she wailed with laughter and doubled over, eventually falling to the ground. I looked at myself in the mirror. It was tight around my hips and loose around my chest; nice.

“If we could just take some of this,” I patted my butt. “And put it in these,” My boobs. “It’d fit perfectly.”

Ashley smiled and looked up to me, “A little junk in the trunk, huh?” She giggled.

“Unfortunately.”

After wrestling and wriggling for about half an hour, we finally got me back out of the dress. Ashley said she would take it to the tailors to have it let out a little in the hips and brought in at the chest.

We went into the kitchen upstairs and had some snacks, sodas, and talked a little about the wedding. When I asked if she was excited, I got an answer I wasn’t expecting.

“I mean, I guess.”

Huh?

“What do you mean by ‘you guess’?” I asked.

Ashley shrugged, “I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like we’re rushing the wedding... By like, ten years.” She laughed nervously. “But I love him, and so it feels right... I guess.”

“Ash,” I frowned. “If you’re not ready, now is the time to say something. Before everyone’s in the church and waiting to hear ‘I do’.”

Before Ashley could reply, the front door opened. We heard, “Hey, baby, you here?” And she went running. I slowly followed, wishing Harry had never shown up. What if Ash really isn’t ready? Well, they say love is blind.

“Hey, Annabelle, what are you doing here?” Harry asked when I walked in. His arms were wrapped around his wife-to-be’s waist, but something about the way he looked at me made me uncomfortable... Why?

“I was just trying on the dress... For the maid of honor thing.” I said.

Ashley whipped around in his arms to face him, “Annabelle saved my life! She’s gonna be the maid of honor since Sally can’t make it.”

Harry kissed the top of her head and let go of her, “That’s great! Thanks, Annabelle.” He nodded to me.

“I’m her maid of honor.” Not yours...

Becoming a regular thing, Bale picked me up from Ashley’s parents’ house and drove me home. On the way, he asked how everything went.

“Well, turns out I have a big ass, Ashley isn’t ready to get married and Harry is a perv.” It all came out so fast though, it sounded like one big word. Kind of like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Bale just shook his head, “Uh, I didn’t get any of that.”

“Good. It’s all one big mess.” I sighed.

He decided to ignore that conversation even happened all together and went on to another topic. “I caught a good fish this mornin’. Pretty big... Enough meat for two people.”

I smiled to myself; hmm, smooth. “Yeah?”

“You wanna come over for dinner tonight?” He asked.

I looked over at him and smiled, “I’d love to.”