looking for forever

chapter no.9

dresses and dignity

"Oh, I love this one." Sierra said, fingering a long, white, strapless, lacy, mermaid style wedding dress.

"Maybe for you guys but I want something colorful." Amber said, fingering a soft pink strapless dress. Kelly admired Ambers choice but continued to look for other colors, maybe a lilac purple or a soft yellow?

Suddenly Kelly turned to see a gorgeous lavender dress, almost exactly like the one Sierra had found but in the light purple-y color. Kelly called Amber over and Amber gushed over the dress, telling Kelly that it was definitely an option. Kelly held the dress and put it up in the dressing room labeled 'Amber'. So far there were four dresses in there, all different colors. A light pink, a soft yellow, a cream color, and the lavender dress.

Kelly walked out of the dressing room to see a skinny blonde figure roaming about the store. Kelly glared at the figure but then went on to pretend not to see her. Sierra saw the girl too and caught Kelly's eyes.

Crystal? Sierra mouthed to Kelly. Kelly nodded and continued to look for dressing, adoring a silvery colored one.

"Hey, Crystal!" Crystal turned and smiled as Andrew went walking toward her. Crystal smirked and bit her lip, a sure sign that she was up to something. Kelly and Sierra exchanged a worried look while Amber continued looking for dresses like everything was totally fine.

Hello! Everything was not totally fine! At least, not for Kelly.

"Kelly, do you like this one?" Amber called, giving Kelly an excuse to look away from her worst enemy and one of her best friends. Amber showed Kelly another cream colored one. Kelly beamed and nodded, causing Amber to smile and announce that she was going to start trying things on. Kelly smiled, the sight of her only sister this happy made Kelly overjoyed.

"Kelly..." Crystal was behind Kelly in moments. Kelly jumped and turned towards the evil cheerleader.

"Hello, Crystal. What brings you here?" Kelly gestured to the wedding store.

"Oh, It's never too early to start planning!" Crystal giggled excessively. Kelly struggled not to gag at her sickly-sweet tone. "Plus, my future hubby isn't far from me right now." Crystal said, admiring Andrew from afar. Kelly's skin boiled. How dare she talk about Andrew like that. He had a girlfriend.

"He has a girlfriend you know." Kelly added, matter-of-factly, gazing at her clipboard to look nonchalant.

"Oh, Amanda won't last long, you can be sure of that." Crystal said. Kelly was shocked, shouldn't two evil cheerleaders be evil besties?

"But she's your head cheerleader. You can't sabotage her." Kelly commented, still staring at the clipboard as if she forgot something.

"Oh yes I can. And it doesn't matter anyways because I'm going to be head cheerleader shortly. Coach doesn't like people who cheat." Crystal said, an evil smirk plastered on her fave and a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

"Like on tests?" Kelly asked innocently, still clinging to her cover of loyal-little-sister-trying-her-hardest-to-plan-her-only-sisters-dream-wedding.

"Like on people." Crystal said, emphasizing every word. "Oh, and I don't have to even plan for Amber to cheat on poor, sweet Andrew. She already is." Crystal cackled evilly, just like in Kelly's dream. Crystal pointed outside, where Amanda was making out with Chris Stone. Kelly gasped and looked at Andrew who was facing the other way. Kelly raced over to him and dragged him away from the window or any reflections of the window.

"Kelly, what are you –"

"Protecting you." Kelly said and dragged him to the very back corner, which was deserted and dark.

"Kelly, what are you talking about?"

"I don't know if you –"

"Oh, Andrew?" Crystal's voice yelled. Andrew looked at her, in the direction of the windows. In the direction of...

Andrew gaped at the windows, then he squinted at them, and finally he marched towards them, despite Kelly's desperate attempts to stop him. Andrew was outside with Amanda and Chris. Chris had his arm around Amanda's waist and Amanda was frantically speaking, trying to explain. The windows were sound proof but Kelly watched everything that was happening. Chris was smirking, Amanda seemed to be speaking at one hundred miles an hour, and Andrew just stood there, looking like he was on the verge of tears.

Kelly felt awful.

"Why did you do that, Crystal? You deliberately got him to look at that and now he's in pain." Kelly said, anger rising in her soul.

"Broken boys flock to girls. It's simple logic, Darling." Crystal said, getting up off of the chair she was sitting on and walking outside. Amanda and Chris had gone but Andrew was still outside, leaning against what looked like a Greek architectural pillar. Crystal faced her back to the windows, but Kelly saw when she reached her hand up to stroke Andrew's cheek. Andrew looked at her with sad eyes. Crystal leaned in and, instantly, Kelly knew what she was going to do. Kelly turned away and went into the dressing room areas.

Amber twirled in the cream colored dress, Kelly liked it, but it wasn't her favorite.

"No?" Amber asked. Sierra nodded and Kelly agreed. Amber went back in the room and changed, coming back out in the pink one. Sierra gaped at Amber's beauty, as did Kelly. The beautiful strapless, mermaid style dress was shimmery and perfect for Amber's style.

"That one." Sierra and Kelly said at the same time.

"That good?" Amber laughed and twirled again.

"Totally." Kelly replied, giggling, while Sierra nodded enthusiastically.

"Well I guess that's it then. I'll get this one, but I need you guys' help to hide it from Brandon." Amber smiled. Sierra and Kelly agreed to be the wedding-dress-protecters and they all started out to the cash register.

Amber bought her dress as Sierra looked at the rest of the decor for the wedding but all Kelly could focus on was the new couple kissing on the steps outside.

Crystal and Andrew were still out there kissing and Kelly didn't know what emotion was overtaking her but she didn't feel at all like herself. Her heart throbbed and her stomach flipped and her throat closed up. She hated the feeling so much that it was insane.

"I can't believe Crystal and my brother are hooking up out there." Sierra said with distaste.

Oh good, thought Kelly, I'm not the only one.

But Kelly wasn't feeling the same feeling as Sierra was. Not even close.