Life Changes in a short time (Part 2 of senior year)

Chapter 9

3 ½ months ago.

Staying in China was great we had been here for 2 weeks now and was time for our next stop but I had got Nate to go feed while I went shopping. Walking is the way to get around in China the traffic sucks and if you need to travel it is best to us the train it will take you anywhere you need to go. I was walking down the streets of little shops just window looking until something caught my eye. Sitting there in the little shops window was these gowns, nothing could come close to the beauty, it was so simple with bright colors so I took a chance and walked in. I was greeted only two steps in with a welcoming smile and bow, I bowed back and I asked "Do you have wedding gowns?" The little lade just stared at me right then I knew she did not understand English. I always had Nate with me for this reason I could not speak a lick of Chinese but I had gotten a book to help me a little, but I forgot to bring it with me so I had to improvise. I keep the smile on my face and lifted my hand with the ring on it and pointed at it and then pointed at the one wedding looking gown to the left. She smile a large and happy smile and turned to walk away waving for me to follow. She pushed me into a dressing room and measured every part of my body then left. I waited there for about 10 minutes when she came back with 3 dresses in her hands and hung then on the hanger. All great looking dresses nothing I would have seen at home the simplistic of these dresses were great for my taste. I knew I did not want something that was puffy and grand, simple was my goal. I tried on all of the dresses that she had brought to me and they just were not it. It had to have been her 3rd or 4th trip back with dresses and I was looking at them on the hangers and there it was the dress the just screamed at me it was simply, allegiant, and red which would go with the colors that I had picked. I know what you think first wedding what about the whole white dress. But to answer your question when I was little I always like the color wedding dress better for some reason to me they made the wedding more personal than most, plus I love colors.

I tried on the dress and it fit, hugging my curves and flowing at just the right spot everything about this dress screamed me and I loved it. I took a quick picture of it with my camera and I knew I would pay for sending the text but I did it anyways. The first picture text was to my mother and the second was to Grace asking what they thought of the dress. I was still looking at the long mirror at my reflection when my phone went off, I look down to the screen and it was from Grace. THAT IT THE ONE it said and I smiled at the message, she knew me so will. Laughing softly to myself I walked out of the changing room to speak to the laid. She knew once she seen me that I loved the dress, "I'll take it" I said to her and she nodded knowing that I wanted the dress. The bell rang from the door and the lade came back with the same guy from a couple of weeks ago Nate's friend Zack. There he stood in all his glory with a smile on him face.

"Well look who it is Athena right?" "Yeah, what are you doing here? You're not following me, are you?" I said back with amusement on my face. "Well to answer your question kind of."

I just shake my head and gave him a look that said why would you do that. I had a quick thought run throw my head "Zack can you speak Chinese?" "Yeah, why" "Well I need some help I don't speak it and I want to buy this dress so can you make sure she understand that please." I even went as far to use the puppy dog face on him. He nodded his head and turned to the lade and spoke quickly to her and she nodded and then left and came back. She said something and Zack told me to stand on the plat form so she could hem it with the shoes that went with the dress. I stood there for about 15 minutes while she binned the hem up.

"So Zack why are you following me I seen you in France and now here?" He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck before he spoke "Well Nate said that this was your next stop of your trip and I thought it would be a good ideal meet you to make sure Nate was making a good choice marrying you." I know my eyes had to been popping out of my head after he said that. "How close are you and Nate because to be honest I've never heard anything about you." "Well we were best friends for a long time and then grew apart after awhile and I haven't seen him in a long time it was just chance that I seen him that night in France" Our conversation was stopped when the lade spoke to Zack again and that is when I was told to take the dress off and it would be done in 2 hours to come back then to pick it up. I nodded my head and went back into the changing room taking great care with the dress and put it back on the hanger that it was on. I got dress and meet back up with Zack at the counter. The lady handed me a slip and told Zack what I need to do with it once I came back. With everything taken care of we left the shop and started walking down the street again.

"So how did you meet Nate?" "Well he was my teacher before I graduated." He laughed at that and we kept walking with silence falling between us. Continuing are walk for the next 2 hours or so with stops at a few more shops where I found some hair things to go with the dress and then we ate. For the last 2 weeks I have not eaten anything with a head on it so veggie lunch for me. That happened our first night in China we went to a restaurant and was asked to pick are dinner and that did not go over well with my stomach. So, I can't wait until we get back to the states so I can have a good helping of beef, pork, chicken.

Finally making our way back to the little gown shop to pick up the dress. Once inside I showed my ticket and she brought out the dress and had me try it on one more time just to make sure it was a perfect fit. I paid for the dress and services and Zack and I started back to the hotel I was staying at. Heading straight to my room and went in leaving the door open for Zack, which he closed on entering the room. The shower was running and I guess Nate was in there cleaning up after his feed. I turned towards Zack "have you fed?" He just nodded and sat down on the bed. "Shit" "What" Zack asked "I need to ship this to my mom I don't want Nate seeing it." Zack got up and walked over to me "Let me have it I'll go ship it now before he gets out and then be back." I quickly wrote down my mother's address for him and handed it over and just in time he walks out the door right as the shower turned off. Nate walked out the bathroom towards me and gave me a kiss. "Hey baby, did you have fun shopping today?" "Yeah, and by the way your little friend Zack followed us here by the way. He will be back in a little bit." Nate had a smile on his face "Ok, I really miss Zack we were best friend a long time ago but we just drifted apart with time." He had this far away look, I guess he was reliving the old days because the smile never left his face.

Zack got back about 30 minutes later and they chatted all night I was finally getting tired of it. I knew Nate did not need a lot of sleep because he was a vampire but I did I was human and with their conversation and laughing I was being kept awake.

"Can ya'll leave the room and go somewhere else and talk I need sleep and ya'll are keeping me up." I tried to say in the most non-crappy way I could but I was just cranky and Nate knew it. He came over "Sorry we will leave." He then gave me a quick kiss and they left.

Finally, peace and quiet, I snuggled in a drift off to sleep.