The Thief of Hearts

Chapter 19

Thalia's pov

I never thought I would be this happy to see Amanda when she finally came home from wherever she had been staying. I was overjoyed when she lightly knocked on or bedroom door before she popped her head inside. She said good morning as she set down her overnight bag on her bed and took a seat.

I decided to apologise before I said or did anything more to upset her. I already felt bad for hurting her feelings the other day, so I didn't want to make things worst. Besides, I was going to live with her for the rest of my university life, it makes no sense to be treating each other like that.

"Amanda," I began softly, "I'm so sorry for hurting your feelings the other day."

She looked across the room at me and smiled kindly. "It's ok, I started it. I should've just left you alone like you said."

I sighed. "You were only trying to help me. I'm a horrible person." I whispered the last part and blinked back the tears. I guess the stressful semester had finally taken a toll on me, I was overly emotional lately.

"No no no, don't say that," Mandy replied hastily, running to my bed to hug me. "You're a great person. You're just not used to some things and it takes a while to adjust to them. You'll come around soon." She cooed in my ears soothingly.

I felt so awful, I swear I didn't deserve her kindness. "Let me earn your forgiveness." I said, wiping my eyes.

Mandy suddenly pulled away from me and flashed her million dollar smile at me, making me regret ever saying that.
"Ok, let's go shopping!" She said with excitement.

"Oh man!" I groaned loudly. "Why? You have tones of stuff in here."

"You need a dress." She said simply as she walked to my closet to pull out some going out clothes for me. 

I looked at her confused. "Why do I need a dress?"

"I'm not taking you to the ball in any of those things in the back of your closet." She answered, rolling her eyes. 

"The ball?" I repeated. Oh no no no no! What have I gotten myself into?!

"What are you, deaf now?" She threw some clothes in my face and ordered me to get dressed.

I whined miserably. "I'm already dressed!"

"We're going to the mall right now."

"But Mandy, I'm studying!"

"Not anymore. Now hustle!"

"Aaarrgggghhh!!!"

"Hurry up, Ashton's waiting for us in the car outside."

What?? Something told me this was premeditated and I did not like the sound of it. I decided that I was already in the mess I created, so I might as well go through with it, no matter how excruciating it may be. I dragged myself to the bathroom and got myself ready for the worst kind of torture of my life.

✍✍✍✍✍

I thought I would find Keith in the car too, but was extremely relieved and a bit disappointed that he wasn't there. His best friend turned out to be a quite jovial guy with cute dimples that showed whenever he smiled, which was often. Ash wasn't as annoying as I thought he would be, he was more on the funny side. The more time I spent with the guy the more I believed that he was the perfect match for my roommate.

We went from store to store trying on dresses and heels while Ashton patiently watched, waited and gave comments. He played the judge for us to help make up our minds about what to choose and most of the times he was busy fooling around with the things on sale.

I never thought I would've had that much fun shopping with Mandy and her new boyfriend. I was sure it would be the worst punishment of my life if I managed to make it out alive.

We were at Bella's dress store looking at some gowns when Ashton walked up to a mannequin in a mermaid tail dress. He took a quick look at the price tag and backed up a little too dramatic.

"A hundred dollars! Are you crazy?" He asked the posing statue.
"Do I look cheap to you?" He said, rolling his head and flashing it as if he was trying to get some long hair out of his face.
Then he gasped suddenly and looked the mannequin up and down with attitude. "What you say girl!
Oh no she didn't!
Are calling me fat?"

Amanda and I couldn't hold her laughter in as the mannequin stared emotionless at nothing and Ash kept acting like a pissed off lady, having it out with a sales person. I saw as the manager of the store looked over the cashier counter at us and she too began to laugh when she found Ashton glaring at the poor statue.

The manager then came over to us with a grin, I saw that her name tag read Rita. "See anything that you like, or do you need some help?"

"Yes ma'am," Ash spoke up first, "your employee here is being disrespectful, you need to fire her."

We all laughed again and then Mandy started talking. "We're looking for ball dresses, shoes and jewelry."

"That's great," Rita said, walking around and gestured for us to fallow, "we just got some new dresses yesterday and they are absolutely gorgeous. Come and see."

We fallowed her and went into dress kingdom. I immediately let out an excited scream as I finally found a dress that I liked. I was silver and blue; silver in the breast area with no sleeves and came with cuffs so that I didn't need to ware a bra, the silver and blue part flowed freely to my feet and reminded me strangely of fairy dust.

Amanda ended up with one almost like mine, but where the blue was on mine, it was pink on Mandy's. We ended up buying silver pumps to go with the dresses and a few necklaces and bracelets. Mandy already had make ups at our place and I was relieved that she didn't buy anymore.

After our shopping, we crashed for a while at an ice cream shop nearby before we headed home with boxes of pizza. Ashton dropped us off at around five o'clock and wished us luck on our exams. I was heading inside the apartment when he said something that made me turn around in surprise and confusion.

"It wasn't him ok?" He said.

"What?" I asked puzzled.

He sighed as he answered. "Keith was too scared to give you the invite, so I did it for him."

I blinked. "Why would you do that?"

Ashton just shrugged his shoulder at me and waved as he drove away.

Okay then.....