Temptation

Chapter 20 - Hailey

I twirled, the pink tulle floating around my waist and the light sparkling of the dress catching in the delicate lights of the store. Laughing, I looked into the mirror, watching Pip and Savannah pull out dress upon dress and layer them in their arms. Turning once more to my reflection, I saw the long dress hitting my legs uncomfortably and sighed, returning once more to the changing room. From outside the door I could hear the kind shop-assistant rushing to help throw out suggestions for the two tall and stunning blondes, while simultaneously making sure that they were still as excitable as they were when we walked into the store. She’d given up on trying to hype me up, and I’d given up searching for a dress, but instead was having a lot of fun trying on the most ridiculous of the lot. I stepped inside the change room and wrestled the constricting dress off my body.

“Hailey where are you?” Savannah called excitedly. “We need opinions!”

I stepped out the change room and waited at the end of the couch next to the smiling shop assistant as Sav and Pip strutted out of their dressing rooms, both looking completely gorgeous. Savannah had on the most beautiful dress, perfect for her slim figure and Pip was wearing something completely suited to her personality, also making her curves look amazing.

“You guys look stunning! Oh my god those dresses are amazing!” I was thrilled to see that they’d found dresses.

“Yeah now it’s your turn!” they called back to me. I tried to avoid hurting their feelings as I tried on dresses they liked, but they all made me look fat or were way to short or low cut. I don’t really like showing a lot of my body in clothes and so I wasn’t a fan of any of the dresses they picked, I just couldn’t make them look as good as they did, with their ultra-long and thin legs. We left the shop, and as we were walking back to where Pip had parked her car, Savannah got a message.

“Ooh there’s some sort of gathering that Mitch has invited me to. We should all go!” she said.

I could feel my heart begin to race as I thought of all the people there that I wouldn’t know and all the potential for it to be really awful. Savannah and Pip seemed so excited and I would hate to have to be the one to insist on not going. Then a stroke of inspiration hit me.

“Really sorry guys but I’ve got to get home to look after the puppy, maybe next time?” I said.

After they said goodbye I started walking to the bus stop. I wish I could drive already, but every time I got behind the wheel in traffic I freaked. It’s so weird but I just can’t bring myself to start driving, and Dad is always nagging me about it.

As I arrived home, I set about finishing off last minute revision and homework that I’d been procrastinating on. The little puppy was resting on my bed, and it was still so adorable. I had been thinking hard about what to do with it, but still had no idea. As the night ticked on, I grew quite lonely, but realised that it I was the one who had put myself in this situation. Seb called me, and we spoke for a bit until he said he’d come round. Well that was one way to alleviate my boredom.

When he came over, he cooed over the puppy and it was so sweet my heart nearly melted. The puppy loved him as well, and I realised the perfect solution. The dog made Seb happy, Seb made the dog happy and I wanted to make both of them happy so I told Seb my idea.

“Why don’t you take him?” I suggested. “I can’t keep him for much longer and look how cute you are together.”

“Actually?” Seb said, his face lighting up. “Of course I’ll take him”.

After that we didn’t do anything else too exciting except that the entire time, I was so thrilled that there was someone who properly liked me, enough to want to be with me and spend time calling or texting me. I had begun feeling something quite different in regards to Seb, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it yet, but it was a sense of warmth and trust. I loved spending time with him, and he seemed to as well.

I lost track of time so much, that I realised I was going to be completely late for my appointment with the doctor to check up on my arm.

“Shit, shit, shit I’m so late,” I muttered, grabbing my keys as I hopped into Seb’s car.

“I’m going to have to come back for the puppy” Seb said, and I immediately felt guilty, having already forgotten about the poor darling.

“Yeah of course, you can drop me and pick up the puppy,” I replied, trying to make it seem as if I’d already thought about it.

When I ran into the doctor’s office, narrowly avoiding colliding with a nurse and a wall, a classic clutzy move on my behalf, I was just in time for my check-up. I answered the doctor’s questions robotically, and tried to have a look at all the other people in the hospital. There was one woman who seemed to have forgotten that things called shoes exist, a man who looked like my year five maths teacher, and only one other teenage girl, who from behind had really similar hair to Bri. It was the same slightly frizzy, strawberry blonde colour that she had, but I couldn’t tell anything more about the girl before my train of thought was interrupted.

“Ms Steele?” the doctor looked over, worried, “I was just checking that you didn’t think there was any other damage from the accident?”

“Oh no,” I smiled, “everything’s perfectly fine.”

I walked out of the doctor’s office with promises to call if I felt any other pain in my arm, and began to walk back to where Seb waited in his car before I spotted the same strawberry-blonde hair. Curious, I followed the girl to the emergency room and when I walked past the room she entered, my heart sank.

The girl didn’t just have similar hair to Bri, it was Bri who I had spotted. She was crying in the corner of the room, and her tear-streaked face made me feel awful. She looked so sad and alone, crying with no one there to comfort her. I walked into the room tentatively, knowing that I shouldn’t intrude but wanting to comfort her.

“Bri..?” I called softly, “is everything alright?”

“H-Hailey,” she sobbed, “What are you doing here?”

Taking this as an invitation, I sat down next to her. “I was having a check-up on my arm. What’s wrong?”

“It’s my sister…Bella” she responded, “It’s something to do with her problems, I don’t really know what, but she like fainted and then started thrashing out and they don’t know what’s wrong and oh god I was so mean to her!” Bri began sobbing again, “What if she doesn’t get better?”

“She will. I’m sure she will,” I said, wrapping an arm around her. “Don’t cry Bri, it’ll all be okay”.

At this point, her mum walked into the room and began to console her as well. I decided that this probably wasn’t my place to be anymore, it was such a private family thing, and so I resolved that I wouldn’t tell anyone about it, not even Savannah, unless Bri told me to. I felt so awful for her, and I couldn’t imagine what that must feel like, and so heavily worried, I got back into the car with Seb and he drove to my house, to pick up the still unnamed dog and drop me home.

Still plagued with thoughts of Bri and her sister, I tried to take my mind off things by looking through Facebook. All I could see though was everyone having so much fun at Mitch’s house, and Sav and Pip being the life of the fun, which only reminded me of my shitty social skills. My phone rang, and I saw that it was mum. I let it ring out; I just didn’t have the energy to pretend to want to talk to my superficial and airheaded mother and my work-orientated and pragmatic father.