A Stroke of Serendipity

Chapter 2

I fell asleep around one in the morning and woke up at ten; I yawned and rubbed my eyes. After rolling in my bed for a few more minutes and checking my phone in the process, I got up. I headed towards my shower and started my morning routine, once I was done I slipped on a white graphic t-shirt that had a yin yang sign on it, a pair of black skinny jeans and my all black converse.

I quickly brushed my hair out before putting it in a high ponytail and heading downstairs. As usual, my dad was working in his office as I walked by, "Hey Dad"

"Morning kid," he looked up at me briefly,

"Stop calling me that," I replied, "Or I'm going to start calling you old man"

He murmured something in response as I headed into the kitchen to get something to eat. Once I devoured my breakfast I remembered I had to ask my dad what the party was about. I knocked on his office door before I walked in to get his attention.

"What up Kiddo?" he asked not taking his eyes away from the computer screen,

"I wanted to know what that party is for, the one we are attending tomorrow."

"It's Eli's older brother's engagement party"

"What?" I exclaimed shocked,

"George is getting married?"

"Yup"

I groaned, "Okay well I'm going to go shopping for a dress, I'll see you later" I walked out of his office. I went into my room and messaged two of my friends to join me for my shopping trip. In a span of fifteen minutes I was ready to go find a dress to wear to the stupid party.

"Hey guys," I said monotonously to my friends Amanda and Kelsie

"You don't look excited" stated Amanda "What gives?"

"I have to go to Eli's older brother's engagement party tomorrow; it's going to be torture"

"You'll be fine" Kelsie said rolling her eyes,

I narrowed my eyes "Bitch, you said that last time and I got juice all over my dress"

"Like that was a big deal" she said laughing, "You should of seen your face, it was hilarious"

I groaned, "Let's get this over with, I have cholate milk at home and its calling my name."

It has been two hours since we have been looking for a dress and I have found none, I was standing outside the fitting rooms while Amanda and Kelsie tried on dresses, they don't even need dresses. I shook my head and walked around the store. This is hopeless.

"Valerie, the dress in the last store you tried on was really pretty, you should have just got that" Amanda said while examining herself in the mirror.

"It didn't feel right" I replied, "I'm going go look at this one store, I'll be back"

It took me about ten minutes to reach the store I was looking for, I had passed by it before but I never went in. I walked in and looked around, the sales associate was busy with someone else so I had the opportunity to look around. I shuffled trough the racks and looked at the dresses hanging up on the walls. I sighed, 'nothing here' I continued to walk to the back of the store and my eyes caught a jade green dress. The dress itself was horrendous; it looked like a garbage bag just looking at the dress made me laugh. I continued my search when the sales associate approached me, "Hi, can I help you with something?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for a dress to wear to an engagement party, but I don't want anything too revealing or fancy" I told her,

"Oh okay" she said smiling "Just come with me" I followed her to another section of the store and a dress caught my eye, but this one wasn't horrendous, it was very dainty. The sales associate pulled out the dress I was looking at, "How about this one?" she asked,

"I really like it," I said taking it from her hands, it was an elegant rose dress, the roses were red and others pink. There were hues of blue and green, I could already picture an outfit in my head with this dress, "Would you like to try it on?"

"Yes please" I gave her a smile and followed her to the fitting rooms, after five minutes I was in the dress and I liked what I saw. It was really cute, the dress ended a few inches above my knees and gave me an innocent girly look, I loved it. I smiled, content with the find and slipped back into my original clothes.

The sales associate smiled once she saw me come out of the fitting rooms, "How do you like the dress?"

"It's great" I ginned, "I'll buy it" in five minutes I was out of the store with the perfect dress. I went back to the store my friends were at but failed to find them. I pulled out my phone and messaged them, someone tapped my shoulder I turned around to see Eli. I narrowed my eyes, what the fuck was this creep doing here, I swear this mofo is a stalker.

"What are you doing here?" I asked with a fake smile,

"I came here with my friends," he said pointing to where his friends were standing, "and then I saw your ugly face" he said enthusiastically.

I rolled my eyes "Well it was great seeing you" I said in a sickly sweet voice before turning on my heel and walking the other way. Eventually I found Amanda and Kelsie in a makeup store, I sighed

"Guys lets go home, I finally found a dress" I said holding up the bag.

"Okay just a minute, I need to pick up a few items" said Amanda,

"Same here" said Kelsie from the other side of the store,

"Okay" I responded tiredly, "but we are leaving after this."

Of course we didn't leave after the makeup store, Kelsie and Amanda wanted to shop some more, so I decided to ditch them and make my way home. I reached my house in fifteen minutes, once I was inside I went straight into my room kicking off my shoes and deciding to take a nice warm shower.

I changed into some soft navy loose shorts that had white pom pom detailing and a cream knit sweater. I smiled and walked out of the bathroom; I picked up my shopping bag and hung up my dress in the closet. I decided to pick out the accessories and other items tomorrow.

I went downstairs for some dinner, I looked into the refrigerator and pulled out some pasta, I put it in the microwave; while it was warming up I poured myself some chocolate milk. I sat at the island with my dinner and slowly finishing it. My dad walked in a few minutes later,

"Hey kid," my dad said while walking to the refrigerator,

"What up old man" my said gave me a glare,

"I'm not old" he said

"Whatever you say Dad" I got up, rinsed the dishes and placed them in the dishwasher before running up the stairs towards my room. I smiled as I opened my laptop to surf the internet.