Chapter 48

 Freak Out 

The morning of Kenzie’s wedding dawned without regard to the fact that I hadn’t gone to bed yet.

Amidst the mess of cleaning the house in case of last-minute guests, ensuring the table decorations were done, the bouquets safe in the fridge, the groom’s family escorted to the hotel, and Kenzie properly stressed out over the status of her hairdresser, sleep eluded both Mom and I. I tossed the final name card onto the appropriate pile and slouched back in the kitchen chair.

“I didn’t know it was possible to be this tired.”

“Oh, Lexie,” Mom said, rubbing a hand over her face. “I forgot to have you try your dress on. I hung it in your closet downstairs. Go make sure it fits.”

I yawned. “We already know it’s going to fit. I tried it on weeks ago.”

“Just go put it on. If you don’t, Kenzie’s going to ask about it. If you’ve already tried it on, we can tell her that it looks great, and it’ll save some time in between the mani-pedi, the hair dresser, and getting her dress on within the next six hours.”

Her head fell to her folded arms when the grandfather clock in the front room tolled six times. I groaned. “I need an energy drink.”

“I’ll grab some coffee or something,” Mom said wearily. “At least Kenzie got some sleep last night. She’s the one that’s the most important today. We’ll sleep later, okay?”

Yeah, I thought, she slept because I secretly drugged her with Benadryl at ten.

Rachelle breezed into the house just as I’d convinced myself, and my exhausted feet, to stand.

“I’m here, Lex. And I brought breakfast!” She sailed into the kitchen with a box of doughnuts. “Don’t worry. I found an egg white omelet for you, and doughnuts for the rest of … well … whoever. I came to see if there’s anything I can help with last minute.”

“Thanks, Rachelle,” Mom said, patting her on the shoulder as she walked past. “I’m going to go shower and wake myself up a bit. I think we just finished the last-minute preparations.”

Rachelle gave me a once over. “You look like death.”

“C’mon,” I said. “You can help me into the monster.”

She clapped and hopped to the basement door. “The flamingo monstrosity?” she squealed. “I can’t wait to finally see it!”

Ten minutes—and an epic struggle with an unholy amount of material—later, I stood in front of my bathroom mirror with a pale face and wide eyes.

Oh no.

“Your sister is going to freak out, Lexie.”

Rachelle stared at me in the mirror, her eyes wide, jaw slack. I mirrored her expression of horror with one of my own. The ridiculous pink bridesmaid dress was, once again, too big. Although not as dramatic as last time, the neckline hung slack and the waist drooped. Kenzie’s wedding was less than six hours away, and my dress looked like I’d picked it off the floor without regard to size.

“I thought I’d be able to maintain,” I cried, pressing my palms to my flushed cheeks. “I didn’t think I was losing enough weight to cause the dress to look horrible. My weight loss has seemed so slow! She’s going to kill me!”

Rachelle pulled the waist out an inch. “Well, it was over a month ago when you last tried it on, right?”

“I … I suppose so.”

She grinned. “Oh man, Lexie. This is the best thing ever. No way she’s going to let you wear this! You’re off the hook. You’re free. You won’t have to wear the flamingo monstrosity!”

“No, Rachelle, you don’t get it. Kenzie’s going to be furious! I’m the maid of honor. I have to wear pink. I have some safety pins in the top drawer. Fix this. Now.”

“Okay, okay. It’ll be fine. Kenzie isn’t even going to notice. We’ll just dress you at the last possible moment and everything will be great. She’ll be so focused on getting married that she won’t be thinking of her maid of honor.”

Her soothing reassurance didn’t reassure me at all. My cell phone dinged, signaling a text message. I snatched it off the desk.

Bradley.

Hey! Tell me when and where I’m supposed to be, and I’ll be there. Just crashed at my friend’s new house last night.

My stomach fluttered. How had I almost forgotten that I’d be seeing Bradley again?

At this point, I think it’ll be best to meet you at the venue.

Too easy, he immediately replied. You emailed me the information already, right?

Yes.

See you then. Let me know if I can help.

Rachelle accidentally poked me in the back with a safety pin.

“Ow!”

“Sorry. I’m trying to figure out if we can pull this waist in so it doesn’t look so flabby.”

Ten minutes of experimentation later, the dress appeared to fit better, but lacked symmetry. “It looks like my left boob is … funky. Can you see the safety pins? What about my neckline? It’s higher on one side.”

“Well … not exactly. Look, it’s fine. No one is going to notice. They’ll be staring at Kenzie.”

“Rachelle! This isn’t going to work!”

“Lexie!” Kenzie called from the top of the stairs. “We need to leave for the nail place in five minutes!”

“Be right there!” I turned to Rachelle in a half-panic. “Please take it to Mira and have her take it in a little? She can sew, maybe she can work some magic. Just don’t say a word about it to anyone! Not even Mom. She can’t handle anything else, and she’ll break down into a crying fit that I’m not prepared to handle. Sneak it out of here, okay?”

Despite the massive amount of material in the dress, she didn’t even act concerned. “Sure,” she said immediately. “No problem.”

The dress rustled as I pulled it over my head, and then a loud ripping sound tore through the air. My stomach lurched.

“Rachelle?” I whispered from the midst of material. She swore under her breath.

“Don’t move, Lexie. Just let me work it off you.”

Bit by bit she carefully pulled the dress off me. Once free, I looked up in horror to find the left sleeve dangling by a few pink strings.

“No!”

“It’s all right,” Rachelle said, rolling the dress over her arm. “I got this. It’ll be fine, Lex. Don’t worry about it. Mira and I will fix everything. I promise. Go have fun with your sister.”

“This is a nightmare.”

“Nope, we’re good.”

“LEXIE!” Kenzie called. “We have to go now!”

“Coming!”

I threw myself into a pair of jeans, flip-flops, and a black shirt. “Are you sure?”

Rachelle waved me away. “Go! I’ll take care of it. I’ll meet you at the bridal room at the venue in three hours. It’s going to be fine.”

I slipped my phone into my back pocket, grabbed my purse, and hurried up the stairs two at a time. “Sorry Kenz!” I cried, forcing a fake smile on my face when I made it to the top. “I was just making sure the dress fit. Let’s go!”

Kenzie stood in a pair of shorts, a button up shirt and a similar pair of flip-flops. Despite it being her happy day, a slight glaze of panic covered her eyes that I’d seen for the past 72 hours of finalizing wedding preparations.

“Is it okay?” she asked. “It fits, right? It’s going to look great?”

“Beautiful!” I cried, grabbing her by the shoulder. “Let’s get going. It’s time to get you ready for the wedding.”