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“Don’t you worry about that. Call your brother.” Turning away from me with a smile on his face, he looked at Izabella who seemed extra pleased with herself.
“Iz, let’s go find me a suit to match Kim while she gets on the phone.”
Off they went and I looked at myself in the mirror once again, still shocked that it was me looking back. The last time I was this dressed up was to judge an ice-skating contest and back then, Luke was my date.
Heading back to the changing room, I took my phone from my handbag and snapped a few pictures in the mirror before sending them over to my brother asking what he thought as well as to my mother.
Straight away my mother started to video call me and I let it ring for a second or two before answering it and her face said it all, jaw dropped to the floor with tears in her eyes.
“Please tell me you are not leaving that store without that dress! And anyway, where are you?”
Shit. I didn’t think about where I was or who I was with, it was automatic to text my mom if I had an outfit in mind for something and needed her opinion. Already Joe was annoyed with me about my choice of date and I was surprised he hadn’t already mentioned it to mom. Which meant I was now going to drop the ball.
“Would you be mad if I said I was in Caulfeild with umm,” I paused, biting my bottom lip and mom’s eyes narrowed on the screen.
“Kimberly Morgan, who are you with?”
“Ummm, Samuel Jones.”
Her shouting was untranslatable, and I had to quickly turn down the volume of my phone. She was pissed and I felt a rush of disappointment flood my body. I hated making my mom mad, but this was slightly unavoidable now, she would have found out eventually.
“DO YOU NOT REMEMBER THE HELL HE PUT YOU AND YOUR BROTHER THROUGH!? FOR YEARS!! AND, THEN HE DUMPED YOU THE NIGHT OF PROM!! AND YOU ARE NOW IN A SHOP WITH HIM?!”
There it was, the ball had dropped. Sam had always bullied Joseph in high school, along with Crystal’s younger brother Jamie. I hated myself so much back then when I started to have feelings for him. I was meant to be the angry big sister who protected her brother. But when I was ordered to tutor him, even Crystal, although mad at me, understood it was something I had to do for school.
“Mom, please stop yelling. It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it Kimberly? What exactly is this?”
I went to speak, but something was stopping me, was it a concern? Worry that she was going to yell some more, put the phone down and not speak to me? My mom had a tendency to give the silent treatment when she was mad and although it was infuriating it was just her way of working through things.
“He’s just my date to the wedding, okay. The girls thought since the whole prom thing he had to make it up to me.”
Silence.
“Your father wants you to bring him round for dinner and, THEN we will decide if he will be your date.”
As she hung up the phone, I looked back at myself in the mirror. Tears were trying desperately to escape from my eyes and my semi-good mood had now disappeared.
CHAPTER 9
Samuel
Following Izabella through the many, many rails of suits, all different shades, colors, and fabrics. She pulled some out and held the few up against me and then would shake her head and put them back on the rail. She was obviously looking for something and I guessed it was different with guys. Girls wanted to try on all the dresses they could find and twirl and spin while wearing them. I only knew that because of my sister.
After her and mom would come back from a clothing shopping spree, mostly thrift shops. Mom would have Jane try every single item on and parade around in front of dad and me. They were mostly the most basic of clothes, but sometimes Jane would get her way. When that happened, mom would buy her a big poofy dresses she could pretend to be a princess in.
Feeling a lump forming in my throat as I thought about Jane, I shook my head and banished those thoughts to the back of my mind. I was here with Kim, and I was going to make sure we enjoyed ourselves today.
“Ah, how about this one?”
Holding a deep red velvet tuxedo against me, Izabella’s smile widened as she rushed off to grab what I guessed were a pair of shoes and I headed back to the waiting room to find Kimberly. She was sitting there back in her normal clothes, but still with her hair down.
“How was your phone call?”
“Not how I thought it would go, my mom phoned me once I sent over the photos to Joe. She asked me where I was and who I was with. I half expected Joe to have already told her I was having you as my date. But she didn’t seem at all impressed, there was a lot of shouting.”
Her eyes dropped to the floor as she fiddled with the hem of her sweater. I wanted to take hold of her hands then, tell her everything was okay, but forced myself to stay put. Running my fingers through the front of my hair, I sighed and sat down, wondering what I was meant to say. She’d had an argument because of me, because I was here.
