Chapter 191: Say Yes to the Dress
Nina
Even though I would have much preferred to be going to the dance with Enzo, I agreed to go with Justin – but only as friends. As long as I knew that Enzo could still be out there somewhere, I couldn’t bring myself to let things go any further with Justin.
Even if something did happen to Enzo and I really wouldn’t ever get to see him again, I wasn’t sure if I could even live with myself if I moved on. I loved Enzo too much to ever move on.
But, regardless, I agreed to go. Jessica and Lori were right when they said that I needed to rest. The Crescents seemed to be retreating, the town was going back to at least somewhat of a sense of normalcy, and I felt as though I was on the verge of recreating the antidote.
I came close to recreating it on the night that Justin asked me to the dance, and I was certain that I could crack the code soon so we could create the antidote in larger quantities and begin distribution to our neighboring towns.
Unfortunately, however, I still couldn’t find Luke; and he was my only link to getting to the werewolf realm to bring Enzo home. If Myra couldn’t open a portal for me, then Luke was the only other person who could- or at least who would open a portal willingly.
I was pretty sure that Lewis could open portals, but he certainly wasn’t going to help since he seemed to enjoy being the de facto leader of the Fullmoons too much. I just wished that I knew where Luke was and why he suddenly disappeared. I was getting extremely worried about him at this point.
The next morning, I finally admitted to Lori and Jessica that I agreed to go to the dance with Justin. “I’m so glad, Nina!” Jessica exclaimed.”This will be good for you. You need a night of fun.”
I nodded, staring at the floor. “I just wish it was Enzo,” I whispered, blinking back the tears that began to form in my eyes.
“You know what?” Lori suddenly chimed in. “The dance is tomorrow, right? So just take a breather until then, and then I promise we’ll all search for Luke again. Hey, maybe he even went to the werewolf realm without you. Maybe he’s coming back with Enzo as we speak.”
“Maybe,” I replied, lifting my gaze to meet my friends’. I wasn’t sure if I believed it, but it was a plausible explanation. It was possible that Luke decided he didn’t want me to be in danger, and decided to go without me. But that also could have meant that not only Enzo was in danger, but now Luke, too. “So,” Jessica interjected, clearly wanting to change the subject and get my mind off of things, “what are you going to wear?”
I could only shrug. “One of my old dresses, I guess,” I replied. Jessica frowned. Suddenly, she jumped up from the couch and walked over to the door. Lori and I watched as she slipped her shoes on, then grabbed her coat and her purse from the hook. ” Come on,” she said, almost impatiently. “The clothing store in town reopened. Let’s go.”
It seemed as though I didn’t have much of a choice, so I agreed to go. When we arrived at the clothing store in town, Jessica immediately began dragging me around to all of the racks in search of a dress. I couldn’t deny the fact that her exuberance made me smile, and soon enough, I was even having a little fun.
It felt just like old times, when the three of us would head to town on the weekends and shop and drink coffee together. If I really tried hard enough, I could almost convince myself that things were back to normal and that I could just be a college student again with my greatest worry being whether or not I would pass midterms.
Eventually, the three of us all had several dresses to try on, and we made our way over to the fitting rooms. “You’d both better come out and show me your dresses,” Jessica demanded, causing me to laugh a little as I stepped into my fitting room and closed the door.
As I undressed, I caught a glimpse of myself for the first time in ages. Lately, ever since my first scar formed from what Edward did to me, I hadn’t been looking in the mirror very often. After
Enzo left, I didn’t look in the mirror much at all. I hadn’t even really realized it; it just sort of happened. For some reason, looking at myself made me almost sick. The big, white scar on my belly from Edward’s claws…
The scar left by the bullet that James put in my leg… And there were other, smaller scars, too from all of the ordeals I had been through. Not only that, but I had also become a little too skinny from hardly even being able to eat over the past month.
But the biggest scars were the ones in my heart and in my mind. I took in a shaky breath and turned away from the mirror as I took my clothes off, not wanting to look any longer. I only turned back around to look at the first dress I tried on: a simple blue mini dress.
But I didn’t like it. “Hmm… It’s too business-y,” Jessica said when I came out. I nodded in agreement, then went back in to try on the second dress. This one was bright pink -Jessica had picked it out and made me uncomfortable. I didn’t like wearing bright colors. I was a lot more like Lori than Jessica in the fashion choice department.
Finally, I tried on the third and final dress. It was just a simple black dress that came down to my ankles. It had long sleeves, perfect for the cold weather, but it also had a low back that scooped down and looked sexy. And when I came out of the dressing room, both Jessica’s and Lori’s jaws dropped.
“You look hot,” Lori said. Jessica nodded in agreement. “Mhm. It hugs your body so well. And the back… I would date you.”
“Hey!” Lori said, smacking Jessica lightly on the arm and causing both of us to laugh. It was nice seeing my friends acting like themselves, and it admittedly made me feel better, too. But my smile quickly faded when I looked into the mirror, and standing behind me…
Was the new boy. He was staring at me, giving me that same strange look. I couldn’t tear my eyes away, either. As we stared at each other in the mirror, I swore his face began to shift and morph… I knew him.
It was Enzo; it had to be. My eyes widened and I whipped around to face him, but that was when my heart sank – because it wasn’t Enzo. It was just the new boy, and I had been seeing things again.
Suddenly, before either of us could tear our eyes away, the new girl stormed up to the boy and stood in front of him with her arms folded across her chest. She glared at me for a long, palpable few moments before suddenly grabbing the boy by his arm and dragging him out of the store.
I watched them leave, listening to the sound of the bell on the door.
