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melissabik

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Planning a wedding can shed some light into your life; I found out that I had almost no girlfriends.  Not since I was twelve had I had a real “best friend.”  It suddenly saddened me as I realized I had no one to lug around to the bridal stores when I tried on dresses and chose bridesmaid dresses.  That was another thing: I had no bridesmaids to fill them with!  As I stared at the other women and their friends, I suddenly felt lonely.  “Kat, is something wrong?” I heard Sarah ask as she looked at me behind the full length mirror in the dressing room.  I shrugged my shoulders as I stared at the pattern on the cream colored dress.  “I just realized that I have no friends; that’s all,” I replied as I plopped down onto a chair, which was a real feat considering how much fabric was in the dress.

Sarah came over to me and rubbed my back.  “That’s not true; you have plenty of friends,” she disagreed.  I shook my head.  “Not like that,” I replied, pointing at the other women nearby, laughing and having a good bonding experience.  Suddenly the seamstress came in.  “Let us go to see what needs to be fitted or let out,” the little Russian woman urged as she marched out of the room and into the big open area.  I reluctantly followed after her and stood on the little podium, looking at myself in all of the six mirrors surrounding me.  Something about this dress just didn’t seem right.  It was a beautiful dress, but it just wasn’t me.  The little woman began measuring me and pulling at all of the seams in the dress.  I thought she was going to rip it apart.

I began to look around the room in boredom, wishing that I had some friends to share this boring moment with…  “Katarina?” I heard a voice call from behind me.  I quickly spun around as the little Russian woman poked me in the side with a pin.  “Ow!” I yelled as I turned sharply back at the woman.  She just looked up at me in anger with pins in between her teeth and said, “No move!”  I struggled to turn around and see who had called me.  “Katarina Volstead?” the woman called again.  As she finally came into my view of vision, I recognized her.  But from where?  “I thought that was you,” she stated happily as she walked over with a huge dress in her hands.  Who was she?  “Hi,” I replied slowly, searching my brain for the information I was lacking.

“It’s me; Sonya… from your Bio class freshman year…” the girl explained, seeing my confusion.  Sonya… Sonya…  “OH!  I remember you!  You were my lab partner!” I exclaimed, picturing her in my mind.  Sonya smiled, pleased that I remembered her.  “Yeah!  How are you?  I didn’t see you after that class finished,” she stated.  I looked down at my feet in embarrassment as the Russian poked me again.  “Ow,” I whined as she just rolled her eyes at me.  “Well, I just didn’t feel that college was the right thing for me…  I have a job as a secretary filing stuff at a law firm,” I explained, trying to make my life sound just a little more glamorous.  Sonya smiled.  “What about you?” I added. 

She shrugged her shoulders.  “I’m in my last year trying to become a Physical Therapist.  So far, so good,” she exclaimed, crossing her fingers.  “You’re getting married?” she observed.  I nodded, thinking of my wonderful Sam and the way he proposed.  “His name is Sam,” I exclaimed.  Sonya smiled as she shifted, struggling with the weight of the wedding dress in her hands.  “It’s so funny; we’re both getting married,” she mused as Russian poked me again.  I was about ready to poke her!   “When’s the wedding?” I asked Sonya.  “Two weeks… I am so nervous!  I don’t even know if I have everything the way I want it…  But I guess if you have the man of your dreams, nothing else really matters,” she exclaimed.  I definitely agreed with her.

“Well, it was nice to see you again, Katarina,” she stated as she began walking away.  I nodded as I turned back to look at myself in the mirror.   “Hey; you should come to my wedding,” Sonya suddenly stopped as she turned back around.  “I don’t have very many friends in Ruckshire, and it would be great to have a familiar face in the crowd,” she added, hoping I would say yes.  I shrugged my shoulders.  If I wanted to have more friends, I guess this would be a great place to start.  “I would love to come to your wedding,” I replied.  Sonya smiled as she struggled to dig into her purse and find her cell phone.  “Give me your number and I can send you the information.  I would love for you to meet my fiancé,” she exclaimed happily.

I quickly dialed my number into her phone and gave it back to her.  “Nice to see you again,” Sonya stated as she began to walk away.  I smiled to myself as I thought how fate is sometimes.  I thought how ironic it was that we hadn’t spoken in years and here we were at the same Bridal shop, getting wedding dresses for our weddings…  I looked out the window to see her leave in her car, when I noticed someone staring back at me.  At first, I thought they were staring at the dresses, but their gaze was clearly on me.  It was a man that looked oddly familiar.  As my eyes met his gaze, I felt a shiver go up my spine.  He just didn’t give off the right vibe…  It was as if my radar was telling me something was wrong.  I stared at the man, struggling to figure out why he seemed so oddly familiar.  I had seen him somewhere before; I just knew I had seen him…  But where?

He didn’t really have any unique facial features that would have been memorable, but he did have these bug eyes that just seemed to bother me.  It was like I had looked deep into those eyes once before…  “Kat?” I heard Sarah call as she entered the dressing room.  I broke my gaze with the man and turned to her.  “Who was that woman?” she asked out of curiosity.  “An old friend of mine from college,” I answered.  Sarah laughed.  “You went to college for one semester,” she exclaimed.  I rolled my eyes as I struggled to throw my shoe at her.  “I met her then…  She’s getting married and she invited me,” I explained as I turned my gaze back to the window.  The man was gone.  I began to wonder if maybe I had imagined him…  There was no other explanation.  Why would he be staring at me like that through the window?  That had to be it; I had imagined him…