Chapter 29 - KMCF

"Ow!"

"Jen, keep still," Grace said. "There!" She exclaimed after tightening the last strap on the dress.

I turned to examine myself in front of a mirror. My clothes were forcibly stripped off and I was instantly fitted in Grace's wedding dress. It was a sweetheart ball gown, decked out with sparking crystals down to the waist, and overflowing with layers of both, simple and luxurious quality; it was alluring.

"Who exactly is the bride?" I questioned.

"Me, of course."

I sighed. "Then, why am I wearing your wedding dress?"

Before she answered my question, her eyes were gazing at the mirror. "I wanted to see how it would look."

"On me?"

"Different perspective," Grace said as she was spacing out the rim of her bridal dress. "It's beautiful, just imagine how beautiful it'd look on me instead."

I would've been able to fully savor the feeling and experience of wearing a gorgeous wedding dress if I wasn't sleepy. My eyes were as though heavy weights were dragging them down and my yawns were the alarms that kept breaking the process.

"Don't fall asleep," Grace ordered.

"Don't fall asleep," I mimicked bitterly, I wanted to roll my eyes as well, but I figured they weren't ready for a new challenge. I didn't know if it was the amount of fatigue I was feeling or the fact that Grace called me out to try on her wedding dress, but whatever it was made me cranky.

She ignored my remark and went on to adding the veil, along with a beautifully crafted tiara. "So, what's the status update on you and Hunter?"

Immediately, my reply was, "nothing." It was as though it was a ready to use word for anything that circled around Hunter.

"You're not going to tell your big sister?"

I looked at her frown again before I averted my orbs. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Are you still mad about the other day? It was wrong for us to keep you away from everything, but you have to understand that we wouldn't have done so if it wasn't for a good rea-"

"That's not it," my faintly loud voice cut off her small speech. "I just don't want to talk about him."

She intensely stared at me, escorted by the furrowing of her eyebrows and a harsh frown. "You're so immature."

I could've easily ignored her opinion, but I was both anxious and curious to find out the reasoning behind it. "How exactly?"

"Figure it out yourself," Grace snarled.
I shut my eyes, so that maybe I wouldn't feel so bad for keeping things to myself. Yet, it didn't seem to be working, I could still sense the guilt and criticism.

I hesitated for a few moments before I opened my mouth to speak. "In simpler terms, I've been ignoring him and he's been persistent."

Grace didn't say anything after a while, and I couldn't examine her facial expression because my eyes were closed. "Why can't you forgive him? He's just as human as you are."

"Everyone keeps saying that, but none of them truly know how it feels, Grace. Hunter comes back to town and the first thing he does is lie to me, forgiving him, just doesn't sit well with me." I slowly exposed my icy blue eyes.

She shook her head once more. "Jen, you need to know how much his secrets eat him away. The pain you feel is nothing compared to his. I highly suggest you forgive him, he's not a bad guy and you know that. I honestly believe you're just playing hard to get."

"I don't expect someone who has never been through what I'm going through to understand. You know what, I don't feel like talking about it." I was somewhat mad. Grace was preaching to someone who was partially oblivious to everything about Hunter, and she aware of that. She wanted me to forgive him based on things I had no idea about, I don't know about you, but I found that extremely unfair. It was basically why I was ignoring Hunter, yet she wanted me to use that to exonerate him.

"The feeling of liking someone, yet there's so much you don't know about them. Asking is out of the question, so you believe it's best to end everything, only you like them way too much to let go. Jen, I've gone through my share of relationships. Take some advice from someone with experience." I could've fought back, but there was a sad expression sitting on her face for a few seconds.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"It's okay," she shared a small smile. "Now, keep still. I want to take a picture of the dres-"

The new change of topic was cut off by a familiar ringtone. Our heads turned towards the source, my phone. I was prepared to get off the small stage, Grace placed me on, but she put her hand up to keep me from moving an inch.

"I'll get it, you might ruin my dress." She grabbed my phone and while doing so, she checked for caller ID. "It's Annoying Idiot?" Her appearance was one of a confused person.

Annoying Idiot was Hunter and I wasn't in the mood to speak to him right now. "It's no one, don't answer it."

Grace was hesitant at first, but was slowly about to place the phone back down, she stopped midway. Her facial expression gave the impression that she figured out it wasn't just no one. "It's Hunter, isn't it?"

Without giving me the opportunity to respond, she answered my phone call.

"Hi, Hunter," Grace greeted with her back facing me. I was just about to get off the platform, however, I made a tragic discovery. I couldn't move in the large frock. I managed to get off the platform, but I knew any steps beyond that would cause me to fall.

"You're right, this isn't Jen, it's Grace." She turned to look out my helpless state. All I could do was mouth the word, stop, about a hundred times. "Yeah, she's busy right now, but I can take a message."

There was a short silence, but to me, it felt like hours of torture. "Okay, but before you go. Did you know that in Jen's phone you're labeled as Annoying Idiot?"

I felt my stomach flip and my cheeks blush red from embarrassment. A proud grin showed up on Grace's pink painted lips in which I predicted Hunter ended up laughing.

"Funny, right? I'll tell her you called." There was another short silence, but soon it was filled in. "Okay, bye."

Once she hung up and placed my phone back down, I shouted, "Grace!"

"What? You didn't want to talk to him, so I did." She had a reasonable point, but at the same time it couldn't completely justify the excuse.

"That's not what was meant by that," I frowned.

"Don't worry, he'll call you back." She waved her hand about, like it'd make my frown vanish.

"That's not what I'm worried about," I said after letting out a deep breath.

"Seemed to me that Hunter really wanted to talk to you. Any guess as to what that may be about?" A cunning beam showed up on her face.

I didn't mention anything, I was in the process of comprehension. Maybe it was time, maybe he was ready to tell me everything. I could finally know the truth.

** **

•Hmm, who knows? Maybe Hunter will spill the beans or maybe he's simply just being persistent again.

•I'm sorry that I'm two weeks late, I kept stalling and getting Writer's Block.

•Please vote if you enjoy my story and/or the chapter. Don't be a ghost reader, showing appreciation goes a long way.