Learning How to Bend

January 14

//I actually wrote this (and previous parts) on January 9th...but I've been saving them, separating out the entries. Don't want to give y'all too much on one day and all that. ;)

The gala was the upcoming Saturday. All the rest of that week, I stressed. I tried (and failed) to hide it from Thaddeus, but I distracted myself as much as I could with my work and by working out every day. I did not know how I was going to go to this gala. The mere prospect terrified me until my legs shook—or was that from the exercise? I was going not only as Thaddeus's coworker but also as his date. I would arrive with him. I would leave with him. I would be with him the entire time. No Kat and Joe to support me. I would have Thaddeus and only Thaddeus. This gala was one of the events of the spring season, and so many people were going to be there. And Thaddeus was taking me.

I knew I should be proud. Touched that he wanted to bring me. That he was proud of me.

Then why did I feel like I could run all the way to China and still not be far enough away?

Someone knocked at my door. Perplexed, I left my breakfast—half-eaten cereal—on the kitchen table and leaned against the wood of the door.

"Who is it?"

"Open the door, Lily," Katherine said.

I did just that. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to help you get ready today."

"This is an all-day affair?" I blinked at her. "Getting ready for a gala?"

"Maybe not, but we're making a day out of it. It's getting ready for a wedding but better."

"I don't know about that," I said with a shake of my head.

Katherine shoved me toward my bedroom. "Get dressed. We're going shopping!"

I groaned.

"Don't groan at me. Get going!"

Rolling my eyes, I went down the hall. I brushed my teeth, pulled my hair back in a ponytail, then reappeared in jeans and a t-shirt.

"No." Katherine grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the bedroom. She pushed me onto the bed then sifted through my closet until she found a shirt and dropped it in my lap. "Put this on."

"This is the button-down shirt you gave me for your wedding."

"Yes, which means it's the prefect shirt for today."

I acquiesced, pulling my t-shirt over my head and quickly buttoning up the blue plaid shirt. "Better?"

"Much. Let's go."

I did not know to how many stores we went. Katherine had me try on dress after dress after dress. I would hardly get one on before she would dismiss it and toss a different one at me. It felt like hours before she finally said a dress was perfect. She did not even allow me to look at the price—or even hear it—before she swiped her credit card and dragged me next to a salon. There, I received my first ever manicure and pedicure—the latter was great until the woman started scrubbing my feet and tickling me—and I also had my makeup done and hair professionally styled. The makeup artist even went so far as to cover the scars on my front and back, assuring me that they could not be seen.

By the end of the whole affair, I was running on a combination of adrenaline and caffeine. I was exhausted, worried, and excited all at the same time. After scarfing down a meal, Katherine took me home and sat me back down in the bathroom so she could spray my simple updo with more hairspray and pin a few loose hairs which had loosened during the drive home.