TROUVAILLE ... l.danes (REWRITE)

chapter twelve; the present

THAT'S HOW THE GRASS GROWS 

two-thousand-and-two

THERE IS nothing more depressing than wedding dress shopping after being a jilted bride.

Okay, so maybe there are more depressing things in the world than being forced to try on pretty dresses, but for Shelley, it is all she can really think about. That swelling, overpowering sadness that starts in her navel and winds its way up her throat until she is sure she's going to be sick. The hard hammering of her heart against her chest as she realises, twirling around the thrift store with the girls' laughter singing in her ears, that this is what it's meant to feel like when you're trying on dresses, passing around a bottle of cheap champagne before the shop owner notices, teasing Sookie for how much she talks about Jackson, listening to Olive's stories about married life that make Autumn groan as she tries to hide her face in Rory's long hair. It's meant to be fun, and loud, and airy. It's meant to be happy.

When Shelley was trying on her own dress, she was stuck in some haughty wedding dress shop where every white piece of fabric was priced even more than her monthly rent and bills together, forced to drink fizzy champagne that was so expensive every sip felt like it burned, and only had Kimberly there to tell her what looked good. There was no laughter. Only 'you might need to lose some weight first' or 'that neckline does not suit your shoulders' or 'that train definitely makes your calves look fat'. Every little comment, every little quip, every upturned nose all for her to be fucking her fiancé behind her back.

This is nothing like that.

Autumn jumps out from behind the curtain of the only dressing room. They found a thrift shop tucked in the corner of some square in Hartford and immediately co-opted it as their own for the day, trying on every dress they could find, not caring about size with Lorelai's much-appreciated sewing skills to help them at home.

"Don't you love this colour?"

She twirls around for them all, the teal dress swishing just above her ankles. Most of the dress is an atrocity to be fair, all lace with ruffles in all the wrong places, but Shelley can already see the vision that Lorelai is now yammering on about, tugging at the dress to find all the bits she'll need. Sculpted bodice, scoop neckline, take away all the ruffles at the top and leave her with the ruffles at the bottom that flares out in a swishy hem to make dancing easier. The lace is actually really cute and the colour does look amazing on her brown skin, so nobody can argue that she would look amazing. Autumn does another spin, trying to get them to see the vision that she and Lorelai have somehow agreed upon in as few words as possible. And finally, they all nod along, able to look past the weird lacy ruffles that have been tiered along the bottom of the dress.

So, with them all in agreement, she can finally sway to the side and let Rory take the stage. Rory's poor arms are laden with dresses, weighing her down as her mom throws more and more on until they start laughing and tell Lorelai to calm down, pulling her out of the way so Rory can hide behind the heavy velvet curtain.

Lorelai falls onto the edge of the dusty loveseat that Shelley had pulled from the other side of the thrift store to sit on with Sookie. Her cousin laughs softly and wraps her arm around Lorelai's shoulder, pulling her into a side hug that is made tighter with her clumsiness and general joy. Sookie has been full of joy since she got engaged, and every day the wedding grows closer, her heart grows a size. Happy, happy, happy. That's how you're meant to feel as a bride. So full of happiness that your eyes glisten as soon as anyone mentions your fiancé, and you smile, and your palms sweat just a little because all this love has to go somewhere and where better to go than right on the surface of your skin?