Caught (Camren)

Epilogue

6 Years Later

"Look at you!" Dinah squealed.

She ran over to me with open arms, holding me out so that she could see the white dress that I wore. I almost thought she would cry, but she held it together.

"You look beautiful," she complimented.

"Really? You don't think it's too much?" I worried. "I haven't seen Lauren's dress. What if I'm overdressed...or underdressed?"

"I've seen it, and I promise you'll both look wonderful," she assured me.

I turned to look back in the mirror one last time. I was just minutes away from the biggest day of my life. My dress had only arrived earlier that morning, and it was a miracle it even fit.

"Have you practiced your vows?" Dinah asked.

"I've been doing nothing else," I laughed. "I've had to sneak out of our room at night to get away from Lauren so she doesn't hear me."

"Has she been practicing hers?"

"As far as I know," I nodded. "I know she's been up nearly every night since she proposed to me writing them."

"I always thought you'd be the one to propose," she shared.

"I was going to be. She took me totally by surprise."

After the night more than six years earlier where Lauren and I had finally found each other again, we both knew that any more time apart would only break us. She'd ended up transferring to the University of Wilmington with the scholarship she never had the chance to use. We got an apartment together and spent every day together from that point forward. We both got steady jobs to provide for one another, and when we weren't working, we were enjoying a night out with Dinah, Ally, and Normani. We'd grown close as a group over the years, and now, two years after we'd all graduated, all three of them had flown cross country to Los Angeles where Lauren and I lived to attend our wedding. I'd planned to propose to Lauren all along. I thought I'd do it once we settled into our studio apartment in LA and we could finally start our lives together, but she beat me to it. We were walking in the park one night, looking up at the stars and trying to find the one we'd claimed four years earlier. While I was looking at the sky, admiring the way the stars seemed to shine through even the brightest city lights, Lauren sprung into action, and by the time I turned around she was already on one knee, holding a ring in her hand. We'd stayed together for two more years following the engagement. There was no rush. We knew we had the rest of our lives to spend together, so we just enjoyed ourselves. We woke next to each other each day, kissed each other goodbye before work each morning, and fell asleep pressed against each other each night. Finally, two years after she'd officially popped the question, the wedding was happening.

I heard a knock on the door followed by two simultaneous gasps as Ally and Normani entered the changing room.

"Wow," Ally cooed. "You look amazing, Mila!"

"Where did you get your dress? It's perfect!" Normani added.

"Do you guys really like it?" I asked. "It's not too much?"

It was simple, but I still felt ridiculous wearing it. It wasn't very often that I wore dresses, even now at almost twenty-four years old. I was grateful to have friends- real friends- to spend such a monumental day with me. They were friends for life.

"I think Lauren will love it," Normani assured me.

"What if she doesn't?" I worried.

"Well," Dinah smirked. "There's only one way to find out."