Falling Slowly

Pt.3|Ch.16

Two Months Later

"Okay," Aiden held up her phone, showing me another photo that her mom had sent her. "What about this one?"

The dress was white, like all the other options we'd looked at, but this one was covered with stitched lace, layering the entire dress itself with little flowery designs.

Although it was beautiful, I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. "I'm sorry, but I just can't see you wearing that."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

I laughed. "Was that the last one she had?"

Aiden nodded, reading her mother's message aloud. "'Well, if you're going to be picky, then you can find one yourself'."

"I mean, it is your wedding."

"True." She sat back against the room's only chair. "Trouble is, I'm obnoxiously indecisive."

"Join the club." I crossed my arms. "Don't tell Ben, but I changed my mind again."

Her eyebrows shot up. "About Costa Mesa?"

I nodded. "Mhm."

The tour was currently in San Jose, California, but in two or three days, we'd travel down to Costa Mesa. We would be closer to the beach in Costa Mesa than we were in San Jose, and the producers decided to give us a day off during that stop in order to take advantage of that fact.

Everyone else was ecstatic, but I wasn't so sure I'd be attending the cast's 'field trip'.

Ben had tried to convince me otherwise, but I couldn't seem to settle on a permanent decision.

"Why?" Aiden asked. "It's nothing to be afraid of."

"That's what Ben says."

"And he's right. You'll be fine." She assured me. "The only thing for you to even remotely worry about is remembering to reapply sunscreen."

"Yeah, but what about crabs?" I gave her a skeptical look. "Josh said that crabs are evil, and that they target humans."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, folding her hands in her lap. "Austyn, I'm going to say this one time, and one time only—Josh takes everything personally when it comes to animals."

I tilted my head in confusion. "He told me that a crab attacked him the last time he was at the beach."

"During year one of the tour?"

I nodded.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, he did get attacked by a crab, but only because he doesn't make the wisest of decisions after he's had sugar."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Huh." I frowned. "He made a pretty big deal about it when he told me the story."

She raised an eyebrow. "Did you expect anything different?"

"Well, no, but I've never interacted with a crab before."

The door to our hotel room flew open, and Josh rushed in, hopping up on the bed next to me.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked loudly, jumping up and down and nearly knocking me off the edge.

Not ten seconds after he'd arrived, Ben and Sky followed in after him, arguing about whether or not you could put too much butter on popcorn.

"It all depends on how much salt you can handle." Sky was insisting. "If you can handle the salt, then there's no limit to how much butter you can put on it. You could completely drench the popcorn in butter, and I wouldn't say anything against it."