When I got home, Anne came up to me. "Monica, did you know about the Mercury Records party?"
"Yes. Taylor told me about it while I was over there."
"Well, Zac asked me to go with him, and I said yes. Did I do the right thing?"
"I think you did. He really likes you, you know." Then I smiled. "Guess what!"
"Taylor asked you out again, and you said yes!"
"No, that's never going to happen. We are just friends, and we will remain so forever. But he did ask me to the party, just as friends. Hey, how about a shopping trip this afternoon, to find the perfect dress for the party? Michelle's coming, as well as the guys."
"Sure!"
A little bit later, Anne and I were at the entrance to the mall, waiting for the other four people. Just then, Michelle joined us. "Hey guys, how's it going?" she asked.
"Just fine," I replied, "except that I'm starting to get impatient, waiting for Ike, Taylor, and Zac."
"Well, here they come now."
Sure enough, the guys were walking up to us. Isaac immediately took Michelle's hand, while Zac went to talk with Anne, and Taylor came over to me. "I guess you're stuck with me," he joked.
"Oh, man!" I played along, pretending to complain. "Why did I have to be stuck with Taylor?"
"Very funny," he replied sarcastically.
I laughed. "Come on, let's go inside."
When we got inside, we started our search for the perfect dresses for Michelle, Anne, and me. We went into every store that might possibly have dresses. We spent at least three hours searching. The guys were the "official" judges of the dresses. When one of us girls found a dress she liked, her boyfriend, or in my case just friend, would say if he liked it or not.
Finally, we all had found dresses that passed "inspection". Michelle's was green, Anne's was of course blue, and mine was purple. Taylor and Anne had both tried to convince me to get a red one, but I had always preferred purple, although I did like red, too.
As we were leaving the mall, I saw a familiar figure coming towards us. I turned to my sister. "Anne, Kate's over there."
She scowled. "Why does she have to be here?"
"Anne, she's coming over here, and she doesn't look mad. I think she is trying to apologize. Please, just give her a chance."
Anne sighed. "Okay." She walked over to meet Kate. I saw them talking for several minutes, and neither one of them looked especially angry. Then Anne turned and beckoned to Zac, who joined them. After a few minutes, the three came back over to rejoin us. They were all smiling.
"What happened?" I asked.
Anne spoke up first. "Kate and I are friends again," she announced proudly.
"I apologized to Anne and Zac," Kate put in.
"She said she would rather just be friends with me. She only went out with me to make Anne jealous, and she apologized for that." Zac said.
I smiled to see the three friends back together. "That's wonderful."
"Well, I'd better go now," Kate said. "Bye! See you guys later."
Chapter 23
Love Takes Time
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