3- The Reminder

When Lauren woke up the next morning, she expected the house to be as loud as it was last night but she was only greeted with silence. Confused, she got out of the bed she was sharing with Vanessa, while Scarlet lay on a movable mattress on the floor.

She yawned as she stretched her hands, and looked at Scarlet sleep.

'She looks so cute.' She thought to herself with a smile as the said girl tossed and turned before settling down in a comfortable position, snoring away.

She looked at the girl a last time before walking into the walk in bathroom, to make herself a bit presentable.

Last night was a whirlwind of emotions as Lauren had hugged Scarlet close to her as Scarlet cried her eyes out. Lauren was also a bit ashamed of lying to her but she was also happy that it all worked out.

Scarlet had opened up to her and she was willing to let her stay for as long as she wanted, and Lauren mentally planned to stay till the other girl did.

After showering and brushing her teeth, she made her way back into the room where she saw an awake Scarlet. Vanessa was awake as well and yawning with her hands outstretched.

"You look like a cat." Scarlet commented as she threw a pillow at her older sister, who was caught off guard as the pillow hit her in the face.

"Oh, you are so dead." Vanessa threatened as she grabbed the same pillow to throw it at her little sister. "Ha, in your dreams, short stuff.

Lauren knew that she was completely ignored by the two siblings but she didn't care as the two threw pillows at each other, she was happy to see Scarlet a little happier than last night.

Lauren had been introduced to Scarlet's family as she was going to be staying at their house for a while. She met Scarlet's father, mother, her older sister, and her little cousin, Gregory. The rest of the family was not officially introduced to the girl as she had gone out to take that walk with Scarlet.

She blushed as she remembered last night, the way they were so close to each other. Her face was completely heating up while still remembering the moment they shared, when Vanessa noticed the red faced girl standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

"Why is she so red?" Scarlet was about to throw a pillow back at her sister when she turned to look at where Vanessa was pointing.

Scarlet stood up quickly as she went towards Lauren, "Are you okay?" Scarlet shook Lauren out of her reverie, giving her a worried look as Lauren came back to her surroundings.

"What?"

"Are you okay? You're so red." Scarlet looked at Lauren with her eyebrow raised in curiosity. "I was just um remembering something."

Lauren looked away from Scarlet and went towards her bag to get a pair of shoes out. Vanessa and Scarlet glanced at each other before shrugging and fighting to go to the bathroom first.

The Payne household, in the morning was like a lion's den as everyone had a bad temper especially, granny Payne.

Lauren hadn't met granny Payne yet and as she saw the old woman nag to her oldest son, Scarlet's father, she concluded that it wasn't a good time to introduce herself.

The whole house felt like it was invaded by zombies as everyone walked slow and talked like little kids with head nods and gestures. Lauren smiled when she saw Scarlet as fresh as a daisy, playing with Gregory, in the back yard.

She terribly wanted to go to the girl but she was just too embarrassed about last night as well as this morning.

'How many more times am I going to embarrass myself in front of her?' She thought to herself as she stirred her coffee looking out the glass door leading to the backyard, longingly.

"Is there something wrong with your coffee?" Lauren jumped as she looked behind at who had scared her.

"N-No." She mentally face-palmed herself for stuttering in front of the old woman.

"Do you want to go outside?" Granny Payne asked as she sat beside the blonde girl on the chair, with her poodle named Pudding.

Lauren glanced at the poodle before shaking her head, "I was just looking at Gregory play with Scarlet.

"Please, just call her Scar. It suits her better since she scarred everyone's life by being born." Lauren opened her mouth, shocked at the words that she just heard from the old woman.

"Mother!" Lauren's eyes fell on Andrew, Scarlet's father, as he stared his mother down with a glare. Granny Payne shrugged innocently like a child as if she hadn't just said something offending about her own granddaughter.

"It's the truth." She spoke looking straight into Andrew's eyes.

"That's enough. Not in front of Scarlet's friend." Andrew boomed as half of the family came into the kitchen hearing the loud voice.

She gave her son a hard glare before walking out of the kitchen followed by her poodle. "I'm sorry, Lauren. She's just like this with Scarlet." Andrew sighed as he smiled a tired smile at the blonde.

"Why is she like that?" Lauren asked quietly, not wanting to be nosy but couldn't help it.

"That's a story that only she can tell you." A man spoke as Lauren and Andrew looked towards him. The man smiled at Lauren before introducing himself, "I'm Jared. Second brother of Andrew." Lauren shook the out stretched hand and smiled at the man with her best smile.

"She's always like this with Scarlet but she loves Vanessa." Jared spoke as he looked to the back yard at Scarlet playing with his youngest son.

"You don't... seem to be too close to Scarlet." Jared spoke cautiously as Lauren nodded her head not being offended. "Honestly, we've never spoken more than two words to each other before." Jared and Andrew nodded understandingly.

"Don't worry, we have a whole month together." Jared spoke and Andrew laughed as Lauren looked outside at Scarlet laying on the grass with Gregory bouncing around Scarlet with a happy smile.

Scarlet had no idea why she was in this mess in the first place as she looked outside the huge store window, at the passing people. She didn't know how she agreed to this without getting anything in return except for boredom and sometimes sarcasm from her grandmother.

"This one looks so beautiful on me." Vanessa gushed at herself as she twirled in front of the mirror in the shop.

"Ugh, Vanessa. For the last time, you need a dress for your wedding, not your funeral." Scarlet spoke up getting nasty glares from Vanessa but a nastier one from her grandmother.

"Don't mind her, she's just jealous that she can't rock this dress." Granny Payne spoke soothing words to Vanessa making Scarlet roll her eyes, while Lauren was in her own world as she looked at a white backless wedding dress.

"Mother, please. Scarlet is right. Vanessa needs to pick out a dress for her wedding, a white dress would be better." Laura spoke as she guided her oldest daughter towards the white dresses rack.

Scarlet turned her attention to Lauren, who was busy looking at the same backless dress with a red face as scenarios were starting to come to her mind. She imagined herself wearing the dress and Scarlet dressed in a suit.

"Lauren." Scarlet walked over to the blonde girl, to see her fixated on a dress.

"Yoohoo, Lauren." Scarlet waved her hand in front of Lauren's face, making Lauren come out of her dreamland with a blush on her cheeks.

'I seriously need to stop doing that.' Lauren thought as she mentally face-palmed and physically smiled at Scarlet, making the other girl raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Do you like this dress?" She asked as she took the dress out of the rack and held it in front of Lauren to see.

"Y-Yeah." Lauren stuttered and Scarlet smiled at her before grabbing her arm and taking her to one of the dressing rooms.

"Go try it on." Scarlet lightly nudged the girl in the dressing room but Lauren shook her head, "It's not my wedding, Scarlet."

"Scar, and that doesn't mean that you can't even try it on." Lauren blushed as she began to speak.

"S-Scar, I don't want to try it on." Scarlet smiled as Lauren spoke her name with such cuteness before she shook her head not taking 'no' for an answer.

"I want to see you in this fucking dress, now go." Scarlet gently pushed the blonde into the dressing room before closing the door, leaving Lauren with a dress, a blush and a thought that didn't do anything better to stop her heart from beating this fast.

'She looks so hot while cursing.'

The moment when Lauren came out of the dressing room with reluctance, was the moment Vanessa felt like a hobo as she saw Lauren 'rocking' a beautiful white backless wedding dress.

"Wow, you look... amazing." Laura was the one that complimented the blonde first as she smiled at her.

"Yeah, you are totally rocking that dress." Jared's wife, Wanda, spoke, who was also invited to the dress picking.

"Eh, she looks okay." Granny Payne spoke as she scrunched up her face in dislike while Vanessa just went back to the dressing room quietly to probably cry.

Lauren smiled at everyone before she looked at Scarlet who had her mouth open wide. Scarlet composed herself before she walked closer to the blonde.

"You are so buying that dress." It wasn't a command or an order but it was more like a request that made Lauren bow her head down before nodding her answer.

"Now go change, before Vanessa starts to feel self conscious and we get uninvited from her wedding." Scarlet joked but Lauren made a look of horror that made the black headed girl laugh.

 "I'm just joking, Laur." She spoke and Lauren instantly blushed from the use of her nickname. Only her family called her 'Laur' but when she heard it from Scarlet's mouth, she smiled as it did sound better coming from her mouth.

With a smile playing on her lips, she turned to go back inside the dressing room and change back to her jeans and top.

As she began to unzip the dress from the side, she felt like it was stuck. She raised her arm a little bit higher and tried to unzip it, but it was definitely stuck. She felt so embarrassed as she tried a million times to unzip it but it didn't even move.

"Um, Scar." She spoke a little loud as she didn't want the whole store to know that her zip was stuck.

Scarlet, who was standing just outside the door, quickly responded, "Yeah."

"I think, the zip is stuck." She spoke as a blush crept up her face again.

"Do you want help?" Scarlet asked and Lauren rolled her eyes at the obliviousness of the girl.

"No, I want a latte. Of course, I want help." Scarlet chuckled as she opened the dressing room door just enough to get in. When she went in, she saw Lauren with her head down trying to unzip the thing but it didn't even budge.

"Okay, stop fighting with the damn dress." Lauren jumped a little as she didn't expect Scarlet to be in there so quickly. Lauren stopped her actions and stood still as Scarlet came closer to her. She was immediately reminded of the other night when they both were so close to each other.

Her heart began to speed up as Scarlet lightly lifted the blonde's left hand up so that she could see the zip that denied to go down.

Scarlet concentrated on the zip as she knitted her eyebrows together and brought her tongue out of her mouth. Lauren gushed at the sight as she stared at the black headed girl.

"There." Scarlet spoke as the zip went down and the dress sagged but Lauren quickly grabbed it before it completely came off, with a blush.

"I used to do this with Katie so I know how these type of dresses are." Scarlet spoke unconsciously as she smiled at Lauren, but Lauren didn't give a smile in return. Her heart ached when she heard Scarlet talk about Katie.

"She always managed to get stuck in a dress and then she'd call for help." Scarlet suddenly realized what she had just said and a certain sadness invaded her eyes as she was again reminded of her broken heart.

Lauren smiled sadly at Scarlet, who just shook her head and went out of the dressing room quickly.

Laura had seen her youngest daughter getting out of the dressing room quickly and then going directly out of the store. She raised an eyebrow in confusion, when Lauren quickly got out of the dressing room in panic.

That moment, Laura knew something was being hid from her and she wanted to know what it was.

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