Three Months (IC)

[Aoiroo]

"Only you would get married on Christmas Eve."

Carrie sat cross legged in a pair of acid green and black striped tights under a knee lengh black skirt with a green shirt with a noticably lower cut then what she usually wore only cut off by a darker camisol that Carrie was insistant on wearing for the ensemble dispite her sister's protest that it wasn't a dark enough shade to match the rest of the outfit. The outfit itself hadn't been her first choice, but whenever they went out Allison always came over to her place an hour early just so she and her could play barbie and stretch the bounds of what was and was not acceptable wear. The only part of the outfit Carrie had really choosen was the black cabby hat her mother had picked her up from New York, and even then Allison had tried to get her to switch to some barrettes she brought. She was nuerotic like that, she needed everything to match, to be orderly, and symmetrical, which was why Carrie always did little things to bug her like wearing brightly mismatching socks or split her hair more to one side then the other. Today though, Carrie had allowed her the piece of mind that her sister would follow her tidy fashion clothes, and in fact had done a load of laundry of anything that could probably match the night before just so it wouldn't go to a choice between clean or matching like it had so many times before. Maybe she was softening to it, but more likely because this was the beginning of a series of days completely devoted to Allison.

Allison Emilia Wendle was getting married in a little under three months to Jared Ralph Turner, at least that's what it said on the wedding invitiations. Carrie was always skeptical about these things, and would never really confirm a marriage in her mind unless it had lasted at least three years. Still, regardless about the so called certianty her sister had about spending the rest of her life with Jared, she was still inevidetably the maid of honor which meant that she would be present for every step of the process. The current process was among the most basic of basics in weddings, choosing out a dress. Not surprisingly though, the selection for dresses made for colder weather set weddings was in limited supply so they had come all the way across town a shop that boasted more classical designs that usually meant the showing of less skin and less cleavage which would work to help her sister from dying of hypothermia on her wedding night.

"I still don't get why you can't just have a summer wedding like every other bride in the city, or spring for that matter."

From the dressing room, she heard a ruffling as her sister was apparently shimmying into one of the heavier dresses handed to her by the older woman running the shop before replying,

"It was the only time his dad could get back from over seas. Plus it makes for a twofer so afterwards we can spend our first Christmas you know, together."

Letting out a deep breath,

"I'm guessing I can expect a new little monster popping up this time next year?"

Allison came out of the dressing room this time, dragging a dress forward with lace sleeves that went half way down the arms and big puffy skirt carpeted with silk.

"What do you think?"

"Thank god his parents are the ones paying for this."

"No really?"

Reaching next to her, Carrie took a sip of her coke before answering,

"Their's too much fabric."

Allison looked down at the dress,

"That's the point?"

Rolling her eyes, Carrie stood up and walked over,

"I mean, there's too much that can go wrong, even if you leave it in the shop most of this material is positively ancient and is likely to tear. Even Mom with her magical sewing machine couldn't replicate half of the lace on this thing, so if anything goes wrong you'll be stuck with seven hundred dollar pile of scrap fabric. I know a General's salary is hefty, but even if his mother doesn't absolutely hate you like most mother in laws it's doubtful she's going to write the check for a replacement wedding dress."

Looking down at the dress again she let out a low hum,

"I see you're point, but you've shot down every other dress I've tried on."

Carrie rolled her eyes again,

"I know you want to be warm, but you can barely walk in half these dresses. Plus most of this stuff is rediculously overpriced simply because of the things I mentioned before. Most of these were made by custom tailors and then handed down until they ended up here, even if a lot of them are beautiful because of this they just don't suite your frame because you're at least two heads taller then half of the original owners."

Allison looked at her,

"You want to go somewhere else?"

Carrie let out a sigh,

"Well we've been nearly everywhere and you've almost rejected just about everything else. Heck, even I'm not that picky."

"But it's my wedding day, it has to be"

"Yes, yes, perfect, and you can't just go online because you have to try the dress on ahead of time, and you want to place an order to make sure it goes through. You do realize the only reason we can't find anything is because we're at the end of the normal wedding season right now."

Allison looked at her for a second then said,

"So, new shop."

"Yeah sure, I think I saw one just down the road."