Dress she tried on above :) 

Archer pulls in front of the shop Marina and I had once shopped at many years ago. Looking through the car window, my eyes lay upon an up marked shop which is designed and wrapped in expensive materials to create a decadent and inviting place one could easily envy or desire if their bank account couldn't afford the product sold within their walls.

Instead, the beautifully cleaned automatic sliding doors resemble a bitter sweet jail cell that I may or may not survive. What if Marina hates me after what I've done to her son? If someone did that to my child, I don't believe I would be that nice to them either.

I have to dig a little deeper this time. But I manage to pluck some courage out of the deep depths of my mind. I take one deep calming breath before opening the door and stepping out onto the side walk. The part about growing up and becoming an adult is accepting your past actions and working them out. I can't run away from them forever, because living in fear isn't an option and neither is hiding behind a masked or a person. We just have to accept things and build with the remains. If Nathan can find it within his heart to build a better relationship to work on our past differences, Marina surely can as well.

I'm taken by surprise and not given a moment to mull over this decision or thought of action. Lucy loops her arm through mine and starts directing me towards the front of the shop. My heart beats wildly in my chest, and like a horror film, we progress further without getting a chance to think. Lucy has always managed to be head strong, which is a great quality to retain throughout life.

"Reality isn't anything like the scenarios playing in your mind, Riley," she says.

The doors ping open and we progress forwards. I'm met by cool scented air and the relief of an empty shop. While Marina is a lovely lady, and I would like to see her again, I don't think I could do it without the reassurance of Nathan telling me she doesn't hate me. I consider Marina a friend, and I would hate for our relationship to be tainted by something so old and foolish. I don't want to be judged for my past actions, as they are in the past. My future endeavours have a reflection of my current mind state and desires. Therefore, a changed person will not be received through old ideas.

My attention flickers to the lady behind the counter. Within a few seconds of entering the shop, she'd descended from the front checkout desk and over to our direction to greet us. Beautiful service, that's a bit different. But then, if you're shopping with a place where they chuck a couple of zero's on the price tag, you'd want to be offered tea or coffee when browsing.

"Hi, I'm Bridget, and I will be serving you today. If you need any help or would like me to prepare a change room for you, I can gladly do so," she explains.

My eyes follow the length of her body, quickly scanning her appearance before smiling back and saying, "Hello, and thanks."

She's a tall girl, or perhaps the heels make her appear much taller than what she really is? Her dyed blonde hair is perfectly clipped to the side and flowing over the side of her right shoulder, which almost looks like a flowing river of blonde, curled hair. Her bright green eyes shine down on us.

"Is there something particular that you are looking for?" Bridget asks.

"We're attending an upper class event, so we're shopping for something to wear," Lucy informs her.

"Any specific style? I could make some suggestions?" she offers.

"We're good, thank you."

Lucy dives straight into the racks of clothing and Bridget follows closely behind her. I sort of follow Lucy, but look on other racks. Every time she finds something she likes, Lucy calls my name out and waves the dress around. They are beautiful, but nothing I love. A lot of the dresses are princess ones that poof out around the waist. While Sienna would adore to wear something so beautiful on the cat walk, I want the outfit to transition my next phase. No more princess dresses for me!

"What about this one?" she holds up a beautiful purple and pink dress that flows and looks like the colours are moving with each other.

"Hm." I shrug my shoulder.

"Can you please add that to her dressing room, I would sincerely appreciate it," Lucy asks Bridget.

"Not a problem." She pleasantly smiles and accepts the dress from Lucy's hand.

While Bridget is putting away that dress, Lucy grabs another three dresses of the rack for when she returns.

The idea of trying all of those dresses on is daunting. I'm not sure how I'll be able to fit in the change room with all of those large dresses. However, the more I try on, the better shaped my ideas will be for the dress I want. And besides, I don't want to pop Lucy's creative bubble, she seems to be boiling with ideas in the crazy brain of hers.

I take another deep breath and trug towards the dressing room with a hopeful feeling. But I know my whole day is going to be like this. Spending a lot of time in the change room with an overflowing amount of dresses. I feel sorry for the people who are working today, they are going to have so much clothing to put away once Lucy and I have finished with their shop.

All of the clothing Lucy has picked out has overflown from one change room and spread to a second one for easier access. Nobody else is inside the story, so there's no point in having an item amount for the changing rooms. Besides, it makes things easier for me at least, and I'm grateful for that at least.

When Lucy moves into the change room with me, Bridget stops buzzing around and returns to the front of the shop to wait for other customers to help. I'm relieved to change in peace.

One of the dresses I try on is a light purple which is bubbling with layers of netting, which creates a flowing train of material around me. It's got hand crafted flowers sown along the ends of the dress and around the body section, which slowly fans out around the top section that joins the body to the skirt section.

I step out of the change room and swirl around so that Lucy can get a good look.

"I love the paten on this dress. Just imagine if we did something with colour, those flowers would pop on that dress," she says.

She pulls out her mobile and takes a picture of me in the dress for her design board. While this dress doesn't fill my criteria, it's certainly a beautiful piece. Before I change out of the dress, I take a mirror selfie of myself in the dress, except I cut the photo from my mouth downwards.

I quickly share the dress to my social media sites with the caption, 'shopping with my best friend.' Along with adding a few heart emoji's and stars.

When I'm finished trying on all the dresses Lucy has stockpiled in the change room, I redress in my clothing and head back into the store to help look for anything else that she might want me to try on.

The store has begun to fill up with other people, which is nice. Sometimes I feel awkward walking around the shop by myself and with other people, it's easier to slip into the background and to just lay low sometimes.

I continue to look around the store until I spot one in the distance. It's just black, nothing fancy or sparkly, but it catches my eyes. I start walking towards it to get a better look. As I grab a hold of it, another hand does as well.

Looking up, I see that the owner of the hand is none other than Marina, Nathan's mother. She looks just the same as the last time I'd seen her, however, slightly aged a little more under her eyes but still stands tall and wears a chain of white pearls around her neck, which creates both a look and aura of sophistication.

"Riley," she says surprised.

"Marina." I grin back. "Lovely surprise."

"No wonder!" The surprise slowly falls of her face and my stomach drops to my feet, "Nathan almost threw me out of my room, he insisted that I come shopping today, which was strange. Now it makes sense," she eyes me off.

"Oh, really?" I ask.

"I bet I wasn't supposed to tell you that." Marina frowns.

"Hm."

"What's wrong?" she asks.

"I just, uh," I take a moment to breathe, "Didn't expect to see you here today, that's all."

"I hear you're really busy these days." She winks. "You must come to dinner when you're free, I have missed those nights, and I do still think fondly on them from time to time," explains Marina.

"I guess I'm free tonight?" I offer.

"It's a must." Marina pats my elbow, "you're coming out with us tonight then."

"Sounds exciting." I nod my head.

"I'll get Nathan to pass on future details about dinner, I'm afraid I've yet to organise something for tonight."

"That's fine, Nathan should have my contact details, they haven't changed," I agree with her.

"And, the black dress looks stunning," Marina compliments, "It's sophisticated, yet beautiful enough to stand out in its own right. People try too hard to stand out, they end up doing it for the wrong reasons. The best self-expression is the ones done by others."

"Thank you, that makes a lot of sense."

"I'll leave you to shop." Marina smiles and then moves towards another rack to browse through the selected material there. I grab the dress of the rack and bring it over to Lucy to get her opinions on the dress.

"What do you think?" I hold it up in front of her.

"Fishtail is different to your usual princes, and I like that!"

"I think it's the base of the evolution process we're looking at. With your creative mind, I'm sure you can blend both of us on a dress like this," I say.

"Don't pressure me, okay. I'll endeavor to do my best though."

"I'm sure whatever you create will be amazing, have some faith." I wink at her.

"Get your bottom in that change room so I can see that dress on you."

I laugh at her reaction, but do as she says. I wander back towards the change room stalls and quickly hop into the same one I had previously. I have a good feeling about this dress, and I do hope Lucy can do something with it, I have faith in her abilities like she had faith in mine.