Linger

Wedding Dresses

As a teenager, when her other friends were busy talking about the dream wedding they wanted to live in the future, what model wedding dress will be worn on that once-in-a-lifetime happy day, also what kind of figure would they choose to accompany for their entire life, Kalea actually spent more time thinking about how she could hold an exhibition for the paintings she had made, without bothering Mama and Papa. 

At other times, when friends her age chatter about first love followed by other love stories, Kalea is busy struggling with brushes and paint, dragging Karel, he said, the only human who would accompany him around to look for painting equipment that was exhausted. Half his life was spent loving paintings, because for Kalea it was just the most powerful way to shed all the feelings that he could not tell others.

Kalea is a spoiled child, she depends her life on the affection of Mama, Papa and also Karel. But for some things related to his dream, as much as possible he tried to achieve it himself without the need to trouble others. 

But today, in the presence of a large mirror that reveals a foreign-looking reflection of her, Kalea realizes that being independent has never been so easy. He once said he did not want to get married before successfully holding an exhibition with his own business, but in fact, now he actually stands in front of a mirror while looking at a famous designer wedding dress that is attached to his body with a man in a black suit who stands right behind him. 

Kalea looked at her reflection for quite a long time, ignoring the existence of Gavin who had been standing behind her since minutes ago after the man had finished trying on her suit. The wedding dress she now wears is not a wedding dress with a luxurious design like her friends used to talk about. It's just a simple wedding dress. White in color, made from satin with off-shoulder pieces that show the neckline and beautiful shoulders. Before this, Kalea had never worn clothes that showed her shoulders because she thought it was too revealing and did not fit her style. But this time, he felt amazed to find a dress with a simple design that turned out to look good on his body. It was as if this dress was created just for her. As if, Kalea was indeed born to wear this dress once in her lifetime.

"Pretty." 

Gavin's voice is on the air. But Kalea still refused to turn her head. He only glanced at Gavin through the reflection in the mirror, then refocused on his own reflection. Well-favoured. Kalea does not know if the word Gavin is for her, or the wedding dress she now wears. So after feeling that there was nothing to fix from the dress she was trying now, Kalea turned her head.

"What's the pretty dress or me?" tanyakanya. 

"They."

Kalea snorted at the answer. He turned his head, again looking at his reflection in the mirror which now looked sullen. Compared to the upside with Gavin who actually smiled with satisfaction until both eyes almost disappeared. 

"The dress is beautiful because you wear it." Gavin said, only to make a red hue slowly appear on the cheeks of Kalea. 

Kalea felt her cheeks heat up, so she hurriedly turned around and walked quickly towards the fitting room followed by a female employee who had helped her put on this wedding dress.

Gavin who saw that just chuckled. He let Kalea pass without intending to further mop it up. Then, when another female employee came to him with a large paper bag and a friendly smile, Gavin stopped laughing.

"Your order is ready." The female employee said as she extended the paperbag to him.

"Thank you." Gavin said politely.

Then the employee passed by, leaving Gavin alone, pensively staring at the paperbag in hand for quite a long time. His chest again felt sore as the shadow of his girl's face appeared on his head. How he laughed, how he cried, how he poured out all fret and put fatigue on his shoulders. Also how Gavin happens is the opposite. The dress inside the paperbag shouldn't get to the owner in this way. Supposedly, her girl had come straight here to try it out, looking at her reflection in the mirror and smiling brightly when her dream dress was finally finished. Ought to. Gavin hates that one word.

Gavin would have died drowning in his own thoughts, had it not been for Kalea's crisp voice to say hello in time.

When he raised his head, the girl was already standing three steps in front of him. The wedding dress that had been attached to her small body had been removed, replaced by a dress under the knee that was pink. Gavin was silent for a moment, looking at the red hue on Kalea's cheeks that still looked obvious. Just like that, the pain in his chest became more pronounced. There was one part in her heart that had been injured for a long time, and finding Kalea standing before her with a red hue on her cheeks was also a timid smile like this now making her wounds wet and purulent again.

"Aren't you going to change your clothes?" kalea asked after a long period of silence. 

Kalea's clear voice managed to divert Gavin from his sad thoughts, making the corners of his lips attracted a little to form a smile that felt very difficult for him to treat now. To be honest, he wanted some of the scenes that happened between them during these two months to be just a dream. A dream that will disappear when he opens his eyes the next day.

"You haven't commented on my suit yet." Gavin placed the paperbag he had been holding onto the sofa to his right. Then he began to rotate the body, letting Kalea more freely examine each curve of the body wrapped in the suit in order to find where the defect is.

"Where?" ask after facing Kalea.

The first Gavin can be neither a comment nor a compliment, but a smile that develops wide enough. The kind of smile that can bring warmth while adding to the bitterness in Gavin's heart.

"Handsome." That's all Kalea said. Then the girl turned her body, walked first leaving her with a thousand question marks that again scrambled to cover her head.

"Seven o'clock I have Karel's appointment to go see One Piece at the cinema, so we have to finish our business so I can relax and watch the movie." Kalea stopped stepping just to say that. He slightly turned to Gavin with a smile that was still on its back. Then he continued his steps, leaving Gavin silently in his place for a while.

After Kalea's body completely disappeared from view, Gavin began to move from where he stood. He grabbed a paperbag from the sofa and rushed after Kalea. He no longer intended to take off the coat he was currently wearing. Let the suit be on until later. Because who knows, all this is actually just a dream and he does not regret having had time to wear this suit.

When he arrived outside the building, he found Kalea already standing in front of his car, leaning his body on the hood while playing a mobile phone.

Gavin stopped his steps as Kalea suddenly laughed. Curiosity began to appear when the laughter did not subside and the girl's boba eyes were still glued to the screen of the phone that was somehow displaying what. Then he stepped back, only to find that Kalea's laughter was exploding until now the girl's shoulder shook.

"What do you want, anyway?" he asked after arriving before Kalea. He was curious, but did not dare to bend his head to check what Kalea was looking at from the screen of his phone. Because he knows it is privacy and he must not violate it.

But unexpectedly, Kalea suddenly thrust a mobile phone screen right in front of her face, making her reflex rewind.

"Look, he's funny." Kalea.

Gavin did not know why he could have complied when the girl told him to watch a video showing a veiled woman muttering. At first Gavin felt nothing strange, there was also nothing funny that could make Kalea open as before. But as Kalea raised the volume of the video so that the sound coming out of it became clearer, Gavin practically rewinded his face with a dramatic motion. Apparently, the hooded woman was singing. There is nothing wrong with a video of someone singing. It's just that, the hooded woman sang a completely foreign song in Gavin's ears, plus the movement of her lips when singing that seemed excessive managed to make Gavin shivering bodies.

"So soon forget Reyhan.let alone Reyhan good..."

"What are you doing, Kalea?" he was amazed because Kalea still never stopped singing.

"Ih, why the hell? This is a good song. So soon forget Reyhan.. let alone Reyhan baikkk..." Kalea returned to singing and then ended a very crunchy oddity.

Gavin, who was already shuddering, finally decided to let Kalea finish her laughter. He ran away, walked quickly to the driver's side and hurriedly got into the car and sat down. Really, he did not know that Kalea could behave like this. Presumably, what Mother told him there are still many who are missed. The woman did say that Kalea likes to act strangely, but Gavin did not expect that her strange level would be this scary.

"Because...." Gavin shuddered back. He rubbed all over his goosebumps before returning to cool when Kalea caught up with him in the car.

"Aren't you opening the door for me? Tumben?" ask Kalea after installing the seatbelt.

"You're weird. I thought it was a trance, so I stayed." Gurau Gavin's. He then turned on the engine and was about to step on the gas pedal when Kalea returned to action.

"Yes, Reyhan's trance. So syulitt eumphh..."

Nothing was thought of in Gavin's head as he moved reflexively to smother Kalea's mouth as the thin lips began muttering again. Really, the goosebumps on his body had not completely disappeared, so he did not want Kalea to make it worse.

"Leppashmmm...Gavhin's." Kalea struggled, but Gavin was still reluctant to remove her palm from the girl's lips.

Finally, he decided to step on the gas pedal and start driving with one hand, while the other hand still continued to smother Kalea's mouth so that the girl did not return to action.

******

Their next destination was the hotel where the wedding reception would be held. From what Kalea heard, the preparation was up to 90 percent. Actually he is not too willing to take a headache, after all it has been taken care of by the wedding organizer and he no longer needs to drain his energy to check this and that.

But Gavin seems like another, the guy seems to be a typical perfectionist who can't miss the slightest detail. So after going through a long chat to discuss about the doubts that suddenly appeared in Kalea's mind while on the way to the boutique earlier, he said, the man offered them a visit to the hotel to check how far the preparations had gone.

Kalea did not refuse. Sure oes. Because after a long discussion they passed during the trip to the boutique earlier, he finally managed to find a belief that was able to remove all the doubts that had been in his heart for days yesterday. The answer Gavin gave to every question he asked was in fact always able to make him silent. Making doubts that initially stir slowly subside until it actually disappears.

I worry about a lot of things. It is natural because we are only humans who do not know how the destiny we will live forward. Worry is good for making us alert. But, excessive worry will only lead us to nothingness. So, instead of worrying about things that are not necessarily going to happen, why don't we help each other to convince ourselves?

Gavin's words came back to his ears. How the man conveyed what was in his head without seeming to impose his will and act like the truest man made it subconsciously easier to agree on the man's thoughts. Because after he went further, what Gavin said was true. He tends to be easy to worry about things that may occur even small. Since long ago, Karel has also complained about the nature of that one. But the former Kalea will only insist on her worries without wanting to find a way out of the anxiety she created herself. But today, along with Gavin, he managed to find an opening to escape the trap created by his own head. He managed to escape a trap called overthinking and had repeatedly uttered good sentences to himself. And it turned out to be very effective at making his heart much calmer.

"Are you watching Karel alone tonight?" gavin asked suddenly after parking his car.

Kalea turned her head, only to find Gavin looking at her seriously.

"Yes. My friend is just Karel." Answer Kalea as is. For some people, that may sound sad. But for Kalea, it was not sad at all. Having only Karel was even better than having a thousand friends who could not necessarily treat her as well as Karel.

"Your servant likes random, lha wong with the same theme as Karel models." Gavin sneered, but Kalea did not really find hatred in her tone.

"You don't say anything carelessly. Although his brain is often complex and sometimes likes to be short, but Karel is a good friend. If there wasn't him, you wouldn't have met Kalea today." Kalea said while removing her seatbelt.

"A car like that for you?"

Kalea nodded steadily. There is no doubt. Karel is that much. There will never be anyone who can replace Karel in his life because for Kalea, Karel there is only one.

"If there's an award for the world's best friend, I'm sure Karel will be the champion." Kalea said so proud. He really hopes that such an award exists, because Karel really deserves it.

"Glad to hear that." Gavin said, then he got off the car first. He was supposed to walk to the other side of the car and open the door for Kalea, but he was glued to the spot when he found a car he knew was parked right across from his car. The glasses were dark, so Gavin could not confirm whether the owner of the car was still inside or not. He pensively stayed on the spot long enough, busy guessing what kind of scenario God was preparing for him today. Couldn't he just go through one day quietly without a feeling of dread?

And all his thoughts were instantly dissolved just because of a soft clap on his shoulder, followed by a loud voice of Kalea that made him turn his head immediately.

"Why?" ask Kalea astonishment.

"It's okay, come on." Gavin grabbed Kalea's hand, grasped it tightly and then walked in tandem into the elevator. He can only pray that God will be kind to him even if only today. At the very least, let him enjoy his time quietly without the feeling of fear and worry that the cloth feels suffocating every day.

*Hopefully.

I hope that.

Hopefully*.