A/N: Hi so I'll keep this short bc this is a prompt and y'all probably don't want the awkward babbling at the start, but I wanted to thank Britt, Mad and Laura for the fabulous prompt I was given even though I probably butchered it :'D. The prompt was:
"Wedding AU - Jade and Beck get invited to the wedding of a mutual friend, but quickly realize they're the only single people sitting at the friend's wedding table and start drinking and talking about how much they hate their lives."
Aaaand yeah I hope you like it. Idk, read on.
"Ew. They could've adorned these stupid invitations with anything around the edges, but they chose flowers and butterflies. Shoot me." Black nails fiddled with the corners of an admittedly gaudy wedding invitation.
"Come on Jade, it's cute! Just 'cause you want scissors round the edges of yours doesn't mean everyone does." A roommate dressed head to toe in pink slid onto one of the chairs in their apartment kitchen, with her chin in the palm of her hand and a dreamy look on her face.
"Whatever." An eye-roll accompanied the short answer.
"What would you have then?"
"Nothing."
"That'd be boring!" The younger girl's palms came down on the table as if Jade had just admitted she secretly ate fairies for breakfast.
"No, as in, I'm not having anything around the dumb edges because I would never send out invitations because I would never need to because I absolutely despise the shit out of weddings."
There was a moment of silence whilst Jade's roommate tried to comprehend the sentence that was just said.
"What do you mean you despise weddings?"
She ultimately failed.
"I mean I love them and I want sparkly unicorns to hand out pink champagne when I get married."
She let her roommate sit in confusion before saving the few brain cells that she had.
"Fucks sake, Jenna, I was being sarcastic." Jade almost whined, wondering yet again why she hadn't just demanded another university room when she had the chance. "I hate weddings. I'm never having one. This bullshit occasion is going to be worse than Cat's tenth birthday."
"Bibble-Cat?"
"Mm-hm." She nodded as she took a long sip from her now lukewarm mug of coffee.
"What happened at her birthday?"
"Someone accidentally told her that the Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas weren't real and she puked up the ten tonnes of pink cake she had eaten from crying too much."
"Oh." Jenna recoiled at first in surprise and then in pure disgust.
"Yeah."
There was a brief moment of (blissful, in Jade's opinion) silence before Jenna piped up again. "Jade?"
"What?"
"Can I come dress shopping with you?"
"I mean, whatever about it. It's not like Sarah and I can get married with her asshat parents anyway." Freya shrugged as she wandered around the small (and very, very empty) games room they had.
Beck sighed, repeatedly rubbing a tiny scratch he had just discovered on one of his lenses.
"What about you?" Freya continued. "Don't you ever want to get married? Settle down with someone? You haven't had a girlfriend in ages, you know. I'm starting to think you think we all prefer twats. Beck, I'm sure you'll find a girl out there somewhere who will want your dick." She teased, giggling at Beck's flustered expression.
"It's not that and you know it. Just… the girls here, they're just too- I mean, they come across as… how do I-" Beck trailed off, unsure of how to word the explanation he was giving and slightly worried about offending any of his housemate's friends.
"Slutty? Desperate? Welcome to university girls, Beck. They can't help their inexplicable attraction to your hair."
"Hey! My hair's awesome." Beck defended his admittedly gorgeous hair before jokingly running a hand through it and posing.
"Anyway, you got a tux for this thing?" Beck's housemate asked.
"I think, somewhere. This is really the wrong time to have a wedding. I have so many film clips due in. My professor is probably going to find a way to kill me with my camera." Beck gave up rubbing the scratch and put the lens down on the stained coffee table.
"Come on, Beck. You need a break. You've been working non-stop since forever and I'm literally the only person you talk to. Go out and talk to people at this wedding. Please? For me?" Freya sat next to him and waved the invitation about as she pleaded.
"Fine, I'll go. You have to do my tie though."
This was awkward. The church service was fine, although there was one baby that I absolutely wanted to somehow dispose of because it's mother was too busy dabbing fake tears off her face to take its crying little self outside. Other than that, it was quick and not too bad. The strapless, dark blue, knee-length dress I was wearing definitely caught some eyes.
Most of them were not welcome.
The awkward thing was, however, that I was at the reception and I knew nobody.
Absolutely nobody.
A slow, cheesy, throw-up-in-my-mouth song came on and all the lovey-dovey couples that I was on a table with had gotten up to dance. And by dance I mean sway side-to-side. Like teenagers at a disco. I was so over this.
So here I am.
At a fancy, flower-decoration filled table.
By myself.
Classic Jade West style.
The waiter's small talk has actually been the root cause for most of these vodka-lemonades, if I'm totally honest. Yes, I'm in university. No, I don't want to go outside and smoke with you. Yes, I'm sure. No, I am not past seriously hurting you. Goodbye then.
I was seriously about to stab him with my damn straw.
I was ready to order another vodka-lemonade and bask in my self-pity and hatred when I felt an uninvited presence next to me. I turned around and found a mop of dark hair placed on a person. I turned back around to order another drink, but he beat me to the waiter.
"Um, a… beer, please. And for you?" It took me a while to realise that he was talking to me.
"I can pay for my own drinks."
"I don't doubt that you can. Now what do you want?"
"… Vodka-lemonade."
The weedy guy scurried off to get our drinks.
"So, how do you know these guys?" The man asked. He was wearing a pretty fancy suit, I'd give him that. His brown eyes were soft but his gaze was somehow intimidating.
"They sell me crack."
"Really? They told me I was their only client. Guess they have some explaining to do."
His wit and ability to keep up with my joke was amusing, and I had to hide a smile in my hair. No way was I being hit on at a wedding reception by some guy. He wasn't looking at my dress though. Interesting. His eyes seemed locked on mine. I felt my grip loosen on my purse where I may or may not have been keeping my emergency scissors.
"What's your name, then?" His voice startled me for a second. The vodka was taking a toll on me. Or his cute smile was. Scratch that, it was the vodka. Right?
"Jade. Jade West. And yours?"
"I'm Beck Oliver. Where are you at uni?"
"What makes you think I go to uni?" I threw back at him, expecting him to stumble with a response.
"Just a hunch. Was I right?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe. And why would I want a stranger to know?"
"Well, you know my name and I bought you a drink. I'd say we were practically married. I go to UCLA, by the way." He joked back.
"Oh. Same."
"Really? How come I've never seen you at any of those dumb parties?"
"Because I probably hate the dumb people that are throwing the dumb parties. I also prefer to get drunk alone." I deadpanned.
"You're getting drunk with me now."
"Well I didn't originally want you here. And I'm not drunk!" I protested.
"Oh, so you want me here now?"
"Shut up before I cut your hair off."
"Charming."
"That's what they call me."
"I can see why. You have pretty eyes."
I was slightly (read: extremely) taken aback at the sudden conversation change. "Whatever. So what are you studying?" I tried to drift from the subject of me but I think he noticed my blush. Note to self: stop being so damn pale.
"I'm studying film-making. You?"
"Literature. I want to be a writer."
"Pretty cool."
"No, it's actually not. Ugh." I huffed out, resting my forehead on the table and enjoying the temporary curtain that my hair was forming around my head.
"And… why?" Beck, or whatever his name was, asked.
"Because I'm not writing! I'm not writing creative things, I'm not making up shit. I don't have any control over what I'm doing! All I ever do is write essays about Shakespeare and his various mind-numbing techniques- which, by the way, is not exactly an original assignment - and annotate Seamus Heaney poems. I swear to god if I have to hear about his unnatural obsession with nature one more time I'm going to shoot my professor."
"I thought I was the only one thinking that!" Mop-head piped up. "It's so irritating! I went to university to make films and direct and edit, but all I ever do is read books about dead people and their style. For God's sake, I want to create my own style. Why do I need to complete seventeen thousand projects on other people's style?"
"Exactly! And, they give us far too much work. Like, I barely ever go out, but even if I wanted to I wouldn't have time. It's ridiculous! I sometimes think that the idiots setting them forget that there's this thing called sleep."
"Wait, what's sleep? I thought it was a myth. Seriously, I don't remember the last time I got more than 5 hours straight sleep at night." Beck said, playing along.
"And I have no friends. Literally none."
"Don't you have a housemate?"
"Roommate. She dressed in pink and only pink and I want to stab her on average thirty-six times a day."
"Nice. You don't seem like the kind to room with her."
"I don't think there is a kind. But no, I'm not. I don't know why I didn't change but I just didn't and now I thoroughly hate myself for it. What about you?"
"Housemate called Freya."
"Wow, you share a house with her? Must be pretty seriou-"
"Ah, no. She's nice and an amazing friend but she, um, bats for the other team, if you get me."
"Ah."
The waiter came over numerous times over the night and our table gradually started filling up with more glasses and bottles. I can't say I didn't enjoy his company. It was almost nice to find someone who hated uni as much as I did. All people seemed to be saying was "Buck up Jade! It could be a lot worse!" like southern idiots. Kind of reminded me of a girl in high school.
"No but like- did you even hear about Hannah? Iswear, she literally looked like she'dbeen hit by the quarterback!" Jade slurred, black curls bouncing as she exclaimed her surprise.
"Noway! What happened?" Beck said, leaning forward, enthralled by Jade's story (and equally as drunk).
"Rumour has it, she got sooooo drunk at a party that she fell over dancing and hit her face on the coffee table!" Jade finished, laughing, as Beck watched with a grin on his face, appreciating the pretty girl's amused laughter in front of him.
"Jade, you're really pretty."
"I am? Well, I guess that makes two of us." Jade's inebriated state gave her the nerve to flirt with Beck.
"It's also really really really late and you need to get back." Beck said, standing up from his chair which was far closer to Jade than he originally intended. He stepped towards her, offering his hand as she took it and stood up, a little unsteady on her heels.
"It was kind of nice talking to you."
"I guess it was. I'll call you a cab when we're outside."
"It's okay, I already texted a friend and she's picking me up."
"See you around, Jade." Beck turned to walk away, but was stopped by a tug on the back of his jacket.
"Wait! No, wait a second. Here, have… this." Jade finished as she finished scribbling down her number and name on a random napkin. "Call me sometime and you can take me out for coffee and we can bitch about life some more."
"Oh. Yeah, coffee… Coffee would be nice. Than- um, thank you? Yeah, goodnight." Beck mumbled, flustered. He ran a hand through his hair, inwardly cursing his awkward words.
"You're cute when you're being awkward. Bye, mop-head." And with that, Jade pecked his cheek, and walked out.
Yeah, Beck thought. Coffee would be nice.
Other A/N: I'm sorry this is so late don't hate me I procrastinate too much