Can't be arsed writing a authors note so here's the chapter!
"I'm in hell," I said to John for the twelfth time.
"Hell smells a lot like flowers," he said back.
I'd never been to any sort of bridal store, or any store that was completely devoted to nothing but wedding crap for that matter. This was my first time and I had to say I was definitely not enjoying it.
Beth's three best friends were going to be her bridesmaids, but only one of them, Natalya, was in town. Naturally, this meant I had to tag along for some odd reason, considering I was a guy, with her on this trip and pretend to care about whatever stupid thing she was pointing out.
Constance, Annette, Kimberly, Natalya and Beth were all looking at dresses while John and I sat on a couch by the dressing rooms. I wasn't quite sure how I'd actually convinced him to come along, but I was glad he did.
"I thought most people have their wedding dresses custom made or whatever?" he said.
"Yeah, well she probably just can't afford anything not off the rack otherwise she can't get her stupid ice sculpture or whatever."
"Ah, what a horrible position to be stuck in; a giant chunk of ice or a million dollar dress," he joked.
John knew a little about weddings from when his older sister, Nicole, got married, which Constance and Annette planned. I liked Nicole a lot. When I'd met John five years ago, the first time I went to his house Nicole was there and she was one of those optimistic happy-all-the-time in a good way sort of people. The kind where you just really want to be like them so you can know what it's like to smile that much.
When her boyfriend (who she'd been dating since tenth grade) proposed she was so happy, I was pretty sure she almost literally exploded. During the planning of the wedding, John and I were around a lot to help. It wasn't bad at all; Nicole and her fiancé, Derrick, were nothing like Beth. Nicole didn't complain at all, she didn't cry and fuss over everything, and she was always pleasant to be around.
I wished Beth was like that. Then maybe all this stuff I was being forced to do would have been less horrid…it may have even been enjoyable. But having the word 'enjoyable' and 'Beth' in the same sentence was not viable when it came to my cousin.
Two young girls came out of one of the dressing room near us wearing light blue bridesmaid's dresses that had sleeve poofs the size of basketballs. Three women (one I assumed was the bride, and the other two seemed to be the mothers of the girls) sat across from her.
The bride clapped. "It looks wonderful!"
One of the mothers nodded in agreement while the other plastered on a fake smile.
"Why are people so weird?" I asked John. "Or maybe marriage just makes you insane. Look at that dress. No sane person would ever think that was even remotely attractive."
"The sleeves are bigger than their heads," he commented.
"I think brides pick ugly dresses for their bridesmaids on purpose. You know, to ensure no one there is as good looking as them at the wedding," I said.
"Probably," John said.
"Seth!" Beth said, running up to me, a frilly hot pink dress at hand. "Could you please try this on?"
I stared at her for a second, waiting for her to indicate she was joking. When I confirmed she wasn't, I said "Uh, no."
"Please!" she begged. "Mickie and you are about the same size and I need to see if this dress would fit but I can't because she and Trish haven't gotten to town yet."
Mickie, Trish, and Natalya were Beth's best friends and bridesmaids. After high school, Mickie and Trish went away to college while Natalya and Beth stayed here for school, thus proving my point that Beth, along with Natalya, was stupid. Who wants to stay in Washington forever?
"Can't you just wait until she gets here?" I whined. "What if she doesn't even like it?"
Beth stomped her food. Yup. Just like a five-year-old when they're mom wouldn't let them get a candy bar at the grocery store. I stifled a laugh. She said forcefully, "This is my wedding!"
The people near us glanced over. I rolled my eyes and stood up. "I'm a dude! I'm not trying on a dress!"
"At least hold on to it for me? My mom and Aunt Connie are looking at different dresses without me!" She shoved the dress into my hands, causing me to fall back on the couch and spread the dress on top of me, making it look like I was wearing it. I started to move it before she objected. "I don't want it to get ruined." She was off before I could say anything, leaving me with a frilly dress laid on top of me, looking like I was wearing it.
John looked at me and laughed at the appearance. He laughed for a while, while I groaned. I silently wished he choked on his tongue.
"You're shaped like a bell," he said. "Like that huge one outside Independence Hall. The Liberty Bell."
I threw the dress to the side and hit his arm. "Shut up."
"Seriously," he said. "you should be a bridesmaid so I can see you wear it in front of a ton of people."
I sighed and said, "Where'd Beth say she was going?"
He pointed off in the direction she'd come from earlier. "She went back over there to find your mom."
I stalked off to find her. As I rounded a corner, I smashed into someone. Unfortunately the horrendousness and hugeness of the dress hanging off of my arm was throwing off my sense of balance, so I toppled over backwards. I looked up to yell at whoever was standing before me. As I drew a breath and snapped my head up, I saw Dean staring down at me.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm getting married!" he said.
"Congratulations," I said flatly.
"Thanks. You know what's funny? You're holding the very drapes I'm going to get for the windows of the church where my wedding is going to be."
I tried to kick him in the shins but he jumped back too quickly. He grabbed my arms and hauled me to my feet.
"Thanks."
"Yup."
"So why are you really here?" I asked.
"I wanted to see you," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh," I said. "How did you know I was here?"
"I've been stalking you."
"Seriously."
"I went by your house and your brother told me that you were here," he answered.
"Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you come here?"
He looked down and shuffled his feet a little. "I wanted to see you. I already told you that. And I'm glad I came when I did or I might have missed seeing you holding a gigantic pink half of an hourglass."
I rolled my eyes. "You need to meet my friend John," I grumbled. "Actually he's over by the dressing rooms. You should go say hi."
He grinned. "I shall."
We walked past each other. I found Beth and the others looking at yet another rack of bridesmaids dresses. When Constance saw me, she started giggling uncontrollably. To cover it up, she tried to cough but she just ended up snorting really loudly in the process. I smirked. Yay for karma.
"Oh my gosh, I love this," Beth said. Natalya nodded in agreement. I looked down and sighed. It really did look like I was wearing the dress—there was no way I could hold the stupid thing without it covering my whole body.
"Great," I said. "Can you please take this now?"
"Could you at least pretend to be a little happy for me?" Beth asked with exasperation.
"I'm going to give you a completely honest answer: no," I said. Then I spun on my heel and went to put the dress into the dressing room. John and Dean snickered like fourth graders as I walked by. It took all my will power not to flip them off.
When I was done straightening out my skinny jeans and Blessthefall t-shirt, I walked back out and the three of us decided to leave before more dresses were forced on me.
We ended up back at John's. His house was generally pretty quiet since Nicole moved out. His mom was always locked away in her home-office. She was a pretty successful writer and she was always working to meet deadlines. You could tell when she was writing a good part or when she was really inspired because there would be smoke from her cigarettes drifting from under the door, poisoning the rest of the house. In addition to the cigarettes, she texted John or his dad every ten minutes to get her more coffee. She was the only woman I'd ever heard of that drank black coffee.
John's dad was a computer programmer which one could probably guess just by looking at him. He had short hair, thick black rimmed glasses, he was slightly overweight and he was on the shorter side. I never knew where John got his height from. His mom was even shorter than his dad, and yet John was a solid six one.
As we walked in and John threw his keys on the kitchen counter, his mom walked into the room. The stale stench of smoke saturated the room. She had large dark (almost black) bags under her eyes and her short blonde hair looked like a mess of straw atop her head.
People often looked at her and saw some tired old woman, but for some reason, when I looked at her I always thought she looked like she could be an actress, even with her smile lines and droopy eyes.
"Hi, Mrs. Cena," I said. "How's the latest novel?"
"It's coming along really nicely," she said with a smile. "I think you'll really enjoy this one."
She always let Phil and I have the first copy of her novels. I smiled back and said, "I'm sure I will."
"Where's dad?" John asked.
"In the basement playing videogames," she said, rolling her eyes. "Expect him not to come up until tomorrow or the next day."
She wasn't even joking. Sometimes I wondered if he even knew what day it was when he finally set down the controller to go to bed. Not to mention, John's parents bedroom was also in the basement where there was a grand total of one window that was always covered up by an old blanket, so he could literally go about 48 hours without ever seeing the light of day.
"This is Dean, by the way," John said.
"Hello, Dean," she said, shaking his hand. To all of us she said, "Well I'm going to run to the store. You need anything John?"
"Nah, I'm good," he answered.
Within five minutes after she left, we were rummaging through his kitchen for food. At John's, we always ended up eating dry cereal. This was due to the fact that his pantry consisted of one quarter cooking ingredients and three quarters cereal.
After two hours of channel surfing, go fish, monopoly, and eating, Dean said, "I think I should go."
"Are you sure, man?" John asked. "You're welcome to stay…"
"Thanks, but I think I'm just going to go."
"You need a ride somewhere?"
"Nah, it's fine."
We walked over to the front door with him to say goodbye. After closing the door behind him, John said, "So, what do you want to do?"
"Remember when you said you didn't like Dean?" I asked, ignoring his question. "And you just invited him to stay here two minutes ago."
He shoved my shoulder gently. "Shut up."
"I'm just saying…" I said.
He poked my side, making me flinch involuntarily. "Hush."
"You really hate being proved wrong, don't you?" I teased.
He poked me again. Then again. Then, so many times I ran up to his room for refuge, collapsing on his bed.
He shut the door after walking in. He laid down next to me. His blue eyes twinkled in the dark.
"Sweet dreams," he whispered as I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Shitty chapter, I know, but at least Dean made an appearance and cute seth/John moment at the end.
Ciara x