CHAPTER 7

"Surprise!" Liz jumped as her roommates and dearest friends surrounded her with smiles on their faces.

"Surprise what?" Liz was confused. She turned to Orlando and saw that he too was also smiling. He tweaked her nose and picked up the luggage that lay forgotten on the floor.

"I'll take these to your room." He kissed her cheek and left the room without another glance. Turning back to her friends she saw that they were all laughing at her. Brooke looked directly at Liz and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Have a good trip?" Liz just blushed while the other girls giggled some more.

"Yes, I had a wonderful trip…you guys still haven't told me what was going on yet." The girls all looked at her unbelievingly. Allie walked over to Liz and placed an arm around her shoulders. Leading her over to a table covered in finger foods and a beautifully decorated cake.

"Look around you, Liz," Allie said waving her arm across the room. Liz glanced around the living room and saw many of her friends sitting on the couch. There was a small table in the corner with a pile of wrapped boxes on it. Also, across the wall above the food table was a huge banner with Congratulations written in big bubble letters. Liz was still a little puzzled. Allie could tell by the expression on her friend's face that she still didn't know what was happening. "Liz…you're hopeless…this," she said waving her arm around once more, "is your bridal shower!" Liz's face lit up with delight.

"You guys are the best, but you didn't have to do this." Orlando walked back from the hall and across the room to his bride-to-be. He hugged Liz tightly.

"I guess I'll be leaving you now. Have fun." He turned to Liz's room mates, "Don't be to hard on her, keep the teasing to a minimum." Becky grinned slyly.

"You know we'll behave, Lando. We'll take good care of her." He look doubtfully at her then mumbled under his breath,

"That's what I'm afraid of." Orlando turned all of his attention back to Liz. "I'll call you later tonight. I love you." He kissed her softly and heard a chorus of "awwwws." He squeezed her hand and walked to the door. "Play nice girls." Orlando left the apartment and heard several spouts of laughter behind him. He shook his head feeling like he was leaving Liz with a pack of wolves.

Liz stood staring at the door that her fiancée had just walked through. It was the first time he had left her in to weeks and she felt empty. She took a deep breath trying to rid her thoughts. She should be able to function without him. Liz had always promised herself she would never turn into one of those sappy types of girls. She smiled to herself knowing that it was too late for her. She finally understood the meaning of the title: my better half.

"Don't worry Liz you'll see him again." She was drawn back to reality by her good friend Justine who had noticed the distressed look on Liz's face. Justine came up to her and gave her a hug. "Now you come over here and tell us about your vacation." Justine dragged Liz over to the couch and Liz commenced to tell the group of people about her trip. When she was finished Allie stood up.

"Let's get this party started." Allie began the party games. In all there were about 15 girls in attendance. Liz's three roommates: Allie, Becky, and Brooke; and many of Liz's other college friends. They laughed at the silly games and teased Liz mercilessly about her upcoming marriage and of course what a sentimental fool Orlando was. Liz just laughed along with everybody else taking the joking humorously. Soon it was time to eat, so all the girls indulged in the goodies and continued asking Liz about her upcoming wedding.

"Liz, did you and Lando finally set a date?" Becky asked curiously. Liz immediately started smiling.

"July 31." All three of Liz's room mate's eyeballs practically popped out of there heads and in unison they responded together with,

"Liz, that's in a month!" Liz smiled even bigger. This not being news to her.

"Exactly a month." Brooke walked over to her friend.

"Can you plan a wedding in a month?" Liz just sighed and looked at her friends. She knew they were just concerned for her, but Liz still felt slightly irritated at their doubt in her.

"Yes, I most certainly can." Liz said matter-of-factly. "Besides guys, we don't want anything extravagant. We want to keep the wedding on the down low so the press isn't all over us. Lando and I want it to be our day and we don't want to share it with the rest of the world. We only want our loved ones there. So, in retrospect the sooner we have it, the less likely the media will find out." They sat in silence until the phone rang, so Becky got up to answer it. Allie patted Liz's knee.

"We understand Liz. We all just want you to be happy."

"I will be." Allie was about to say something more, but Becky called from the kitchen,

"Allie phone!" So all she did was smile at Liz letting her know she understood. She got up and left the room while the rest of the girls started talking more about the wedding.

"Thanks, Becky," Allie said as she took the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey beautiful," Johnny said. Allie grinned.

"Hey," she said back. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. We're all fine here. How are you?" Allie was slightly puzzled as to why he answered the way he did, but she responded anyways.

"Doing great, now that I'm talking to you. We're in the middle of Liz's surprise bridal shower, though, so I can't talk for long," she said regretfully.

"Well, I was just calling to tell you that I'll be coming to visit in a week," Johnny said, and Allie could hear the grin in his voice. She grinned as well, and fought the urge to squeal.

"That's great! It will be great to see you. I've missed you," Allie said.

"I've missed you too, darlin'," Johnny said. Allie frowned as she finally realized what was wrong: Johnny's words were slurring together.

"Um, Johnny," she said cautiously, not wanting to upset him. "Have you been drinking recently?"

"No," Johnny said, sounding upset, and slightly tipsy, only proving Allie's point. She sighed, but before she could say anything, Johnny spoke up again. "Look, I've got to go. I'll see you next week." Without waiting for a reply, he hung up.

Allie slowly put the phone back in its cradle, fighting back tears. How many more times would this happen before he shaped up?

She walked back over to Liz and sat down. Liz, Brooke, and Becky all noticed that Allie didn't seem too happy.

"Is everything all right?" Brooke asked. Allie shook her head.

"No, not really." She looked over at Liz, and smiled. "But let's not talk about that now. This is supposed to be a happy time!"

After the cake had finally been cut and all the gifts unwrapped, all of the other girls slowly drifted back to their homes, promising to get together again with Liz soon. The four room mates cleaned their apartment in silence, not knowing how to deal with Allie's sudden sadness. Soon, Liz could take the quiet no more, so she turned to her friend.

"Allie, what's wrong?" she asked. Allie sighed as Liz walked them back to her bedroom. When they were in the privacy of the room, Allie continued.

"It's Johnny. He's been drinking again. And it sounds like a lot." Liz tried to keep from growing angry, but Allie had been begging Johnny to stop drinking for months. It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that Johnny continually promises to quit, but he also continually ceases to do so. Liz did not like liars and, even more, she didn't like seeing her roommate get hurt. She liked Johnny, he was a good friend and she didn't like seeing him wasted any more than Allie did. They went over and sat on the bed.

"I thought he was going to give up his alcohol?" Allie looked ahead with a blank stare on her face.

"That is what he keeps telling me." Allie shook her head still staring at nothing. "But I don't think he's trying very hard. I just don't know what I'm going to do about him." Allie looked at her friend for the first time in minutes. "Liz, I'm worried about him." Liz wrapped her arms around Allie's shoulder.

"I know you are." She pulled back so she could look at Allie, "I'll tell you what. I'll see what I can find out." Liz wiped away a stray tear from her best friend's cheek. "It will be ok. He'll see reason soon enough." Liz smiled trying to change the subject. "Will you do me a favor?" Allie looked questionably at Liz.

"What is it?"

"Be my maid-of-honor?" Allie grinned forgetting her previous gloominess.

"Liz, that's so sweet of you, of course I will be!" The two friends hugged.

"Allie, did you think I could choose anyone else? After all we've been through?" Allie was about to comment when Liz's cell phone rang.

"I guess I'll be leaving so you can take that call from Lando." Allie started for the door, but was stopped by Liz's hand on her shoulder. The phone rang a few more times and then stopped.

"I can talk to him later if you want to finish our conversation." Allie just shook her head.

"Nah…it's ok…we were done, right? I just want to say thanks for asking me to stand up in your wedding. I am honored. Besides, I saw the look in your eyes when that phone rang. Go talk to your man. He will be more interesting than I. It will make you happy and I don't want to get in between you two. Besides the second you thought of him, I lost ya." Allie opened the door and leaned against the frame. "Thanks for cheering me up, Liz. You really are my best friend. Now…go call him back. He'll be waiting for you." Having said this Allie walked back out to the kitchen to help Becky and Brooke finish cleaning.

After Allie left, Liz pulled her phone out of her purse and pressed the number two button (Orlando's speed dial.) He picked up on the first ring.

"Hello, my Princess." he answered. Liz beamed, being back home and talking to Americans for the past few hours caused his accent stuck out more to her than it had in his homeland. She giggled at her thoughts. "What is so funny?" Liz grew slightly red and was grateful he couldn't see her. She hated when she thought out loud. "And just what is so funny?" Orlando asked again. Liz decided she would share her random inner thoughts with him; something she had never done with anyone before. She was usually too embarrassed by them.

"Do you really want to know?" She heard a chuckle on the other end.

"If I didn't want to know I wouldn't have asked, Lizzy."

"Oh…right. Well….say 'mud' please." No reply. Maybe she shouldn't have told him her crazy thoughts.

"What?" She inwardly cursed herself.

"Say 'mud.'" She asked more timidly this time. Orlando was very confused, but did as she asked him. Immediately, Liz started giggling again. When she had calmed down he asked her,

"What was all that about?" Liz let out a long sigh.

"I was just thinking how lovely your accent was and how you could even make the word 'mud' sound pleasant. You know what?" Liz paused to give him a chance to think.

"What?"

"You do make it sound appealing." She began laughing again and he joined in.

"You are a silly girl." Liz let out a sigh of happiness this time.

"I know. I could listen to you talk forever though." Orlando just shook his head.

"And I you. That is why I call you, you know? Just to hear your voice." Liz rolled her eyes. Then remember that he couldn't see her.

"Is that really why you called? Or did you just want to find out about the party."

"Well, that too." So Liz told Orlando about all of the games they played, the endless teasing, and how all of her friends gave her gifts that were from the heart and not just the store.

"They knew we wouldn't lack for anything, so they wanted to give me things I would always remember and treasure. I was truly touched, Lando. I have such great friends." They continued talking about some of the more crazy happenings of the evening until Liz was about to fall asleep. Orlando spoke up concerned.

"I forgot how you're not used to flying. You must be very jet lagged. You should go to bed at once. I'm sorry for keeping you awake."

"It's alright. I am tired but I need to ask you one more thing." She took a deep breath, not knowing what his reaction would be. "What do you know about Johnny's drinking problem?" Orlando was silent while he gathered his thoughts. "Orlando?" It was so quiet Liz thought her phone had died.

"Yes, I'm still here. Just trying to organize what I want to say. Well, Liz, it is quite obvious that there is a problem, but I don't know much about it. I've been on him for years about it, though. He just tells me to 'shut-up' and he's got it taken care of.' Oh, and he continually reminds me that its 'none of my business.'" Orlando paused and Liz was silent as she waited for him to go on. "In all honestly I'm really worried about him. He seems to be getting worse as time goes on. He won't listen to reason. I just can't get through to him." Liz almost started crying for her room mate. It was just as she thought. He really had no intentions of stopping. To him the problem didn't exist. She held back a sob. "Sweetheart, are you ok?" Liz fought back the urge to yell, but it wasn't Orlando's fault that Johnny was a drunk.

"No. I'm not ok. Johnny's alcohol consumption is really hurting Allie. It kills her to see him destroying himself. It bothers me to see her in so much pain. I wish he would just listen to reason. But if he doesn't trust you, I don't know who he will trust." Orlando exhaled trying to hold in the sudden wave of rage that had hit him. Johnny's behavior was effecting them all. It was very selfish of him. Liz continued, "Well I guess all we can do is keep trying."

"You're right. But I don't know how effective we will be."

"Orlando, I can't give up. For Allie's sake."

After that he tried to draw the conversation back to happier topics so they wouldn't end on a bad note. Ten minutes later they had said their good nights and Liz was walking to the kitchen in a somewhat better mood. She saw Allie, Brooke, and Becky all sitting at the kitchen table drinking soda. All three girls looked up as Liz approached. Liz took the vacant seat in between Brooke and Becky. The former looked at her concerned.

"Liz. Why aren't you in bed? You must be exhausted from your trip. Flying from Europe is no short distance." Liz smiled at her room mates.

"Honestly, I'm about to crash but I had to ask you two something first." Liz said looking at the girls seated next to her. "I was going to ask earlier but I got side tracked. I already had a chance to talk to Allie but: Would you guys be willing to be bridesmaids?" Becky jumped up from her chair and started squealing.

"Of course we will!" Liz just smiled at her friends and stood up. Becky wrapped her in a tight hug as soon as Liz was at her full height. Liz hugged her and then stepped back.

"Well girls, it's been a long day. Thanks for the party. It was the best. But I have to go get some shut-eye before I pass out." At Liz's words Allie and Brooke stood up as well. Brooke stretched her arms and looked at the clock.

"Liz is right. We should all be heading to bed." They had an apartment hug and were soon all in their soft beds dreaming of tomorrow.