That same night, Courtney sat at her vanity and watched Jake get ready for bed in the corner of her eyes. It was silent. And not a comfortable silence...

Courtney considered asking him about his day. She got him to tell her he's been staying late at work helping his father with a big case. The rest was classified.

She understood. Client attorney confidentiality and all.

But what confused her were his eyes. She swore she saw a flash of something in his eyes. Was it anger? Disappointment? Did she do something wrong?

Her eyes widened a little. Of course... The wedding dress... She had been staring at him for an hour and never mentioned it to him.

She chewed her bottom lip. Ever since she was little, she always imagined trying on hundreds of wedding dresses with her friends by her side. It's how she imagined today would go.

Instead, she only tried on one dress. A dress she absolutely hated.

She internally shook her head. That wasn't fair. Perhaps Jake picked it out for a specific reason. Perhaps Jake liked lace.

"Hey," she said loud enough for Jake to hear.

He hummed back while not looking at her.

"That wedding dress you picked out-"

"It's nice isn't it," he said cutting her off. He smiled. "I took one look at it and knew you would love it." He then paused and turned towards her. "I mean, you do love it, right?"

Courtney gave him a tight smile. "Of course."

A few minutes later, she heard her phone ping beside her. She glanced down at her screen and sighed.

"Well, that sucks."

She jumped and whipped her head back. There was Jake. Reading her text over her shoulder.

"Yeah," she replied when her heart started beating at a normal rate again. She looked down at her feet. She really was going to go through this wedding alone. Is this a sign?

Jake let out a sad sigh. "I should've guessed. She's not the most... trustworthy." He gently rubbed her shoulders. "You know what? You should invite Bridgette."

Her head snapped over to him. Her eyebrows furrowed.

He looked over at her and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I... I thought you didn't like Bridgette..."

"What would make you say that?"

Courtney swallowed. "You didn't invite her to our engagement party."

Jake's eyes widened. "Courtney... I only didn't because I thought you would." He held her hand gently and rubbed over her engagement ring. "When only Ashley showed up, I figured that it was because she was the one you wanted to be in the wedding party."

She could feel herself becoming small. Why did she always have to assume the worst in him? Of course, he cares about my feelings. He asked me to marry him after all.

And with that, she allowed him to pull her towards the bed.

Bridgette lay in her bed trying to process what she just heard in the living room. The walls were thin. She could hear everything.

"It is good that she's engaged. It just should be with someone who deserves her."

"Like you?"

"Definitely not."

Ever since the third season, she always assumed that Duncan didn't care about Courtney anymore. It wasn't without reason. He did emotionally manipulate her for fun and then left her in shambles without regret.

Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me mad...

Was she being too hard on Duncan? It had been years since that whole thing happened, and she'd like to think that Geoff and DJ wouldn't keep hanging out with him if he was still that horrible. They were Courtney's friends after all. Hell, at one point, both boys ignored Duncan in solidarity for Courtney. Geoff and DJ must've seen some change in him.

Bridgette never did. Every time she saw Duncan, all she could remember was Courtney's spiral. She went from being excited that she got back together with Duncan to crying under her covers for hours. It was the first and only time she saw Courtney crack.

This was probably the first time she's heard Duncan speak in a while. Knowing that Duncan remembered facts about Courtney and cared about her wellbeing was... confusing.

But was it really?

She watched the fifth season. She saw the way he looked at Courtney. She heard the things he said about her. At the time, she figured he was just being selfish since Courtney wasn't into him anymore. Now, she wasn't so sure.

"Maybe I should give him a chance," she mumbled to herself.

Eh. She'll sleep on it.

The next day, Courtney sat at her desk bored out of her mind. She didn't know why she agreed to work for her parents over the summer. They always told her she couldn't do anything useful until she went to law school. So, for now, she was a glorified secretary.

She snorted. A glorified secretary without pay. That can't be legal...

She never liked the law firm. Corporation law was never in her interest.

She was always into criminal law. When she dated Duncan, she was always fascinated to learn about what happens in the background. What the public defenders don't get to see.

She shook her head. Why am I even thinking about him?

Then, she remembered the skull she put in her purse.

She looked around. Nobody cared what she was doing. They were all too busy billing their clients. Hell, her parents just billed their client on a business trip.

She gently took out the skull and put it in the palm of her hand.

She had good intentions for taking the skull with her. After last night, she decided it was time to get rid of the skull. So she packed it in her purse intending to dump it in a random trashcan.

...And she couldn't bring herself to do it. Why couldn't I do it?

She didn't want to think anymore. She needed a drink.

She stood up and walked out the door. Nobody blinked as the door slammed shut.

Duncan stifled a yawn as he walked back to his car. It had been a long night for him. Add in two lectures, and Duncan was ready to head to bed.

Last night, his head was plagued with thoughts. He always assumed that Courtney was doing great with her life, but based on what Bridgette said, Courtney sounded... different. He always admired her for her fiery attitude but that fire was now extinguished.

He dropped his head down. Maybe he had hoped after some time everything would work out on its own.

Before he could form any more thoughts, he bumped into something hard.

"Hey," the guy said while glaring at him. "Watch it."

Duncan gave him a sheepish smile and mumbled a "sorry" back.

The guy rolled his eyes before putting his phone back to his ear. "Sorry, babe. There was this stupid punk in my way."

Punk, huh? Haven't heard that in a while...

Once he finally reached the car, his thoughts strayed back to Courtney. He frowned. How the hell did she manage to date a guy that not even DJ and Geoff approved of?

He started up his engine. Sleep could wait. He needed to figure out what the hell was going on.

Bridgette hummed along to her Spotify playlist as she continued to paint the bathroom walls. It was one of the rare occasions when Geoff was scheduled to work, and Bridgette had the day off.

As much as she loved Geoff and how helpful he was, he was rubbish at painting. She sadly looked over at the stained sink. How he managed to paint inside of the sink, she would never know.

A knock on the door broke her from her thoughts. Carefully, she placed her brush down and headed towards the door.

She didn't know what she was expecting when she opened her door, but she wasn't expecting Courtney. And she definitely wasn't expecting her to come with bottles of wine.

Courtney thrust one bottle into Bridgette's chest. "Ashley quit so you're the new maid of honor. Congrats!"

Before Bridgette could respond, Courtney walked in and laid her stuff on the kitchen counter. Bridgette quickly followed. "Wait a minute, how-"

"Ashley quit, and Jake thought it would be a great idea if you did it instead."

"Wait, slow down," said Bridgette while placing the wine bottle with the five others. "Why aren't you at work?"

Courtney didn't answer right away and instead, focused on searching for a corkscrew. She smiled when she successfully found one and went to work on one of the bottles. "Why would I waste my time not getting paid when I can drink instead?" Once she successfully got the cork out, she took a long drink straight from the bottle.

"Yeah, but seven bottles?"

Courtney shrugged back. "I'm stressed. I am planning a wedding after all. And my maid of honor just left me." She continued to not look at Bridgette and still rummaged through her purse before dropping something on the table. "And I was carrying this all day."

Bridgette's eyes widened. No fucking way. "Is that..." She looked up at Courtney, but Courtney still refused to look back at her. "I didn't even know you kept this thing." She refused to pick it up. It was still as creepy as she remembered.

Courtney took another long drink of her wine bottle before setting it down on the table. "It always stayed in the back area of my closet so that I would never see it but yeah... I just..." She paused. "I always figured I kept it to remind myself to not fuck up the next relationship I'm in but like..." She pointed at the ring on her finger.

"Yeah," said Bridgette with an eye roll. "Can't really ignore that stupidly big rock."

"Anyway," said Courtney ignoring Bridgette's comment. "You'll be my maid of honor, right?"

Bridgette shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "I don't think your fiance would approve of that."

"He's the one who suggested it."

Bridgette sighed before reaching over to uncork another one of the wine bottles and taking a long sip. She knew that Jake didn't like her. She saw the way Jake's eyes darkened when she hung around Courtney. She noticed that Courtney had been canceling their plans together lately and didn't text her as much as she did.

What is he playing here?

"Please," Courtney pleaded in a soft voice. "Don't make me get married alone."

"You don't have to marry him. You know that, right?"

"Yes, I do."

"But why?"

Courtney took a deep breath in. Because I don't want to be alone. "Because I love him."

"...Fine," Bridgette said reluctantly.

Courtney smiled. "Thank you." She finished the last of her wine bottle before working on opening a new one. "By the way, Jake texted me this morning that he picked out your dress. You have to go tomorrow to get it fitted."

Bridgette groaned. She was already regretting this.