"You're abducting my fiancée", Garry complained, as Cassie slung a bag over her shoulder.
"Abducting is not the right word", Loren corrected. "We're simply… taking her. You can't see the bride the night before the wedding, its bad luck. You don't want bad luck".
"We've had a fair share of bad luck, mate, I think we'll be right".
"Nope!" Cassie put her foot down. "Say goodbye to your fiancée, Gaz, she's coming with us".
"Help me!" Bec called, laughing, as Charley and Guy came into the kitchen of the boarding house.
"We're under strict instructions not to intervene", Adam said solemnly. "Cassie was actually really mean about it, so we're staying out of it".
Cassie grinned innocently. "Get in the car, Bec".
She pressed her lips against Garry's (ignoring the childish squeals the kids emitted), a grin on her face. "I'll see you tomorrow".
"You got your half of the speech?" Charley checked with Bridget, and she patted her pocket.
"I'm all set. Let's do this!"
"Come on, we've got a wedding to attend!" Loren called, as they piled into Bec's car (something that had been a treat to ride in, when they were students. The van was their main mode of transport).
The ride to the motel was short, and they spent the time reminiscing over memories made in the Solar Blue van.
They remembered the times where they would drop their school bags before piling in to drive to a new beach for the afternoon. Salt water and sand dripping off their shorts as they made the return trip from a competition. Pressing towels against the windows to try and get some sleep in on the way home. The never ending arguments Bridget and Guy had, ranging from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the logistics of eating cereal on the moon (more often than not they fought until they forgot the original point of their argument).
They spent Bec's last night as a single woman eating pizza and ice cream ("there's nothing wrong with indulging, it's your wedding tomorrow!" Loren had reasoned. "Lozzy, thanks, but I need to fit into my wedding dress", Bec had counteracted, before licking her spoon clean of Bulla cookies and cream), watching Gossip Girl and laughing over everything that they had undergone as a group. Bec told the stories from her own year as a Solar Blue student (stories that the three girls had memorized) and new stories, from the intakes in the years after their class of 2008.
They fell asleep earlier than expected, the quiet murmurs of a forgotten game of 'truth or dare' lulling them to sleep.
It was the perfect night.
Bridget was the first to stir in the morning, glancing at the clock and almost rolling off the bed.
"Hey, get up! Get dressed! We've got a wedding to go to!"
Cassie leapt off the bed, before yanking the blankets off Bec. "Let's move! You're getting married today!"
Bec put a pillow over her head, mumbling into it. "I'm getting married today".
"Hun, that's a good thing", Cassie soothed (Garry would never forgive them if they allowed his fiancée to do the runner). "Look, it's a beautiful day and you're going to get married and look absolutely gorgeous and the two of you are going to live happily ever after".
Bec chuckled, before rolling off the bed, her stomach churning with nerves. "I'm going to have a shower".
"You look gorgeous!" Bec squealed, as she came out of the bathroom, her hair and makeup done to absolute perfection.
"Says the woman wearing a wedding gown!" Bridget laughed "you look absolutely stunning!"
"You're a fine one to talk; you're a far cry from the bikinis and board shorts you lived in when you were with us!"
Loren grinned appreciatively, as she spun Bec around to zip up the back of her dress. "You look amazing, Bec, really, really gorgeous".
"Look out Gaz!" Cassie laughed, as her phone buzzed on the table. "I swear if that's Adam, I'm going to throw it out the window".
"Aw, Cass, Garry's nervous and he's taking it out on the boys", Loren reasoned. "I mean, we took our nerves out on them enough times, I think it's his time to pay us back".
"No, that's not it. He's trying to convince me to allow them to put Charley in the tie they bought him at the beginning of the year". She rolled her eyes. "I am firmly against it, because that thing doesn't deserve the right to be seen in public, let alone at a wedding, and apparently they have an issue with that".
Bec started to giggle. "I remember that tie!"
(Guy had pinned Charley to the floor of the pool room, while Adam managed to tie the tie around his neck, Garry and the girls looking along in amusement. Once they had hard photographic evidence of the tie on the boy, they allowed him to take it off, which Charley was quick to do.)
"Everyone remembers that tie", Cassie confirmed. "The point of this story is, I said they weren't allowed to pin him down and make him wear the tie, we can do that for his own wedding".
"Thank you, Miss Cometti". Bec grinned at her. "Glad to see someone's got our backs".
"Yes I do". Cassie saluted them, making Bridget and Loren explode into laughter. "Come on, the car will be here any minute!"
"I think Garry was joking when he suggested we take the van", Loren mused, "But something tells me that he was a teeny bit serious".
"He was deadly serious", Bec nodded, as the girls retrieved their bouquet (pink frangipanis, to match the ones in their hair). "I mean, I went to the formal in that thing, you guys went to the formal in that thing… we'll save it for Charley's wedding, hey Cass?"