Chapter Five – Anticipation as Usual
-Jared Howe-
I was mostly looking forward to this evening, and I couldn't take my eyes off of the window. Leaning against the railing in the balcony, I gazed at the clear blue sky, intently watching the clouds slowly pass by. One thing I noticed was that the sun was gradually falling, and that dusk was coming. That only made me more anxious than I already was now. It has only been two weeks ago, more or less, when I was just enlightening the big news to Mel. And everything was mentioned; the whole engagement, the short time before the wedding, and Bell and I leaving for the betterment of the business and our future. Though it felt strangely…off-balanced.
I have gotten everything out of my chest especially since I didn't like keeping secrets from Mel. She had always been great at spotting liars but I knew I could outrank her there, my lies always seemed believable. And I didn't like taking advantage of that and going against my very best friend. But she has been wonderful; supporting this event more than anyone has ever had, even though I could sense her discomfort talking about dresses, make-up, cakes and regular girl stuff that she normally would have avoided. But tonight holds the preparation for tomorrow's big event which marks the beginning of my life with Bell…something I had not seen earlier this month. Who would've thought that this would be the end…that Bell would really be my wife? Huh.
The thought of leaving my oldest friend of nearly twelve years when we would barely separate in the earlier years was unbearable. I couldn't help but speedily scan for compatible bachelors in my head, just someone who could take care of my Mel. She wouldn't appreciate me pairing her up with some random guy but at least it would take her mind off of things. Because this was what we were, we took care of each other. Even in the strangest of ways.
I silently laughed at myself to that; I sounded somewhat protective, like a father, or an older brother…but even without the parental supervision, she's always been there for me. And it does seem pretty unfair that I would be leaving her.
A pair of arms snaked up from behind me, crossing it by my chest. I felt a light connection of lips with the nape of my neck, slightly making me shiver. I turned around, loosely gripped those hands, placed it on the sides and gently placed my lips into hers.
Bell stepped back, a smirk on her face. I couldn't even believe I would marry her tomorrow, things were moving fast but I guess I couldn't blame her for the rush. It has been six years since we started dating; I figured she ran out of patience.
"Ready to go?" She said, removing her hands around my waist.
"Uh, yeah, sure." I smiled half-heartedly, planting another kiss on her cheek.
Bell and I headed out of our apartment in a hurry. The night was fast looming, traces of the sun barely seen. We would have to at least arrive at the restaurant earlier than the guests, and I wouldn't want a tantrum thrown by Bell if we showed our faces in complete humiliation.
We got to the open lot and near to my car; I unlocked the passenger's door for Bell and escorted her into her seat. Jogging back to the driver's side, an ambulance came rushing towards the hospital's direction with its siren active. A fire truck, a police car and another ambulance went to the other direction, like it was going back to the site to save more victims…or capture the suspects, whichever.
A feeling of sympathy flooded me; It wasn't the best sight to see people hurt, and I didn't like seeing people fall short and blame themselves for it either. Whenever Mel or Bell failed at work, I wouldn't be able to resist and I would always believe that I should do something to lighten their spirits. They would be beating themselves up about it and the effect took longer on Mel. She would shut everyone out, stay silent and would generally be more self-loathing than anything else. There's nothing worse than a grieving Mel rather than an angry one, it was hard to watch.
"Jared?" A sharp tone of voice came from inside the car and broke my reverie. My hand was holding the hood of the car with one foot stepped inside and the other down on the ground. I was motionless and my eyes were fixed on the path where the ambulance had fled to, still feeling awful for the people involved in the accident.
"Okay, you planning to stand there all night and ignore me? Let's go!" Her tantrum was starting and it would be hell to unleash Bell's usual wrath now, I had no time and mood to deal with that so I just hurried and went inside the car.
"Sorry…" Turning the key into the ignition, I could basically hear Bell roll her eyes as she fixed her make-up in the mirror. I shook my head and headed towards the parking exit.
On our way to the restaurant, we passed by a car crash spot. I slowed down to observe and have a better view of the mess. Smoke was rising from a taxi cab with its hood brokenly open. Its flat tires were damaged pretty badly and oil was spilling out from under the vehicle. The car that the cab must've hit was wrecked around in all sides. The whole vehicle was upturned, and I wasn't sure where the driver was. The second ambulance that came together with the truck and police car had the same label of hospital as of the previous one that I saw a while back. It was also Bell and Mel's hospital; Scripps Mercy.
The medics were slowly retrieving the cab driver's body out of the scenario, his looks were injured, not to serious wounds but enough blows to make the guy unconscious. But the driver of the upside-down car still wasn't present. The firemen were taking out the slight fire that the crash had made, while the police spoke to few bystanders that must've witnessed the accident.
Bell suddenly scoffed beside me.
"Seriously, Jared? You do this every time. This isn't our business, and I'm off duty so I don't want to think about people in pain or whatever just yet. Just read it in the paper tomorrow or something." She dismissed it with a wave of her hand and I hadn't realized that my hand was gripping the steering wheel this whole time.
"Jesus, Bell. You think you could show a little sympathy about this whole thing." Bell was weakly getting on my nerves now, and my words seemed to have come out on their own. She looked at me in disbelief with her mouth slightly open and her mascara in her hands.
"I'm going to let that slip, since it's a very special night we're attending right now. I don't want to ruin our own rehearsal dinner. Okay?" She gritted her teeth and said her words through them, clearly restraining her surfacing anger. I gave her a fake smile and drove on without another word.
We finally arrived at my restaurant and all was set. Bell was still somewhat pissed at me but I didn't mind the extra time off from her. The guests started coming in coincidental timing, and exactly at nine at that. Bell enthusiastically greeted them and led them to their tables while I simply exchanged short compliments. It was strange since I barely knew these people; it was probably a bad idea to just let Bell handle everything without a say from me.
A guy could only fake niceness so much so I eventually resorted to hiding. I found a suitable spot in the back of the restaurant and leaned against the wall, scanning the room for any sign of Mel, but I guess she was running a little late. The door opened and in came a teenager and a middle-aged man.
"Finally, people I know!" I practically sprang from the wall and ran towards the entrance where Jamie and Jeb were waiting.
"Jared!" Jamie almost screamed; my arms were around him at once and he chuckled. "It's been a while, huh?"
"Too long, my little friend." I patted his back and faced Jeb. "Hey, Jeb. It's nice to see you again."
"Same here, Jared. Congratulations on all of this! Mel hasn't mentioned that you were getting married soon." He looked at me with those wise eyes and knew something was up and even with my great lying skills, I couldn't outrun the master.
"Well…It was, uhm. Spontaneous." I placed my hands inside my pockets like I always did when I was nervous and it only resulted to Jeb laughing.
"So, Uhh..." I hesitated on asking my question; and I caught both of their attention.
"Where's Mel?" I was stunned because we all asked it in unison. Jamie silently laughed, and Jeb's lips were twitching into a smile. But I had to opposite reaction; they didn't exactly witness a clean-up of a car crash a while back…A car that, come to think of it, looked like…No, of course not.
"We thought she'd be here by now. I haven't seen her in years. I… I kinda miss her." Jamie admitted, his hand on the back on his head.
"Well, I was hoping she'd be with you guys since she didn't come here early. She always comes ahead of time…" My voice faintly shook, although I hated to say it, or even think it; I was afraid now.
"Did you call her?" Jeb asked, his forehead was creased and I could tell he was worried now too.
"No, I was busy. Bell was actually—"
"A pain in the ass?" Jamie finished for me and Jeb smacked the back of his head. "Ow. What?"
"…in a hurry." I couldn't help but smile at this kid's lightheartedness. Although that would do too.
"Well anyway, I tried calling her on the way here, but there was no answer so I assumed she was still at the hospital." Jamie shrugged, and I frantically shook my head.
"No, no. She got off on an early shift, I made sure to that." The panic was building up inside me again.
"Then maybe an emergency? Maybe she got paged and had to go back to the hospital." Jeb coolly suggested, probably soothing me.
I was supposed to say that that couldn't happen, because then she would call us and inform us that she wouldn't be able to come, but I didn't want to be a pessimist, so I just went with that.
"Yeah, maybe."
"Jared, sweetie." Bell's voice came from behind me, her flirtatious tone back once again. I knew she only acted that way as there were guests involved, and the girl knew how to be plastic. She wasn't that adoring to me back at the car. She smiled at Jeb and Jamie and they waved, she leaned in to whisper something to me and I thought I heard Jamie say something like "Here comes the ice queen" under his breath. I grinned at him and struggled not to laugh.
"People are waiting in the front and you aren't there!" Her hand was on my shoulder and she was pressing it firmly, almost badgering me to the floor. "Get your ass over there, introduce yourself nicely and say your toast." Her killer-grip loosened and I automatically grabbed her wrists and faced her, careful for Jamie and Jeb not to hear.
"There's no need to be stressed out, Bell." I could hardly contain my anger. "This is our rehearsal dinner. Just…ease up a little bit, why don't you?" I looked her in the eye and she merely stared back, yanking her wrists away and walking out. I turned around to see Jamie and Jeb still there, trying too hard to pretend like they didn't just hear what we were talking about. I shook my head at their behavior and I couldn't help but laugh at them anyway.
"Bridezilla's calling, fellas. I'll talk to you guys soon." They nodded and headed to their assigned tables.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Bell's perky and dimly infuriating voice echoed throughout the room from the speakers and tapped the glass in her hand with a fork. "My fiancé, Jared, would now like to say something."
I took a deep breath and promised myself I'd make this quick. I started toward the stage wherein Bell was standing and reached over to take the microphone.
"Good evening. Uhh, I would just like to thank everyone for attending the dinner tonight; hope you all are having a pleasant time. Oh, I'm Jared Howe by the way." They all unexpectedly laughed even if I wasn't joking. I was really just introducing myself to them since I didn't know them except Jamie and Jeb. I played along anyway so I wouldn't be embarrassed and give Bell more reasons to kill me tonight.
"Ha-ha…" I nervously laughed, not sure what to say now. "Anyway, you all know Isobel Dylan here, the uh…love of my life." I stretched my hand out to Bell who was behind me and she steadily grabbed it. She beamed at her audience but then threw me a stink-eye.
"Tomorrow noon, this gorgeous lady right here will be my own and official lovely bride and—" Hoping that I would be able to sweet talk her out of her annoyance, I stopped when Jeb abruptly stood from his table, his cell phone pressed to his ear. He was headed through the door and his face got my attention the most. He never wore that anxious, troubled expression except this one time at sophomore year when Jamie was reported missing, but was a false alarm.
"Uhh…and I can't wait to get married to this woman since I love her so much. Enjoy your night." My words came out quick and jumbled since I was now myself worried. I jumped off the stage to chase after Jeb who was now standing outside, his back on the glass door.
"Damn it, Jared! Get back here!" I heard Bell harshly shout yet whisper at the same time so the others wouldn't hear too much. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jamie half-standing, hesitant if he should go after Jeb too.
I opened the front door and Jeb was pacing back and forth, still talking on the phone.
"…was the bastard who hit her?!" Jeb was on top of his lungs, and he chucked his free arm in the air.
"What…?" I barely heard him because he was whispering now. The anger that was visible a second ago was washed away and was replaced by sadness. This only made me more restless, and anticipating what was happening seemed only worse.
"Jeb…" I tried starting when he shut his phone and fixed his stare at the floor.
"Hey, what's going on? Is everything all right?" Jamie came through the front door and stood between Jeb and I. "Hello?" His was panicking now too, since neither the two of us would answer him.
"What the hell is wrong with you Jared?! Why are you acting this way? You are ruining this night for me! Do you know how humiliating that was…?" Bell dashed through the door as well, but trailed off. She must've sensed the silence and shut her mouth, finally.
"I-it's Melanie…" Jeb whispered, and I wasn't sure if I heard him right. But all I could think of was the crash site earlier. The upside down car that was damaged in all sides. The car that had too much resemblance to Melanie's car. All I could think of was Melanie.
And I eventually ran.