Designing Abigail Kilton's Dress - #2 The Impossible Dress

Chapter 11 - Boredom is the root of all evil

Boredom.

Kayleigh Moore sat there trying to remember how it felt. She could remember complaining about it. She could remember, very distinctly, a time when she was certain she would die of it, that she would explode if she spent another minute in that small village where nothing happened. And yet today, even though only a few weeks had passed from that time, she couldn't for the life of her remember what it felt like to be bored.

And she yearned for it. She needed it. Because she couldn't understand what was so wrong about it. She had been so convinced that boredom was the worst thing in the world. It was the root of an evil that was so underrated, so subtle, but so destructive. Being bored, was worse than being sad or angry. Kayleigh Moore had been sure of it. But that was before London. Before Paris. Before all her dreams were put into a motion that could not be stopped or even escaped.

Now, because Kayleigh hadn't had a moment of dullness, a minute of non-chaos, for so long, Kayleigh was beginning to think that boredom was just another word for peace. Bliss.

She studied the party she sat with at the chic, white marble table in the exclusive restaurant she would never be able to get into if she weren't with two young Kiltons and a supermodel, and frowned.

If she was bored, one of the nobodies waiting on them rather than sitting with them, she would have seen glamour, money, excitement. Now, the overwhelmed, unbored Kayleigh saw needless drama, secret feuds, and fake smiles.

She pressed her lips together to suppress the cynical laughter that bubbled in her throat as Abigail's hand covered Marcus's over the table, in plain view for everyone to see how inseparable they were.

Inseparable. Deliriously happy.

That was the theme of today's lunch.

Bored Kayleigh would have undoubtedly dubbed Abi's melodic laugh as an expression of joy. Her sweet countenance, a demonstration of her bridal glow. She would have called Marcus's restless eyes and stiff shoulders signs of protectiveness. Sure, the man looked like he was itching to leave, like he wanted to be anywhere else but there... probably back in his hotel room with his betrothed. Bored, unknowing Kayleigh would have put down Greta's and Victoria's unwavering attention to their boss, the constant phone calls, texting, emailing as a commitment to their duty. They were obviously people who worked hard, with love, passion and loyalty. Max's and Maxine's rod straight posture was a show of their effortless poise, and Chelsea's and Chloe's loud voices were surely an endorsement of their best friend's happiness.

But Kayleigh Moore was sitting at their table. She was not an outsider and she was not bored. The glamourous sheen that fooled everyone else did not work on her. She knew the meaning behind the groom's frown. She saw the bride's eyes were unsmiling. She felt the tension between the maid of honour and the bride's brother and wondered what the heck happened there. She saw the commitment of Abi's two leading ladies was towards finding a distraction, not towards their work, and that it was mere alcohol fuelling the two bridesmaids into near hysterics. No endorsement there. Kayleigh wondered if they even cared. Did they even notice that their best friend's eyes had been red before she 'flipped out' because the boys had crashed their girls' trip? That her mood had changed three times in the span of the one hour Kayleigh had seen her that day?

Probably not.

But Kayleigh saw through all the cracks she would have missed if she were bored, less knowing and she turned to her brother, who unsurprisingly saw none of it as he wallowed after what must have been a very intense argument with the girl who was more important to him than he realised.

Her phone pinged on the table and Leon jumped at the sound.

"Is it Rosie?"

Kayleigh sighed. Of course, it was Rosie. The poor girl was all alone in Southwold, missing all the action, feeling left out and bored, and instead of basking in the bliss of her non-chaotic afternoon, she was complaining about it to Kayleigh.