Stay Gold

eighteen

"I haven't got a present or anything-"

"You don't need to bring anything..." Phoebe trailed off and looked to Rachel for guidance, about what they needed for the party because there was bound to be something that they had forgotten.

"Except for balloons." Rachel quickly added, knowing that most of the things that they needed for the event, they didn't have and it made me wonder what they had actually planned because it sounded like nothing. "We have no balloons."

"You want me to bring balloons? Why couldn't you tell me earlier that this was happening. It's not like you threw me a bridal party."

Rachel didn't seem happy with my comments and folded her arms across his chest. "It's not like you gave us the chance to, Heather, you told us you were getting married on the day of your wedding. What were we supposed to do?"

"Okay, fine, I'll get the balloons but I'll have to bring Charlotte with me." I replied, unhappy that her answer was valid and it was my own fault that I didn't have a shower but I was in a better mood thinking about when my friends would throw me a baby shower closer to my due-date.

"Good, oh and can you pick up some napkins? I think I forgot those too."

~•~

So, instead of listening to Melissa's request of staying in the apartment all day, Charlotte went on a fieldtrip around the city as we went shopping for the things that were needed for this bridal shower to actually work. We picked up napkins first, in a pale colour because I thought that would be something that Monica would find tasteful and then we bought a couple of balloons that we could put around the apartment to make it seem more like a party. The shower was being held at Phoebe's apartment, which wasn't too far away from our building and I was hoping that if I left with half an hour to spare then Melissa would never know that we left the apartment and would think that we had followed all of her rules. The best part about Charlotte being so little was that she had no way to accidentally tell her parents where she had been, if she had been a toddler then this would have been a different story and I probably would have refused the invitation, because they blabber any secret to their parents and I wasn't ready to be scolded by Melissa.

Phoebe goes around the room with a food platter, offering it to the guests that were dotted around the room before coming over to the snack bar where Rachel and I were stood. "Hey Rach, who the hell are all these people?"

"I was about to ask the same thing; I don't recognise any of them." I added, checking behind me to make sure that I definitely didn't know them and sure enough, they were all strangers to me.

"Well, to be honest, I don't know." She explained, being honest about the lack of planning that she had done. "I called all the people in Monica's phone book and these are the only ones that could show up on twenty-four hours' notice."

"You gave them twenty-four hours? You told me an hour ago."

"You know, there's another word for people like this." Phoebe lowered her voice so that none of them could hear her. "Losers."

An Asian woman in a fancy suit steps forward to graze at the snack bar and Rachel decides that this is the best time to do some small-talk to find out who this woman was. "Hi, I'm Rachel, this is Phoebe and Heather. I'm the Maid of Honour. How do you know Monica?"

"I was her accountant four years ago." She replied, making us feel slightly uncomfortable with this information because ex-accountants probably weren't usually on the list for a Bridal Shower. "I'm very interested to find out who's been doing her taxes the last four years."

"That's great."

"So, what time is Monica supposed to get here?"

"I don't know." Rachel and Phoebe said at the same time, catching each other's eyes and looking worried with that sentence. I was worried too and quickly dismissed us from the conversation.

"Excuse us for a moment." We moved closer to the kitchen so that the other guests couldn't hear us. "Neither of you asked her to come?"

"Rachel was supposed to tell her."

"No, I wasn't, you were supposed to tell her." Rachel snapped before thinking back and realising that there was something else, she needed to do. "And I was supposed to bring the cake."

Phoebe rolled her eyes, grabbing her purse. "Fine, I'll call her."

"Yes, and please tell her to bring a cake." Rachel called after her as I walked away and went to check on Charlotte, who was taking a nap in the bedroom.

A little while later and there was a knock on the door, the only person it could be was Monica and we told the other women to hide so that they could surprise her when she thought her Bridal Shower had been ruined. I grabbed a now awake Charlotte and hid just behind the open bedroom door, hearing everything. "Girls, it's Monica. I wonder what you could possibly need me for, in such short notice." She pushes the door open really excitedly but stops when she sees the two of them on the couch.

"Oh, Monica, we are so sorry." Rachel stood up slowly, looking as guilty as possible.

"For what?" Monica questioned, not understanding what was happening.

"Well, first for forgetting to throw you a bridal shower."

Phoebe nodded and then spoke. "And then, for forgetting to invite you to it."

"You already had it?"

"Yeah, well, we called everyone in your phone book and a bunch of people came but it took us so long to get you here, that they had to leave." Phoebe explained, making it sound as convincing as possible which it did.

"Yeah, we wanted to throw you a big surprise and a great shower and now you don't have either."

Phoebe sounded really convincing and I was impressed. "We ruined everything."

"No, wait a minute, that's not true." Monica tried to make them feel better. "No, what you did was really sweet. And it kind of works out for the best."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"Now, I get to spend my shower with the only people that I really love. I mean, I get all those presents without having to talk to a bunch of people I don't even like."

Slowly, all of the women come out of their hiding spots to surprise the bride but it wasn't as cheerful as we thought it would be because she had just announced that she didn't like any of them. I moved Charlotte onto my hip and forced a smile on my face, feeling awkward about this whole situation. "Surprise, Monica."

a/n: it's almost time for the big wedding & don't worry, the baby is on the way!😆 doing uni work from home is really hard because i can never focus but it means that i have spare time in the evenings to write more chapters & i've almost written all of the season eight chapters now 💁🏼‍♀️ -lizzie ⭐️

date published: 10/02/21