Chase You

37; time changes people

"I'm savouring the food. Let me be." He rolled his eyes and swatted my hand away that was on his knee.

"I can't believe the wedding is so soon!" Karen grinned from beside me, eyes darting to Wendy and Tasha.

They're lips turned upwards simultaneously. They nodded vigorously and Wendy spoke up. "I know! I hope all that prep will be worthwhile for us and the guests."

"I think for anyone with a flower fetish, it'll be worth their time indeed." Tasha commented sarcastically. Wendy gently hit her arm and looked sideways to Casey and Harry.

Dad burst out in laughter, and then I did and finally Ben cracked his cool facade.

"We did go a little overboard with that, but I couldn't help It! It makes everything so much more beautiful don't you think?"

"Of course." Karen said.

"It better look nice. It took me so long to make the decisions on the different colours of the flowers!" I exhausted. While helping out with the preparations nearly every day, I was mostly dealing with the flowers since it was a challenging task and nobody else wanted to take it up.

"Oh honey, it will. Your decisions were definitely the best." Tasha said, smiling at me.

I smiled back, and then reached to the side to grab Ben's wine glass. I swirled the red liquid around, all the while training my eyes on Ben with a devilish smirk.

"Hey stop it, I gave you one glass already. No more."

"Shhh.." I rolled my eyes. "It's not a big deal, you obviously don't know how much I drank at uni when I was on the fluro- fluro..." I struggled trying to remember the name. "-The other medication I was on."

I looked to dad, who looked too enthused into a new conversation that had sparked up between Wendy and Karen to even notice the two of us bickering. I took a rather long sip of the wine, feeling the slickness of it wash down my throat. Ben just glared at me, but he didn't snatch the glass from me or anything, he wasn't my mother.

He sighed defeatedly and rested his arm on the back rear of my chair once I took another sip. After that, I put the glass down, not really craving another sip anyways.

"Oh Casey!" Wendy suddenly burst out, flailing her arms crazily and almost whacking her fiancee in the face. "Your dress! I've got it back from the tailor's. You finally get to see it!"

"REALLY?" she gasped, standing up. "Can I see it now?"

"No, sweetie, eat up first." Karen said calmly, waving her hand up and down to get her to sit down again.

"Mum.. come on, I really want to see it!" Casey whined.

"As do I, but eat first."

Casey sighed, crossing her arms over her chest moodily. Being a teenager, Casey was unpredictable, but seeing her in a mood was rare. She wasn't a typical teenager, she never argued back, or snuck some alcohol from the cabinet, or went out to parties. When she was in a mood, it meant things were serious.

"Case." I muttered quietly, "You'll see it soon. Karen knows you won't eat after seeing the dress because of the excitement."

She rolled her eyes. That bit-

"Flynn's right. Just eat quickly, we'll show it to you when you're done." Ben said lowly, winking after.

She sighed, and picked up her fork, stuffing food into her mouth as she was doing before. I mimicked her until I felt a sharp elbow at my side, making me nearly choke.