Chapter 24
I wake up the next morning and check my phone, not seeing any new messages. I guess nobody replied back to Aidens 'haha' and decided to go to sleep instead.
Getting out of bed to go downstairs and eat breakfast, my phone dings. I grab it and see it's a text from Aiden, it reads:
You're going with James and I to a wedding at three o' clock
I scoff and quickly type a reply,
I am? What if I have plans already
He answers back almost instantly,
Well do you?
I sigh, knowing I don't have plans and that he just won.
No
Cool. I'll pick you up at two thirty
I read the message and toss my phone on my bed.
I'm going to a wedding? What if I don't want to go? Why does he want me to go with him? I don't even know the people getting married! What will I even wear?
My outfit! I need fancy clothes.
An idea pops into my head. I need fashion advice and there's nobody better than my best friend.
I shoot Emery a message and tell her to come over asap. Within seconds she replies saying she's on her way.
Smiling at my super reliable best friend, I go downstairs to grab a banana for breakfast.
Alex is eating a bowl of cereal and the twins are in the living room playing with dolls.
My grandma comes in and goes to the refrigerator, "Audrey, can you help me clean out the sunroom later? It's just a few boxes I want to go through."
I shake my head, "I'm sorry grandma. I'm going to a wedding at three." I tell her and take a bite of my banana.
She turns around with the bowl of leftover macaroni and cheese, "Who's getting married?"
I shrug, "No idea."
She just nods with an amused look, "Oh. Well have fun."
She puts the bowl of macaroni in the microwave, "Are you doing anything today?" She turns to face Alex and he shakes his head, putting a spoonful of froot loops into his mouth.
"Great! Then you can help me." She says with a smile and he nods, "Okay."
She takes the bowl and goes to watch the twins play while she eats. I throw my banana peel in the garbage can and smile, "What kind of key opens a banana?"
I turn around to look at Alex and he's shaking his head because he knows it's another one of my terrible but hilarious jokes I read on pintrest, "I don't know."
I grin really big before answering, "Monkey."
He starts laughing and shakes his head, "Your jokes are so bad."
"I know." I laugh and run upstairs.
Searching through my closet to find something, I realize I literally have nothing to wear.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings and I jump up and run downstairs knowing it's Emery here to save me from going to a wedding in blue jeans and converse.
"Thank goodness you're here." I say when I open the door and see my gorgeous best friend standing there.
"You called. I'm assuming it has something to do with the wedding?" She grins and steps inside.
"James asked you?"
Her smile widens, "Yep!" She squeals, "He called me this morning!"
"Thats great!" I tell her and we do some weird girly happy dance where we jump up and down. I thought that only happened in the movies but I guess if you're happy enough it just sort of happens.
"I know!" She shouts, "But we need to stay strictly business." She says and stops jumping, face getting serious.
"My dress is out in the car, I brought it because I didn't know how long this would take." She says and starts walking upstairs to my bedroom.
She stands in the doorway and her jaw drops, "Why is everything on the floor?!"
I slide past her into my room and shrug, "Gravity?"
She gives me a deadpan look and sighs, "Well on the bright side at least now we can see everything you have." She replies and walks into my room, stepping over clothes.
I go to sit on my bed and she sits down in the floor, looking through all my clothes.
"Where are your dresses?" She asks and I stand up and walk to my closet.
"Some are in here. Some are on the floor."
She nods and starts going through the clothes on the floor again, I turn around and look in the closet. I find a black one with ruffles at the bottom and hold it up, "What do you think?"
She sighs, "We're going to a wedding, not a funeral."
I put the dress back and begin looking through the hangers again. I see a green dress but I got it so long ago that I doubt it still fits, plus it's ugly.
"This one." Emery says and I turn around to see her looking at a light pink dress.
I walk over to her and take the dress to try on.
"It better fit." She says and I laugh and slip off my pajamas, putting the dress on.
I pull it up and slide my arms through the straps before walking over to look in my full body mirror.
It falls just above my knees and is close fitting, showing every curve on my body. It's not a revealing dress and doesn't show anything that I typically want covered and it hangs comfortably enough to not be annoying.
"What do you think?" Emery asks with a smile as she walks up beside me.
"It's perfect."
She grins, "Now we have to do something with your hair!"
I slide on a pair of multi strap wedges, "We can work on hair together once you get your dress on."
"Okay!" She smiles and runs downstairs to get her dress.
Checking the time, I see it's already one fifteen. That leaves an hour and fifteen minutes for us to finish getting ready.
I go into the bathroom and plug up my curling iron when I see Emery walk into my room with a blue dress, black ankle strap heels and a makeup bag.
She slides on the dress and slips the shoes on, turning to show me.
"You look great Em." I tell her and she smiles.
She walks into the bathroom with her makeup bag and sits down in my vanity chair that I dragged in here.
I start curling my hair while she does her makeup.
"Which one?" She holds up two lip sticks. One is a light shade of pink and the other is a darker shade of pink. If they weren't help up in direct light I wouldn't even notice a difference.
I point to the darker pink and she smiles, "Thats what I thought too. It'll go better with my dress."
After I put the last curl in my hair I set the iron down and start running my fingers through them so they can look more natural.
Emery stands up and grabs the curling iron and I set down to do my makeup, "Hey Em? Slight issue. I can't do makeup."
She laughs, "Okay. Just give me a minute and I'll do it."
I watch as she wraps her hair around the curling wand and clamps it shut.
When she's finished she unplugs it and grabs her makeup bag with a smile, "What look are you going for? Sexy and appealing or formal and sophisticated?"
My eyes widen, "Neither?" She laughs, "Just do whatever you think."
I watch as she expertly brushes and applies makeup all over my face.
"Blink." She tells me so she can let the mascara rub across my eyelashes, I oblige and blink a few times.
When she finishes she takes a step back so I can see her handy work.
I'm wearing makeup but not too much. It's all blended so well that it looks almost natural. I'm wearing eyeliner and mascara making my hazel eyes pop. A little bit of foundation and some concealer to help cover the small bags under my eyes.
"I love it!" I tell her and she gives me a radiant smile, "That's good! You look great!"
"So do you!"
I stand up and run over to check the time. It's two twenty, "We have ten minut--" I start but get interrupted by the doorbell ringing.
Well, I guess we don't have ten minutes. I think to myself as I walk downstairs to get the door.
I open the door to hear shouting, "That's not how it goes!"
"Will you hold still?"
Standing in front of me is a dressed up James and Aiden. James is trying to fix Aidens tie for him. He is turning it and trying to pull but he somehow tied a knot in it so it's not moving. I start laughing and they look up to see me watching them.
James jumps back and Aiden clears his throat and shifts his tie.
"He was just..." Aiden looks over at James and sighs, "I don't know how to fix a tie."
I laugh, "It's okay, I do." I open the door wider so they can come inside, "Emery is upstairs." I tell James and he nods and runs up to my bedroom.
"Sorry we're early." He tells me and I take a step closer and look up at him, "It's okay. We were ready."
I grab the tie from his chest and look up at him, "So who's getting married?"
He looks down at me and I begin trying to untie the knot James managed to put in it, "James' uncle. I grew up with James so his uncle is like family to me too."
I nod, too focused on getting the knot out to respond.
"Here," He puts his hand over mine to get the knot out himself, sending shivers down my spine.
I slowly pull my hands out from under his and look up to see him concentrating on the knot, "There we go."
He pulls the bottom of the tie through the hole and the knot comes undone, making me smile.
I grab the tie from his chest again and tie it the way it should be tied, "There. All better."
I drop the tie and get ready to step back but he grabs my wrist and pulls me closer, "You look beautiful tonight."
I inhale a a breath at our sudden closeness. My eyes flicker down to his lips, his pink perfect lips. That was a bad idea.
My eyes move from his lips back up to meet his green ones, "Thank you."
He lets go of my wrist and tucks a loose stand of hair behind my ear, letting his hand move all the way through my hair, it lands on my waist.
Taking another small step, closing all space between us his eyes move down to my lips.
Before I can even process whats happening my grandma walks around the corner holding a box, "Audrey," she says looking down at the box and Aiden jumps back and begins running his hands over his face as if he's frustrated.
"I found your old box of poems." She tells me and holds up a small poem I wrote when I was younger. It's only a few stanzas but it was something my mother talked me into doing so I would sit up at night and write them to show her in the morning.
I probably wrote thirty poems for her to read, I just can't believe she kept all of them.
"Thanks, but I'll look at them later." I look over at Aiden and he's already staring at me. I guess my grandma understands I don't want to read them in front of Aiden because she just nods and puts it back in the box.
"I'm Aiden," He says and steps forward to shake her hand, my grandmother smiles and rests the box on her hip so she can take his hand, "Nice to meet you."
She pulls her hand back and grabs the box again, "It's nice to meet you too. Are you Audreys boyfriend?"
"She has a boyfriend?" He asks almost panicky and looks back at me.
"If you didn't know about then I guess not." My grandmother laughs and he just smiles back at her.
"Well I still have a lot to go through so I guess I'll get out of your hair." She smiles and turns around, "It was nice meeting you Aiden!" She hollers before disappearing from sight.
He looks down at his phone to check the time, "We should probably get going." He opens the front door for me, "James quit shooting your shot and come on!"
I laugh, "Shooting his shot?" He just smiles as we walk to the car.
A/N: Thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed don't forget to vote! Have a great day!