Something Blue

Charlotte had never been one to pace before. If she ever showed signs of a nervous tick, it came in the form of bouncing in place or twirling her long, golden hair around her finger. But today was different, and Charlotte found herself pacing in circles in the small room where she was getting ready, tripping over her long, lacey train at least four times.

“I found some aspirin downstairs, Lottie” whispered a voice from the doorway. Charlotte whipped her head around to see Piper timidly stepping into the room, her most dedicated and loyal assistant through this entire process. When nobody else was around to taste cakes or debate hair styles, Piper made herself available.

“Piper, I’m so glad you’re here for me!” Charlotte felt her voice shake and her eyes start to water. No, she couldn’t cry. Her cousin spent over an hour on her make up that morning; she couldn’t let anything happen to ruin it. Ruined make up could lead to a ruined day… though it is far from the only thing.

Piper almost wanted to step back out the door as soon as she stuck her head through- the scene that played out before her was shocking. Calm, composed, and refined Charlotte was running to and fro like a madwoman; stumbling like a drunk, shaking with silent cries, and staring out the window all the while. Though they had been best friends since childhood, Piper couldn’t guess what was going on in her mind.

Charlotte choked down the aspirin with the rest of her coffee from breakfast and said wearily “Please tell me you have more good news.”

“Your parents are here, keeping the rest of the guests in line.”

Charlotte sighed and mumbled something that could have been “Oh good!” as easily as “Oh, God!”.

“The caterer also called, and they will be here to set up in another thirty minutes. The girls are all flirting with the boys by the altar, dolled up and ready to go. Everything will be in place right on time, I promise!”

Charlotte resumed her pacing, anxious despite everything going according to plan. The biggest problem was, she finally decided, it wasn’t going according to her plan. This wasn’t what she wanted at all. She never pictured her big day to be in the backyard of her inlaws’ mansion. She never wanted fanfare or poofy dresses or pinchy shoes; she wanted a moonlit ceremony on the beach with a small company of the people dearest to her. But she should have known she would have to give up those dreams the day she agreed to marry a senator’s son.

“Piper, I need to pee.”

“That’s a personal problem, Lottie.”

“Not on my wedding day! I can’t even reach the bottom of this dress, let alone hoist it up!”

After thinking a moment, Piper said “You have to promise not to make it weird.”

Charlotte was grateful for her best friend’s sense of humor to bring her back to her senses and to pull her out of the fog of stress. “Sorry, no promise.” She grabbed Piper’s hand and pulled her to the door.

 

“Where are you going?” Piper screamed, trying to pull her back down the hallway. “There’s a bathroom right down here!”

“People will see me… and want to talk to me! Too risky, we have to find a deserted bathroom. Liam says they have twenty five; we should be able to find at least one.”

With that, they were both tiptoeing away from the entrance where everyone was congregating, sneaking deeper and deeper into a house too big to be allowed. Piper was never the one to lead the way into their marauding, but today she had no choice. Walking behind Charlotte was impossible with her train. She turned a corner and saw three tall men blocking the hallway ahead. Thinking they were some of the ‘help’, she simply turned back toward Lottie giggling.

“Did you see that?” One of the men called.

“What?” Another answered.

“Nobody’s there, you’re just paranoid. Come on.”

Footsteps grew fainter as the help left. Charlotte and Piper counted to thirty to move again, and when they braved the turn again, the men were gone.

Three doors on the left from that corner, there was, at last, a bathroom. After successfully finding a way for Charlotte to 'go' while preserving her dress, the two washed up and snuck back into the hallway, turning away from where they had come to keep exploring.

“This looks familiar… I think Liam’s room is somewhere down this way.”

“When did you become so acquainted with his bedroom?”

Charlotte giggled, but Piper quickly muffled it as she heard viscous whisperings ahead and fear clutched her heart. Most people described her as a worrywart, but she was rarely wrong about her feelings of danger.

Charlotte stopped laughing, but also ripped Piper’s hand away from her mouth. What?  she mouthed, having learned not to mock Piper’s fear.

Run.

Before Charlotte registered the message, Piper was already pulling her into a hidden doorway. The three men they had seen were marching back down the hallway, but with a bundle being dragged behind them. Holding their breath in the tiny closet they had found behind the door, Charlotte and Piper tried not to think of who the men might be or why they all seemed to be clutching something inside their jacket pockets.

The men came closer and closer, whispering about a plan, about a ransom, about violent acts that made the few tiny hairs on Charlotte’s neck that weren’t plastered into her updo stand on end. The voices grew fainter, and they thought they were in the clear.

Until Charlotte let out a sneeze at exactly the wrong moment.

Urgent footsteps came nearer as the girls gripped at the shelves behind them, praying some sort of trapdoor had been set up.

“Alpha said he cleared this hallway! I told you someone was there! Someone saw us!”

The shrill voice shook the girls to the core and they slipped downward until they were huddling in the corner, clutching each other tight.

The door opened, and for a moment their hiding spot worked; a man glanced at eye level around the three small walls before finally looking down and smirking.

“The bride.”

He pulled her up forcibly, then Piper as well. He glanced at them both, sizing them up, before finally speaking.

“I suppose I owe you an introduction, miss. See, the man of this house has wronged me. I simply came to clear a debt and take back something of mine.”

“You’re a thief!” Charlotte was just as surprised as anyone to hear herself speak against the man.

“This is no business of yours, girl!” 

“Whatever is my husband’s business is my own.”

“You’re not married… yet.”

“I’ll still defend his family and their honor.” She stood proudly in her ball gown, looking braver than she felt. The man faced her haughtily, then drew back his fist and punched her, making her fall to the ground.

Piper screamed and scrambled to help Charlotte. The man whispered “So you shall.” Then he turned and walked away, leaving the girls crying and shocked. Charlotte’s eye started to bruise under the make-up and her nose was throbbing. There goes all hope of getting a pretty wedding picture, she bitterly thought. She stood suddenly and started walking toward the room the men had left, wondering aloud what they had taken. The room was cluttered like the rest of the house, and Charlotte realized she would never be able to pinpoint something missing from the house.

Shocked and angry, she allowed Piper to lead her back to her room. Piper said something about going to find some ice and more aspirin, and then she left. Charlotte looked out the window and finally let herself cry, no longer caring if her mascara ran down her cheeks or even onto her dress.

Everything ruined.

Everything wrong.

Piper returned with all the bridesmaids and her cousin who had done the make-up, and slowly they helped her pull back together. By the time they had to line up, only a small greenish blue sliver was visible under her eye, and she was almost able to smile and look like she wasn’t faking it. 

She thought of Liam waiting for her in his pale grey suit, and she genuinely beamed for the first time in weeks. After all the plans gone wrong, after enduring everything she hated about weddings, at least at the end of it all, she would be married. She would finally be with Liam.

Maybe everything wasn’t so bad after all.

But then a whisper started to ring all around the rows of guests, all the way up the aisle and into the house where groomsmen and bridesmaids were lined up, and where Charlotte stood holding her father’s arm. Whispers grew to mumbles, which turned to speaking outright until finally someone shouted it, the question on everyone’s minds as the ceremony further and further delayed.

“Where’s the groom?!”