The Time Capsule (Harry Styles Fanfic)

Chapter 42

Madden's POV
The Engagement Party

I couldn't believe this day was already here. And I don't think it was because I was anxiously awaiting its arrival, it was quite the opposite actually.

I think it came so quickly because I didn't want it to. Funny how life works that way.

Most people love Christmas and the holidays, and it always feels like it takes forever for the year to pass before you can celebrate it all over again. But when it's something you don't want? Or something you wish would take longer? It feels like no time before that day is here and you're having to endure it.

Which is exactly what I was having to do right now, endure everything.

West and his mom had never stopped badgering me about certain aspects of the wedding, so I eventually threw in the towel and said the hell with it. Do what you want, as long as the wedding will be held in Surf City, I didn't care what other decisions they made.

This engagement party was of course their decision as well. They rented out the biggest building in the town beside Surf City, I didn't even know this place was here. They were holding this party for West and I, but had invited all the same people I didn't know.

Aside from my family and a few close friends, I was the stranger standing in this room surrounded by other people who all knew each other, and West's family. I felt like a nobody.

   How was I supposed to be smiling in a room full of people that were congratulating me on my recent engagement, when it was to the wrong man?

   My fiancé stood by my side and proudly smiled and shook hands and hugged everyone who came up to speak to us and to wish us well in our future endeavors together. I hardly knew the people surrounding me, none of this even felt like an actual congratulatory party for me.

   How did no one realize how close I was to bolting outside or passing out where I was standing? I looked around the room and it was so crowded and full. I felt my breathing become faster, and it was hard for me to pull in new air. I was panicking.

   And suddenly, everything stopped when I laid eyes on him.

   He said he wasn't going to make it. That's what he told his mom when I sent the invitations out 6 weeks earlier. And that's what she had told my mom.

   God, I hated myself to epic proportions right now. Because when I looked at him, my heart slowed and my fear slithered away. It always had when he was around me.

   Don't ask me why the man who seemed to scare and hate everyone else was the only one who had ever made me feel safe.

   I had secretly been wishing he would come, if not so I could just see him one last time. But I had also been dreading it at the same time. I never was able to handle the emotions he brought out of me, but especially not in front of my future husband.

   Turning to my fiancé, I patted his hand for attention. "I'm going to run to the restroom and get a moment of fresh air, okay?"

   "Okay honey." He replied, and placed a small kiss on my forehead that made his current company start gushing over. "Don't be too long."

   Ugh.

  I didn't need to look in his direction to know he was watching me leave. He was always watching me, it was what he had done his whole life basically. I also knew he would follow me, something else he had always done.

   I stepped around people and offered them fake smiles and thanks for the kind words they were spewing my way as I made my hasty escape. Finally though, I opened the glass double doors and was able to step out onto the wooden deck that had a staircase that led to the beach.