Spark (GH Series #5)

Part 9

Jack

"You cannot be serious!! This is the dance you want the girls to learn?" I shook my head, and I should have seen it coming. It's been three weeks and the wedding planning is on full steam ahead, and Carson has dropped the bombshell that she wants to do dirty dancing at the wedding. I honestly cannot say I'm surprised though; she has been obsessed with the film since she was allowed to watch it and other chick flicks that she could sing and dance along to.

"Deadly serious."

"Damien's on board with all this?!" I flapped my arms about, and Carson just laughed.

"Yes. You should know he would do anything to make me happy and plus, he's got a killer ass!"

"Whoa, way too much information there sis!" We were walking around a dance studio and I cannot believe I'm going to be witnessing this. I'm so glad that I'm not a part of that dance. I inwardly chuckled and shook my head.

"The girls and their partners should be here shortly. Have you thought of the song you want to use for our dance?"

"Yes, you will know on the day. Not before, no hints, no name dropping, nothing. I want it to be an element of surprise." Carson let out a groan and was about to protest but then people started arriving. "Do I have to stick around?"

"Yes! Just in case there is an injury or a dance partner missing." I groaned and grabbed a chair and sat over by the window and dug out my phone. No point me being overly attentive to the class. Carson had arranged dance instructors the lot and I'm honestly, secretly impressed. I heard Ellie enter the class and it seems that Grant and her, are having words, again.

After that night I spilled my guts about meeting with Dani, it was Ellie's turn on Saturday when she popped around to do my books for me. I could tell that there was something off with her and after a gentle prodding, she broke down and said things between Grant and her were strained. I leant her a sympathetic ear, gave her some of her own wisdom back at her and gave her, I hope, a reassuring hug and that I offered to be there for her should she need anyone to talk to. I'm hoping it's not going to spill into the rehearsal, and I shot her a look and she simply shook her head at me.

Well, watching them all fumble and trip and do the moves incorrectly and correctly eventually was somewhat entertaining. Damien was super patient and Carson, well I shouldn't have expected anything less, was brilliant at it. Tasha and Bree were always in fits of giggles and had to be reined in on several occasions, much to their boyfriends disproval. Ellie and Grant. That was something else. It started off well and then, he seemed to lose focus and get bored very easily and was messing up the steps more often than getting them right. I could see Ellie was about at the end of her tether with him, but thankfully, time was up. Carson came over and grabbed her bag that was at the foot of my chair. "See, I didn't need to stay to witness all this..."

"Shut up. You are going to be here at every rehearsal in case something goes tits up."

"Okay, okay!!" I'm not going to answer to the angry tyke of a sister that I have when she is fired up, after all, it is her special day and I want nothing more than an easy life. "Is that me for the day or do you need me for some more wedding planning?"

"No more wedding planning for today. However, we want to go out for dinner, care to join us?" I looked up and a few people had left already.

"Who is all going?"

"Damien, myself, Ellie and Grant."

"Hard pass. I'm not being a fifth wheel. I'm going to head home and look up some places for your bachelorette party." Carson nodded her head, and we left the dance studio, and I went straight to my car. I felt bad that I couldn't talk to Ellie, she seemed so lost and down and I vowed that I would drop her a text message later to check on her.

Ellie

After my confrontation with Grant, which seemed to freak him out slightly, he promised to make more of an effort, and he has, I have to give credit where credit is due. Today was the first day that he was acting like a complete idiot at the dance rehearsal, and I was absolutely mortified. I noticed Jack shooting me a look and I just gave her a shake of my head to say everything's okay, but it's not. Carson invited us out to dinner, and I was equally as surprised when Grant said yes, but I was disappointed that Jack said no.

Her friendship has become invaluable to me and I hope she feels the same about our friendship. She offers no judgement and actually genuinely listens to you when you are having a conversation. I broke down that Saturday I went around to do her books and she was nothing short of amazing, just what you would expect from a friend really.

As per usual, Carson and I are engaged in conversation as Grant and Damien are chatting amongst themselves and showing things to each other on their phones. I've not let it slip to Carson that my relationship is not necessarily at breaking point anymore, but it's not a bed of roses either. However, that was about to be brought out into the open when I overheard Damien with Grant. "Dude, what's with the face? You started out well at the rehearsal and then you acted like a complete knob."

"What? No, I didn't."

"You did. You've been acting off for weeks. Last time I had words with you was when you ignored Ellie when she came back home after spending the night with Carson. Dude, you are going to lose one of the best things in your life if you don't get a damn grip!" I blushed at how defensive Damien is over me and Carson nudged me.

"What's going on?" I looked at Carson and we spoke quietly with what was going on, but I refrained to tell her that Jack knew about this already as I didn't want to upset Carson. I just didn't want to weigh her down with my problems when she had a wedding to plan. "No matter what Ellie, I'm here for you. I know that you probably feel that you can't approach me with all the wedding planning and dance rehearsals. If you can't come to me, please talk to someone, hell, talk to Jack if needs be." I gave her a soft smile and nodded my head. Unfortunately, due to me offloading to Carson, I never heard the remaining conversation between Grant and Damien.

That night when we got home, he huffed that he was going for a shower and I could only nod and agree. Gone are the times when he used to drag me along to shower with him. Gone are the loving nights and stolen kisses. Is this what happens when a relationship goes stale after a while? Do I continue to fight for something that I'm not even sure if I have the energy to fight for? Then I'm torn. I'm the maid of honour, Grant is the best man, if I were to split with him, I will probably still need to dance with him at the wedding. I'm so conflicted, I'm not sure if I know which way is up anymore.

Jack

I'm a bit excited. I have found a stunning place to go for the bachelorette party and I'm hoping that everyone will be on board. I'm willing to pay for the villa so the girls just need to play for their flight and chip in for food and drink and I instantly send of a message to the WhatsApp group that we had created for this. We need definite figures of how many are going. I'm not sure if it's just going to be the bridal party plus extra people but I will double check with Carson to see who she actually wants there. I explained that to the girls in the message and I could see that Ellie was typing. It made me wonder if she was still with Carson. "Carson said there is a total of 9 people going, I hope this helps!"

Nine people. Holy crap that's a lot of women that I need to put up with! Granted I know the bridal party is the five women, it just means we need to add four more people into this group chat and see everyone is on board. "If you don't mind Ellie, get their names and numbers. We need to get them into this group." Ellie sent a thumbs up emoji, and I knew she was on the case. Moments later, I could see new people added to the group and I sent the relevant information of the villa that was I was hoping to book and the dates so that we could get the ball rolling.

In a separate message, Ellie had dropped me privately, she said she was still out with Carson and would get as much information as she could and hoped that she could meet up with me soon. I smiled at the thought and I genuinely hope that she is okay after Grant's antics today. "I would love to meet up with you. If you are free tomorrow night, I can bring my laptop to the burger place I took you to and can show you what I've found. (not the things I've sent on the group chat)"

"I'm free tomorrow. Say about seven? I will let Grant know what I'm doing so he doesn't put dinner on or anything. Looking forward to it!"