piece by piece~j.d

~69~

The night drew on, in a much more civilised manner then the year before, neither Josh nor Aubrey leaving the table and being caught locking lips with anyone else which was easily considered a success. The food was good and the drinks were just as well, the only thing more riveting then the conversations that they were all thinking up and having was the fact that Marcus was polling so well, very much up in the top three, partnered by Christian Petracca and Hugh Mccluggage.

"You getting nervous yet?" Josh asked as he watched his friend nervously sip his water and mess with the ends of the table cloth in front of him, obvious signs of his mounting nerves that he had been hiding well the entire day. Maybe it was more prominent now as the moments until he could possibly win came closer.

"Me?" Marcus questioned chuckling at the idea. "Not at all, I feel fine actually."

"That's good." Aubrey chuckled as she watched him fiddle as well. "He will be fine right?"

"Yeah, he's all good." Josh agreed, moving his hand to where Aubrey's was on the table and intertwining their fingers. "Hopefully in a few rounds time we'll know if he's won or not."

"I hope so, he deserves it." Aubrey commented.

"He does, how exciting is this?" Lou joined into the conversation on her own accord, the happiness buzzing around the table was obvious as everyone was enjoying the night facing the prospect of their friend winning. It was much more boring when no one you knew was polling well.

"I think we should change the conversation before he combusts and has to take a break from the table." Jack interrupted the conversation, successfully bringing it to a halt as Lou started to talk about her Pilates.

"I need to go to the bathroom, anyone want to come?" Aubrey asked as she got up, adjusting her dress so that it flowed around her nicely, the question was more of a demand as she knew she'd need some help to go to the bathroom with the dress on. Though she figured if neither Lou nor Kimmy wanted to go she could go and ask someone else for help, assuming they would all be nice.

"Can't I'm not allowed." Lou rolled her eyes as Jack had his hand resting on her knee and tightened his grip at the suggestion. "Clingy people."

"That's okay." Aubrey laughed, saying a quick goodbye to Josh who pulled her back and pointed at his cheek, she happily pecked it before walking off in the direction that she knew to be the bathroom. The walk was riddled with greetings as everyone seemed to know one another and if not they were just polite.

"Your dress is incredible." A girl exclaimed as Aubrey entered the bathrooms and looked at herself quickly in the mirror. "Sorry if that's weird, I just had to let you know that I'm in love with it."

"Thank you so much and its not weird at all, what's your name?" Aubrey felt bad for not knowing who the girl was but she didn't seem offended in the slightest. "I'm Aubrey by the way."

"Sarah, Dan Butlers girlfriend." She introduced herself.

"You look gorgeous by the way and it's nice to meet you." Aubrey laughed, Sarah was wearing a plain black dress that seemed to extenuate her face features nicely. "How's your night been?"

"Exhausting and long, getting ready takes so long it's not even funny and then Dan is going on about how it took him like ten minutes, though he claims it would have been longer had he still had his mullet."

"I know a thing or two about mullets." Aubrey sighed. "I'm Bailey Smith's sister." She explained and Sarah started laughing. "I can only imagine how long he spent making sure it looked perfect before getting here tonight."

"Oh I bet. Are you waiting for someone?" Sarah asked and Aubrey shook her head explaining that no one would come with her and were stuck at the table. "Same."