REMEMBER THE NIGHTS | newt

thirteen - wedding distractions

wc ; 1,240

warnings ; none lmao

It's been almost three weeks since you last tried to talk to Newt. New Years had come and gone, and like every other year, you had no one to kiss. Well, that wasn't exactly true. You gave Chuck an embarrassing kiss on the cheek when the countdown ended, and laughed when his already rosy cheeks darkened as he pushed you away.

School had started back up again, and now you had to worry about finals. The end of January signaled the beginning of a new semester, and though you would now be taking English and Psychology, you were dreading having to take Algebra.

Though you were only just about a week into the year, things were picking up at home. Maggie and your dad were getting married at the end of the month, so the rest of the planning and preparation needed to be done as fast as possible. Which led you here, sitting in a car with Maggie on a disturbingly cold Saturday morning to help her with the rest of the errands.

"Okay, so we've gotta go pick up the bridesmaids' dresses, drop them off at the girls houses, bring the decorations to the hall, and get some people to help us get the tables there ready." Maggie listed off today's to-do list as she turned onto the main street. "Your father's taking care of delivery confirmation of pretty much everything, since most of it's coming from the city."

"Got it," you nodded, turning to look out the window. It had snowed the day before, but rained overnight, leaving the roads coated with mucky slush, and the ditches in the gutters filled with small piles of hardened, dirty snow.

Picking up the dresses was easy enough, since the boutique was on the main road, just a few stores down from Mickey's. They were a beautiful sage green, not quite matching in style but themed perfectly nonetheless. Each dress had a sticky note on the clear garment bags, one of which being yours. Though you hadn't quite worked your way up to calling her 'mom' just yet, Maggie had decided that you would be the Maid of Honor, simply because she had been thinking of you as her daughter from the moment you had met. At least, that's what she told you. Besides, you weren't the only one of the kids in the wedding party. Both Chuck and Thomas were the best man, so you wouldn't be walking down the aisle with some guy from your childhood that you likely wouldn't remember.

While dropping them off to the other bridesmaids, you were finally able to put proper faces to the names. It felt weird, being in a bridal party that was full of older women, and not knowing who a single one of them was. But you couldn't complain, since they all seemed to be great people and took a liking to you.

Next up came the decorations at the hall, one of the first buildings that people passed on their way into town. The decorations had been inhabiting Maggie's trunk for the past week and a half, and now they would be inhabiting the empty event hall until the day before the wedding.

It didn't take long to reach the large building, covered in fading gray siding. A set of four stairs led up to a deck with no railing, then a pair of black painted metal doors. The parking lot was riddled with holes in the asphalt, some of which you almost tripped over while bringing the boxes into the hall.
The inside of the hall was nice, even if it wasn't exactly your style. Though, to be fair, it was the only event hall in town, so it wasn't as if Maggie and your dad had much else to choose. It was big, with wooden paneling spanning the first seven or eight feet of the walls. Whatever was left was painted a blue-gray color, and banners from previous events and competitions lined the very top of the wall to the left. You didn't bother reading them. At the very back of the room were two servers' windows. The one to the left had a big sign over it that said 'DRINKS' and the one on the right said 'FOOD'.

On your way through the first hallway you saw bathroom doors on the left, so you had a place to escape if the party got too loud and it was too cold outside. There were two doors on the right side of the room, each on one end of the wall, both metal push doors that led to the outside.

Tables lined the edges of the room, and stacks upon stacks of chairs occupied the corners. The faded white of the linoleum tile was to be expected, and after spending just a few minutes in the space, you quickly got used to the cozy feel of the room. It almost felt like it was telling you a story of all the fun people have had here over the years.

You and Maggie made quick work of the decorations, putting all the boxes inside the surprisingly large kitchen in the very back. At one point, she called a few people to help her put the chairs that lined the walls into the storage, since she and your dad were getting different ones delivered in a couple of days.

The sounds of the chairs scraping across the linoleum, a loud, grumbling, reverberating sound, echoed throughout the large, high-ceilinged hall, shaking your bones when you stood still. One by one, the boxes were brought to the kitchen, and one by one, the stacks of chairs were evacuated. A day's work, completed in less than three hours.

When you got home, your father was just hanging up with someone as he paced the living room. Looking up from his screen, he said, "Everything go okay?"

"Yeah, I had Malcolm and Jack come by the hall to help move the chairs into storage, and everyone got their dresses." Maggie reported, nodding to your hand, where the hanger that held your dress and garment bag was clutched.

"Good, good," he nodded, "everything should get here on time. I called the florists, the cake and cupcake guy, the chair guy, the dress lady, and the suit tailor. Cake, cupcakes, chairs, and clothes are all getting here at some point the day before, flowers are arriving the morning of."

Maggie smiled, pressing a kiss to your dad's stubbled cheek and thanking him profusely before heading into the kitchen. His eyes followed her for a moment before falling back to you.

"Are you excited, dad?"

He sighed. "You have no idea, kiddo. I haven't been this excited since you were born." Shaking his head, he put a hand on your shoulder. "How are you feeling about all this? I know I haven't really gotten a chance to ask-"

"Dad, I'm 110% okay with it, don't worry." You told him. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy. She's a great woman, you know."

"I know."

You smiled and your dad smiled back, kissing the crown of your head before heading into the kitchen after Maggie. Gripping the hanger a little tighter, you headed up to your room to put it away. Even if things weren't the greatest with you and Thomas, you weren't going to let it ruin your father's wedding. Not if you could help it.