Gray Area (sequel to White Noise)

Ch 8 - Fanfuckingtastic

I had never even been to a baby shower before, let alone host one. I didn't have a clue how to go about organizing such a thing. Luke hadn't bothered asking Liz for advice before leaving, so he was currently on the phone with her. Never mind it was after 2:00 a.m. in Australia. She was a much nicer woman about it than I would've been.

Luke had a notebook, writing down whatever she was telling him. When he hung up, he took a deep breath. "This is insane. First of all, we're going to need invitations."

"Can't we just text or e-mail everyone?"

"Mum says not to do that; it's not proper etiquette."

"Well, alrighty then. We shall do as Liz says. What else?"

"Food. Lots of finger foods and stuff like that. And a cake. She suggests finding out what the nursery theme is and base the cake and decorations around that."

"Okay, I think we can handle that."

"But there's more," he said, referring to his list. "Games. And prizes for the games. And maybe get her some thank you cards to match the invitations. And we need to find out if she has registered anywhere, whatever that means, and..."

"Jesus Christ. What have we gotten ourselves into? Come on, tell me the rest in the car. We better get going. This is going to take a while."

The search for decorations ended up being the only simple part. We were pretty much able to get everything we needed at a store that specializes in party decorations. Imagine that. I knew Tori had chosen a black, red, and white musical theme for the nursery. So that made it fairly easy as far as decorations.

However, we ended up custom ordering invitations because good luck finding baby shower invitations with a musical theme, especially in those colors. Luke and I hadn't even picked out a date yet, so we just settled on one that we hoped would work for us all. I'm usually better organized, I swear.

After we got the party supplies, we had a late lunch, then stopped to order a cake. Who knew there are like 984746 varieties of flavors, icings, and designs. Not Luke or me. To say we were overwhelmed would be an understatement. In the end, Luke told the lady, who had way more patience than either of us, to choose something for us. After an hour of trying to agree on something, we no longer cared.

The last stop we made was for the game prizes. Exactly what kind of games does one play at a baby shower anyway? And what the actual fuck do you get for game prizes? I ended up asking a lady working at the store for suggestions. She looked at me like I was an absolute idiot, but I didn't have any fucks to give at that point. In the end, we went to the clearance isle of the store and grabbed a bunch of random stuff that people would probably end up throwing in the trash.

As we were putting the last of our purchases in the trunk of the car, Luke was noticed by two girls. I just sighed and said, "I'll wait in the car." It was bound to happen sooner or later. I knew word was out that the boys were in town for a while.

They obviously thought I couldn't hear their annoying high pitched voices through my open window. Or else they didn't care. "Isn't that Michael's girlfriend?" "What's her name?" "Where's Michael?" "Do you think she'd take a picture with us?" "What are you all doing here?" It's crazy how a single innocent photo can spark such a frenzy. At least I got a good laugh out of it.

Luke took pictures with them but brushed off all of their questions, telling them he was sorry, but we were already late for something and had to leave. I could never be so damn polite all the time. Those girls are lucky they chose to bombard Luke with those questions rather than me.

"Thanks for waiting on me," Luke said, fitting his giant body into the tiny passenger seat. His knees were literally touching the dash, even with the seat pushed all the way back. It was quite a sight.