across the hall

nine

||Chapter Nine; One Month Ago||

Quote of the chapter:"You are cordially invited to be the best man of Noah Everett."

E sat still in the middle of her living room couch, beside Noah, across from the wedding person. Noah pulled her close to him, smiling at the woman.

As she spoke, E sat. Silent. Empty. As much as she tries, she can't bring herself to listen to a word that the wedding planner says, nor the conversation she holds with Noah. She loses herself in thought, wondering what will happen after this month. She looks at Noah, thinking of how she found herself stuck in this situation.

She finds reality once she hears Noah saying her name. "Oliver?" He says, in ending to a sentence.

"I'm sorry, what?" She apologizes, looking at the planner. The woman gives her a smile, one that resembles sympathy.

"I was asking what you thought about your fiance's plan." She replies lightly, as if the reality of this situation was coming to her.

"Oh." She says softly.

"Our dream wedding. The huge church with relatives and friends packed in it." She nods and swallows her screams back.

"Yeah." She chokes. "That's sounds perfect."

"Awesome." He grins, squeezing her hand tightly. She flinches at the sudden pain and looks down at her lap. She pulls her hand away and brushes hair that fell out of it's place, back into it's place.

"Invitations, have they all been sent out?" The planner asks.

"Most of them. I just need to give my neighbour his, and the rest of my grooms men."

"And do you have your brides maids already chosen?" She asks E, expecting an answer from her, but receiving one from Noah.

"Yeah. They've already got their dresses as well." He tells the planner.

"Great!" She says. "All we need to do is the rehearsal in a few days and make sure everyone has their invites." The wedding planner picks up her binders and papers and stands. Noah stands with her, E soon following. Noah walks her to the door as E takes the tea cups and small dishes to the kitchen to wash them.

"I'm going to work. Give Mark his invitations to the wedding and tell him to give the other two to his friends." Noah tells E as she stands at the sink, washing the last dish.

"Okay." She says quietly, waiting for him to leave. She turns the water off and uses a rag to dry her hands. She places it in the dirty rags/towels bin hidden in the corner of the living room as Noah walks through, wearing slacks and a button up. He grabs her wrist and forcibly kisses her before leaving. She wipes her mouth off violently and spends five minutes brushing her teeth to rid the taste of the liquor he had been drinking.

She finds herself standing on the mat of Mark's room. She tries the doorknob to find it is unlocked. She lets herself in and places the invites on his coffee table, under the remote to his TV. She leaves quickly after, not wanting to be caught up.

Mark, hearing his door shut, comes from the bathroom with jeans on. He opens the door and looks both ways, only just seeing her retreating figure being closed off by the elevator doors. He turns back and grabs a king of the squirrels T-shirt and putting on slippers before he sees the blue envelopes on his coffee table. He removes the remote from on them before picking them up and looking at the names written in solid, messy scrawls. Mark Fischbach. Sean McLoughlin. Wade Barnes. He opens the one with his name on it, sitting on his couch when he reads the words.

You are cordially invited to be the best man of Noah Everett.

Hey guys! Thank you for reading this first of all, and secondly if you think I should continue, please tell me and go ahead and toss a few ideas at me. I'm still going to be working on this because I love this story, it will just not have a lot of updates. I'm running into some major writers block and have been for the past few months with this story and others. If you want to help me out, please do, and I'll appreciate it.

I'll see ya later!