Haunted

November 1st

My 21st birthday. My friends and family had all gathered round to attend what I marked as a milestone in my life. Everyone that was of an importance to me was here at the party. Looking around the room I knew there was one person missing, someone that I wished with all my heart could be here right now and that was Jack.

The last time I had seen him was a week ago, but all this time apart was for a good reason. Jack, Cam, TJ and Finn had all gone on a tour to Australia with the rugby club that they were a part of. However, they all promised that they would be back for tonight.

Looking around the living room of my flat I saw that three out of the four had kept the promise and the one I had really wanted to see was the one who had fell flat on his promise. I knew the night was still young and I hoped he had a good excuse for being late.

10:30pm
Everyone else was standing around talking. Everyone else was happy. Note the else. I was not talking and I was not happy. The night was no longer young, it was nearly over. It was a Sunday evening, which essentially ensured that most people would be on their way home by eleven. 

The whole idea of this party was for a get together with my close friends. Beth, Cam, Liv, Niall, Aimee, TJ and Finn. That of course included Jack too but as I cast my gaze around my living room there were people standing around talking, people I would no longer call my friends they were merely acquaintances. It didn't stop them acting as if they were my best friends, when in reality I had not seen them since I had left school in the dirt and dust behind me.

There were my work colleagues leaning by the mantelpiece, they had charmed their way in with a bottle of wine and the promise that I didn't have to be in that early, I still had to be in by nine though. I could see members of my family mingling with them acting as if we were thick as thieves like they too had known me since the day I was born.

I say that the only person that I wanted to be there but was absent was Jack, but I would be lying. I badly wanted to see Mason and Matt yet it felt as if they gave no cares to us here after moving to Australia. I no longer felt like a triplet, or a quadruplet if we wanted to bring that up, I merely felt like an only child. 

The dreadfully annoying phrase 'happy birthday' had been uttered around a thousand times, and the questions about Jack had been asked in their millions. My weak and pathetic responses to his whereabouts were beginning to annoy even me. I didn't know why I hadn't told them the truth, that I just didn't know where my fiancee was on my birthday. Secretly, I was waiting, hoping, praying for the moment where he would just burst through the door and I would forget the anger that was now boiling in my body.

My best dress clothed my body. Skintight black lace that hugged every curve, or in other words Jack's favourite after that little red number from our eighteenth but sadly that no longer fitted. It was going to waste at the moment however, because there was no impress in the way I wanted to in this dress. As the hands on the clock continued to tick I knew it was highly unlikely he would ever show, but what's a girl for trying?

I saw Aimee and Beth stood together. Laughing. I had introduced them and there was that niggling thought in my brain that soon they would no longer need me in their lives. I knew that since leaving school, the three of us had become tremendously close. They had been the biggest support to me after having Shannon, with Beth and I repaying the favour to Aimee after she had Leo, especially after all that drama over TJ. 

Their engagement rings sparkled in light almost as if they were infused with the love that Beth felt for Cam and Aimee for TJ. It was a large amount of love. I looked down at my own, the one that had been occupying my ring finger for two years, it was dull because it felt as if there was no love inside of it. Through my mind the thought that potentially after tonight I may never wear it again haunted me. That wasn't to say that if Jack didn't turn up I would break up with him but I wasn't going to let him get away with a pathetic little excuse for something as big as this.