across the hall

eleven

//Chapter Eleven; Two Weeks Ago//

Quote of the chapter: "I'll stay."

Two weeks until the wedding. Two months pregnant. A noticeable baby bump. A baby bump that has maid her waist too big for her dress. A new fitting, a new dress.

E stands on the small round stage, staring at her three reflections. She doesn't recognise the girls she sees looking back at her. She slides her hands onto her stomach. In the mirror, she looks at Mark. He's been watching her, thinking. Wishing. Wanting. Lusting. His eyes meets hers in the mirror and a smile appears on his lips. She smiles back, a light, insecurity holding smile. She looks back at her reflection.

"Sweetheart, please don't move." The woman adjusting her dress sighs, exhausted of seeing the in love couples preparing to get married. She mumbles out an inaudible sorry as Noah comes into the area. He grins when he seas his wife to be. He shoos off the lady.

"You look amazing." He says to her. "What do you think, Mark?" She looks at Mark in the mirror once more. Noah doesn't give him a chance to answer. "Don't you just love it, baby?" She closes her eyes, wishing she had gotten herself out of this mess long ago. She nods.

"Yeah," She says quietly. "It's perfect." She croaks out the word, not wanting to try on more hideous wedding dresses. He hands money to the lady and tells her to fold it up.

"I've got to go to a meeting right now. Can you take her home, Mark?" Mark nods as Noah leaves. When he was gone, with a sigh, she relaxes her stance. She steps off the stage and enters into the dressing room, frowning at the puffy dress being in the confined space. She reaches behind her back, struggling to reach the tie the woman knotted. She sighs and calls Mark's name.

"Can you untie me?" E asks him. In a few seconds, Mark is with her in the small dressing room. She smiles lightly up at him and turns around, so allowing him to be able to see the knot, and pulls her hair to the side. His fingers fumble for a moment on the knot before he begins unlacing the back. She lifts the dress off her body, relieved to be out of the hot, confined cloth. She turns around in her bra and panties to reach for her clothes, forgetting he was in there with her. His pinks tinted pink. He takes the wedding dress and brings it to the woman as she pulls on her T-shirt and shorts. She pulls away the curtain and steps out to find the woman who was fitting the dress to her there with a different colored box than the one holding her wedding dress.

"I saw you ogling this dress the entire time you were here." The box is sat on her hands. "You didn't seem very happy in the other one. Go, try it on. I want to see it on you!"

E emerges from the small room in the wedding dress she wants to choose. She steps out from behind the curtain looking at the ground. When she looks up, her gaze locks with Mark's. He stops and stares at her. His lips part when he see's the girl he is falling for with each passing second. He walks until he's in front of her.

"You - you look beautiful, E." He says to her, blushing as the kiss they shared a week ago surfaced to his mind.

"I know I look awful, Mark. Don't try to trick me." She mumbles as he gently takes her hands into his.

"Look at me, E." He says softly, looking down at her. After a short moment, she lifts her gaze up to his. "You look beautiful - you are beautiful. Don't ever let yourself tell you or let him tell you that you're not." He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her to him. "Noah should consider himself lucky to have a girl like you." She folds her arms around his neck as a light blush creeps onto her cheeks.

"Don't leave me, Mark." He presses his lips to her forehead.

"I'll stay." His forehead rests on hers.

"Promise?"

"Promise."