Amateur - A Jon Cozart fic

Chapter 24 - Weddings, Cousins, and Amateurs.

*Jon's Pov*

"So your cousin's name is Minnie, right?" I ask as we drive down this dusty gravel road, miles away from the city.

'Yup, after Minnie Mouse. She used to get teased for her name, but she's since embraced it. So much so that she's nicknamed Connor 'Mickey'.'

'Connor's the fiance?' I inquire, not wanting to get any details wrong. She nods her head.

'They met at Disneyland Tokyo, actually. They were both tourists and Minnie needed to ask where the bathroom was but couldn't speak Japanese, and Connor happened to be the first person she came across who spoke English. They had a long distance relationship for a while - Minnie being here, Connor in Brisbane. Soon enough he moved here, and boom! Marriage. Took a few years though. When they first got together I was 15, and I thought they were the definition of what love was. I'm happy for them.' Her pupils dilate and she seems to whisk off to another world as she's telling this story - it's obvious she cares for Minnie. She's genuinely pleased for them. Hope I can make her as happy as that some day.

'So does that explain the gift you got them?' It's a lovely blue wall decoration with "Excuse me, do you know where the shitter is?" in big white print.

"Yup. First words that were spoken between them. Disney movie material." she sighs sarcastically. Her eyes flicker across the road ahead of us, looking for the right turn, which she narrowly misses. She yanks the steering wheel and narrowly misses hitting a tree - wildly screaming all the way.

"What was that Carm?' That was genuinely terrifying.

'Not the best at driving on Gravel roads.' she laughs, having caught her breath again.

'I don't think you're the best driver full stop.' She nods.

'Agreed.' It's official, I'm driving from now on wherever possible.

Carm parks outside the venue, and the first thing I notice is that it's absolutely stunning. It's an old-fashioned house, with a massively impressive garden, where the chairs, asile and altar have been set out. Everything is white, aside from the roses, which are red.  It's quite pretty.

'Hm. Honestly, totally worth the 20 kilometre drive.' Carm mutters as we exit the car and walk on up. Clusters of people stand around tables of pre-nibbles provided, and Carm gestures toward one of them, and walks on over to them.

'Hey, guys!' The group of four collectively turns their heads to face us. Smiles spread across their faces. Who are these people? After a swarm of hugs and greetings, Carm introduces me, then tells me they're all her  cousins. They then proceed to shake my hand and introduce themselves individually.

'Demmy, it's short for Demeter.' a sophisticated, buisness-woman in a red blazer says.

'Hi, I'm Sam! I've heard good things about you.' a cheerful young man in a white button down and converse enthuses.

'My name's Mary.' A sweet, somewhat shy brunette girl says, outstretching her hand for me shake, which I do.

'Elenoir.' A glamourous woman with raven black hair smiles. 'So you must be Jon, ey?' she grins, clasping her hands together.

'That's me.' 

'I looked you up after Carm said you were dating. I've seen your stuff, it's really cool.' Mary adds in a quieter voice.

'Oh, well, thank you.'

'I've been watching you since Harry Potter in 99 Seconds. You're the best content creator on youtube.' Sam smiles at me. Carm puts on a dramatic shocked face. He laughs.

'Behind Carm of course.' She drops the act and replies 'No, you're right.' She jumps into another conversation with Demmy, as if that small statment which looked like it required no thought on her part hadn't just completely invalidated any doubt I may have had about her feelings for me. The fact she said that with no hesitation afterward like it was nothing.  It wasn't even a question or a moment of hesitation. I don't know. Words are weird. Soon enough, a woman in a suit, most likely the wedding planner, comes brushing us into our seats, and procedures start, next thing you know, a woman who must be Minnie basically skips down the asile, and silent tears of joy roll down Carm's face as she looks over at Connor's reaction to seeing his bride. He can't stop looking at her, and I can't stop looking at Carm. I slide my arm around her as she rests her head on my shoulder. The ceremony starts, and weddings never really had an appeal to me, and they don't now, but if I were going to get married at some point in the future, it'd be to Carm. There's no doubt in my mind, but, I've got to make sure she feels the same. Which is going to be hard when we're on opposite sides of the country. Nearly as hard as writing this song about her has been. I don't care, I'm determined. People call me a professional youtuber, internetter, social media influence, whatever, and the same people still call her an amateur, which makes no sense to me. She makes consistent quality content, she has an angelic voice, is an amazing writer, and incredibly intelligent about what she does, not to mention recently booking a broadway gig. If anything, I'm the amateur in this relationship. I can't compete with that level of perfect.

All of a sudden, the idea for this love song, the lyrics have been evading anchoring themselves in my head or on paper, suddenly it makes sense. That's it. In comparison to her, I am merely an amateur.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow this chapter sucked.

This took ages to get out because of production and the 48hour film festival and also my grandfather's death three days ago. It'll also be a while until the next chapter due to the funeral. I'll do what I can.

BUTTTTTT on the plus side, the next book has been announced! It's a Jon x Dodie fic, called ' Intertwined', and the book cover is out, so go check it out! (I'm quite proud of the editing job on it.) Amateur should hopefully be finished by December this year, (fitting, because I started in January), and the first chapter of Intertwined will likely come out a few days after the final chapter of Amateur, if not the same day. I do it this way because I can't write two books at the same time, otherwise I get disinterested in the first one and completely abandon it, which is something I'm guessing none of you want to happen.

Thank y'all for reading! I'm nearly on 3k reads, what?

See ya in the next chapter!

~Ellen Cozartist