Butterfly • Book 1/3

3

•••••PLEASE READ THE IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE AFTER THE PROLOGUE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY.•••••

3rd Person POV
April 10th, 2017

Ben's hand shakes as he attempts to put pen to the lilac paper that had seemed to haunt him these past two months.
"I, Benjamin Bruce, politely-
His doorbell rings, causing him to groan in frustration. Before he can open the door himself, it opens, and Danny steps through the threshold with Elena.
"Haven't you ever heard of waiting until the homeowner opens the door? You could get shot for doing shit like that."
Elena apologizes. "He told me it was okay that we just walked in."
"I wouldn't have shot you, I would've shot him." Ben laughs. "It's fine, I gave him a key for a reason." He turns to Danny. "Not to be rude, but why in the bloody hell are you here?"
"Because, why not?" Ben doesn't laugh at his comment. "We wanted to see if you'd like to go with us to pick out a suit to wear to the wedding?"
"Why would I want to do that?"
"You need something to wear, obviously."
"Danny," Elena puts a hand on her boyfriend's arm. "You don't need to pressure him."
He huffs. "Well, he can at least help me."
"If I agree to go with you, do you promise to leave me the hell alone?"
"Quite possibly, yes"
Ben groans and stomps off to his bedroom like a spoiled child. He runs a brush through his tangled brown locks, shoving a random SnapBack atop his head. Ben isn't one to care so much about his appearance, you either take him or leave him the way he is.
A few child like tantrums later, Ben emerges from his room clad in ripped denim skinny jeans, a Metallica crew neck, and combat boots.
Danny wolf-whistles. "Lookin' good, Mr. Bruce!"
Ben flips Danny off and grabs his keys. "I'm driving so I can leave if you piss me off."
Elena nods, smoothing out her black skirt as she stands up. "That's fair, but I'll try to keep him from pissing you off."
"His mere presence pisses me off." Ben mutters. "But I have to love him anyway, I work with him."
They exit the Bruce household and begin the 20 minute drive to the place where a bunch of rowdy teenagers like to congregate, the mall, a place Ben loathed most days.
A few fans stopped Ben and Danny for pictures as they walked towards a shop that sold formalwear for men. The pair happily signed autographs and took pictures with the teenagers and young adults. They loved to see their fans in public and they loved to make them happy more than anything, they put the fans' happiness before their own almost always.
Elena holds up a random shirt towards Ben once they enter the shop. "What size are you? I think this would look good on you."
"I thought I wasn't being forced to buy clothes?" He asks. "And I'm a large usually."
"I'm not forcing you to buy it, I'm forcing you to try it on."
Ben holds up his hands in defense. "Well then, slow down Queen Sarcastic."
"You're one to talk, Benjamin." Danny butts in. "Almost everything that comes out of your mouth is laced with sarcasm."
Ben shakes his head and takes the shirt from Elena. It's a dark grey shirt, almost black, with tiny green polka dots. "Kinda bold, dontcha think?"
"Just go try it on."
Ben obliges, grabbing random shirts from the rack as he went by. Danny questions him as to why he was grabbing shirts if he didn't want to try anything on, to which Ben replied, "Gotta make wasting my precious time worth it!"
The green polka dotted shirt made Ben look like he had man tits, so it was obviously a no. The only shirt that looked even half decent was a maroon shirt with grey polka dots. (He doesn't know where his sudden polka dot addiction came from.)
When he emerged from the dressing room, Danny had on a baby shit green shirt underneath a light grey suit. He looked as if he was 6 months pregnant, because neither of the two things fit. Ben couldn't contain his laughter, and he didn't want to. He doubled over, almost falling on the floor. He didn't understand why he thought Danny looked so funny, or why he's laughing so excessively. Elena joins in on the laughter.
"Shut up you lot, help me find something!" Danny half-yells at the pair.
An hour later, they leave the store with Ben's maroon shirt and a grey suit and blue shirt for Danny.
"Now it's my turn!" Elena squeals.
Both guys groan, knowing that this part of the shopping journey would be longer than theirs. Girls try on every single item in the store, Ben learned that one from Alana.

~A/N: We're just going to time skip until Ben gets home cause I don't want to drag this part out too much more.~

Once again, Ben is sat at his kitchen table, pen in hand, staring at the lilac paper. A Samuel Adams beer sat to the left of him, beads of water slowly inching their way down the bottle due to the temperature change from the freezer to the kitchen table.
This decision has been haunting him for a while. The one he was going to make this morning is completely different from the one he's contemplating now. The shopping excursion with Danny and Elena opened his eyes, and he decided to stop being a stubborn asshole and accept the fact that the man Alana loves isn't him, and that he's over her, and that he's been over her.
Ben takes a sip of the ice cold beer, and then another. He blinks a couple times and then sighs loudly, running a hand over his face. He bites his lip as he brings the pen to the paper.
"I, Benjamin Bruce, politely accept the invitation to the joining of love between Mr. Andrey Nathaniel Voss and Alana Rae Medvedev on the 29th of May, 2017 at 4:30 p.m at the Moscow, Russia Flower Garden."