Greaser

37. Wedding Shopping

N I A L L

“Come on, Niall.” I laid my eyes on a frowning Mary standing in the doorway of our bedroom. I rolled my eyes smiling at her figure.

“Fine.” I quickly mumbled, jumping out of bed before grabbing a pair of jeans and sliding them on, along with a white tee shirt and my jean vest. “But I don’t know why we have to go pick out table settings so early.” I shrugged, following her out of the bedroom and down the hallway. I stopped at Tony’s room, poking my head through the doorway.

“Hey Ton,” I lightly hit the doorframe with my hand to get him to look in my direction, “Do you want to go to Aubrey’s for a few hours?” He shrugged, nodding as he stood up from his spot on his floor.

“Why am I going to Aubrey’s?”

“Eh, Mary and I just have to go run some errands. That’s all.”

“What kind of errands?” why did kids have to be so curious? It was weird for Tony to be asking so many questions, he must have picked that up from Mary. She asked way too many.

“Wedding shopping.” I replied, watching Mary walk out the front door before I asked him my question that I’ve been itching to ask. “How do you feel about this, Tony?”

He slumped his shoulders, tying his shoes, “I really like Mary,” he smiled, “But what if the same thing happens like with mom?” he frowned.

“Tony, come here.” I sighed, taking a seat on the couch before putting my arms out. “You know I won’t ever let that happen.” I began, “And I know Mary will always talk to me before she does something rash.” I explained. “She won’t leave like mom did that night.”

“But she did. She ran back home and she got hurt.” He looked down, fidgeting with his fingers as he stood in front of me.

“Tony, bud, I promise that won’t happen again.”

He smiled, his arms wrapping around my neck in a hug. “I love you Anthony.”

“I love you Nialler.” I patted his back as I stood up, tossing my arm around his shoulders, finally walking out the front door to meet Mary in the car. “I don’t mind going to Aubrey’s. I really like her.” He smiled.

“You’ve got a little crush, don’t ya?” I teased, seeing him shake his head. But by how red his face was getting I knew it wasn’t far off.

-

“What were you talking to Tony about?” Mary broke the silence in the car after we dropped Tony off at Aubrey’s house. To be honest, she had been so confusing the past few weeks that I actually enjoyed the silence when it came around.

“I don’t want to tell you.” I mumbled hesitantly.

“Why?”

“Because, you’re—weird. You’re so moody from all this planning stress.” I chuckled, looking at the store fronts to find the store Mary had talked about going to the past week.  

She laughed, nudging my arm.

“Don’t do that, I’m driving.” I scolded, “He’s afraid—he thinks that what happened to my mom is gonna happen to you.”  

“That’s crazy.” She shook her head, “The guy who did that to your mom is locked up, and he can’t get to me anymore.”  

“That’s—I guess I didn’t really tell him that. But I said that you wouldn’t run out again, because he had a point when he said you did it once and got hurt. I guess he’s still hurt about the whole thing.” I shrugged, “Maybe we could take him out to grab something to eat and then go see a movie again. Get his mind off of things.”