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        The night is finally coming to a close, people congratulating Abbie and Nolan, saying goodbye, and trickling out of the reception hall. It's an hour or more before everyone is gone, including my sister and her new husband. They are spending their first night as a married couple in the honeymoon suite. Then, tomorrow morning, they'll fly to Jamaica for their honeymoon, and the official start of their life together.

        Pierce and I are the last two people from the wedding in the building, me because I volunteered to do the clean-up, him because he's a good friend. I collect glasses, dumping what remains of each into a bucket before neatly stacking them on a cart. A few workers bustle around me, sweeping and picking up trash, but otherwise it's quiet.

        "Aren't other people paid to do this?" Pierce asks out of the blue, and when I look over he's downing another glass of champagne.

        I shrug, "Yeah, but I want to help. This way it'll get done faster, plus these people have done so much for us."

        "You're too nice for your own good, Annabel Faye Rizley," he says with a shake of his head, and I notice how much his speech is slurring.

        "Instead of getting plastered, how 'bout you help me, hmm?" I tease, tossing a towel at him.

        Pierce rolls his eyes, but picks up an empty glass near him and hands it to me. The next glass he scoops up is half full, and I watch in horror as he throws it back, swallowing it in one, big gulp. "What? 'm helping like you asked," he says sheepishly.

        "You're disgusting."

        "Come on," he goads, taking the glass from my hands and yanking me toward the exit, "You've helped enough."

        My resistance is weak as my feet have been howling at me for two or more hours. So, after snatching my clutch off the front table, I follow Pierce out of the reception hall and into the hotel lobby. Pierce stumbles every other step and has to hold onto me to keep from falling over as we make our way toward the elevators. I'm nearly holding up the entirety of his body weight as we wait for the lift to arrive.

        When it does, I shove Pierce inside, "What floor are you on?"

        Pierce snorts, "I can't afford to stay here; you're mental!"

        "So where the bloody hell were you expecting to stay?" I ask incredulously.

        He shrugs, and I can't help but notice that he looks exactly as he did in grade eleven, all perfectly disheveled hair and bright eyes. He hasn't changed a bit, and it's nice, it's familiar. Pierce has always been around; he's helped me through the toughest moments in my life, played a major part in some of the best. Sometimes you get lost, and you just need a reminder of how important people are to you, and how much they care about you.

        "You're a right idiot, you know that, yeah?" I ask as I punch the button for the fifteenth floor, causing the number to glow a soft yellow. The doors shut with a quiet thud, and immediately, we begin ascending toward my hotel room. It takes less than a minute for us to arrive, and we come tumbling out, me nearly falling as I support Pierce.

        "Thanks, Annie Lou Who."

        "One more comment and I'm leaving your arse in the hallway," I retort, jabbing his ribs with my elbow.

        Pierce presses his lips in a tight line as he refrains from voicing whatever response is on the tip of his tongue; and that's smart of him. The walk to my hotel room seems endless, but that might be because I'm carrying some drunken idiot who's twice my size. Eventually though, we make it to the door: Room 1547. In order to retrive my card key, I prop Pierce against the wall, where he leans his head back and looks as if he's going to doze off.

        Finally, I get the door unlocked and kick it open, intending to turn back quickly and grab Pierce. As I turn my head, something in the dimly lit room catches my attention. I do a double take and nearly faint at what I see. Standing three feet from the door holding a large bouquet of flowers, is Harry, clad in a three piece suit and tie. And I'm not sure what he was expecting to happen, but me standing their like an idiot, jaw slack, letting the door slam between us was probably not it.

xx

hiiii. yeah, this is crazy short and probably not good, but I wanted to update this real quick because I have the next part planned out and just needed to kind of fill in the gap to that point. so blah, here it is. comment and vote if you don't hate me for taking so long to update xoxo