MAEVE’S POV
“Morning,” I yawned, coming into the lounge room with Taylah and flopping onto the armchair. “Ow!”
“What’s up?”
“My neck is killing me,” I winced, rubbing it. “Taylah was moving around like she was having a seizure last night and I had to sleep really weird.”
“Oh, come here,” Luke patted the couch in front of him. I moved over and he pulled my hair aside. My god, that boy gives a damn good massage. “Better?” he asked and I nodded.
The door slammed and we all jumped. Georgia burst in and dropped her bag on the floor and started pacing up and down in front of us. Everyone just looked around at each other, totally confused.
“This is unbelievable!” Georgia stopped and turned to us. “This is actually unbelievable. I hate life. I hate everyone. Why?”
“Georgia, breathe,” I cut over her rambling and she took a deep breath in. “Now, explain.”
“My parents are coming to visit,” she fell backwards into a beanbag, ending up with her blonde hair all over her face.
“That’s great,” Tyrone said cheerfully.
“No. No it is not great,” she groaned, sitting up. “Have you ever wondered why my parents shipped me off to live with Uncle Ronan? It’s because they don’t want me around.”
Everyone was silent, just looking at her. She jumped up again, apparently unsatisfied with staying still.
“They’re these massive socialites, right,” she explained, treading a path in the rug. “Having a kid, never part of their plans. They’ve never been happy with anything I’ve ever done, ever. So they pushed me off onto somebody who actually wanted me as soon as they had the chance. I haven’t seen them for months, and even before that, I never saw them anyway. Now they’re coming, and I need to hide because I’m sick of disappointing them and I can’t sit through dinner with them and their stupid judging looks and-”
She cut off and closed her eyes and took another breath. Then she opened them and had that ‘I just had a brilliant idea’ face on.
“You guys should come,” she announced. “No wait, you guys have to come. Don’t say no, or I’ll kill you all, please.”
“Hey, I’m game,” Christian shrugged and Georgia smiled brightly at him. “Should be fun.”
“But you need to be on your best behavior,” she warned. “Oh, and it’ll probably be fancy, they’ll have all the most important people invited. They can’t resist showing off.”
“It sounds like we need to go shopping,” Tay said with a sly smile and I reached over to high five her. “Right, boys, you stay here and stay out of trouble. Make yourself look presentable, we’ll get ready at Maeve’s. You can come pick us up when I text you. Come on ladies, lets roll.”
This definitely called for a Topshop visit. We divided and conquered, each taking on a different rack and looking out for the three of us. Then we took our finds to the dressing rooms and paraded in front of the mirrors.
After dresses, it was straight to shoes, then accessories. By the time we left, we each had the perfect outfit. If we couldn’t impress the well-off guests, then I will have lost all faith in humanity.
“Give the boys a call,” Tay suggested. “Check they haven’t burnt the house down.” I nodded and tapped away at my phone.
“You’ve reached Luke Howell, how can I amaze you this evening?” his voice came through the phone.
“I’d be amazed if you managed not to be cocky,” I laughed. “How’s everything there?”
“Just fabulous,” he said happily. “Everyone’s beh – Christian go put a shirt on! Like I said, we’re all good here. How are you ladies doing?”
“We’re good too,” I replied as we walked up the driveway to my house. “We just got to mine, we’re going inside to get ready. We should be ready in about an hour, but I’ll let you know, alright?”
“Ciao bella,” he laughed and hung up.
“The house is safe,” I reported. “Christian is shirtless, and we have an hour. Leggo!”
We’d pretty much perfected our pre-going out routine by now. One person would get dressed, one would do hair and one would do makeup, and switch. 45 minutes and we were 100% good to go.
To: Luke ‘Amazeballs’ Howell
We’re all fabbed up and ready to go, you boys better be as well
From: Luke ‘Amazeballs’ Howell
Have some faith babe! On our way now.
We did one final check in the mirror, and I’m not going to lie, we looked hot.
Taylah had gone with a royal blue dress with an abstract cutout neckline and a pair of black wedge boots. Her hair was in curls with two bits braided back at the front on each side.
Georgia’s dress was emerald green, tight and fully sequined, and she’d paired it with peep toe black wedges and silver and black jewellery. She’d left her hair natural and it fell down her back like a golden sheet.
The dress I’d chosen was cream lace with a sweetheart neckline and a heart cutout in the back. I wore it with tan, laceup ankle boots. My hair was dead straight and I had a thin braid going around my crown like a circlet wreath.
We went down to the kitchen where Muffy was feeding the kids. She went all teary when we came in, how embarrassing.
“Oh, let me go get my camera,” she ran out just as the doorbell rang.
“It’s open,” I called and heard it open and close. I could hear the boys before I saw them, being loud as per usual. They all burst into the kitchen and stopped dead.
“Wow,” Luke said slowly.
“You’re not wrong,” Mitchel nodded.
“You guys,” Brock crossed his arms.
“Look amazing,” Chrisitan finished for him.
Tyrone just whistled.
“Thanks, I think,” Georgia laughed, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear.
“You look pretty Mamie,” James tottered over from the TV.
“She does, doesn’t she?” Luke crouched down beside him and smiled up at me. I could feel myself blushing so I turned away into the kitchen.
“You’re not leaving until I get photos,” Muffy reemerged, standing in the doorway to block our way out. We all gathered together in front of the wall. We did a nice, serious one first all just standing there and smiling. Then we all broke into stupid poses. Luke wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek just as Muffy took the picture.
“That’s gorgeous!”
