Narcissus

Chapter Thirty-Three

A/N I'm back! Hope you're all doing well. The spaces between each line break are really big for some reason because Wattpad hates me, I apologise!

Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Cover pic is the actress that inspires Elise, Synnove Macody Lund, however feel free to imagine her looking however you would like.

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"I shan't do it."

"Elise, cmon. Cmon."

"Emma, no."

"Why not?"

"Because," the woman said angrily, "I refuse to look like a fool!"

"It's literally just an outfit! It's 2016, live a little! Please, for me?" I pouted up at the woman from the bed and she stilled, glaring at me.

"Don't you pull that face at me, Slater."

"Please, Elise!" I batted my eyelashes and stood up, trotting over to her. It took all of five seconds for her resolve to crumble as she playfully swatted me away and returned to the vanity where she was taking off her makeup.

"Fine, fine!" said the woman, "But I'm only dressing up for the party, not anything before that."

"Perfect!" I responded jubilantly, and that was how we found ourselves, four months later, standing in the middle of the street at around six o'clock in the evening on the 31st of October. Elise was dressed in a charcoal pantsuit and heels and I wore a pinstriped suit with a blood-red bowtie, slicked-back hair and a painted moustache. Without Elise dressed in her matching outfit, we made a rather odd pair, as it looked a little like I hadn't dressed up at all - like this was a normal Monday outfit for me; however, Isla made up for Elise's lack of enthusiasm as she bounded about with her similarly oddly dressed school friends. We were supposed to be the Addams family, or at least, three of them; however Elise wouldn't get dressed until the party later and Isla's wig was too itchy and my bowtie kept falling off, so now Wednesday Addams was a blonde and Gomez Addams had no bow tie and Morticia Addams was an uptight, snobbish aristocrat. In hindsight, Elise fit the part rather well.

"Hello, Miss Brown!" said a little boy by the name of Charlie Green. He was beaming up at me with a bag full of sweets and eyes full of childish wonder.

"Hello, Charlie!" I said happily, my arm wrapped absentmindedly around my girlfriend's waist, "You do make a rather dashing spiderman, I must say!"

"What are you supposed to be?" the boy asked bluntly with a wrinkled nose.

"Something a little before your time, I think," said Elise gently, softly, and the boy just gave a simple giggle before turning to look for his parents.

"Sparrow, hello," I said awkwardly, watching the middle-aged father of Charlie appeared, shaking his hand stiffly. He was one of the older dads and was as unpleasant as his name was odd, and since the news of Elise and I's relationship had spread through the village the only contact I had had with the man was the scathing articles he wrote in the freelance village newspaper about us.