Goodnight and Go [H.S.]

VI

*Night before the wedding*

I'm currently laying on top of my bed at the hotel I've just checked into. Gwen wanted the bridal party to stay in a hotel close to the venue the night prior to the wedding. She said it was so we would all be here and leave together to head to the venue tomorrow morning to get ready with hair and makeup - there would be no chance of anyone running late. I tried to tell her that I would be here on time since I only lived a few blocks away, but she wasn't having it. Of course, I gave in.

My hands rest on my stomach as I pick at one of my cuticles, chewing on the inside on my cheek. I had so many emotions flowing through me that I didn't really know what to feel. It's like instead of letting myself focus on one of them and bring it forward, I was just trying my best to push them all away.

Harry avoided looking at me at dinner after I told everyone I was moving, and I know it's because he's upset that I didn't tell him.

And I hate how good it kind of felt to keep something from him for once.

He kept asking my sister out on a date from me. He kept him planning to propose to my sister away from me. He kept buying a house with my sister away from me.

I was coming to the realization that he only hid the big things between him and Gwen under wraps - the milestones. As much as I wanted to get to the root of why that was, I knew it was better if I didn't dwell on it. I'm sure underneath everything it has something to do with his previous feelings for me. Maybe he feels the need to keep things really separated in that aspect.

I'm drawn out of my thoughts when I hear a knock at my door, and I sit up on my elbows - looking over to it. I wait a moment before it comes again. I push myself off the bed, thanking myself for not changing out of what I was wearing from the rehearsal dinner yet, and I open the door to reveal my mother.

"Mom, is everything okay?" I ask, and she just looks at me before making her way instead. I roll my eyes and close the door behind her before muttering under my breath. "Sure, just come right in."

Turning around, I see she walks over to the table that's in the corner of the room with a chair and she sits down. "Please take a seat on the bed, Carter."

The tone she's using has a knot forming in my stomach, but I swallow down my anxiety as best as I can. I do as I'm told, and I make sure to hold her eyes so she doesn't reprimand me any further.

"Do you want to explain to me why all of a sudden you're moving, and why you felt it was appropriate to announce that at your sister's rehearsal dinner?"

"Oh, well, I didn't think that-"

"Well of course you didn't think. I believe we've already established that with how you carried out your actions. The night before your sister's big day, a night that's supposed to have the focus on her, and you somehow go and make it about yourself again," my mother shakes her head before letting out a heavy sigh. "You had been doing so well for a while, and it's like after Harry's bachelor party you started begging for attention again."

I grimace slightly at her words. "My intention was never to have the attention on me tonight, and I can promise you that. I just figured that we had everyone in one place. I thought that it would be easier just to tell you all then instead of having to tell each person individually. Gwen tried making it a bigger deal than it was. But you also focused the attention on me when you asked me where Alfie was. You could've pulled me aside and done that separately."

My mother glares at me from her seat, and I have to force myself not to shift uncomfortably under her gaze. For once throughout the whole ordeal of wedding planning, I want to hold my own against her.