Tomorrow's Blues

28. Realisations

It was the day before the wedding. We still had school, but whenever I was with Alice, all she could talk about was the wedding. Even Ellie was excited. We were driving up after school to the hotel we'd be staying in for a couple nights over the weekend. Alice and I would be sharing a room, Catherine and Mark in another and Joseph had a room to himself.

A few of my other classmates were going to the wedding, too, since their parents were friends with Ellie's mum. It was the social event of the year. I imagined that usually weddings wouldn't have so many teenagers there, but Michael was extremely rich. The wedding was going to be huge. Zoe was going, in my geography class, who had helped Alice at Dylan's party earlier on in the summer. Neither of us were really paying attention to what our teacher, Mrs Harris, was saying in our lesson. We were sat in the back, discussing all the champagne we were going to drink and the food we were going to eat. I wasn't close friends with Zoe, but she was very easy to get along with. She was the kind of person in the year who was just friends with everyone.

"You know, I heard that Michael spent eighty thousand pounds on the wedding," Zoe whispered to me. "Eighty thousand! The average wedding usually costs, like, thirty thousand."

"How do you know that?" I asked, doodling in the corner of the worksheet we were supposed to be doing.

"Well, because I've already planned my wedding. Obviously."

"Of course," I said, nodding. "And who's the lucky groom?"

Zoe chewed on the end of her pencil. "That's still a bit uncertain. But it's a minor detail." She thought for a moment. "You know who is yummy? Alice's brother. He could definitely be the groom."

I looked at her sharply but then controlled my expression. "Joseph? How do you know him?"

"My brother went to school with him. They're pretty good friends. So I saw him quite a lot." She sighed wistfully. "Sad for me, he only ever had eyes for a girl that also went to school with them."

"Really? Who?" I questioned curiously.

"I don't know. I never met her. My brother just told me to stop obsessing over Joseph, firstly because I had no chance, and secondly because he was taken. A kind boy, my brother." We both shut up as Mrs Harris strolled between the desks, giving us a suspicious look. We smiled at her and pretended to be writing on the worksheets. When she left, Zoe resumed talking. "But I heard he's single now. So I'll be keeping an eye out for him at the wedding." She winked at me. I forced a smile back as I reminded myself that I had absolutely no right to want to hit Zoe right now. Stupid jealousy.

"Well, he does seem to be in quite high demand," I commented offhandedly. "Something about girls being drawn to mysterious boys."

"I don't know what it is," she said, shaking her head. "Other than the fact that he's ridiculously good looking, of course. But that whole brooding thing... really gets me going."

I gave a huff of amusement. "I'm not surprised."

Zoe nudged me with her shoulder. "Well, you live with him. You know him best. Is he always mysterious and brooding?"

I shrugged. "I mean, not as brooding, but still mysterious."

"Bet a lot of girls ask you about him a lot, huh," she said knowingly. "Must get hard, having to live with a boy who looks like a model."

I elbowed her. Mrs Harris shot daggers in our direction, putting her finger to her lips. We shut up and began to actually do some work.

School ended, and I found Alice waiting by the car. She tapped her watch in an exaggerated gesture, calling, "Hurry up! I've aged ten years just waiting for you."