the replacement project :: c.h.

sixteen » chapels and advanced proposals

a/n - i got so emotional writing this im laughing, i have nothing else to say!! i really hope you guys enjoy this chapter, because my tears were on the verge of falling out while writing this one.

i love you, thanks for being you,

stay happy,

x bri.

-

[ cara ]

"Lovely, isn't it?"

Grazing my hand up against the church's white-marbled walls, I nodded slowly. Above me was an elevated ceiling, stained glass and everything, about forty feet high. It was pretty damn lavish if you asked me, and was probably a little bit too much in my opinion, but hey, it's a wedding, and it was gorgeous nonetheless. It was Mali's event after all, not mine, if she preferred all-decked-out white churches and super tight, over-dramatically ruffled purple dresses that kind of looked like grape puff pastries - then it is what it is. "I'm kind of speechless."

It was a Saturday today and none of us really had any work to get done today - Cal, Ash, Michael and Luke all had today completely day off, Jack and Mali had no plans, and Emma and I were basically free every day of the week, so we'd all decided to visit the church Mali and Jack had decided on getting married in to take a look around. It basically looked like a snow castle, for lack of better words.

"It's like the house of a greek God," Emma snorted from beside me, mouth half full of hot cheetos that were beginning to slowly fall onto the clean tiles of the church. I cringed to myself. "how the hell are you guys affording this?"

"Don't curse in church." I teased, poking at Em's side. She hissed and slapped my hand away with the hand that wasn't clutching tightly onto her ziploc bag full of cheetos.

"What if I told you I was Jewish?"Emma rose her eyebrow at me, stepping away to take a seat on one of the chairs covered with white cloth.

I laughed at the same time Mali scoffed in the corner of the room, "Are you really?"

"No, but I have this strange, somewhat morbid habit of watching Holocaust documentaries before bed." Emma said, jutting her bottom lip out at me, before turning back to Mali. "Seriously, Mal, how?"

Malikoa shrugged, her eyes focused on the screen of her phone. "Liz is friends with the pastor of the church and got us a discount. Both our families are helping out so that we don't go like, bankrupt. It's not too bad."

My heart sank at the mention of bankruptcy - Heather.

It'd been two days since we'd last seen each other at the restaurant, and even there after her admittance of having a daughter, everything was awkward. Nobody really talked or said anything, I honestly just focused on eating my pasta (which was absolutely bomb) slowly enough so that I wouldn't run out of things to chew on and be forced to say much to her. What was I supposed to say? None of it seemed real, I'll be honest. Heather, an aspiring-eighteen-year-old-wedding-planner and soon-to-be college student had a two year old daughter named Paisley, whom she gave birth to at sixteen, under her roof?

Mali grunted, sliding her phone into her purse, "Jack's calling me, apparently the pastor's at the front of the church and wants to talk to us about the wedding. Are you guys gonna stay here?"

Emma and I shared a split second of eye contact before we both just nodded. As much as I definitely noticed that I was getting a lot closer to Calum, it also wasn't any secret that I was growing pretty attached and closer to Em too, and I'd learned to memorize her pretty well within the numbered days. She wasn't exactly somebody that I was ready to just hand over and give up quite yet, and I frowned at the thought. It was a miserable feeling, constantly having to remind myself that all of this was just temporary. What actually lasts forever?