Second Snapshot (Picture This Sequel: Niall Horan)

-Cupcake catastrophes. [Chapter 43]

CHAPTER FORTY THREE- Cupacke catastrophes.

"So," Elise said spreading out the various spread sheets in front of her. My eyes fell upon one labelled B R I D E S M A I D S and I winced at the extravagant mood board theme.  

"Ashley and Meg this is your one."

I was convinced that all the other bridesmaids had to be brainwashed by Elise. Their hair was almost all the same shade of vivid blood red (although I was sure it wasn’t sold as this) and even at some point when they took to almost synchronised hair flipping I was a bit concerned that I was going to be eased into dying mine. I couldn't help but notice my blonde locks sticking out like a saw thumb against their unnatural Rihanna red, but different’s good, right? Too bad it feels so much better to fit in, but of course this wasn’t the only factor that made up their posy of similarities. And then of course there was the beyond annoying giggle but I wasn’t even sure I could call it this it was more of a cackle. One of those too feeble to be evil cackles that you just knew once they started speaking you'd have to evacuate any terms of friendship before they even developed but unfortunately this was too late for me. One because I would not be able to stand months of fittings, planning’s and general wedding drama if I wasn’t able to at least pretend to get along with them. And two because in Elise's eyes I was not only a co-worker but a friend and this, was out of my depth for me.

"But you know I can’t wear green it totally clashes with my eyes!" 

Abigail, a natural blonde, I observed, protested. I noticed she was always clad in something or other pink. Such as the hot pants she was sporting yesterday or the hairband she was using to push back her blood red quiff. And she always had bright pink lip gloss on now and from watching her apply this on the hour I learned that it was called Berry-Pop and glinted in the light. I had also learn that she had gone through a recent break up with a football player named Caleb although I wasn’t at all convinced there was a real relationship in the first place and there was confusion of whether he had conceived with another women or not but it was such a quick conversation it was hard to make out any definite details. Apparently they had gone out for dinner and he had done a drop and run, scandalous. As described by Elise herself. Who's, love life I was still to be informed of. To be honest I think all of them but me had what Mallory caught in the last year of high school, an almost incurable disease called wedding fever. Aside from listening to constant glowering over how they couldn’t wait to settle down, find themselves a nice rich football player like Abigail had, or even a guy from a successful boy band. At this point all heads turned to me and I felt something twist inside of me, something snap, embarrassing almost, that they could even believe that I was with Niall because he was in a seriously successful boy band and because of this he had money. And that they were okay with it and almost admired me for it.  

"That's not he reason I'm with him at all." I was so quick to add and they all just looked at me with wide eyes and open mouths almost expecting me to backtrack right then and say that I was joking and of course it was all just a game of money, but when I didn’t and looked back at them seeming completely serious they almost looked at me if I was some kind of alien race that had invaded all terms of modern relationships.

"Are you...feeling alright?"

Becky, the natural brunette asked me confusion flooding her face. I was tempted to shoot it back, to ask all of them if they were okay, if they were the ones I should be worried about. But then suddenly I felt outnumbered, foreign even. And then I began questioning if love even was a valid factor to endure in anymore. I knew it was for Niall and I but sometimes we were out of sync with the outer world, as if we were so wrapped up in each other we wouldn’t notice if a tornado hit, let alone a shift in the way relationships were gone about. Had things really been that bad in the world that things had turned to be revolving around money and nothing was nonphysical anymore? I didn't know. But the way they had all still been staring at me with open mouths promised otherwise.