Future as Bright as Halogen

‘GREETINGS FROM TOGO’

‘You are cordially invited to the wedding of Amber Felicity Atkins and Spike McKinley.’

Macy started at her post with a furrowed brow. The crisp white wedding invite with the gold embossed lettering on corrugated cardboard seemed to weigh a tonne. As predicted the wedding would take place at the family country house in St. Michaels in Maryland. She shuddered as she thought of all the distinguished guests that would be there.

To block this thought from her mind she picked up the crummy postcard and looked intently at the pictures on the front. There were several small pictures of a beach, mud huts, beautiful dark skinned women in national dress, the football team and a smiling child holding what was presumably the flag of Togo.

She wondered for a moment who on earth could have sent it, but almost the minute she let her mind entertain this question, the answer hit her.

“Chase,” she muttered angrily under her breath and flipped the card over.

It was written in his usual scrawl that was similar to a primary school child’s handwriting. Considering it wasn’t a very big postcard he had managed to fit a surprising amount of text on.

Dear Macy. Landed in Sierra Leone via parachute about a month ago. Been trekking with the guys ever since. Getting lifts off lorry’s and battered buses. Walked pretty much through all of Ghana, want to walk into Sudan through Chad but lots of people are saying we shouldn’t because of the civil wars. I miss you. Hope you’ll be home when I come back.
Chase.

For a couple of seconds Macy’s mind was blank. But the minute she dropped the postcard onto the coffee table, that familiar angry indignant feeling rose up in her.

He always had the worst timing in the whole world. Just as she had slowly managed to get over everything that had to do with him, he had to push himself into her life. It was just so typical of him and just showed how little he thought his own personal life through. She scowled at the card that was lying on the table, wishing with all her heart that she had never received it. Next to it was lying the wedding invitation, something that she too wished had never found its way to her,

With a deep sigh she pulled her blackberry out of her skinny jeans pocket and pressed the speed-dial that was assigned to the Simpson-Wentz household.

Half an hour later she found herself in the park with Bronx, and more surprisingly Gabe. Pete and Ashlee were attending an art gallery opening that evening followed by a film premier, rather than hiring a baby sitter or ringing Jessica they were overjoyed to have Macy offer, as well as Gabe, who was still resident in their house.

“So what brings you to the park instead of work?” Gabe asked as he sat down next to Bronx in the sand pit and handed him a small spade.

“A wedding invite from Maryland and a postcard from Togo.”

Gabe looked up from the mini sand castle he had started to build with Bronx, and shot Macy a confused look. She explained that the invite had come from home and that the postcard was from Chase. Gabe nodded in all the right places, and let her rant but when it came down to it he didn’t say a word. He didn’t want to influence her in her opinions, and decided to keep his own opinion private. When really he thought that Chase was an egotistical jerk who had let go of an amazing girl.

Macy was glad that Gabe didn’t feel the need to give his opinion on the matter and so after she had exhausted her angry vocabulary, she too joined Gabe and Bronx in the sand box and whiled the afternoon away.

The real excitement occurred the next day, when Macy was dragged into the studio by Gabe.

“No fucking way!”

Macy was stood in the door of the studio starting at Gabe with wide eyes that sparkled with excitement.

Those who were in the studio all laughed and Nate just patted Macy on the shoulder.

“Yes fucking way,” Gabe said with a grin. “I figured you’d want to meet her being such a Gossip Girl addict.”

“I get to meet Leighton Meester!’ Macy sang as she grabbed Suarez’s head between her hands squishing his cheeks in excitement.

The day had started out well for Macy, but that was probably because she woke up in the guest bedroom at Ashlee and Pete’s house. This had become a frequent occurrence since she split up with Chase. She didn’t like sleeping in her empty apartment when, despite having burned most of the things that reminded her of the failed relationship, something of their past still hung in the air and it made her feel uncomfortable.

Pete had even given Macy her own closet in the guest room into which she could put changes of clothes. Their hospitality always warmed her heart.

Macy had descended into the big kitchen to make waffles when she saw that someone else had beaten her to it.

Gabe was stood in the middle of the kitchen splattered with waffle mixture. She had laughed at him and together they cleaned up the mess and Macy fixed the mixture. Shortly they were joined by Ashlee, Pete and Bronx and everyone sat down to eat the home cooked breakfast before Gabe cleared his throat and made his announcement.

“You’re going to come to the studio with me today Macy,” he said looking at her in a way that showed she couldn’t argue.

She looked at him furtively before moving her gaze to Ashlee and Pete, who was watching Bronx mash up a waffle in his hand. Mr and Mrs Wentz had suspicious grins on their faces and Macy was feeling slightly uneasy at the thought of a conspiracy that involved everyone but her.

But then once she was in the studio, her jaw had practically hit the floor when she was told whom she was going to meet.

“Why did you not tell me you guys were recording a song with Leighton freaking Meester?” she said, still jumping up and down in her Kenneth Cole shoes with excitement.

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Gabe said with a grin.

Whilst Gabe went to go and get Leighton, Macy was talking to Vicky and Ryland. Both of them had knowing smiles on their faces, but Macy was oblivious to them in her excitement to meet Leighton. Vicky and Ryland had heard all about Macy and knew how sweet Gabe was for her. They could understand why. She had the same temperament as him, if there was something on her mind she would say it and she didn’t mind having to step up and taking control when everyone was depending on her. She was almost the female version of Gabe.

Macy was just about to ask Vicky where she bought her shoes from when Gabe and Leighton walked into the room. Macy let out and excited squeak and became almost surprisingly bashful. In person Leighton was, if possible, even more beautiful. None of the bitchy characteristics of Blair Waldorf constituted Leighton.

And for the first time in a long time Macy was absolutely star struck. She hadn’t even been this star struck when she met Bono. Macy later on put that down to the fact that she was more in awe of Leighton’s beauty and fashion than Bono’s star appeal.

After introducing Leighton to Macy, Gabe and the rest of Cobra Starship retreated to the sound booth to re-record a certain part of the song that Leighton was singing on.

“It’s so good to finally meet you,” Leighton said warmly, confusing Macy for a second.

“Finally?” she asked, the confusion evident in her voice.

“He’s been talking a lot about you recently. Only ever says nice things, it’s really cute,” Leighton said with a grin. “You two would make a lovely couple.”

And to her own horror, Macy found herself blushing violently much to Leighton’s delight. But Macy quickly changed the tact of the conversation as she asked where Leighton’s shoes were from.

But as the Gossip Girl star walked into the vocal booth, Macy couldn’t help but think over what she had said. In a way Macy could see herself with Gabe. He had all the good qualities that Chase had, and more. But with everything going on at the moment, the last thing that Macy could handle was a new relationship.