Such a Surreal Place

Later that day, I went looking for the priest to hand him my vows. I found him in the reception area checking something with the lady who was earlier telling me how to walk down the aisle. He thanked me for them and as I turned around to leave I bumped straight into Mel. She quickly put her white jacket over my shoulders and urged for me to put it on properly.

“What the hell Mel?” I squeaked as she hastily tried to shove my arm through one of the sleeves.

“You gotta wear white! You’re the bride!” she squealed back and we soon burst into a fit of laughter of how ridiculous we can be at times. She made an excuse to go check on her Maid of Honour dress and left. Maid of Honour dress? Pft, yeah right. More like Zacky... I wrapped her coat around me tighter, enjoying the fact it reminded me of my marriage to Brian, and went to talk to Good Charlotte who were doing a sound check.

“Hey guys,” I said, standing in front of their small stage. I got some ‘hey’s back, but one comment interested me.

“Oh, I thought you we’re Brian...” Benji said with a laugh.

“What? Why?” I asked, confused because we look nothing alike and he wouldn’t be wearing a dress...

“He’s wearing a white jacket too,” Benji explained and I realised another reason why Mel gave me the coat. She was sneaky sometimes... “And he wears Fedoras.” Oh yeah, I’d forgotten I was wearing one... Billy pushed a few keys on his keyboard, checking it for probably the millionth time.

“Have you seen him recently?” I questioned, eager to know how Brian was doing. It really sucked not being able to talk to him.

“Yeah, when we started our sound check he was here,” Joel replied as Benji tried a short solo.

“And now we’ve finished,” Benji announced and I giggled quietly.

“So how is he?” I asked.

“Slightly nervous, but mainly super happy,” Joel answered as he stepped off the stage.

“Well that’s good news,” I said and I smiled a ‘thanks’ to the band.

“ASHLEIGH!” Zacky bellowed at me from across the room.

“ZACKY!” I shouted back equally immaturely and he smiled and waved like a little kid.

“You need to come shopping with me!” he yelled and I shrugged.

“I’ll talk to you guys later,” I said to GC and as I walked over to Zacky, I heard some jokes about girls not being able to turn the opportunity to go shopping down. Zacky took me to a small section on the premises of my wedding venue that housed a small wedding gift shop. I didn’t even know it existed. “Why am I here?”

“’Cause Syn was just here and he’s picked a gift for you tomorrow, so you need to pick out something for him,” Zacky explained and I did a full circle in the shop, staring in awe at all the gifts I could possibly choose to get him. They had everything from naughty objects to romantic gifts, but it was the jewellery that caught my eye. I looked at the necklaces, at the watches, at the cufflinks, then at the earrings.

“Well, since I know jewellery’s his thing... Wait a minute. You better not tell him what I’m getting him!” I exclaimed to Zacky who was just observing behind me.

“No way!” he cried out while holding his hands up, as if he was proving his innocence. “I’m the messenger anyway, so I’m gonna be bringing these gifts and anything else between you two tomorrow.”

“How come no one tells me these things?” I asked myself and we laughed. “Well, anyway, what do you think about those cufflinks and those earrings? Or that watch?” I pointed to diamond-like cufflinks that had a skull studded into it with little purple stones (purple’s his favourite colour), then large square earrings that were real diamonds, and then finally, an expensive Rolex, which is pretty much every man’s dream to own.

“Probably not the watch, because I can’t remember seeing him ever wear a watch,” Zacky answered with a laugh. “And we all know he likes his bling, so I dunno, I can’t choose... I think you’d be fine with either the earrings or the cufflinks. Those earrings would so replace his current ones, since he only paid like ten bucks for them.”

“Sounds like you want them, Mr Vengeance,” I commented as I stared hard at both of my options.

“Not my style,” he stated and I thought about what Brian likes to wear. He would probably never wear the cufflinks again, when earrings would be something he wears every day. But he already has a similar pair of earrings (which he’s probably wearing now) and he doesn’t wear any cufflinks (because he doesn’t have any to wear).

“Fuuuuuck... This is too hard!” I yelled, angry at myself. I turned to look at Zacky for help, but he was on the opposite side of the shop looking at sunglasses, probably for himself.

“I don’t see why you guys don’t take the cheap and spontaneous wedding option, like I did,” he said and I laughed. He’d broken my anger down into happiness. I walked over to him, trying to forget about the decision I was trying to make. “You think he’d like these?” Zacky pointed at a pair of sunglasses that were black and had a skull studded into the sides with purple stones, just like the cufflinks.

“You know what, I think he would,” I said slowly, not taking my eyes off them. They were perfect. “And that’s actually really cheap, so how about the real diamond square earrings too?”

“Your choice,” Zacky replied. That’s what I got Brian. The earrings and sunglasses. I couldn’t wait to find out what he’d gotten me, and if he had as much trouble choosing as I did...