The Kind of Hoax That Leaves a Lump in Your Throat

Josh and I entered the pub, hand in hand, to a thunderous applause. At first I thought it was because we’d finally arrived, but when josh lightly kissed my temple and the cheers got louder I realised they were cheering because we were holding hands. I blushed furiously and tried to hide my face in josh’s arm but he just steered me towards the bar.

“What do you want love?”

“I’ll just have a coke; I better keep a clear head”

“But we’re celebrating”

“Yeah, well whenever we go out, you always get pissed. I need to make sure you don’t do anything stupid tonight”

“Ouch” he said, holding his free hand over his heart. “Im wounded. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll only have a few yeah, then I can look after you instead of the other way around”

I was about to protest when the bar man showed up and josh ordered for me. Afterwards he handed me the glass with a smile and figuring I haven’t let my hair down in a while, I accepted it without arguments.

“So im gonna go find the girls, but I’ll catch up with you later yeah?”

“I’ll make sure of it” he said and he kissed my cheek one last time before we parted ways.

The girl’s weren’t hard to find, and thankfully they were all together. I shared an emotional reunion with Charlie first because I hadn’t seen her in the longest. I then moved on to Zahra and then liana before taking a seat next to my sister.

“What took you two so long to get here” coral asked, sipping her orange juice with a suggestive wink. But I had no time to answer because liana was grabbing my wrists lightly.

“I thought I told you to keep these covered” she scolded lightly and I carefully drew my hands away.

“Sorry, I only took it off half an hour early, and I have a good reason. Josh grabbed my wrist and cause it hurt he thought I’d cut myself”

“He thought what?” Zahra said, her mouth now in an ‘o’ shape.

“Exactly. So I just showed them to him early.”

“Im guessing but the way you two walked in here looking like you’d won the lottery that he liked it” Charlie smiled and I couldn’t help the blush that covered my cheeks so I hid my face, smiling like an idiot.

“It scares me how good I am sometimes” liana said, taking my wrists again and lightly tracing her work.

“Well if you’re happy baby sis, so am I” coral said. “And thank you for helping Sonnie and I with all of this. I say we raise a toast” she exclaimed and we all grabbed out drinks, as well as everyone around us who was listening in. “to violet” she announced and everyone raised their glasses shouting my name in unison before necking back whatever was left in their cup.

I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders and looked up to see Sonnie there. He lightly kissed my forehead and then took the seat on the other side of coral; Freddy came over after, followed by Oakley and Ali. I looked around for josh and found him sitting with dan and Chris. All three of them fully engrossed with whatever they were talking about, so I decided to leave him.

“Im glad you two are together actually” I said reaching into my bag and pulling out the present I’d wrapped earlier on this the day. “I got you this. Well it’s not actually for you as such, but still” I smiled and coral took it from me.

“You didn’t need to get anything Vi; you’ve done more than enough for us”

“Oh be quiet and open it” I smiled and she tore into the paper.

Inside was a brown teddy with a little white t-shirt on. But this wasn’t just any teddy. When coral was 5 and I was just about two, our mum had brought them and given them to us. She told us that they were special and maybe one day we might want to give them to our own children. We looked after those things like they were the crown jewels, but as time went on, and as we grew up they took more of a back seat.

When coral was 16 she told mum she was getting rid of it. Told her it took up room that she needed, and it was a bit childish to have teddies lying around. Mum was upset and told her she would regret it, but coral threw it out anyway.

I kept mine and still have it to this day. I didn’t see it as childish, I saw it as something to remind myself of how life used to be, and hopefully pass it down to my children.

I was out shopping for a gift when I saw it. I’d been wandering around on my own for 4 hours and hadn’t found anything when I saw it in the window of a charity shop. The woman told me no one would buy it because someone’s name was written on the back of the ear but they thought it was to cute to get rid of. When she showed it to me the name coral was written neatly on the back. Just like mine said violet.

I told her it didn’t matter and tried to keep the smile from my face. Clearly I was meant to come here and get this, that’s why I hadn’t been able to find anything else.

Corals eyes went wide and her eyes shot to mine.

“is this…”

“Check the back” I said with a smile and she did, somehow her eyes growing even larger. She quickly gave Sonnie the teddy before throwing her arms around me. I could feel her crying so I just rubbed her back, and when she pulled away I quickly helped her wipe away the tears.

“Where did you get it?”

“I found it in a charity shop the other day, thought you might like it back”

“Violet thank you so much” she said, hugging me again before launching into a story about the bear to everyone else who were looking at us like idiots.

I felt another hand on my shoulder and looked up to find josh. He pulled me up before taking my seat and then sitting me on his lap and handing me another drink.

“You trying to get me drunk franceschi?”

“Maybe” he said sheepishly. “Just drink up, ive got plenty more where they came from.” He said with a wink.

For the next 2 or so hours we drank and laughed and drank and sung and drank and drank some more. I’d clearly had to much cause I couldn’t seem to get my legs to function and would have fallen over id matt hadn’t saved me.

“I see josh has been force feeding you the vodka” he said with a smile and I found it hilarious and could not for the life of me stop laughing. “Urh josh mate, you might wanna come sit with you’re bird, I think she’s had a bit too much”

Josh came over then, with max, chris and dan trailing behind to come and gawk at me no doubt. I don’t think they’d ever seen me this out of it before.

“He’s a bad influence that josh” max said to me.

“Yeah” chris agreed. “I thought you were the picture of innocence, but spend five minutes with this guy and you’ve turned into a drunken wreck”

“I expected more from you” max said to me, he mouth was set but his eyes were crackling with humour. I tired to hold in the laughter but it came out and suddenly all six of us were in hysterics.

The sound of everyone shouting ‘speech’ soon drowned out our laughter and we all made our way over to where everyone else was. Coral patted the chair next to her and I somehow made it over there without falling over.

“Violet, why don’t you say something?” coral asked.

“Me” I slurred and pointed to myself.

“Yes you” she giggled. “You are the only violet in here”

“Yeah go on vi” dan called and I looked over at him before shrugging my shoulders and standing up. Wrong idea though cause I started to fall to the side so I sat back down again.

“You know, I’ll just sit” I said and everyone started to laugh. Clearly I was more out of it than I thought. When the laughter died down I launched into my vey unprepared speech.

“So im not much of a speaker, but here we go. Um ive know coral all my life… wait she’s my sister so that’s a pretty stupid thing to say” I started with and everyone snickered around me. Damn violet, focus I told myself and started again.

“As I was saying, ive known coral for ages and we may not have got on at all when we were young, but I’d like to think things have changed. We’ve always been sisters, but now I can say we’re also best friends.” I said smiling at her and she took my hand, squeezing it lightly.

“And Sonnie, we haven’t known each other too long but I know what an amazing guy you are and I couldn’t be more happy for the pair of you. I can see how much you both care for one another. I don’t think I can think of a more perfect couple than the two of you”

“I’d say you and josh beat us out for than one” coral commented and everyone smiled and laughed. I looked up to josh to see him smiling that gorgeous smile of his before he winked at me. I smiled back and then finished up my speech.

“I guess im just trying to say im glad things are finally falling into place”. I said looking directly at josh. His simile got even bigger if it were possible, and now it was my turn to wink at him. I reached for a glass and everyone caught on to where I was going next and followed suit.
“So I’d like to propose a toast; To Sonnie and coral” I said, holding my glass up.

“To Sonnie and coral” everyone else shouted before downing their drinks. Hugs were shared between everyone and the cheers started up again when the manager told us the next round was on the house.

We were there for about another hour, and by that time I knew I’d had too much. My drunken self wasn’t to sure what to do so I went to the end of the bar, furthest away from everyone and sat on the floor, hiding myself under it. I was there for about five minutes when josh found me. He knelt in front of me and placed a hand on my knee, smiling sympathetically.

“How you feeling, love?”

“The room’s spinning”

He laughed quietly and then somehow got me up. I stood the clutching him like he might disappear encase I fell over, but he assured me he wasn’t going anywhere.

“Come on, I think we should get you home” he said rubbing my side, and after about 5 minutes of tracking everyone down and saying goodbye, josh and I got into the back of a car with Zahra and Oakley was upfront with chris driving since he hadn’t had anything to drink.

Josh was in the middle and half on my seat but I didn’t care. He wrapped his arms around me and I did my best to snuggle into his side and fall asleep.

It seemed like an instant later josh was lightly shaking me and opening the door of the car. I got out carefully and the cold air hit me like a slap around the face. Josh hurried me to the door, Zahra and Oakley weren’t too far behind. He took the key from my hand and unlocked the door before hurrying me inside. Once we were in he led me upstairs and into my room.

“So I guess I’ll see you later then” josh said and placed a kiss on my cheek. When he was backing up I grabbed hold of his arm and kept him where he was.

“You alright?”

“Stay josh. Please”

“Vi I c-“

“Please josh” I cut him off.

We stood there for a while just looking at each other. I was trying to plead with him with my eyes and his resolve seemed to be slowly dissolving.

“Yo you ready mate?” we heard Oakley say from the door way. Josh kept his eyes on me when he replied.

“Im gonna stay here tonight mate, tell chris I’ll see him tomorrow”

“Alright, later guys” he called, and then it was just the two of us again.

“Thank you” I said and he just nodded almost shyly before turning around to go and shut the door. All I could think about now was getting into bed so I kicked my shoes off and lifted my shirt over my head before unbuttoning my jeans, and I somehow managed, even in my state to get them off, before pretty much collapsing in my bed.

My head was buried in my pillows and when I looked up to see what was taking josh so long he was just standing by the door. Even in the darkness I could see his face had turned slightly pink, but my mind didn’t seem to process it.

“Come on slow coach” I said before I heard him chuckle. Within a matter of seconds he was down to his boxers and he slipped in beside me.

I moved closer to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and he held me closer to him. The last thing I remember before falling into an alcohol induced slumber was the feeling of his lips on my cheek.