White Wedding

It had been a week since my little encounter with Andrew. He insists that he did not mean to do something like that to me. He's apologized countless times and keeps bribing me with jewelery, clothes and shoes. I would take each of the presents and of course, act grateful. But deep down inside, I wanted to throw everything in the trash and move far, far, away. I looked down at the bruises on my wrists, slowly fading from the awful dark, purple colour they were for the first few days to a deep shade of green. Neither of which were attractive to be honest. The bruise around my right eye was slowly fading back to it's original colour, whereas the huge cut underneath had not changed. Same goes for the split right in the middle of my lip.
It's also been a week since I had heard from Johnny.

The sad thing was, he was attempting to contact me 24/7. I was just in no mood to talk to anybody. I felt my phone tremble once again next to me on the sofa. I flipped it up and read '15 missed calls' and '2 new voice messages'.

The first: 'Ronnie, if I've done anything, I'm really sorry, just please get hold of me, we've got a lot to do, bye.'I sighed as I deleted the message.

Then the second:'Ronnie, please pick up, I'm really worried. You don't have to do this any more if you don't want to, but please, just phone me or something to tell me you're okay.' I smiled softly to myself. Someone actually cared. I looked through my phone book for Johnny's number and pressed the call button.

"Ronnie, thank God! I've been worried sick!" he said.

"I'm fine, look I haven't been feeling one hundred percent and I haven't gotten hold of any one," I lied. I heard the doorbell buzz from the distance , "Look, someone's at the door, and I have to get it," I sighed.

"Okay, how about Friday, we need to get flowers and things like that," He said.

"Alright, I'll call you,"

"Okay, bye babe,"

"Bye Johnny," I hung up the phone. The doorbell buzzed again, "I'm coming," I said loudly, wandering over. I opened the door slowly to come face to face with somebody I didn't expect. "Michelle."

"Oh my God, what happened?!" She panicked. I shook my head as she wrapped me up in a hug.

"I fell down the stairs," I lied as she pulled away from me. I let her into the house and shut the door after her. She looked at me with one eye brow raised higher than the other.

"Ronnie, look, I've fallen down the stairs before, you know. And I got away with a fractured collar bone," she said with her arms crossed against her chest. "Now tell me the truth. Who did it?" I started playing with my dressing gown trying to come up with an legitimate answer. "Everyone's been panicking like crazy, especially Johnny. Please. Tell me."

"It was," She signalled me to carry on. I knew it was impossible to lie to her. "It was Andrew," I sighed. Her eyes grew wide as I saw the look of concern on her face, "Michelle, please don't say anything."

"Ronnie, you need to go to the police, thousands of women are in danger because of this," she said.

"It's the first time this has happened and it won't happen again. I know it won't."

"How?"

"I just do," I sighed shaking my head. I walked into the kitchen and flicked the switch on the kettle. "Coffee?" I asked.

"Milk and two sugars please," she replied sitting at the breakfast bar, "Ronnie, please just think about it."

"I'll think about it if that makes you happy,"

"Thank you, it does," she smiled. I poured two mugs full followed by some Soya milk and set one down in front of her, "How's the wedding plans going?" she asked me.

"They're not really," I laughed softly. "I haven't done anything really. I've got the flowers, photographer, hair and make up artist and my dress to find," I shrugged.

"Well, two are down, you know Gena?" I nodded, "She can do your hair and make up."

"Really? She would be okay with that?"

"Yeah, of course, she'll be fine with it, she thinks you're adorable," Michelle smiled. I heard the front door slam. My eyes grew wide.

"Veronica, I'm home," Andrew shouted searching through the house. "Here you who's this?" He asked noticing Michelle sitting down next to me.

"Michelle DiBenedetto, Wedding planner," she said holding out her hand.

"Andrew Mitchell, the rich bastard paying you," he laughed making Michelle look at me with a less than impressed expression on her face. "What brings you here?" He asked pouring himself some coffee.

"Well, I hadn't heard from Ronnie in over a week, and with only three weeks to go before the big day, I thought I'd see if she was okay," she said smiling at me, "You know, if she was still alive," she said more jokingly than she meant it to be.

"Silly thing, she tripped up over the coffee table, almost lost a tooth," he laughed. Michelle raised her eyebrow and picked up her coffee.

"Funny, I heard she tripped down the stairs," My eyes grew as she grinned to herself. I knew what she was trying to do. She was sly.

"Yes, it probably was, I wasn't there," he said.

"Yeah," she sighed having another sip. "Ronnie, babe, I have to go," she said looking at her watch, "I'll call you, we have to get the flowers down tomorrow,"

"Y-yeah, okay," I stammered and lead her to the front door.

"I'll tell Johnny to meet you in front of Johnny's bar again," she whispered.

"Okay," I whispered back.

"I won't tell him anything," she whispered.

"Thanks," I gave Michelle a hug and closed the front door. Instead of running back to my kitchen to come face to face with Andrew, I ran straight up to my room. Looks like I've found my Maid of Honor. Michelle.