But I can see us lost in the memory

August slipped away into a moment in time

'Cause, it was never mine.

-Taylor Swift

M A R N I E

"Dude! You're going to kill us." I yelled and Ronan laughed as we swerved down the road.

I had called shotgun, Dain was in the backseat with his eyes closed and groans leaving his lips every couple of seconds. Ronan was driving maniacally.

Right before leaving the hotel Art had warned him to not leave me unsupervised because I might end up getting lost. We had also chugged about 2 cups of coffee so that we would restore our bearings.

So due to his fear of me getting lost his hand was gripping mine while one was on the wheel.

"Both hands on the wheel you fucker!" I yelled and he laughed, I almost felt like I was going to throw up.

That's a lie. I was going to throw up a couple of times but the embarrassment I would feel after throwing up just made me push it back down.

We passed by a car with about a millimetre space between, our windows were down as we heard the people curse us out. My hands were gripping the hand rest between me and Ronan and the window so hard I felt as though my fingers would snap.

"You're fucking killing me." Dain finally said a couple of words and I nodded gulping as we took a sharp turn.

"It takes about 15 minutes to get to the mall if we're driving normally, if we drive-" He starts but I interrupt him.

"Like a maniac," I add before nodding for him to continue.

"-yes like a maniac, then we reach there in 4 minutes." He grins and I close my eyes as we take a sharp left.

"Oh look! There's the mall." I could physically hear Ronan grin.

"Thank fuck." Dain whispers and I chuckle as I feel the car coming to a stop, my hair flying in all directions as I finally open my eyes.

"Well, a new accomplishment yeah?" He smiles and I raise an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" I ask gulping down every organ that had threatened to rise.

"It only took us 3 minutes, while I had bet on 4." He smiles and I blink at him.

"No, the accomplishment was that he almost killed us. Great job, Ro." Dain pats his back before rolling his eyes and getting out.

"Good job," I mutter before grabbing my bag and leaving.

•

"Fuck, is this alright?" Ronan asks holding up the ugliest blazer I have ever seen.

"Dude, are you serious? It looks like what some Miami guy would wear." I groan grabbing the suit from his hand and placing it back.

The lady who was previously helping us was probably looking at us in distaste and horror as I groaned and we left the shop.

"Dude, it's Gucci." He replies in the same tone and I turn my head towards him.

"Just because it's Gucci doesn't mean that you will buy something that makes you look like the sun is shining out of your ass. No, literally. It was golden with pink stripes on it. Hell to the mother fucking no." I say with my eyebrows furrowed wondering how did he even think that the suit was good enough for a formal event.

"Ugh fine, want to try Chanel?" He asks pointing to the store and I nod as we walk over.

"What are you wearing?" He asks, I had been told about this semi-formal event that we would be going to about a week or so ago and I had raided my mom's closet.

"Proenza Shouler," I reply, Dain had gone his way and we had decided to meet by a cafe in two hours.

"Proenza is so underrated." He huffs out and I nod.

"I know right!" Ronan loops his arm through mine as we walk into Chanel.

"Why didn't Arthur come with us?" I ask softly as Ronan walks over to something that catches his eye completely ignoring the man that greets us.

"She's gone to meet her mom." Ronan replies and I furrow my eyebrows nodding slowly.

She didn't tell me that.

"What about this?" He asks picking up a black pinstriped suit and I nod.

"Yeah, it works." I nod and he smiles before dragging me to the dressing room.

"Uh, do I have to come?" I ask and he gives me an incredulous look.

I roll my eyes as I wait for the blonde to show me how he looked. While I was getting rather bored waiting I decided to browse through some stuff as well. I could get something if I wanted to but I wasn't dumb. It's much better to raid my sister's or my mom's closet rather than owning something expensive.

"Fucking shit." I heard a groan, I round the corner to check if everything was alright only to run into a man.

"I'm so sorry," I mutter as I stumble back.

I look at the guy who I bumped into, dressed in a black suit and his raven hair messy on his head, his ice-blue eyes reminding me of someone I couldn't quite place my finger on.

"It's alright, I'm sorry I wasn't looking where I was going." He shakes his head, his voice raspy and I shrug his words off.

"It's alright," I say before nodding sending him a smile and moving past him.

"Wait, can you help me with something real quick?" He asks and I turn around to look at him raising an eyebrow in question while nodding slowly, hesitant.

"Which one do you think is better?" He holds up two identical dresses.

Thick fabric with intricate embroidery, one was black and the other one was grey. The only stark difference other than the colour was that the grey one had golden embroidery on it.

I stared at both of them for a second before my eyes met another one of the same dresses but in a different colour.

"The red one," I answer pointing to the red dress, it was almost the same. This one didn't have straps, the red fabric had threads of golden weaving in every once in a while.

"Nice choice. Thank you." He smiled and I grinned back.

"You're welcome." I answer and a loud 'Sole' can be heard throughout the store. I wince before rushing to Ronan.

"Sorry- wow you look great," I mutter as I look at him. His tan complexion really played in his favour, the black suit brought out his hazel eyes and showed off his greek God physique.

"Thank you, should I get it?" He asks running his hands through his dirty blonde hair and I nod.

"Yes." I smile and so does he.

•

"Mer, darling can you help me with this?" I hear Art call out for me and I place my cup on the coffee table as I walk over to her.

"It's literally not working, besides my hand is cramping. Help me." She groaned throwing her eyeliner in the trash can thrusting out her hand and making grabbing motions towards me.

"Of course." I chuckle before grabbing my eyeliner and helping her with hers. We were both just lounging around in our robes so that we wouldn't be dressed too early and neither did we want to be dressed too late.

I do a graphic winged liner and do the inner corners too, I grab a brush and smoke it out just a tad bit, the door unlocks and I flinch in my place as Ronan barges in with Elias.

"Oh yes, do that to me too." He says and I close my eyes sighing before looking at him with a pointed look.

"Don't ever fucking barge in like that, you gave me a heart attack." I grit my teeth and he laughs.

"Who the fuck are you laughing at?" Art looks at him and he shuts up quickly.

"Sorry sole. Can you do my eyeliner like that too?" He asks standing right next to me and looking at me doing Art's eyeliner.

"What? Why?" She says quickly and I don't say anything.

"I know I know, you guys are gonna do the same make-up look but, please? Can I third wheel?" He asks and I raise an eyebrow as he looks at me letting him know that I don't make the rules around here.

"Fine." Art mutters her eyes still close and he claps his hand in excitement.

"Yay!" He smiles before grabbing the cup that I had just placed and taking a sip of the tea I was drinking.

"That's good." He mutters and I look at him and nod.

"That's because it isn't white people's tea. That shit is-" I make a gagging noise and Elias laughs.

"Why do you have your bag with you?" Art asks and Ronan looks at Elias and he simply looks down, ashamed.

"Elias was taking a shower and somehow broke the light bulbs, we didn't want to disturb Dain and Seren. So well change here." Ronan answers sighing and I look at Elias with a raised brow.

"Huh?" My thoughts are spoken out loud.

"I'm too tall, I had to bend down so that I wouldn't hit the lights and this fucker was banging on the door so it scared me and I- well you know." I have noticed that Elias talks a lot with his hands.

Neither of them is dressed yet, just hanging out in our suite in their sweatpants and sleep shirts.

"I wanted Art to add some glitter to my eyelids and the kohl that you usually do," Elias mutters shyly and Art hums in response as he smiles.

"Thanks." He mutters looking down and fiddling with his hands.

"What are you wearing Elias?" I ask trying to make a conversation knowing that Elias was an introvert and he wouldn't do it himself.

"It's something from my sister's clothing line." He answers nodding to himself.

"Your sister has a clothing line?" I gape and he nods grinning.

"Yeah but it isn't out yet, I'm just able to wear it because- well she's my sister." He answers and I nod smiling.

"It's gonna be called Emerson Monroe. Because that's her name." He answers sitting up straight like he was proud of her.

"They're twins." Ronan pipes in and I raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"I wasn't aware you had a twin," I say stepping away from Art as I look at her. Her jaw resting in my hand, my fingers wrapped around it.

"Do you want a bold inner corner?" I ask and she nods. I bite the inside of my lip as I get to work.

"El?" Art asks and he perks up.

Though Elias looked like he was arrogant, that's all his hair's fault. He had golden retriever energy. He was the kind of guy you couldn't get mad at. Angelic face, devilish mind, a great puppy face to make up for it.

"What do you think of Emerson designing our clothes? Like once we get the album out and stuff." Art says and I hold my breath as Elias's eyes widen and he stands up quickly.

"Wait really?" He asks his hands clenched to his sides.

"Yes." Art says a smile on his face.

"Oh my God wow, she would love that!" Elias grins and I smile with him. Finally stepping away from Art and admiring my art.

Get it? It was a pun, dipshit.

"Okay Ro your turn." Art mutters getting up and hugging an overly excited Elias.

"Come on sole." He grins and I roll my eyes jokingly.

As much as I hate to admit it, they're starting to grow on me. Ronan had a habit of breaking into a song in every situation. Was overly calm in bad situations, but I guess that's what you need.

"Stop fucking blinking." I sighed and he did it again.

"My eyes are closed how can I blink?" He laughed and I grabbed his face tightly.

"Don't run your mouth smartass," I say my tone nonchalant.

"Damn," Elias muttered, I look over to see Art already done with his look.

"Woah that looks pretty." I grin and Art smiles kissing my cheek before going to the bathroom to change into her outfit. Elias walks to the other one to change too.

"Can we do white liner over it too? So that it makes your eyes pop." I ask and he nods and I grit my teeth to stop myself from telling him to stop moving for the hundredth time.

I do his eyeliner adding a rhinestone too, his hair is gelled but not slicked back. Little dirty blonde pieces hang in front of his eyes, almost giving the illusion that his hair was wet.

"There we go," I mutter stepping away and he looks in the mirror.

"Good job sole, you ended up making me more handsome." He sasses and I smile before sitting down to do my makeup.

Like Ronan had mentioned my makeup was almost the same as Art's but because my outfit was rather plain I added some glitter in the inner corner of my eye.

Elias walks out in a plain beige suit with golden accents. His jewellery matched it. No shirt underneath, I help him apply some glitter on his chest too.

"You look fucking fantastic." I let out. His eyes were lined with kohl and golden glitter on his cheekbones. The scar that ran down his face added to the look.

"Thank you. Did you know I was gonna get a buzz cut?" He adds quickly and I gather that he doesn't like hearing compliments.

"I didn't know that," I say softly, Elias leans on the vanity and I take a huge whiff of his cologne.

"I'll do it once we get back home." He mutters sliding on his rings.

"Woah, Arthur you look so fucking good," Elias exclaims and I turn in my seat to look at her.

It's a plain black dress but with cutout patterns. Her hair is tied in a low bun a couple of shorter pieces framing her face, her dark skin glowing under the dim lights and for a second I forget to breathe.

"You look beautiful." I finally breathe out noticing that even when Elias and Ronan hype Art up she stares at me.

A smile breaks out on her face and she walks toward me grabbing my face before kissing my forehead.

"Can I go change next?" Ronan asks and Art simply nods.

"I have some stuff to do, be right back." Art says suspiciously and Elias simply nods.

I look at her through the mirror but she never looks at me, I shrug it off thinking that maybe I was being paranoid. I slid on my rings and my earrings, letting my hair down straight and pinning a couple of pieces so that they stay away from my face.

I wait for Ro to be done and exit, he does so after 10 more minutes looking dashing as always.

"I have great taste." I simply say not wanting to hype him up too much.

"But it's me wearing it. So..." He shrugs and I smile rolling my eyes.

"You look fantastic," I say and he ruffles my hair I was going to tell him off but by the quick tuck of his lips and the widening of his eyes, I know that he understood that he fucked up.

I don't say anything as he tries his best to gr my hair back to how it was looking before. God bless.

I look at the clock to see that it was already 8 and we would soon be running late if we don't fuck off from the hotel in 15 more minutes. I head to the bathroom to go change.

A black turtleneck and grey blazer that hugs my waist like a glove whilst the shoulders and sleeves are oversized.

Pushing myself into the trousers was the worst part.

I hadn't thought this through.

Since I was shorter than my mom the trousers hung longer on me. I had thought I could wear some dress shoes underneath it and no one would know. But looking at this I know that I would have to wear my heels.

It's not like I hated wearing heels, in fact, I liked it. It's just the fact that those heels my sister had gifted me were probably the highest heels I had ever seen.

I had two more nights in Sicily.

Tonight could either be the worst night of my life or the best.