"What should I wear to this thing?" I asked.

I groaned in frustration as I disregarded yet another ridiculous floor-length dress. My wardrobe had accumulated a lot of outfits that remained untouched, and they had been untouched for a reason. I really needed to look into donating them, but honestly, some of the monstrosities my mother had purchased I couldn't bear to inflict upon a thrift store. It would be cruel to charity.

Discarding another outfit, I sighed. "Elena said casual and effortless, which is a weird brief, and she said not to go too over the top. Who has that as a bridesmaid wedding outfit?"

"Country people," said Knight. "They're all whackjobs."

"Can I have some real suggestions, please?"

"How about a hat?" he suggested, glancing up from his phone at the pile of dresses strewn across my floor. "Like, just a hat."

"A hat," I deadpanned, levelling him with a blank stare.

Knight shrugged. "What? It would be really funny. At least Hartley would enjoy the pictures."

I shot him a thinly veiled smile. "Wonderful advice, but I think I'd be a little underdressed, don't you?"

He contemplated this for a moment. "Well, I suppose you could wear socks as well."

"Thank you so much for your contribution."

"Any time."

I examined a knee length red dress with a critical eye, noted the cute little bow near the neck and immediately discarded it. I scowled in frustration. "Who just tells their bridesmaids, 'oh, it's a casual wedding, just wear whatever you want'? That's not even a thing. Bridesmaids do not just get to pick whatever they want. What if Kaelin shows up in jeans? Oh, God, Kaelin is going to show up in jeans. Elena has gone around the bend."

"Woah, okay, calm down Brideszilla," said Knight. "Man, I do not look forward to being your Maid of Honor."

"It is not unreasonable to be concerned about these things! Why couldn't Elena just get us matching bridesmaid dresses like a normal person!"

"Maybe she didn't want to pay for five expensive dresses?"

"We are wealthy people, Knight. She can afford it." I flung another stack of fabrics onto my bed. "And we won't match! Aren't we supposed to match? They all matched in Bridesmaids."

"And that was a shitshow. Besides from what I remember of Elena, I don't think she will care."

"What do you remember of Elena?" I said with a glare.

Knight shrugged. "She was so desperate to not seem rich that she went completely the other way. Don't her and Jack live in a tiny little farmhouse out in the country?"

That was... true. My cousin Elena and her fiancé, Jack, lived out in Casserine, a small country town without even a WIFI signal. Kaelin, Alec and Harry had lived out there for a few weeks last year and, in Kaelin's word, had almost died from the 'complete lack of infrastructure in the archaic excuse for a town'. She clearly hadn't minded too much, though, because that was how she'd met her stunningly attractive football star boyfriend, Julian.

And it wasn't as if Elena couldn't afford to move their little family—Jack and his younger sister, Holly—to an upper-class area with large acreage and opulent furnishings. I guess she was chill to an extent that transcended everyday concerns. It was a chill that I did not—and never would—possess.

"They do," I confirmed. "The wedding is in Casserine as well. It's supposed to be cute and rustic."

"So, wear something cute and rustic." He snapped his fingers. "Oh, I hear barrels are trendy. You could cut some holes in it: it would be so cute and would really fit the theme."

I threw a coat hanger at him. "As if you, narcissist of the century, would be seen with Barrel Girl."

Knight pointed at me. "First of all, I would walk away from you and refuse to acknowledge your presence." Then he sighed. "Second of all... I'm not going."

I stared at him for a moment, holding still as he winced, staring at me as if I was about to exhibit violent behaviours against his person. I have no idea what he thought of me, but I was hardly violent, and he had no reason to think so; if you ignored my track record and constant threats of violence, that is.

But I did not choke him with his innards, or drop him into a koi pond full of piranhas. I tried a different tactic all together; cool, collected, dignified. "You have to come," I begged, dropping to my knees and looking up with pleading insistence. "Please, please, please, come, Knight."

"Oh, baby, baby," said Knight without any enthusiasm, flipping through the pages of a magazine discarded beside the heaping pile of clothes. "Keep talking dirty to me."

I grabbed onto his knees with desperation. "You have to! It's going to be unbearable. Unbearable. Everyone else is all coupled up. I can't be the lonely and sad bridesmaid. Holly is, like, fifteen and she has a date. Please. I already told Elena I was bringing a plus one, and everyone else is bringing a plus one, and you said you'd go with me."

"Well, I can't now," said Knight. "I didn't know how to tell you. Kaelin spoke to Elena, and she told her that your plus one was me. Cue Elena's confusion, because I was already invited, and so are my parents."

Realisation dawned and I nodded slowly. "She sent the invitations to your old house."

Knight grimaced. "Bingo. Seems Elena might be having a chill wedding, but it's going to be a big one. Enough that the Knight's were invited, and they're going to go. Personally, I'm not quite ready to reunite with dear old Mum and Dad just yet."

I sat down on the bed beside Knight and leant my head into the crook of his shoulder. It couldn't be easy, I imaged, to lose the people who'd raised you. From the tidbits that Knight had shared with me, they had never been particularly loving people, but slight neglect was a far cry from cutting off your child and throwing them onto the streets.

I mean, for Christ's sake, they hadn't even given him enough time to get a job, and it was infinitely harder to pick up work when you didn't have the money to look presentable for the interview.

"I'm sorry, Knight," I said quietly.

"Yeah." His voice was hard. "Me too."

I sat upright and fiddled with the edge of a lace dress. "I can't believe I'm going to have to go alone. I mean, Chance suffers from extreme social awkwardness, and Alex's only topic of comversation with adults is 'what is your opinion on alchemy?'"

"Alchemy?"

"Yeah, someone should probably tell him that he means the economy. Jonah is already going with Daria. And Cady won't be my date; she hates weddings. She says that love is a lie!" I glared at Knight. "The only reason I'm single is because you set me up on a bad date instead of setting me up with my Prince Charming! This is your fault! Let's sabotage your parents' car and then you can come with me."

Knight grinned. "Okay, Carrie Underwood. Luckily, I'm a great friend who would never ditch his bestie without giving her an alternate option. You've got a date to your wedding." He leant back against the sheets, grinning from ear to ear.

I poked my finger on his chest. "You better not be setting me up with someone like Tommy Aster again, or I swear to god."

"Not Tommy Aster, no. I've set you up with someone of the finest calibre. Some could say he is one of the last good guys on earth, and one of the finest in that bunch."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Hugh Jackman?"

"A man with beautiful hair, glorious eyes, some could say he's stunningly attractive, even. You definitely would."

"Uh, Hugh Jackman?"

"Think younger. Think..." Knight smirked. "Think of a guy who likes to flirt with pretty girls who hate him on the roof of an old toilet block."

I stared at him. "You didn't."

Knight was gleeful. "I did!"

"Jace Hartley is my date to my cousin's wedding?"

Knight lay down on the bed and kicked his feet in the air joyfully. "I called him and he said yes!"

The last time I'd seen Jace Hartley, my tongue had been down his throat. Taking him as a date to my cousins wedding would be a new realm of awkward that I didn't even want to consider. Like, ever. In fact, I simply wanted to fall into a hole and die instead.

Despite the phone call, it would still be strange. Especially since half of our friends—the ones I had refused to confront for a week, citing a job I didn't have as the reason I couldn't hang out—would be in attendance. I would have to face Daria, Jonah and Kaelin, and, most awkwardly, Jace.

And I could already envisage it; what having Jace Hartley as my date would be like. Jace in a button-down shirt, his hair falling handsomely over his forehead, his hand on my back guiding me through the crowd, his eyes in the crowd, watching me as I stood at Elena's side opposite the groomsmen, his gaze like two hot pinpricks on my skin. Leaning over the bar to order me a drink, vodka and cocktails and whiskey downed as the temperature rises, both of us a little messy and a little happy, giggling and whirling and dancing and tension from that kiss, that world ending kiss, building and building and...

"Please tell me you didn't," I said.

Knight looked at me innocently. "What's wrong with inviting Hartley, Lena? We were just going as friends, and you two are friends now. So why is it weird that he is your date to this wedding?"

It just... it was. The declarations of love, the dancing, the drinking, the outfits; with Knight, it would've been funny. A joke. We would've done the jitterbug on the dance floor and snuck our drinks into little plastic water bottles to take advantage of the free grog. He would've made fun of my shoes and I would've made fun of his hair. When Elena and Jack declared their eternal love for each other, I would probably cry while Knight poked me in the ribs and mocked my tears.

With Jace, I could already picture it. He would make a little quip about my appearance, and then tell me I looked pretty, and it would be heated and strange. He would hold me close as he danced with me, and our eyes would lock and we would laugh as we spun, two stars in the centre of a galaxy, feeling as if everyone else was merely in our orbit. When Elena told Jack she loved him, I would cry and he would trace the curve of my wrist with his fingers, laughing quietly at me. We would sneak a bottle of vodka from the bar and, after a round of greetings and chitchat, we would sneak behind the barn to steal sips of the grog, giggling and arguing and revelling in the strange new heat that had lingered since the night in my bathroom.

"You are right, Knight. How insightful of you. We are just friends, and those stupid kisses meant nothing. So, nothing is weird about it," I said through gritted teeth. "Now I'm going to murder you, but I want you to know it is for entirely different reasons completely unrelated to this."

Knight squeaked in protest as I smashed the pillow against his head.