“Now that everyone’s gathered here—”
“Lauren isn’t here.” Scarlet chimed in, interrupting her own mother along the way, as she raised an arm of protest.
“Yes, we can see that. That’s why I’m here in her place.” Carla mentioned as she rolled her eyes at the over-dramatic fiancé of her daughter’s. If it weren’t for the immense love that Lauren had for Scarlet, Carla would’ve been sure to take her daughter far away from Scarlet as possible.
She thought that the said girl wasn’t as amazing as Lauren made her out to be.
Pouting helplessly, Scarlet slumped her shoulders before leaning back on the sofa she was sitting on. The grown ups occupied the other sofas which were placed in the living room. Grandma Payne occupied her wheelchair, playing with the wheel of her chair now and then out of boredom, while the kids were all scattered on the living room carpet. That was also how Scarlet’s cousins as well as Clark and Katie were sat.
“So, as I was saying – we all decided on a venue which is just amazing. It isn’t as far as we wanted it to be, but it’s just out of town, which means only a quarter hour drive.” Laura spoke while Judith nodded from beside her.
“It’s also not a church, it’s some kind of a pavilion, that’s what the young man there kept calling it.”
“Boring.” Blake whined as he placed a palm over his yawning mouth. Juliet gave him a sharp elbow into his side, which made him groan and straighten up. He gave her a glare in return, but the woman really didn’t mind since her cousin had shut up.
Laura gave Blake a once over before she turned to her husband, who also looked quite bored by the topic they were discussing.
“O-kay, so how do we plan Scarlet’s bachelorette party?” It was as if the whole living room had come alive, just as Laura spoke up. Juliet raised her hand excitedly as she bounced in her place, while Grandma Payne smiled widely, wanting to feel alive again.
“We also have to plan Lauren’s bachelorette party too.” Carla chimed in which made Juliet bounce even more, to the extent that Blake had to keep her down. “Down, girl, down.” He chuckled which made Scarlet laugh as well as she looked at her cousins.
“I’ll plan both!” Juliet exclaimed after she was done glaring at Blake.
Carla and Laura, both turned to look at Juliet as she smiled widely at them. “I’ll do the planning for both of their parties!”
Grandma Payne nodded her head as she spoke up, “Yes, Juliet would be the perfect person to arrange the parties.” Laura raised an eyebrow at her mother-in-law as she remembered what had happened last time.
“No strippers allowed! We don’t want a repeat of last time.” Scarlet agreed with her mother, as the older woman ordered Juliet, who pouted in protest.
“Aww, but that’s the best part.” Grandma Payne whined. Carla gave the old woman a surprised look. She began to wonder what had happened last time and why was the old woman so excited about a bachelorette party at that too.
Surely, she was beginning to understand why her son had told her that the Payne family was crazy.
“Can we also help Jules with the party?” Edward or Edmund spoke up with their hands raised, which brought all of the attention on them. The grown-ups looked petrified as the twins glanced from their mother to Juliet, not even minding the stares of practically everyone in the living room.
“Absolutely not.” Judith refused as she looked at her sons with surprise. “You both will not do anything and you won’t even be allowed in the party.”
The twins looked at their mother in shock, “What, but why, we’re 16 now. We can handle a normal bachelor party.”
Scarlet was trying hard to contain her laughter, her two little cousins looked too cute for her not to do anything, so she came in her defense. “Well, they are older now.” Andrew decided to step into the conversation as well as he shook his head at his daughter.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we allow them to plan the party, we can just allow them to join in.”
Scarlet shrugged in response.
“So, that’s that. Juliet will plan the party.” Laura decided as she clapped her hands, as if to tell everyone that the family meeting had been adjourned.
She was the first one to leave the living room to go to the kitchen. Wanda and Judith followed her.
Jared sighed in relief before he picked up the TV remote. “Weddings are a hassle sometimes.” He mumbled, getting a nod of the head from his younger brother. Tyler leaned back into the large sofa as he looked at what was on the TV.
Not far from the three brothers, Scarlet took the opportunity to warn her cousin again. “Seriously, Juliet, no strippers.”
Juliet waved her hand dismissively as she straightened her legs out on the floor before leaning her back against the sofa. “I know, I know.”
“When else did you bring in strippers though?” Clark asked as he leaned a little closer so that Scarlet could hear him from the sofa. The woman left the sofa to sit next to Juliet as she sighed heavily, remembering how Juliet had invited male strippers to Vanessa’s bachelorette party.
“At Vanessa’s bachelorette party, which was also planned by this brat right here.” Scarlet answered and got a slap on the arm by her cousin. “It was exciting and even Grandma Payne enjoyed it.” Juliet explained herself, which made Clark raise a questioning eyebrow.
Katie was sat silently as she watched the cousins begin to talk about Vanessa’s wedding with Clark. The man was surprisingly interested in how Scarlet’s older sister’s wedding had been like.
“It’s going to be boring if there’s gonna be no strippers.” Blake groaned as he looked at Juliet with a frown. Katie, who was sat beside him, gave him a raised eyebrow as a reply. “I mean, last time, we all went with Kevin, so I had fun there, but now, I’ll have to be with Scarlet, and we all know how boring she is.” Katie managed to giggle as she nodded her head, completely agreeing that Scarlet was in fact boring.
“It’s not her fault that she doesn’t like strippers.” Even though, she didn’t have to but the dark-haired woman defended her ex-lover.
Blake shook his head with a smile as he turned to look at Katie, “She’s just really faithful, I guess.”
It wasn’t meant as an attack but Katie felt as if Blake had indirectly called her unfaithful. She didn’t know why but it hurt her as she looked down in her lap with a frown.
Even though Blake was usually an idiot, but this time he realized his words a little sooner as he began to stutter. “I-I didn’t m-mean to say i-it like that.”
“Its okay.” Katie gave him a forced smile as she got up from beside him before leaving the living room.
“Ooh, Blake gone done it now.” Ed and Ed teased their cousin, as they gave him a smirk. Angela and Greg had even witnessed all that had transpired with Blake and Katie, and the 16-year-old was even shaking her head at the man.
“I-I didn’t mean it like that, okay.” Blake tried to defend himself but it was futile as Angela kept shaking her head. “You didn’t mean it but she was hurt by your words, Dumbo.”
Ed and Ed nodded their heads before they looked at the girl with heart eyes. “She’s so pretty when she’s right.” Angela rolled her eyes at the twins before she gave Blake a sharp look. “You haven’t gone after her yet?”
“Oh, I have to go right now?” Blake asked with a frown before he was faced with the wrath of the 16-year-old.
“Yes, get up, go, go, go!” The insistent ordering had caught the attention of Clark, Juliet and Scarlet as well as the grown-ups’ who were still in the living room, as they all looked at Angela.
Blake was fast enough to get up from his place on the carpeted floor before leaving to go to wherever Katie had gone to.
A smirk came over Angela’s features as she leaned back against the recliner. “I really love to order people around.” She spoke to herself but the twins sighed admiringly.
Angela rolled her eyes again at the two before she busied herself by talking to Gregory.
Not far from the kids, Scarlet raised a questioning eyebrow at why Blake had gone out of the living room so fast, and why was Angela ordering him to go.
“My sister’s like that, she’s quite bossy.” Clark dismissed the weird behavior they had just seen before he looked back at Juliet and Scarlet with renewed energy, as an idea popped up in his head.
“How about we have the two parties together?” Juliet took the idea into consideration while Scarlet immediately nodded her head in agreement. “Yes, yes, oh please yes.”
“But, what would we tell our parents?” Juliet asked as she turned to look at her cousin before glancing at Clark, who frowned.
“We don’t tell them anything.” Scarlet proposed before Clark chimed in with a greater idea. “I think we can easily pull this off.” A smirk came over Clark’s face as he glanced from Scarlet to Juliet, who could only listen to his genius plan.
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