"Argh, must you be so loud?"

Grace grinned wickedly as she continued to whirl her smoothie in the blender for a few seconds more than necessary.

"Morning, sunshine." She cheerily greeted.

Ameila groaned, wiping a hand down her bleary eyed face. She practically collapsed onto the bar stool opposite her and buried her head in her arms. So dramatic.

"Tired are we?" Grace asked amusingly as she twisted the lip onto the blender cup and took a sip of the refreshing mixed beverage.

"How are you not?" Her voice was muffled against her arms. She lifted her head, her bright red hair a riot of curls around her face. Her make up was still on and smudged from last night.

"Becauuuuse," she sang, "I was too busy making sure everything was perfect for you guys. I barely drank."

Amelia nodded miserably. "Did I thank you for that? Seriously, you did not have to do that but I'm super grateful."

Grace laughed and took another gulp of her green beverage. She offered some to Amelia and grinned as she stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"You thanked me no less than a hundred times. The majority being after your fourth shot," she chuckled as Ameila groaned again rubbed at her Panda eyes.

"God, I don't even remember when I got home," she murmured.

"Well, you were definitely home by two am given the enthusiastic bedroom performance you two were giving me."

Amelia's head popped up, her mouth open in horror. "Oh, God, you heard that?"

"Heard it? I thought you were in the room with me,"

Amelia groaned again, her face turning bright red. "Holy shit, this is embarrassing. Im so sorry!"

Grace reached out and patted her hand. "This is your house and you have nothing to be sorry for. Although, I'm probably going to avoid looking Liam in the eye for a few days," she joked.

Amelia rolled her eyes, "Har har," she said before snatching Grace's cup off the counter and taking a sip, only to gag and shove it back towards her.

"It just reminded me that it's been a long time since I've gotten laid. Almost a year," she mused to herself.

Even though Grace had left high school with her virginity intact - despite what the walls in the girl's bathroom said - she wasn't saving herself for her one true love. The guys in high school either bullied her, ignored her or were just plain immature.

College guys were a little better on the maturity scale and it helped that her college was thousands of miles away from Langley where she was able to start over and meet new people. She had lost her virginity six months into her freshman year. Tony was nice, kind and smart. She had dated him for a while and broke it off about a month after the deed. She was just too busy with coursework that she barely saw him and she wasn't the "friends with benefits" type of person.

She had two more sexual partners after him, one lasting a year, before she got so caught up in her new job that dating and sex was the last thing on her mind.

She did miss it, though. It didn't help that when she thought of sex, a picture of a certain dark haired, brown eyed dimpled football coach sprang to mind.

"A year?!" Amelia exclaimed.

"Hey, we can't all meet the love of our life when were fifteen and marry him. You've been getting the D regular since you were sixteen," she reminded her.

"Yeah, I know. But a year?" she scrunched her nose up.

Grace shrugged and made a mental note to start dating again when she got back to San Francisco. Maybe she should try Tinder?

"Sooo...." Amelia started, suddenly looking a lot more perky. "I saw you chatting to Harrison last night."

Grace rolled her eyes. "Kinda hard to ignore the dude since hell has frozen over and he's good friends with you both."

"But hasn't he changed so much? You noticed, right? He's just done a full one-eighty." She propped her chin on her fist, staring at Grace expectantly.

"I admit, he is marginally more tolerable now." she slowly replied. "But I'm hardly gonna follow him on Insta and be buddies with him. I mean, apart from the rehearsal dinner and wedding itself I'm barely going to spend any time with him."

Amelia's face brightened and she sat up straighter as if she remembered something. "Actually...: she started, "Okay, dont hate me."

Grace arched her brow, apprehension taking over. "What now? Don't tell me we're having a joint bachelor and bachelorette?"

Amelia waved her hand in the air, dismissing that idea. "No, way. But you know how I told you that I was on the planning committee for our reunion?"

"Yeah..." where was she going with this? A feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach.

"Welll..." Amelia looked down, swirling her finger against an invisible piece of dirt on her counter. "I may have over exerted myself."

"No, shit" she said, "I could've told you that."

"But I promised the committee that I would be involved in the planning and I extra promised that the wedding would be no problem and that I could do both."

"Again, I could've told you that you couldn't." Before Ameila could reply, Grace quickly interjected. "So we don't go. Obviously your wedding is more important and they'll understand. These things happen. No harm, no foul. We won't go." she hurriedly said.

Amelia glanced up at Grace, her face red with guilt.

"No," she firmly said.

"Please, please, please?" Amelia begged. "It's only, like, three meetings before the event and all you have to do is show your face and make some suggestions. Maybe help with the set up."

"Amelia," she started

"Please, Grace?" Amelia pleaded. "I know you hated high school but I promise you the people on the committee are all nice. They know you're coming and are excited to see you. And I promise, if you do this you don't have to stay or even go. I just feel so bad that they're going to be one down."

"If it's only three meetings then why am i even needed? Haven't they already planned the damn thing by now?"

"Because a couple of people pulled out of the committee. That's why I felt bad because I hate letting people down." she said. "They just need some last minute details finalised and that's it."

Grace sighed. This was going way above her Maid of Honour duties. She didn't want to let Amelia down either but how can she say yes to helping out an event for something that had made her miserable?

"Gracie," Amelia appealed. "I know this is a lot to ask,"

"I don't think you do if you're asking me this. This isn't just some last minute bridal duty you need me to do - which I would happily do by the way - you are asking me to open a wound that I have stitched up and bandaged for years. One that took me a long time to heal from. Why would you do this to me?"

Amelia hung her head and nodded. "I told him this was a bad idea,"

"Who?" she frowned.

"Uh, Liam," Amelia quickly said. "He thought you would be okay to do it but..."

"Well, I know I didn't confide in Liam as much as you but surely he knew how I would feel." she snapped.

"He does, he does," she interrupted. "Don't be mad at him, it's me that's put you in this position. I'm so sorry, Grace, I wasn't thinking."

Grace looked at the face of her best friend since childhood. She was her ride or die. Amelia was also bullied for hanging out with her. Not to the extreme extent that Grace was but she was still picked on a little. Once Liam came onto the scene the bullying died down for her but she was still a social pariah for being friends with her.

She had also sworn with Grace that she would never ever forgive the perpetrators involved. Obviously Grace wasn't delusional to think that a promise made as a bunch of emotional teenagers would hold for life.

Amelia and Grace's family were correct. People did change. She had changed, too, after all. If Amelia and even Liam could forgive and move on from their time in highschool then she could try, too.

I mean, it didn't help that Grace moved away and rarely came home so she didn't have the time and history that her friends did in healing any rifts. But she could try now. And who knows, maybe this was the closure she needed. Maybe she could actually come see her family more often rather than their sporadic trips to California and her stealthy cloak and dagger visits to Langley.

"I can do it," she softly said.

Amelia shook her head, red curls bouncing. "Gracie, no. It was stupid. I should have never suggested it."

"No, no," she amended. "You're right. People change and I need to give them a chance. This is my hometown and despite my grumblings in the past I have no issues with Langley as a whole. I'm proud to come from here. School was a good chunk of my life and the education I got at Langley helped me get into a good university and job." She nodded confidently. "So yeah, I can show up to a couple of meetings and show my face at this shindig."

Amelia twisted her hands. "There's something else I want to confess before you fully agree."

"What?" she frowned.

Amelia took a deep breath and looked up at her with apologetic eyes. "Harrison is on the committee."

"What?" she spat out.

Who was this new guy? The old Harrison would have despised being on any type of group planning committee. Unless it was for a wet tshirt contest.

"Yeah," Amelia nodded. "He kinda planned the majority of it."

"Wow," Grace took a step back in shock.

"So before you confirm that you wanna do this, just for full transparency, you're going to see him a lot more than just wedding duties. So if you wanna change your response, I fully understand." she told her.

Grace paused. I mean, that did change things. Did she want to make new and positive memories with her graduating class? Yes. Did she want to do it with Harrison? No.

But hey, maybe she could use this as an immersion therapy of sorts. Want to get over your fear of water? Dive into the deep end of the pool. Scared of spiders? Hold a Tarantula. Want to forgive your high school bully who tortured you for no reason? Plan a party with him.

I mean, the true opposite of that would be to hook up with him but no way would that be happening.

"You know what," she slowly said, regretting it even as she spoke, "Yeah, I still want to do it." She paused. "I mean, I don't want to want to do it but you know.... It's fine."

Amelia squealed and ran around the kitchen island, engulfingGrace in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!!" she excitedly exclaimed.

Grace shoved her friend away. "God, you need a shower, Meils. You smell like a brewery." she wrinkled her nose.

"Okay!" she said, not the least bit offended. "I'm gonna text Harrison to let him know the good news. He can let you know the details."

"Great," she dryly said.

Amelia stopped mid skid out the door. She popped her head back into the kitchen, her wild hair falling about her shoulders.

"You know," she grinned mischievously, "If you're missing sex, Harrison is single - argh". She ducked as a rolled up tea towel sailed past her head, her laughter echoing down the hallway.

Twenty minutes later, Grace got a text notification on her phone.

606 8889900: Hi, Grace. It's Harrison. I hope you don't mind, Amelia gave me your number. So happy you can help out. The next meeting is tonight at the school hall, 6:30. See you then?

Yep, she was already regretting this.