12. Bachelorette Party.

BETH.

“Well, since that has been agreed upon, let’s move over to the next important thing, which is the bachelorette party,” Lara said, excitedly, looking completely different from the person who was ranting earlier.

I still couldn’t believe she was okay with dumping another man’s kid on her husband-to-be. I did my best to convince her against it but what Lara wants, Lara gets. The person I pitied most was poor Tony who was going to now take care of a child that isn’t his. I was confused, trapped between giving my best friend a piece of my mind and just spilling everything to Tony.

I knew the latter option would just be like signing my own death warrant because there was no way in hell that Lara would ever forgive me. I didn’t want to be the cause of her unhappiness if the truth finally came out so I decided to just stay quiet, at least for now.

‘’What do I do?’’ I muttered.

No matter how I looked at the issue, there was simply no way out but to tell Tony the truth was sure not coming from me.

“Yeah, the bachelorette party,” I repeated, faking enthusiasm.

“Since you are my maid of honor, obviously, you get to plan the party. I trust you can do it better than anyone else, seeing how well you planned that surprise birthday party with Tony,” Lara said, smiling.

“Yes, I’d do a wonderful job. You have nothing to worry about,” I responded with a smile.

It’s the least I can do for her as a friend. It’s not like I can go over to Tony’s house and tell him all that’s happening; that would be breaking a friendship code. I didn’t want to get into any trouble with Lara. I’m not going to betray my best friend whom I have known for the past ten years just to save a guy I’ve only known for a year, just because I have a huge crush on him. Besides, Lara is finally settling down. It seemed like she was finally yielding to all the advice I had been giving her. I won’t lie; it came as a shock to me when she agreed to Tony’s marriage proposal but either way, I was happy for my girl. And I was determined to make this the best bachelorette party the world has ever witnessed.

The other girls, who were the bride’s maids, and I began planning the party. The theme color was baby pink, which was one of Lara’s favourite colors. Yeesha, who was good at baking, promised to bake some really delicious snacks for that day. Grace said she was going to shoulder the decorations duties; I was going to plan the activities for that day and Janet, who was the fashionista, said since would all be busy with one thing or the other, she would go to the mall and get all the dresses for the bachelorette party. We trusted her with that duty because we knew she’d pick the best outfits for us.

Finally the day came! I had hired a DJ and he was doing a great job playing some of Lara’s best songs. I looked around the pool area and saw that more ladies than we expected came for the party. Some of them I had never seen in my life. I turned to take a look at Lara, who was wearing the most beautiful baby pink dress I had ever seen. The dress stuck to her body like a second skin and complimented her dark skin.

“Lara, there are more people coming in than we imagined,” I said.

“Sorry, I must have forgotten to tell you but I invited a few friends from my old high school, the one I left before I moved to the one where I met you,” Lara said.

I sighed and placed a hand on my forehead.

“Let’s just hope Yeesha made enough snacks,” I said.

“Of course I did, girl,” Yeesha replied.

I turned around and saw her walking behind me, holding some snacks in her hand. She looked like she would drop them any minute.

“Let me help you with those,” I offered.

I walked over to her and helped her carry some of those delicious-looking snacks. She made rainbow cupcakes, strawberry brownies, strawberry cookies and some rainbow sprinkled donuts. After I had helped her and dropped the snacks on the table, she thanked me and I walked back to Lara, who had now moved over to where the guests were standing, welcoming them.

I greeted the guests and asked them if I could borrow Lara for a few minutes. They politely allowed me and I pulled Lara to one corner of the room.

“Should I start the party?” I asked her.

“Sure,” she replied.

I walked over to the DJ and borrowed a microphone. I cleared my throat and said,

“Okay ladies, we’re starting the party now. Who’s ready to PARTYYYY?” I said, yelling the last part.

The ladies shouted in excitement.

“Okay the first thing on the program today is the presentation of gifts. I hope you all have gifts for the new bride-to-be,” I spoke into the microphone.

“Yes,” the ladies chorused.

“Okay then. Let’s move right into that,” I said dropping the microphone.

Every lady had a wrapped gift in her hand as we approached Lara one after the other. Lara was sitting on a folding chair on the lawn, which was a little bit far from the pool. After all the ladies had presented their gifts, we moved right into games. There were games like scavenger hunts, Prosecco Pong, Drink If and several other fun games. After all activities on my list had been carried out, the ladies jumped into the pool for late-night swim.

Throughout the night, I had to keep an eye on Lara to prevent her from drinking, as it could be dangerous for the child she was carrying. While the other ladies were having fun, I pulled Lara to the side and asked,

“Have you told Tony about the child?”

“Uh, no, not yet, Beth, I’m scared.’’ She sighed.

‘’Scared? Alright Lara, what is it this time?’’ I asked.

‘’What if Tony finds out that the child isn’t his? What then becomes of me?’’ she asked.

I rolled my eyes. Now, she was thinking about the repercussions. Times without numbers, I warned her to always be careful but all my advice flew out in one ear. Now, she was getting scared. This was entirely on her, not me or anyone else.

‘’Lara, how are you so sure he’ll find out?’’ I asked.

The truth was I wanted him to find out and it should even be now before he gets married to her. If they ended up getting married and he discovered that the baby isn’t his, I had no idea what would happen.

‘’Beth, use your head. Things are bound to happen, information can be gotten anywhere. I really do not want to loose Tony.’’ She sniffed.

I knew that was all a deception. Lara didn’t love Tony, she just wanted to rope him in just because he gave her money. Lara was an opportunist, I had known this a long time ago but she never seemed to change despite all the warnings I had given her.

‘’Well, not if someone tells him. To be honest, I really don’t know who would tell him that.’’ I said.

‘’Or Lara, does anyone know about this apart from me?’’ I asked.

I knew how loud she was and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had told anyone else. If she had done, there was no way the news would get to Tony.

‘’I can’t say I haven’t.’’ she said, vaguely.

‘’What is that supposed to mean?’’ I asked.

I had a bad feeling about all of these and it stemmed from the fact that she was hiding something from me. I knew when she was telling the truth, when she lied and right at that moment, I knew with everything in me that Lara was not telling the truth.

‘’I don’t know but I think on one of my drunken nights with my friend, I think I spilled… just a little though.’’ She muttered.

I groaned, placing my cup on the kitchen counter. Lara didn’t know it yet but she might have just done something irreversible. I didn’t know who this friend was and I just had a bad feeling about all of these.

‘’Lara, you shouldn’t have done that.’’ I groaned.

‘’I know, I know and I’m starting to regret it.’’ She muttered.

‘’Just hope that nothing goes wrong. We can not really trust people and we have no idea if this friend knows Tony. It’s a small world after all.’’ I sighed.

“I know right, it’ll all be fine though, I don’t think this friend heard too much.”

“Hmm, okay. Take it slow though, or are you getting cold feet already?” I questioned.

“Oh, hell no! I want this too, kinda. And I’m so pumped, I mean guess who’s getting married tomorrow?!!

“Definitely you, and I’m so happy for you girl even though I’m quite shocked too. I mean where’s the girl who always says fuck love, huh? I can’t seem to find her anywhere.” I said, pretending to look around our environment in search for Lara.

She hit me lightly on the shoulder and we both laughed at my small joke. When the laughter died down, she said, with a smile on her beautiful face, “I’m right here, stupid.”

Then her face became serious and she spoke, “Thank you so much Beth, for being the best friend and for organizing this whole day. I’m really lucky to have you in my life.”

“Oh c’mon Lara, it’s nothing. That’s just what best friends do, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, and that’s why you’re the bestest friend in the while wide world and I hope it stays that way.” She replied.

I returned her smile while I replied. “Yea, me too.”