DJ Turn it Up

"Does it look good?" "Great." "I kinda want to show Dev." "Come on, you know that's bad luck, Sarah." "After seeing you in this dress, I don't think he'll ever want to leave." "Thanks." "Alright you officially have fifteen minutes, use it wisely."

Megan Carlyle, soon to be Megan Carisse, dropped to the couch and untucked her dress from under her. There was a queasiness that had been there for months, but now it settled there and refused to budge. Scrambling off the couch she snatched her phone off the table's edge and walked out of the room.

She didn't really know what she was searching for but whatever was in that cold and silent room did not have it. Tiptoeing into the kitchen and heading for the shelf she shoved an Oreo package down and set it down onto the kitchen counter, grabbing a milk jug from the fridge on the way. Robotically dipping it into the milk she dusted off the crumbs with a scoff and looked up, meeting the eyes of her mom, freezing her solid.

The other set of eyes she was met with was the blue-green eyes of her fiancé. So she dropped the Oreo on the way to her mouth and walked away in silence. After a few solid beats of silence her brain was flooded with memories. Come to think of it, there were many signs. When she introduced her to him and he looked at her, awestruck. When he went on a solid half-hour rant about how 'awesome and cool and wonderful her mom is. I mean seriously Megan, she and I are on the same wavelength.' She had thought that they just clicked, one of the few times in-laws weren't a nightmare, and had thanked her lucky stars that she didn't have to deal with cool silences and subtle glares. But there were so many, so many examples and she just... refused to notice them.

Amidst the chaos reigning in her heart, she plucked herself together and composedly made her way to the room where all her guests sat. It was going to be a small wedding (emphasis on the was considering what she had just seen) and she could not be anymore grateful for that then in this moment. She had never really had high standards for anything really, and she didn't care much for weddings or celebrations. This wedding was for her family, for Uncle Phil and Aunt Marge and her friend Sarah and her dad and her, yeah. What was it, she thought, as her feet stopped in her tracks and her brain ran off the hamster wheel, what made him decide to make out with her mom on the day of her wedding? What was her giant flaw, what was that single moment that made him want to leave her. She couldn't come up with anything. The problem couldn't be him, because her mom was the one cheating on him. Her mom who had raised her and changed her diapers, was vigorously making out with the man she was about to marry, and she couldn't reconcile that with a mother who loved her unconditionally. She dejectedly walked to the room, wearily told them the wedding was off and apologized for the inconvenience.

"Hey, dude, are you okay?" She had known it was Sarah, could tell by listening to those energetic footsteps. Her face seemed more muted and concerned, meaning she could read her like a fiddle. Then again, it was probably obvious. Sarah wouldn't do that. Sarah would tell him off even if she had a crush on him, and maybe she'd admit in a hushed voice when they were hanging out alone, and Megan would joke that she took Dev because he would never be good enough for Sarah. Then Sarah would say "No way" and they'd laugh and move on. Maybe Sarah was too good for her, maybe everyone groaned at their calendar when they realized they set a date to meet. Maybe everyone sighed in relief after the phone clicked at the end of a phone call. There wasn't a single thing she felt certain about at the moment except that she wanted to be alone. Her thoughts paired with everyone's overlapping yelling and questions would be too much. "Yeah. Kinda wanna be alone though." "Got it. I'll keep the hounds off your tail. Jeez, they're like the press.", Sarah said, glancing down the corridor with a glare. "Thanks Sarah."

The DJ booth nestled at the end of the buffet table stood alone and empty. Just like her. She stumbled into the booth with a flourish and looked up to the gray white ceiling above her. Suddenly she heard the low grumble of a man who appeared to be moving towards her. She jumped up rapidly, looking at the sight of the man moving towards her. He scratched at the back of his head in confusion, pulling a suitcase behind him. When his eyes landed on her dress his look of confusion multiplied tenfold. He pulled the suitcase to his side and stretched his hand out to hers. "Hey, I'm Ben. I'm supposed to be the DJ for the night. Uh, I've been getting some pretty mixed messages from people though. One lady said it's been postponed for a few hours and some guy said you got divorced or something like that." She groaned and swiped her hand down her face in frustration. "Uh, it's been postponed indefinitely, possibly forever." "Oh." Ben glanced around. "Do you want your money back then?" "It's fine." "I kinda feel bad charging you for something I haven't done." "You drove all the way here though." He pursed his lips in thought. "I'm a DJ not a driver. At the least you should get a portion of the money." "Can you play Taylor Swift?" "Yeah." "Okay, how about this. You play a few tracks. That way you do your job and keep all the cash." "Just for you?" She hadn't really thought of that, but the notion of being in a room with anywhere upwards of three people made her gag, so she nodded. "Okay. Taylor Swift it is." Moving from the booth she motioned him forward and grabbed a plate from the buffet. The quiet cords of Our Song played gently in the background as she nodded her head to the rhythm.