Sure enough, a few minutes later the fireworks started. Small at first, then culminating in a giant cacophony of colors, they definitely at least matched the ones in New York. It wasn’t the ball dropping at Times Square at midnight, but oh boy was it impressive.
Every color of the rainbow and then some was represented. Waterfalls, giant bursts, star shapes, even a circle of fire in the middle of the London Eye. When the grand finale finally hit, with at least hundreds of fireworks all going off at once, I thought I was going to go deaf, but I couldn’t look away. It was amazing.
Then, it was all over, and the New Year had started. I wondered what it had in store for me as Annie and I made our way back to the train, to catch one of the special late night ones back towards Oxford. Michael was going to meet me at my station, and I knew Annie had a ride home as well.
“This year is going to be crazy,” Annie told me as we stood on the train with the hundreds of others all heading back in the same direction. “I can feel it.”
Little did she know just how right she was.
Chapter Thirteen
A week later the second semester started, and my life quickly became pretty hectic once again. On top of my classes, Annie and I decided that after the two classes we had together this semester – English Poets Post-Renaissance and Introduction to Art History – we were going to spend an hour at the gym, which meant four hours a week on the treadmill and lifting weights. Of course there was a gym at home, but we both agreed we were more likely to actually go if we did it together, just after class, and seeing as it was free for full-time students, why not?
Sure, it would be nice to lose weight. While I liked my curves, I think I’d prefer them if they were a bit smaller. But I really wanted to look a bit more toned, and I figured the gym would help me do that.
On top of my studies and my new exercise regime, during which Annie and I read magazines while either walking quickly on the treadmill or using the elliptical, we read magazines and gossiped about everything we could think of.
My mom was getting more and more stressed out about the wedding. I supposed John might have been as well, I was starting to see less and less of him. Apparently the beginning of the year was one of the busiest times of the year for his business, according to my mom, and he’d come home after eleven then leave again before seven the next morning. I suspect sometimes he even slept in the city instead of coming home.
As for Jack, he was back to spending a lot of his time at home, and was as annoying as ever. I hated being woken up by his dumb Lamborghini at midnight when he came home, I hated hearing the loud noise from his music and having him thump around his room. He was always such an inconsiderate asshole. But on the bright side, he stopped bringing random girls over; if he was still nailing them he was doing it somewhere else. I supposed that was something to be thankful for.
Unfortunately, my mom being stressed meant she always needed somebody to whine to, and that person happened to be me.
“Julianne, I need you to look at the choices I’ve made for bridesmaids dresses,” she called out to me one afternoon when I was studying.
“Ok, where are they?”
“Down in the family room, there’s a whole set of them for you to choose from.”
“I’ll go do it in about ten minutes, ok?”
“That’s fine. I have a headache so I’m just lying down for a bit,” my mom replied. I rolled my eyes. Of course she had such a bad headache she could yell at me from down the hall.
But, ten minutes later, I went down and had a look at the six different purple dresses that were an option. I was going to be the maid of honour, but I had no idea who the other bridesmaids were going to be. I knew my mom had at least two friends coming over from New York, so I assumed at least one of them would be one of the other bridesmaids, but that was all I knew.
Settling on the design I thought was nicest, I went up to see my mom. I went into her room without knocking and saw her on the bed for the first time in a few days, and saw she had a bruise on her cheek.
“Mom! What’s that from?” I asked, concerned. It was one thing for my mom to fake illness constantly, but entirely another for her to have an actual bruise.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was outside and slipped on a patch of ice.”
“Are you sure you’re ok?”
“Yes. It hurts, but I’ve been putting ice on it, and John was nice enough to get me some pills to take away the pain.”
“Ok mom, you should be more careful outside.”
“I know, I let myself get too comfortable here, since there’s no snow on the ground. I’ll be more careful in the future.” She smiled at me. “So did you pick out a dress?”
“I did. I like the third one, the one with the princess neckline.”