7. I’m Not Dead Yet!
But the best quality that’s hookin' me
Is that you're loving me for me
Is that you're loving me for me
When Mack walked into the room Liv had already started to do her makeup. “Ok, Mack, first let’s put on your dress.” She nodded and went through her closet to find it. “Now Mack this dress doesn’t have any straps so we need to make sure you have no tan lines.”
Mack discarded her clothes and put the dress on. The dress was all black. It went to her knees and had several layers. It had a sparkle quality to it. It looked like she was glowing. She placed on her shoes, which had a small heel. It was open toed and tied around her ankles. Liv’s dress was a midnight blue with a layer over the fabric that had flowers etched into it with a velvet like material. She wore a crystal like shoe that reminded Mack of Cinderella.
She did Mack’s hair all in curls. She then pinned it up with bobby pins that had black pearls attacked to them. Liv straightened her hair and made it flip out at the end. She did Mack’s makeup simple and natural. She highlighted her eyes and added a little bit of glitter at the corner of each eye and a nude shade to her lips. After Mack rubbed the sunless tanning substance on her shoulders they added glitter to highlight the dress. She added mascara and plucked some stray eyebrow hairs and then marveled at her work.
“You’ll knock their socks off!” Liv said. She looked at the clock. “5:15, not bad. Come on let’s show your boyfriend and your date how you look. Stay here until I tell you to come down the stairs.”
Liv left the room and walked down the stairs to where the guys were waiting. Elijah was wearing a maroon shirt and suit to match. Dom was wearing a black suit and a gray shirt and Dom…Dom was wearing a blue metallic suit that defiantly said ‘look at me!’ Josh was wearing a black suit with a white button up shirt. He went for the classic look.
Liv cleared her throat, “I honestly have to say that this is my best work. Mack come on down!” She half yelled. Billy took her place at the end of the staircase.
With a rustling of her dress she tried to walk down the stairs gracefully despite that fact that she didn’t usually wear heels. On the last step she tripped and fell into Billy’s awaiting arms.
“Um…hi,” she said shyly.
“Wow you look…wow just brilliant,” A wide smile appeared on his face. He walked over towards Josh. “You better treat her right!” he threatened.
Josh smiled, “Don’t worry I’ll take good care of her. Scouts honor.”
They all decided to take Orlando’s BMW, and Sean’s car. It was decided that Josh, Dom, Mack, and Orlando would take his car. Liv, Elijah, Sean, and a reluctant Billy went in Sean’s car.
Mack was sitting next to Dom in the back seat. Dom was in a heated argument with Orlando. Mack smiled evilly as she picked up a nearby pen and wrote on Dom’s hand. She was just about to write something on his other hand but he finally caught on and looked at his hand.
“Trees?” He questioned. “Why did you write trees on my hand?”
She shrugged, “Save the rainforest wipe your ass with an owl.” They all laughed.
They finally reached the place where the banquet was being held. They parked their cars and started to walk towards the entrance. “Jeeze, Peter went all out,” Sean said looking at the red carpet. There was a small crowd taking pictures and reporters asking questions. They all found their “assigned” date and began to walk down the carpet.
“Josh, Mack over here!” some of the reports yelled. They walked over to the first reported which happened to be for E, “Are you two dating?”
Mack shook her head, “No, I have a boyfriend actually. We just got together recently but I already made plans to take my friend Josh with me.”
“Who is your boyfriend?” The woman asked.
“He’s actually down that way,” she pointed behind herself.
“You’re dating one of the actors? Does Elijah support this?” They held the mic in front of her again.
She laughed, “I hope he supports it. He’s one of his friends.”
“Which actor is it?” She questioned.
She smiled, “You’ll find out soon enough.” She waved at the cameras and started to walk down the carpet again.
“Is Dom your date?” A reported asked Billy.
He laughed, “Well, I guess so. My girlfriend already had a friend escort her.”
“You have a girlfriend?” He questioned.
“Yes, she’s down that way,” he put his arms in the air and waved down by her to get Mack’s attention.
The reporter looked in the direction that Billy was waving and saw Mack give a little wave back, “You’re dating Mackenzie Evers, Elijah’s best friend?”
“You make it sound like it’s a bad thing,” Billy said. “I’m quite happy actually.”
“Good luck on the movie and your relationship,” He said.
“Well thank you!” He started to walk down the red carpet again. He and Dom made funny poses as people took pictures.
“Elijah Elijah!” One of the reporters yelled. He walked towards her. “Is it true that your best friend is dating Billy Boyd?”
He smiled, “Why yes it is.”
“How do you feel about this?” She asked.
“I’m really happy for them and I wish them luck. They have my blessing.” He waved to the fans and walked down the carpet.
Josh, Mack, Sean, and his wife Christine waited at the end of the carpet for the rest of the group. Slowly the group became larger, but they were still waiting on Dom, Billy, and Elijah. Dom came running down the carpet carrying Billy piggyback style while Elijah laughed at their antics.
Billy met up with Mack, “Do you want a piggyback ride?”
She laughed, “I think it would be hard with his dress on. Maybe later.”
“I swear if I get another question on whether or not Billy and Mack are together…” Orlando said.
“I know they kept asking me what I thought about it!” Elijah laughed. “Did they think I would hate you for it or something?”
Billy grinned, “Let’s give them something to talk about.” He grabbed Mack. Her eyes widened and he dipped her while passionately kissing her. Flashing went off blinding the rest of the fellowship.
He brought Mack back up. “Wow that certainly was…entertaining,” Elijah blinked. Dom hooted and hollered.
“Um, Billy, you have a little lip gloss on you…” Liv pointed out.
“I think that was there before they kissed,” Dom pointed out.
“Hardy har har,” Billy said.
“I thought I was supposed to be the pirate here,” Orlando said. They all laughed and entered the building.
It looked like prom night. There were lanterns hanging around the room to give a romantic feel and there was music in the background. The large room had a bar and included a dance floor. Everyone was in awe. They hadn’t expected it to be like this. There were many circular tables set up. The hobbits, elf, Mack, and Josh sat at a table. They all sat in their chairs and began commenting on how beautiful the room was. Billy took Mack’s hand in his and smiled. They couldn’t keep their eyes off of each other.
Their salad and drinks were placed in front of them. Billy began to retell the story of the “deadly splinter” to Josh, “He was sweating up a storm! He really started to complain about his foot and said that a bloody splinter was in it. So we follow him to see how big the splinter is. Mack finally gets it out with Liv’s tweezers and it was the smallest thing I have ever seen! So whenever I see him sweating again I say…Dom, is it another splinter?” They all laughed.
“I think we should tell the tale of Tig,” Dom said.
“What’s Tig?” Josh asked.
Mack laughed, “It was the fake game that Billy and Dom made up to fool Elijah.”
“So we would play. The three of us were constantly getting it right. Every time. Elijah tried a new way of tigging someone, we'd say ‘No Elijah, you can't tig on a tog’ ‘You can't tag on a tig’ ‘You have to do an elephant impression if you're gonna tig Billy and if Billy's going to tig you back you have to get on your knees and take your trousers down... and for like three weeks Elijah was saying how much he enjoyed playing Tig.’ They all laughed.
“And he fell for that?” Josh asked.
Billy laughed, “I myself am surprised that he did.” Elijah’s face turned a nice pink color.
The main dish was finally set in front of everyone. They made small talk about past movies and experiences. Mack felt something kick her shin. She looked to her right and Billy put on an innocent face. She kicked his shin back.
“Ow your shoes bloody hurt,” Billy moaned.
“Well maybe if you didn’t kick me in the first place,” she stuck out her tongue.
“Ooo, someone’s playing footsy!” Orlando mocked.
“I don’t think its footsy when someone kicks your shin,” She glared at Billy. He shrugged innocently.
After they were done bickering a large cake was brought out in front of Peter. He tapped his glass, “I’m glad that you all could make it. This production would be no where without all of you!” There was some hooting and hollering from the fellowship’s table. Peter chuckled as motioned for them to come up and see the cake. It was decorated with a picture of the fellowship. It looked like an actual picture.
Peter leaned over to blow out the candles. Billy and Dom looked at each other and mouthed one, two, and then they pushed Peter’s face into the cake. Mack snickered behind her hand but couldn’t take it anymore she started laughing rather loudly and was joined by the rest of the fellowship. Even Peter was laughing.
Mack took some icing and smeared it on Billy’s face, “Whoops.”
“FOOD FIGHT!” Billy yelled at the top of his lungs. Everyone took the nearest food and chucked it at a targeted member. Mack did an army style roll on the floor. She picked up some cake and threw it at Dom. She then ran up behind Elijah and smeared some cake into his hair.
“Not the hair!” He yelled. “You’ll get yours Mack!”
Liv was trying to get people to calm down. Billy smirked and threw a piece of cake at her. It hit the back of her head. She turned around with her mouth open, “William Boyd you did not just do that.”
“Actually I think I did…” He laughed. Liv picked up some jello and chucked it at him. It hit him in the chest and rolled down his pants. His eyes widened and he began to jump up and down. Mack and Liv were laughing quite loudly while Billy did a little jig.
Mack snorted sending Billy into hysterics. “That was hot,” Billy said.
Billy looked around him and then grabbed Mack’s hand. He pulled her underneath one of the tables.
“Oh how romantic,” she rolled her eyes.
“I try,” Billy said. He suddenly kissed her hard on the lips. “I’ve been wanting to do that all night…”
She smiled, “I hope I didn’t disappoint you.”
He laughed. She could feel his breath on his lips. She kissed him back. She brought her arms up to his neck as the kiss deepened. He laid her back and kissed her aggressively. He then made a trail of kissed down her neck and then moved down to her shoulder. He stopped suddenly.
“I’m sorry I…we can’t do this,” He whispered.
“What?” She knitted her eyebrows in confusion.
“We’ve haven’t been together that long and its not that I don’t really like you, but we’ll regret this tomorrow.” He said. She sat up. “I don’t want you to do something you’re not comfortable with.”
“You’re right,” she rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry I was being stupid.”
He touched her cheek, “You weren’t being stupid. We just weren’t thinking right.” He got up from under the table and helped Mack up.
Her heart was still beating quickly and her lips were still swollen. Do you not love me? She thought to herself, but more importantly did she love him? A voice brought her back to reality.
“Mack, are you ok?” Elijah asked.
“Hmm? Oh, I’ll be fine.” She put on a fake smile and with her discarded shoes in hand she followed the others to the car.
They all decided that it was time to turn in for the night. They were almost positive that a line of frosting was dripping behind them. The order somewhat changed. Billy traded spots with Josh last minute. He sat in the back next to Mack. To Mack they seemed a little distant, but nobody else seemed to notice. She yawned as she placed her head on Billy’s shoulder. He put his arm around her shoulder.
Mack was the first to be dropped off. Billy helped her out of the car and walked her to the door. “Billy, please stay with me,” she pleaded.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” he said.
“You know as well as I do that I’m going to have another nightmare. The only time I ever slept well was last night,” she whispered.
“Mack, I’d love to spend the night, but I honestly don’t trust myself,” he reasoned.
She sighed, “Ok Billy I respect your opinion.”
He looked into her eyes, “I don’t want anything to change between us. I care about you too much.” He pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“Billy, I’m not trying to suggest anything. I really need you right now.” Her eyes became glassy.
“Oh Zee, don’t cry,” he sighed. “Ok, I’ll stay with you tonight.” She nodded as the tears began to fall. Billy hugged her and realized she needed him. He was her boulder, her strength, her blanket from the cold. He waved to Orlando and walked inside with Mack.
*
The suns rays awoke him and he sighed. He heard Mack crying last night. Quietly sobbing late into the night. He felt guilty. He wanted to just take her in his arms and protect her from everything, but he couldn’t because that was impossible. He started to make invisible patterns on her arm until he came upon something. It was a scar, long and a light purplish color. It looked to be about five inches long and it ran down her elbow. He also saw smaller cuts on her upper arm by her shoulder. Some were an inch thick and some were only a centimeter big.
“Oh Mack,” he whispered. Her right arm was practically covered with scars. He knew about her crash, but he didn’t know that she had a visual reminder of it. She looked so peaceful sleeping. The light from the window showed every freckle. Every curve. To him she was perfect.
She stirred and he lightly kissed her. “Good morning,” He said.
She smiled, “Morning.” She got out of bed and stretched. Her tank top rose up showing a patch of her stomach. She pulled her shirt back down and adjusted her pants.
“Since this is my day off what do you want to do today?” He asked.
She shrugged, “We could see a movie, hang out, or go out to eat.”
“Or we can do all three,” he smiled.
She smiled back, “Do I get that piggyback ride yet?”
He laughed and got out of bed. “Well we could do that or…” before he could finish he ran off down the hallway towards the kitchen.
“No fair! You cheated!” She yelled. She ran fast to catch up. “Army training don’t fail me now.” She muttered. She ran up behind him and tackled him onto the couch. “I win again.” She laughed.
“Well that’s not fair. When is it my turn to win?” he pouted.
“That doesn’t work on me,” she said as she turned on the TV.
“Well, does this work?” he started to tickle her and she roared with laughter. She laughed and squirmed so much that she fell off the couch with a thud. He laughed. “I guess I won then.”
“Give me a second to breathe,” she panted. He helped her back onto the couch and silence surrounded them. She look at his eyes and then down at his lips. He kissed her softly again as he place his arms around her waist. The kiss deepened as she ran her finger through his hair.
“Whoa whoa, let’s keep this to a PG rating shall we?” Elijah said as he entered the room. They pulled apart from each other and Mack turned a scarlet color. Billy just grinned. “What are you guys up to for the day?”
“Well,” Billy started. “We were going to rent a movie and hang out a bit. Then we can all go out for dinner or something.”
“Let’s watch Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail!” Mack said.
“Excellent!” Billy said. “Do you want to watch with us Lij?”
He shrugged, “Sure why not.”
