Noortje's POV

It was nearly time for the wedding. My brother’s wedding. He was going to get married to my high school best friend, who would have expected that. I definitely didn’t. I remember when I found out about them being a couple… But that’s a story for the wedding itself. It was still only the day before, and Tony and I were staying at the couple’s house. All was going well and I couldn’t wait till two of my favourite people were going to get married.

We were sitting in the living room. Tony and I were cuddled up on the couch and Ewout and Ties both sat on a recliner. We had a bottle of wine and four glasses on the coffee table. There was nothing particular we were talking about until Ewout suddenly remembered something.

He took a sip of his wine and placed the glass down, “We wanted to ask you guys something.”

“And what’s that?” I urged.

“Oh! I wanna go first!” Ties squeaked, “So, Noortje. We’ve been together through a lot and I was stuck thinking about this for a while. Ewout and I chose that we could either have groomsmaids or groomsmen, or whatever you wanna call them, ‘cause why not. But I was thinking, who better to ask than Noortje? So… Would you be my maid of honor?”

I looked at him with wide eyes, “I would love to, but you could have told me before. I would have brought a special dress!”

“Oh, no need to worry, I got that covered, hoping you’re still the same dress size… Anyway, we’ll go fit that in a sec.”

“So, then I thought, who could be my bestman or maid of honor.” Ewout continued, “My favourite sister has already been taken, and, no offense to her, but I really don’t want Annika up there with me… Maybe a little offense. But, then I had no idea who to ask. I’m already marrying the only other person I would want to have to have there with me. So then I started thinking, who would Noortje choose? Then a certain somebody popped up into my mind. This person totally made out with my sister in the backseat in my car after we had gone after her. So…. Tony, will you be my bestman?”

“But you barely know me! As much as I am honored to, aren’t there other people you know a lot better?” Tony reckoned.

“As I said, there was nobody else I could think of.”

“Well, ok then,” Tony grinned widely and accepted.

“I’m guessing you brought a suit, or something like it, so all I have to give you is a tie.”

Tony nodded and Ties piped up, “Well, we better try on your dress, or we might have a small problem tomorrow.”

“I’ve never seen you this excited about clothes before,” I joked.

“Well, this is different.”

He dragged me upstairs and into the study. I was left standing in the room while Ties went to get the dress he was so excited about. A few seconds later he came back with a long white clothes protector. He jumped up and down as he zipped it open. It revealed a longish strapless dress. The chest area was a mixture between gold and copper and was glittery. Around the waist was a loose pink bow that was made out of the same material the rest of the dress was made out of: a pink flowy fabric. The dress itself was shorter in the front that in the back, so you could probably see my legs. Normally I wouldn’t have worn gold and pink, but this dress was amazing.

“It’s so beautiful,” I said, mouth wide open, “I really hope it fits.”

“I really hope so too,” Ties said with a sigh, “You, go put it on. I’ll get the shoes which will probably make you hate me, but they fit so well with the dress.”

He disappeared before I could ask any questions. All I was left to do was to take off my clothes and bra and put on the dress. I had just covered myself up when Ties came walking back in with a box.

“Zip me up, will ya?” I asked while turning my back towards him.

He put the box on the table and slowly zipped up the zipper, making sure not to break the fabric. Before I could turn around he handed me the shoes; he said that he only wanted to see me when the outfit was complete. I looked at the contents of the box and my eyes nearly popped out of my skull. These were the highest heels I had ever seen. They were baby pink and had open toes. There was no way I was going to be able to wear these the entire day. But I didn’t say anything, I wanted to please Ties, so I easily slipped them on my feet. At least they were the right size.

I turned around, my outfit now complete if you were to forget the hair and makeup, and Ties gasped, worrying me that there was something wrong.

“I love it!” He exclaimed.

He dragged me to a full sized mirror and made me looked at myself. He wasn’t wrong. I really didn’t look bad, surprisingly. Normally these colors would make my skin look very pale and make my hair look like a big fucking mess. But this time is actually didn’t. I smiled at me own reflection.

“It’s amazing Ties, you really did a good job,” I hugged him. It was weird hugging him and being the tall one. Heels really aren’t my thing.

“I had some help,” He shrugged, “There’s no way I would have done this by myself. Let’s thank the amazing people at the shop and my cousin who owns it.”

“Your cousin owns a dress shop?” I asked.

“Yeah, so I got a discount, don’t worry about the prices.”

I chuckled, “It would have been pretty expensive otherwise, right?”

“Yeah, you probably would have to go in whatever you brought along with you,” He joked, “But Oh My God. Tony is going to love it as well. I’m afraid he will be watching your the entire time. You might even get all the attention!”

“I don’t think I will, you guys are going to look amazing too. However I will tower over most people… even Tony… Oh well. I have to send Vic a photo of these heels, just to tease him.”

Ties laughed, “Do you want to go downstairs to show yourself off?”

“I think we should just leave it to tomorrow, when my hair and makeup will make it look even more amazing.”

Ties agreed, and helped my take off everything. I didn’t care if he saw me naked, he had seen me countless of times, even during the last awkward stages of puberty. Let’s just say my body looked a lot better than it did back then. I put back on my bra, jeans, and t-shirt, and followed Ties back downstairs.

Tony grinned up at me from the couch and pulled me on to his lap. He moved all my hair to my right shoulder and placed his chin on my left.

“How did it go?” He questioned.

“She looked terrible, the whole wedding is ruined.” Ties said melodramatically.

I rolled off of Tony so I was lying down besides him and glared at Ties, “Well fuck you.”

“She looked amazing, you’re going to love it,” Ties corrected.


“I’m just glad that I fit in the dress. I still have the same dress size as all those years ago. I guess that’s a good sign, I haven’t gained any weight.”

“Well, technically you did,” Tony started, “But only in a good way. If you would have tried that dress on a couple of weeks ago, it would have probably slipped off of you.”

“Yes, but that’s because of something else. So shut up,” I stretched out my arms and purposely hit Tony in his face, pushing him away slightly.

Tony grabbed my hand and pushed it towards me before leaning forwards and giving me a peck on the lips. He started placing small kisses all over my face when the doorbell rang. I was laughing and trying to push Tony away, but he kept going. I didn’t realize anybody had gone to open the door until there somebody cleared their throat. Tony and I both looked to where the sound came from, making me push him off of me and onto the floor with a loud thump. My brother was standing behind the guests and gave me a guilt smile before mouthing ‘sorry, I forgot’, but I didn’t pay attention to him. I could only glare at the people I called my parents.

----

Tony was sitting to my right, Ties on my left, and my parents and brother were sitting opposite of us. We were eating dinner that Ewout had prepared, but nothing was being said. It might have been an awkward silence for some, but for me it was filled with hatred. I hadn’t spoken a word to them and ignored their stares.

I decided to drink a sip of water, but I’m not a normal human being and mess up a simple task like that. Of course I started coughing really loudly and only after Tony had asked me if I was ok, I was able to stop. I heard my mum mutter ‘attention whore’ under her breath. As expected she would think I would do it on purpose, she always thought I didn’t everything on purpose. Everybody knew better and didn’t defend me, even though I knew they wanted to.

“So, how about I do the dishes?” Ewout broke the silence.

“Oh no, Honey, you don’t have to do that,” My mum looked at me with a disgusted face, “She’ll do it.”

I stood up and started collecting the plates. Ties and Ewout knew the drill and decided not to help me, but Tony didn’t know. He went to help, but I shook my head before anything happened. I rested my hand on his shoulder, making sure he would stay in his seat. He looked at Ewout with a confused stare, but Ewout only did what I did: shake his head.

----

After I had made multiple trips and made sure that all the dishes were spotless, Tony and I had announced that we were going to go to bed since we were very jetlagged. We went up to our room and sat on the bed.

“Why didn’t you let me help you with the dishes?” Tony asked carefully.

“Because of my parents, obviously. Whenever my friends offered to help nothing good would happen. It mostly resulted in tonnes of bruises.” I mumbled while looked at my hands which were placed in the lap.

Tony placed his hand on my cheek and lifted my head so I would look at him. He gave me a sad smile and slowly traced my cheekbone with his thumb. I watched as he leaned in a gave me a loving kiss. There was nothing he could say, and he knew it.

He pulled away so he lips were barely touching mine, “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be back in a bit.” He kissed me for another short while before walking out of the room and into the bathroom, which was a couple doors down.

I was left seated on the bed all by myself when I heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs. Before I knew it they were in the bedroom, and the shoes that had created the noise were standing in front of me. I watched my father's hand move to slap me, but I grabbed his wrist before he could do anything. I wasn’t going to let them do this to me anymore. I was 29 for god's sake! He looked at me with surprised eyes, I never fought back, but the surprise quickly changed to something I couldn’t read.

He laughed evilly, “So you finally decided to go against me. I would never have expected that, but then again nobody can ever expect anything of you. You’re useless. You made the wrong career choice, and now you're in a fucking band. How stupid is that! Why can’t you be more like your sister. She listens and actually has a good job because she obeyed, she even has a nice boyfriend who’s a lawyer. And what about your boyfriend, huh? He plays in the same band as you. Are you fucking out of your mind! You’ll never be good enough for him. He’s a rockstar, they like pretty girls with nice hair, a nice face, and a good body. Look at you. There’s nothing about you he could possibly like. You even got a tattoo to try to impress him. Isn’t that sad! Poor Noortje, he’ll never love you. I bet you he can’t even think of possibly having a future with you. You don’t have a future. You’re nothing.”

I said nothing. I wasn’t going to cry, I couldn’t infront of him. He would win if I did. He had never degraded me like this before. Often it would just be about a small thing, but he had a whole speech this time. And he didn’t even hesitate or stumble over his words, it was as if he had practised.

I watched as he went to walk out of the room, but he turned back around and his hand slapped across my face. My left cheek burned and stung as he left, I could feel the heat radiating off of it. I finally let the tears roll down and splash against my hands and jeans. There was nothing I could do to not let his words hurt me. Everything fucking hurt.

Tony walked back in with just a towel wrapped around his waist and a big smile, which quickly faded as he saw the tears and the red hand-sized mark on my face. He hurried over and crouched in front of me, placing his hand against the cheek that wasn’t burning and using the other to hold one of my hands.

“What happened?” I ask in a soft voice.

I shook my head and let the tears come quicker. He tried to find my eyes, but I wouldn’t let him, I just gazed at my own feet. Talking would make my silence turn into sobs. Tony pushed himself up slightly while pulling my face down so he could kiss my forehead.

“I love you so much, ok? I’m not planning on leaving you. I promise I’ll always be here for you,” Tony mumbled against my skin.

I looked to my right and saw my dad standing in the corridor with a smirk, watching us and obviously listening in.

“Tony, don’t,” I whispered and took my hand out of his and moving his other hand off my cheek.

Tony followed my gaze and saw my father. He tensed up, but turned back to me before smashing his lips against mine. It was different from all the other kisses we had shared. It wasn’t lust filled, but it also wasn’t soft. The kiss was filled with determination, as if he was trying to prove a point. I kissed him back and focused all my attention of just him, nothing else; just focusing on the way Tony felt. The way his stubble scratched my face, the way his hair felt tangled in my fingers, the way his lips molded perfectly with mine.

After we had pulled away I looked back at the door and saw my dad had left. He was probably getting uncomfortable. It probably looked like Tony and I were going to fuck each other, and not in a loving way, even though that wasn’t our intention. I guess we were even.

“How about I go find some ice before this starts bruising,” Tony traced the bruise, making me wince.

----

Tony’s POV

I didn’t know what Noortje’s father said to her, but I did know it really upset her. She always used to tell me how supportive her parents were, but it certainly didn’t look that way. Did she lie to me about them? But that didn’t matter, now all that was important was what happened. I realised I was still in only a towel, but I entered the living room anyway. Everybody looked at me, and I decided it probably was not a good idea to go in like this, but it was already too late.

“Drop the towel, sexy!” Ties exclaimed.

Everybody laughed, even Noortje’s parents, which surprised me. I expected them to hate me as well, but they seemed like normal parents to me now. They were very complicated.

“I don’t think your husband to be would like you looking at that,” I retorted.

“Well… if we both see it, I guess I can make an exception…” Ewout trailed off.

I wanted to make a comment about how Noortje was the only one allowed to see me naked, but decided it was better not to. I didn’t know how her parents would react, and it would be nice to stay on their good side, seeing what they do to Noortje.

“Stop teasing the boy and ask him what he wants,” Noortje’s mom scolded.

Ewout laughed, “How can we help?”

“I was wondering if you had some ice?” I scratched the back of my head, feeling really awkward.

“Umm, yeah. Let me get it for you,” Ewout stood up, “ Just follow me.

We entered the kitchen and walked over to the freezer.

“Having kinky sex with my sister, are you?” Ewout joked.

“Hahaha, no. I wouldn’t even think about having sex in your house.” I replied.

“Oh, we don’t care, go for it if you want. Why do you need it then?”

“For Noortje.”

He gave me a confused look, “What happened?”

“Your dad happened.”

“Is she ok?”

“Yeah, it was just a slap. I just don’t want it to bruise,” I assured.

“Hmm… weird. Normally it’s a lot more than that.”

“She was crying though, but I think that because he said something, I don’t know what it was though.”

“Wow, he hit a new low. He never really mentally abused her, at least not bad enough to make her cry… I trust you to care of her.”

“I will,” I smiled.

Ewout handed me an ice pack and a towel to wrap it in. I thanked him and went back up to Noortje. She had changed into her pajamas and was already cuddled up underneath the blankets. I smiled at her and told her to keep the ice pack against the bruise. Before I joined her in bed I put on a fresh pair of boxers. I shuffled up so I was spooning her and wrapped my arms around her waist, bringing her closer.

I kissed her neck, “Your brother and best friend think I am attractive.”

“Do they? What makes you think that?” She laughed

“Well, they asked me to drop my towel.”

“Did you?”

“Of course not, your parents were there!”

She turned around in my embrace so she was facing me and gave me a beautiful smile, “So you would have done it if they weren’t there?”

“Of course!” I joked.

She laughed, making my heart flutter. It might sound cliche, but her laugh really did sound like music to my ears. Everything about her was perfect, I wouldn’t want anybody else. I stared down at her and took his every single detail. Her lips were curled up slightly, and her eyes shined, but there was something wrong. There were dark bags underneath her eyes. She hadn’t slept in ages. I would often go to bed and she would tell me she would come in a bit, but she would never show up and stay awake instead. Whenever she did decided to join me, she would wake up screaming a thrashing around. I had tried to talk to her about it, but she wouldn’t.

This night was no different.

Notes

I'm so sorry for not updating for nearly 3 weeks. I went on a vacation for 2 weeks and wasn't able to get a chapter finished before I left. I came back yesterday, and finally finished the chapter, going over my goal of 2000 words and writing 3359 words instead. It's not the longest chapter, but still a bit longer than many others. So enjoy the slightly (not really) longer chapter.

By the way there's only a couple of chapters left now, a few more than I had planned before though. I got a few extra idea's while tanning in the sun, concerning Noortje's nightmares and her dad. So look forward to that.

Anybody else excited for the album that is supposedly coming out this year!


- DSN