Chapter 24 ━━ Wedding Bells Awaits!

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"Up, up, up. Come on, no time to sleep in, princess." Lorna hears Kai speaking into her ear. 

She opens her eyes to see her on her bed and a simple blanket is only covering her naked body. She groans as she uses her vampire speed and pulls him to the bed, who is fully clothed. She wraps her arms around him like he's a teddy bear and kisses his neck with eyes closed. "I don't want to get up."

"I know that you can't keep your paws off me. Unfortunately, considering my sister walking down the aisle in t-minus ten hours, you have to wake up, princess." He says to her. "Wedding bells await!"

Kai is whistling 'Shine' by Collective Soul under his breath while he prepares breakfast as Lorna walks into the kitchen.

"Big breakfast for a big day!" Kai smiles widely as he notices her. He starts laughing hilariously in excitement for whatever it is he's planning.

Lorna raises her eyebrow and gives him a weird look. "What happened to you?" 

"It sucks when the people- person I love hide things from me." He says.

"What do you mean?" The blonde asks him, internally panicking for Joe's unborn babies's sake.

"You never said that you're going to be the bridesmaid!" He squeaks. "Can't wait to see you. I'll have to be around you to protect you from that Hero hair dude." 

She mentally sighs in relief. He really made her think that he knew about Jo.

"Kai, you're not going to the wedding." She announces.

"Why?" He looks disappointed.

She sighs. "You know why, Kai. I know that you've changed but others do not think the same." 

He purses his lips, nodding. "Okay."

Lorna is currently with Jo and Bonnie, who are preparing for the wedding in one of the studies in the boarding house. Bonnie seems to be in a less-angry mood which the blonde is glad. 

Jo is rushing around the room as she searches for something. "Crap, they're not here."

Elena looks up at her as she fills a glass with champagne. "What's wrong?"

"My shoes! My gorgeous, ridiculously expensive, wear-them-once-and-then-never-again shoes. They are missing." Jo freaks out.

"Do you want me to do a locator spell?" Bonnie asks.

"On my shoes?" Jo asks confusedly.

"Mm-hmm." Bonnie nods.

"Is that possible?" Jo asks.

"I don't know, actually. Just hang on, I got to figure out how to work this stupid thing." Bonnie is helplessly trying to get a garment steamer to turn on and accidentally pulls the hose out. Jo looks alarmed and frustrated as she sighs.

"Oh, good, break it! Because my wrinkled dress will surely distract everyone from my bare feet." Jo says sarcastically.

Lorna turns to calm Jo down. "Hey, hey. Come on. Don't waste all your panic now! You still have eight hours until the ceremony." She offers her a glass. "Non-alcoholic mimosa?"

Jo looks stressed. "One, a non-alcoholic mimosa is just an orange juice. And two, I can't drink. Somebody should drink. You should drink."

Lorna smiles. "I will drink, eventually."

"Wait. What's that ring?" Jo asks as she notices her engagement ring.

She looks at Bonnie who is looking at her ring now. She gulps and turns to Jo. "Kai proposed to me yesterday in my living room with a whole snowing experience after he kidnapped me from the bachelor party."

"Wow. Never knew that he'll be that romantic." Jo looks shocked but happy.

"Mmm." She nods.

Jo and Lorna clink their glasses together. "Cheers."

Jo's cell phone suddenly rings, and Lorna lunges for it to answer it for her.

"Oh. oh! Relax."  She says to Jo and answers the call. "Jo's phone."

"Hey, I'm Danielle. Sorry for saying this, I won't be able to come there. I caught a flu." The girl from the other end says.

"Oh, huh. Okay." She says to her.

Jo panics. "That's not an 'okay' okay. That's a 'there's a problem' okay."

"Is that okay?" Danielle asks once again.

"Yeah, we'll call you back. Bye." Lorna hangs up the phone and awkwardly hesitates for a moment before she turns to Jo. "Danielle's got the flu."

Jo smiles tightly. "Huh. It sounded like you just said, 'Danielle has the flu,' which is impossible because Danielle is my wedding coordinator."

Lorna grimaces. "...Yeah."

"Well, how sick is she? Can she still work?" Jo asks frantically.

"...It depends on how much vomit you want to have at the wedding." Lorna responds and Jo walks away and starts to pace around the room, but she stops when she hears a voice.

"To be honest, I think maybe this is a good thing! Because no matter how good Danielle was, I am pretty sure I'm better." Caroline walks into the room with Elena.

Lorna smiles and rushes over to hug her. "Care, I missed you!"

"I missed me, too." She says and they pull away.

"Is that my dress?" Lorna asks her as she recognises the familiar dress.

She gives her a grins and nods. "Hope you don't mind."

"Hi!" Bonnie's voice is emotional.

"Hi!" Caroline hugs Bonnie, both of them with tears in their eyes, but they pull away after a moment. "Okay, now, we've got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. Bonnie, the switch is on the left-hand side on the back." 

"Oh!" Bonnie walks to the steamer, so she can finish steaming the wrinkles out of Jo's wedding gown.

"And Jo, I can see your shoes under the couch." She winks at Jo, who sighs in relief. "Okay, now, who's dealing with the boys?"

Lorna is doing her make-up in Damon's bedroom when Caroline walks in to join her, while looking at her phone.

"Okay, the boys are officially taken care of, bride and maid of honour are in hair and make-up. I'm gonna head to the venue and fix... whatever they're screwing up."

"Good idea." 

They both giggle, Lorna grabs a glass of champagne and chugs it. 

"Mmm, if you see Stefan, by the way, I am avoiding." Caroline looks at herself in the mirror. "I just need to get my life in order first. Starting with my friends."

"Stefan's not a friend?" Lorna asks her, teasingly.

"Stefan's... complicated. I just figured I'd work my way up to that one." Caroline laughs awkwardly.

"Well, you're in the clear. I heard that he's got his hands full with Alaric today." 

"Nice to hear that." Caroline sighs. "Everything is messed up. At least mom is okay now."

Lorna nods in understanding.

"How's you and Kai? I overheard that he proposed to you yesterday..." Caroline trails off and observes the ring. "Are you happy with him?"

"Yeah." Lorna nods and sighs. "But Bonnie… She's not a fan of mine and Kai's relationship. She hates him because of the bad things he did to me. But he has changed now." 

"She'll be fine with time." Caroline assures her.

Jo walks in and interrupts them. "I'm dreading it, but I guess I should think about putting the dress on."

Jo walks over to them, clearly worried by the looks on their faces. "Something's wrong. It's not the dress, is it? Please tell me it's not the dress."

"We're talking about a witch who's against her love life." Caroline says to Jo, gesturing at her blonde friend.

"Did she do something to the dress?" Jo asks confusedly.

"The dress is fine." Caroline assures Jo. "I'll be there. Have to check if everything's okay." She walks out of the room with Jo as Bonnie walks into the room.

"So...you think that I'm a villain from Mars to stand against your love life?" She asks, crossing her chest.

"I never said that." Lorna shakes her head. "Caroline did."

"Yeah, I heard." She says. "But you think the same. Don't you?" 

Lorna sighs. "Kind of."

She walks to the blonde and places her hand on her shoulder. "I get it. You love him and he might love you too. But I'm saying to you that you have to be careful. You're my family, Lori. You're important to me."

"I know." Lorna nods.

"I'm glad that he's keeping you happy. If he hurts you, don't think twice to tell me, I'll kick his ass for you." 

"I will." Lorna laughs and her cousin joins her.