As Noah and I pulled up outside my flat early the next morning, I didn't want the bubble of our weekend together to be over.

"That was a nice couple of days," I smiled, turning to face him as he turned off the ignition.

"Yeah, it was good," he smiled back. "I probably won't see you much this week, though."

"Oh," I replied, instantly disheartened.

"I've got a busy week at uni," he continued, "Plus we've got a gig this weekend so we need to practice, and I've got a couple of things going on for work."

"Solo stuff?" I asked, remembering the wallet of cash hidden in his bathroom.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Umm, okay," I started. "Well I'm back at uni next week finally so... will I see you before then?"

"Let's see," he smiled, leaning over to kiss me softly on the lips.

Pulling the car door handle, I turned back to face him once again.

"You haven't even taken my number yet," I said quietly.

"I like it that way," he smirked, "It's old school."

Smiling to hide my disappointment, I stepped out onto the street and closed the door behind me. I turned to give him a wave, but Noah was already looking out into the oncoming traffic to pull away.

Opening the door of my flat, I wasn't sure what to expect. After what had happened on Friday, I doubted Charlotte would want to go back to classes anytime soon. However, as I crept in and quietly called her name, I was surprised to find she wasn't there. Her bed was neatly made and her handbag and coat were gone from the rack by the door.

A note scrawled across the chalkboard caught my eye.

Back by 4pm, be home please – Kris is coming for dinner x

After finishing off a coffee and two slices of toast, I headed for a shower. Annoyingly, as I removed my tampon, I noticed my flow had almost completely stopped.

Cheers then, body, great timing.

Knowing I had a whole day to kill with absolutely nothing to do, I took my time enjoying the feeling of the hot water beating down on my skin. My shower was nothing like Noah's fancy power shower, but it contained all my stuff.

Wrapping my hair on top of my head after coating it with a leave-in conditioner, I started the lengthy process of de-fuzzing my entire body. Having a mum that owns a hair and beauty salon meant I'd grown up as a definite 'groomer'. Any more than a couple of days' stubble and I started to get edgy. So, having spent two nights away from my flat, I was relieved to drag the pink razor across my skin once again.

An hour or so later I was dressed, had dried my hair, and I was well and truly bored. Picking up the phone to call my mum, I hoped she would be able to answer. The salon was closed every Monday so, if I was in luck, she would be at home doing some admin.

The sound of her singsong voice was a welcome distraction from the quiet loneliness of the flat. I wanted to tell her all about the events of the past couple of days – about the funeral, Charlotte, even about Noah – but I chickened out.

After all, Charlotte's business wasn't mine to tell, and my mum would only worry herself sick. Plus, what could I possibly tell her about Noah? It wasn't like he was my boyfriend or anything, he'd made that clear enough.

When I'd officially run out of things to ask her about instead of discussing my own life, I realised I should let her get back to whatever she had been busy doing when I called. After telling her I loved her and promising to call her more often, I hung up. I was quickly thrust back in the silence of the four walls of our flat.

Eventually, after doing a couple of loads of laundry, painting my nails, watching some mind-numbing daytime TV and clearing out the fridge - while eating half of its contents as I went - I heard Charlotte's key in the door and hers and Kris' voices outside.

I basically ran to greet them at the door.

"Abi bear!' Kris squealed, picking me up in a giant bear hug. "When are you coming back? I can't cope in those classes without having you there to bitch to."

"You could have come to see me here," I teased, "I was in a car crash, not kidnapped by a cult."

"Yeah, I'm sorry," he murmured, looking quite embarrassed, "I just don't cope well with the whole sympathy thing when it comes to sick and broken people. I came to see you in hospital though, surely that's enough brownie points?"

Laughing as I kissed his cheek, I decided to let him off without any further ribbing. He had come to see me more than once in hospital and, to be fair; I hadn't been the best company over the past week since I'd come home.

As Kris wandered into the living room and assumed his usual spot on the sofa, I cornered Charlotte by the front door.

"Are you okay?" I asked gently, "Did you and Alex manage to talk about things?"

"It's fine, Abs," she smiled, "We're all good. We talked and talked, and I think I'm going to be okay, you know?"

Wrapping her into a one-armed hug, she laughed at my clumsy effort.

"When is that bloody thing coming off, anyway?" she said, jabbing one finger at my sling.

"This Friday, hopefully," I replied, "If my final check-up goes alright, I should be a free woman again, thank God!"

"Good," she replied, with a smirk that I couldn't quite decipher. "You won't look hot in a posh frock if you're wearing that ugly thing."

Before I could ask what she was talking about, she'd headed off into the kitchen to start dinner. My offer of help was flatly rejected – standard procedure between the two of us, seeing as she could create gourmet-tasting meals from almost nothing, whereas I would quite happily survive on toast and cereal.

Wandering over to join Kris on the sofa, he began to fill me in on the gossip I'd missed in the last three weeks. Surprisingly, there wasn't a lot for him to report. The mood at university had dropped since the car crash, apparently. Ben was a popular guy. He and Holly seemed to be friends with everyone on the course, in all year groups, so his death had hit quite a lot of people hard.

Desperately wanting to change the subject, I decided to tell Kris about my weekend with Noah. But, as with my mum, I bottled it at the last minute. I would have felt stupid waxing lyrical to him about some guy I really liked, but who was still somewhat of an enigma to me.

Luckily, Charlotte saved me from spilling information I wasn't ready to spill by calling us both to the kitchen. Freshly cooked chicken burritos, homemade guacamole, fried peppers and a mix of dips and salads filled the table in a mouth-watering display.

She had laid the table already, and I noticed two of the place settings had a small card on top of the wine glass.

"What's this?" I said, smiling at her as I held the envelope marked with my name.

"Oh my God!" Kris suddenly screamed from across the table. Turned out he hadn't waited to open his.

"You're getting married?" he screamed again. "Fuck, Charlotte, this is mental! Wow, umm... congratulations, I guess!"

As I quickly opened my envelope, the card inside was plain white, with a simple heart on the front. The printed, modern font simply read: Obvs, you're going to be my Chief Bridesmaid.

Inside, Charlotte had scrawled her message in black biro. I couldn't possibly marry my man without my woman by my side. C x

Before I knew how to react, I felt the tears welling up behind my eyes.

"You're marrying Alex?" I murmured, looking up to see Charlotte already in tears.

She silently nodded in reply, as Kris jumped up and flung his arms around her.

"But... you... did you... what the hell?" I spluttered.

"We did a lot of soul searching this weekend, Abs," Charlotte croaked. "We want to be together, no matter what. Whatever life throws at us, after what happened the other night I know Alex is going to be by my side. There's no point waiting until we're older, I love him more than anything so, when he asked, I didn't even need to think about it."

"Let's see the ring, then!" Kris squealed, flapping around the same card as mine in his hand, but a version that read: Obvs, you're going to be my Guysmaid.

"I don't have one yet," she smiled. "We're going to go and choose one together this week. Not your typical diamond, something a bit different. Something like us."

As much as I was happy to see my best friend marrying the man she loved, the sensible part of my brain was screaming out at me that this was all a bit much.

It's too rushed. They've only known each other a month. Surely this is a knee-jerk reaction to the horrendous experience Charlotte had suffered.

But, it wasn't about me or my thoughts. If that was what they both wanted, then all I could do was be happy for them and support their decision.

Still crying as Kris swept all three of us into a group hug, Charlotte squeaked from in the middle of it all, "So, will you? Will you both be there to walk down the aisle with me?"

"Like you even need to ask!" Kris laughed, squeezing us both a little tighter in his arms before breaking away to grab the prosecco and fill our glasses.

Wiping her eyes as she looked up at me, Charlotte's face took on a slightly more serious expression. "And you, Abs. Will you?"

Without hesitation, I pulled her face towards me in my hands and placed a firm kiss on her forehead.

"Try and stop me," I smiled.