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“Yay,” I mock, rolling my eyes.
To be honest, I could skip the whole wedding and go straight to the part where we were married. I know how important it is for Lennon to do this right though, which is why I’m standing here with a smile plastered on my face, pretending I love Hawaii, three weeks before Christmas.
“Come on, Darcy, crack a smile for me,” Cindy teases, throwing her arms around me. “How can you be stressed with all of this?” she asks, waving her arms around.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I retort. “Because I’m getting married in a week and I feel like the most disorganized person in the world?”
“No. That would be Casey,” Cindy giggles.
“What are you saying about me?” Casey brushes past us, her sunglasses still lowered over her eyes, probably to hide the copious amount of alcohol she’d consumed during the six-hour flight over here from LAX. “Seriously, Darcy, you’ve been here less than five minutes and you’re already bitching?” she snaps. “Dude, I owe you. You asked me to be in your wedding party, and I graciously accepted, to help you out. Even though you chose the day before my own wedding anniversary to get married. Of all the days,” she adds, shaking her head.
“Yeah, like I planned that,” I grumble. “I thought to myself, what’s the best way I can fuck Casey’s week up?” I mutter, rolling my eyes again at Cindy, giggling uncontrollably behind her hand.
We’d almost missed our flight because Casey had decided to leave her packing until this morning. Her job, her life with Gary, even Christmas… everything else was more important to her than my stupid little wedding. That much she’d made clear to me. I have to hand it to her, she sure knows how to make everything about her. But then I already knew that, so it serves me right for listening to my mother and including her in the wedding party in the first place. The conversation still clear in my head.
“You can’t just ask Gary to the wedding and not her,” Mom had argued. “But think about who she’s going to sit with.”
“It’s not like she doesn’t know anyone, Mom. She’s related to half the guest list, remember? Besides, where did I fit into her wedding?”
“Out stealing the car with Lennon? Oh, just do it, Darcy. For me? Or I’ll never hear the end of it from Aunt Silvie.”
“Fine, I’ll ask her,” I’d begrudgingly agreed.
That decision is proving to be one of the worst of my life, but I refuse to let my overdramatic cousin mess this up for me, and taking a deep breath, I smile as Cindy loops her arm through mine and we march toward the airport exit. She tries to engage Casey, who just screws up her nose and backs away, and I do my best to ignore her attitude and focus on why we’re here.
Holy shit, I’m getting married!
Our entire relationship dynamic has changed since I graduated from school. We’ve gone from hiding how we felt about each other to going out in public and enjoying ourselves, just like a normal couple, and I’m so proud to have him by my side.
Nobody except Cindy, Mom, and a few of Lennon’s friends know we got together while I was still his student. Even Dad didn’t know the whole story. He knew Lennon was my teacher, but the story Mom and I fed him was that, even though we were attracted to each other while he was my teacher, it wasn’t until I’d graduated that anything happened between us. I hated hiding the truth from him, but I only did it to save breaking his heart.
Understandably, he wasn’t thrilled, but he accepted we had deep feelings for each other that weren’t going to go away. Dad had told Lennon that he respected him for waiting until after graduation before starting anything with me, and I know that bothers Lennon a lot. He likes my mom and dad, and they like him. He invests a lot into making sure his relationship with them is strong since his relationship with his own parents doesn’t seem so good.
***
Cindy flops down next to me and Casey at the bar and giggles. She’s always giggling, and to be honest, her love of life is quite infectious. I glance at her, taking in her glazed eyes and vacant expression. No sooner than we’d unpacked, she’d insisted we all go out and get drunk. I personally would’ve rather had my teeth pulled than down shot after shot in a crowed bar, but Cindy has a way of getting what she wants.
