AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ames walked down the grassy aisle in a black dress. The sharp vee dipped low, showing off her collarbones and the edges of her cleavage before merging with the tulle skirt. The pendantAlex gave her hung between her breasts, and I knew the words etched there even if I couldn’t read them from this distance. Her hair was down and she held a bouquet of white poppies and dark burgundy anemones and dahlias, the green of her eyes bright as she emerged from the forest.
Wren and I cried as Ames vowed to stick by Alex’s side, to never doubt him or run from him, save for when he wanted to chase her. As she thanked him for inviting her into the family we’d all created, and for helping bring her back to her sister after the weeks they were apart. We cried as Alex described the first moments he met Ames, the way he’d known he would marry her, even if he didn’t admit it to himself for months afterward.
But even Dev and Bex shed tears when Alex ended his vows, promising, “And when your time comes, I vow to chase you into death, because I refuse to spend any time on this earth without you.”
The reception took place in the copse of trees surrounding the venue, long tables laden with greenery and burgundy florals that matched the color of the bridesmaid dresses we wore. Vintage, mismatched chandeliers hung from the low-lying branches, illuminating the table as we ate in the dim light of late-October dusk.
We danced in the grass, most of us barefoot as we drank the same apple cider margaritas Dev had been making all month. Ames spun with her sister, then Wren, then Dev, and me, passed around among the five of us as the night grew darker and guests dispersed. Alex stole her back each time, growling even as his lips tipped up at the corners at his new wife’s happiness.
Bex and Wrengot married the next spring, in a giant glass greenhouse owned by one of Wren’s distributors. They didn’t do weddings, but unsurprisingly, loved Wren so much they were willing to allow Fiona and a crew to clear out their biggest greenhouse for her wedding. Giant bouquets - pink peonies and roses, white hydrangeas and baby’s breath - hung from the ceilings, so large and fantastical it felt like something from a storybook.
We sat in clear chairs while Bex and Wren pledged their lives to one another, the two of them - as always - a study in opposites. Wren wore a white wedding dress with a bodice covered in small white flowers, while Bex stood in a black suit with a sheer bustier underneath the jacket.
Wren promised to keep their house smelling of flowers and Bex promised to kill anyone who would ever touch Wren in anger, the two of them smiling at each other’s vows.
We ate in the fields adjacent to the greenhouse, amid more flowers, these ones growing from the ground, before returning to the greenhouse as the sun set. The chairs had been removed and lights had been strung throughout the space, light reflecting off the glass walls and ceiling so everything glowed.
Champagne towers sat in each corner, and we drank pink champagne while we danced beneath the blooms as they wilted, petals falling in our drinks and our hair and crushing underneath our feet until all we smelled were roses.
“I can’t believe I’ve been to two weddings in six months, much less that I was a bridesmaid in both,” I confessed to Dev halfway through the night. “Before you, I never even imagined having two friends.”
It still hit me, even now, over a year since our wedding, how far I’d come in such a short time. I’d gone from hiding in plain sight, trying my hardest not to hold on to hope because of how I thought it would crush me, to spending most of my nightssurrounded by family and friends. My friends had become my family, and my family had become friends.
“Looks like we’ll have a couple more weddings soon enough,” Dev said, tipping his chin toward a familiar face.
Callan caught my eye as we both danced with our partners, sending me a wink as he pulled his girlfriend closer.
Ames had kept her promise of getting more furniture for Callan and his best friend, Grey, though the two extra chairs on her patio had doubled quickly to account for their women. The four of them were inseparable, the same way the six of us were, and I imagined we’d be attending their weddings as soon as the lot of them graduated. Or, if my brother had any say, as soon as he could force his girlfriend down the aisle.
He was so much like Dev, Alex, and Bex that way. So utterly in love with his woman that it bordered on obsession. Or, more honestly, surpassed obsession into something more akin to mania. Gray wasn’t much better, hearts in his eyes every time he looked his girlfriend’s way, the most expression I’d seen on his face in the dozen years I’d known him as Callan’s best friend. The two guys were also the happiest I’d ever seen them.
Dev pulled me close to his chest, Callan smiling at the motion, and I knew he saw the same thing in me. I was the happiest I’d ever been, happier than I’d imagined I could be considering the life I’d led. That Callan had led alongside me.
We’d both grown up the same way, seen things, been through things that could’ve fucked us up permanently, things that maybe did in some ways. But they didn’t take away our ability to love, didn’t take away the possibility of happiness. Even if that happiness came through less traditional means for the both of us. A marriage of convenience for me and an instant, complete obsession for him. But his was another story.
