Wedding Crashers

Convince Me

"Just two minutes" I say and glance at my watch. Such a waste of time.

But, oh boy, I couldn't be more wrong. As two minutes stretched into twenty minutes and then into an hour, I realised that it was not a waste of my time after all. A smile slowly crept on my face as she talked and I inched closer and closer to hear her beautiful plan. My eyes twinkled and giggles escaped my throat as I heard her best parts. Carla is such a genius. Where was she all my life?

After she finished, she inched closer to me with a smirk on her face and asked, "Deal?"

"Deal" I reply, with a smirk of my own

"So, what do we do now?" I ask Carla, after a few minutes.

"What do you mean 'what do we do'? We chill, of course" she says and shakes her head at me, as if I'm already supposed to know that.

"Oh, and we should start buying presents." she adds. I cast her a look and snort in an unladylike way.

"I still don't think we should get her a gift" I say. The idea of me giving her presents for betraying me, irks me out. I'd rather poison her food than give her anything valuable.

"Come on Lydia, you know it. It's all part of the plan" I knew it, of course. But me spending money on her, it's just...argh.

"Where is the wedding anyway?" She asks and glances at her watch. It's getting late. 

"The place...oh shit" I curse out loud, realization striking me.

"The place was mentioned in the invitation...but...I ummm kinda deleted it" I mutter, sheepishly. Carla shakes her head at me as if to express her disappointment. 

"So...what do I do?" I ask her. Carla is still shaking her head at me. "What?" I ask her, annoyed.

"Don't you know there's such a thing called social media? Facebook...? Instagram...? Ring a bell?" she asks me, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Ohh!" I exclaim as realization comes over me. Of course. They must have announced their wedding to the whole world by now. I rolled my eyes. It is not unlike them to do that. 

When I'm about to fish out my phone to check my unused Instagram, "Here" Carla exclaims. I look at her. She passes me her phone. What I see in there is something that will leave a permanent mental scar on me, for the rest of my life. Isabella and Joseph are kissing passionately. Joseph's hands are positioned on Isabella's hips and her hands are in his hair. Behind them, was a beautiful quarry. They were standing and kissing on top of a mountain. 

The picture brought back a lot of memories. When I was in high school, during summer holidays, I used to bring Joseph along with me for hiking. I always hiked in the hill near my home. I will always be taking pictures, holding his hands and laughing. But he wouldn't do any of it. He said he hated hiking. He never wanted to take a picture with me, whenever we reached the top. If I tried to take a picture, it always came out blurry, because he always moved. But now...But now...he is taking all kinds of pictures with my sister. So was it true then? That he approached me only because he liked my sister? That he never loved me? I can literally feel my heart pierce into two as that thought crosses my mind. Rivers of tears are pushing against my eyes. My air supply is being abruptly cut off by my roaring thoughts. I start gasping for air.

"Lydia, Lydia!" Carla yells and starts to rub my shoulders. 'It's okay,it's okay', she keeps muttering. I use my hand to clutch my dying heart and then rub off my tears. I look at the picture again. I scroll down. The picture has...10257 likes and 2578 comments. If I didn't break down when I saw the picture, now I do. Water trickles down from my eyes. I gasp for air again. Carla quickly snatches the phone from me. From the corner of my eye, I see her eyes bulge when she looks at the number of likes and comments. But when she sees my pathetic face, she quickly masks her expression.

"It's okay, she probably bought the likes or something. Don't worry too much" she says to try to comfort me. But I know. Isabella always had many Instagram followers and tons of likes on her pictures. But I never knew it was this much. I wouldn't have been bothered by her popularity...if she isn't marrying my Joseph.

When I wipe away the last few of my tears, Carla looks at her phone again. "The wedding is this Sunday. So you have exactly 4 days to prepare. And the wedding's in Hawaii." She says. Of course. They will try to make their wedding as romantic and special as possible. There is no more energy left in me to cry, so I just look away.

"Get your tickets quickly, Lydia" she says, patting my back. I simply nod at her. "It's 12pm now. I've got to go. Call me if you need anything, bye!" She says and starts to get up.

"Bye" I mumble back. I manage to give her a small smile. Hopefully that will make her understand how thankful I am for her presence this day. As I stare at her retreating form, only one more thought crosses my mind. I will make sure they regret their actions.