Eternal

Comforting each other

I was led to a room in-between the two staircases, I had never been in there before. Joel opened the door, revealing a ballroom. The ballroom was the biggest room I had seen so far, it had the highest ceiling, and seemed so spacious. The floor alone was impressive; it was a strange white and gold marble. The room had many pillars adjacent to each other at each side of the room, they stretched to the ceiling, then intersected towards the middle of it. The whole room was decorated with gold and white, even long, draped curtains hung over windows, or I assume that’s what was underneath. Every inch of this place was decorated, I walked forward into the room in awe, taking in the whole atmosphere, and the centre of the ceiling had a large dangling chandelier. It was difficult to see what held it up over all the reflecting jewels that covered it. The chandelier was larger in length than diameter, but it was still easy to tell this was the centre piece of the whole room.

I looked back to Joel with a smile, then heard laughter from around me. Everyone was amused by my reaction to the ballroom. But you could hardly blame me, I had never seen anything like it. It’s still very difficult to believe that this is all real, that I am actually here right now. People dream their whole lives of having something as extraordinary as this happen to them, but that’s all they remain, dreams, because reality makes anything like this seem so impossible. Is reality really that oppressive that it makes people feel that wonderful experiences like this, like finding love or going on such an adventure. Why must everyone stop dreaming, or stop believing such things are possible, I am the proof that anything can happen, even when you don’t believe. There’s just one thing that could make everything perfect… Cole.

I noticed everyone had sat down at the tables towards the back of the room, covered in white cloth. There was a two seated table at the very back, which I guessed was for the bride and groom. Joel was already in one of the other seats so I went over and joined him. Aiden stood first and tapped a glass with a spoon, only for it to smash instantly on impact, spilling the wine. I tried to contain my laughter at his failed attempt to start a speech “Uh, okay, I’ve never done one of these before, so bare with me. Alistair, you’ve always been like a brother to me, an annoying and sarcastic brother that I couldn’t get rid of, but you were a friend nonetheless. Now, when you met Clarice, I had the same thought as everyone else: she’s a human how is this going to work, this will never work. We thought it was a bad idea, but when you became a part of our ‘family’ well, you became a sister to me, and I’m so happy for the both of you. To the bride and groom!” Aiden raised his glass in cheers despite it being broken, and everyone else held theirs up too and drank, of course mine wasn’t wine, it was just juice.

Everyone else stood one after the other to say their own little speech, some were funny, and others were more sincere. Even Demetri stood and said how he was wrong for going against Clarice at first, which I guess is an apology for him. The only one now, who hadn’t given a speech, was me.

All eyes fell upon me, am I really supposed to give a speech? I looked to the people next to me for an answer, and made it clear I didn’t have anything prepared. “Just say anything, something true, your relationship with them.” Joel advised me. I took a deep breath and stood “U-um W-well in the short time I’ve known Alistair, our relationship has really changed. At first I knew nothing about him and thought he was some evil jerk fighting with Cole, and how I wish he could be here to see this. But the more I saw him the more I saw that the two of them were just like typical brothers, that and Alistair gets embarrassed easily.” Laughter erupted from all except a moody looking Alistair with his arms folded “the moment I met Clarice, I knew she was a kind person, but I was surprised by how different you two seemed. Then, I realised something, that the two of you balance what the other lacks, mainly Clarice calming Al down, but it’s just works, and I can tell the two of you are going to spend a happy life together. To Al and Clarice” I saw Alistair flinch as I said his nickname, I’m aware he doesn’t like it, so I used it anyway. I sat back down again and smiled, surprised I had done such a good job. I’m also surprised I could talk about Cole so openly when inside I want to cry.