Justin
Nick was smoking out on the back porch when I finally found him after at least fifteen minutes of searching. He leaned back against the back railing, a cigarette between his fingers, a contemplative look on his face.
I made a sour face, leaning against the porch railing beside him, gesturing towards the cigarette.
"I thought you stopped smoking," I said to him.
Nick shrugged, taking a drag on the cigarette before flicking off a bit of ash. "I did, for the most part. But my dad offered me one, and I didn't want to be rude, of course."
Right. Smoking was a big European thing, wasn't it? Plus, Dimitri Petrolas was from Greece. He constantly said that he was thankful he'd mostly gotten rid of his "embarrassing" accent, as he liked to put it.
I shook my head, fighting back a disgusted shudder. There was a lot of things I'd be willing to try in this world, but smoking wasn't one of them.
"How'd Laila take being told she had to room with Maggie?" Nick asked conversationally a minute later.
I wasn't sure whether I should be bursting into laughter or shaking my head in sympathy.
"I think she was expecting it," I answered. "She didn't look too surprised. But not at all happy."
Nick laughed, taking a drag on his cigarette. "I don't blame her. Thank God I've never had to share a room with Maggie."
I grimaced in agreement. Too right that was.
"I wouldn't worry about Maggie, though," Nick said, catching my attention.
I gave him a curious look. "And why not?"
"Mainly because Laila's got you wrapped around her finger," he said with another shrug.
I laughed loudly, trying to pass it off as a sarcastic noise. "Yeah, right. I am not whipped."
Nick arched an eyebrow, giving me a dirty look. "You hate PDA. And you kissed her in the middle of an airport?"
I frowned. He did have a point there.
"She looked sad," I trailed off, sort of lost. "I was.... cheering her up?"
Nick barked out a laugh, nearly dropping his cigarette on the porch, which could've been disastorous.
"So that's what they call it these days?" he said, his eyebrows practically shooting up his forehead. "Cheering up?"
I rolled my eyes, giving him a derisive look.
"Just admit it, Justin," Nick sighed, taking a drag. "You like her."
I sighed heavily after him, throwing my hands in the air.
"Yeah, okay, so I like her."
I fell silent, glancing up at the quickly darkening night sky, a few stars starting to make themselves known with a few twinkles.
"I like her a lot, actually."
Nick ground his cigarette out thoroughly on one of the logs in the fire pit before tossing the discarded thing over the side of the porch.
"Yeah, I know," Nick said simply. "So go do something about it."
But before I could really do anything about it, I heard my mother's familiar voice shouting to the two of us outside frantically.
"Boys! Justin! Uncle James and Aunt Carol and Ashleigh and Mitch are here!"
There was no mistaking the excitement in Mom's voice.
Nick turned to me with a confused look. "Who's Mitch?"
"Ashleigh's fiancé," I answered. "Get ready for a lot of hugging and screaming, okay?"
"What - why?"
"Because that's just what my family does."
At least I didn't sigh.
Nick and I made our way back into the house, to the living room, and sure enough, my uncle, Jeames, my aunt, Carol, and my cousin Ashleigh and her fiancé Mitch were here, all bubbling with laughter and greetings for the rest of our guests who were making their way down the stairs.
"Hey, Justin," my cousin Ashleigh crooned, before she threw her arms around me in a tight hug.
I hid back a smile and hugged her back. Admittedly, I really had missed Ashleigh, even if she did like to pick on me when we were younger. She had only grown into a pretty young woman with auburn curls and bright brown eyes.
"Been a long time, eh, Ashleigh?" I said teasingly when she finally let me go.
Ashleigh grinned, her cheeks flushed with color. She stepped back, her hands on my shoulders, the better to examine me closer.
"Jesus, Justin," she sighed, a hand at her cheek. "Don't you ever stop growing?"
I grinned sheepishly, shrugging. "Sorry. Can't help the fact that I tower over you."
Ashleigh clicked her tongue, rolling her eyes, before my aunt and uncle converged on me.
"Good heavens, you've certainly grown, Justin!" my aunt Carol exclaimed after she hugged me as tightly as she could.
I fought back a scowl. It was sort of annoying that everyone kept commenting on my height.
Uncle James clapped my shoulder with a hand, smiling as a way of a greeting. He looked a bit older since the last time I'd seen him - probably because he had to pay for a wedding - and his face looked a bit weathered, his dark brown hair streaked with gray.
"Hey, Uncle James," I said with a grin. "Long time no see."
"You look good," he replied. "How've you been doing?"
My thoughts involuntarily turned to Laila, and I couldn't keep back a smile.
James laughed, exchanging knowing looks with my mom.
"I'll take that as you've been doing good, yeah?" James said with a grin.
"Definitely."
Mitch, Ashleigh's fiancé, turned to me next, holding out an outstretched hand. I'd only seen Mitch a few times before, during the holidays when James, Carol, Ashleigh, and her little sister and brother - Nani and Hayden - came to visit. He was tall with dark brown hair and a bit of stubble - probably because of the wedding - and dark eyes.
"Hey, Mitch," I greeted him.
"Justin," he returned with a smile. "You've definitely grown up, man. How tall are you now?"
"6'4''," I said.
Mitch let out a low, impressed whistle.
"Hey, Jeanine? Isn't Laila here, too?" Ashleigh asked, changing the subject as she turned to Jeanine.
Jeanine frowned thoughtfully. "She's around here somewhere."
"Probably sulking," Maggie said in a sing-song voice from the kitchen.
Patricia, Jeanine, and my mom all exchanged withering looks. Just like myself, I'm sure they were all annoyed with Maggie's less than lady-like behavior. Ashleigh, James, Mitch, and Carol just all looked confused.
"Justin, go find her," my mom said demandingly, waving an airy hand.
I looked at her, gasping indignantly. "Excuse me? I have to go get her?"
Ashleigh sighed heavily, screwing up her face in a sour expression.
"You still don't get along with Laila?" she demanded, sounding angry.
I exchanged a look with Nick, fighting back a smirk.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Ashleigh," I told her with a grin before walking towards the stairs.
"Laila!" I shouted. "Come down here!"
There was a loud bang and a muffled shout, before a door upstairs opened.
"What do you want, Justin?" Laila called down to me, her voice thick with sleep.
"There's a few guests down here waiting to see you," I answered loudly.
Laila instantly made her way down the stairs with cautious steps, a confused look on her face. When she saw Ashleigh, James, and Carol, she let out a squeak of surprise.
"Hi, Ashleigh!" she said, shocked.
"Look at you, Laila!" Ashleigh laughed, rushing forward to hug Laila. "You're beautiful!"
Laila flushed embarrassedly. "Thanks. You look pretty beautiful yourself, too, Ashleigh."
Ashleigh laughed again, her auburn curls bouncing. "Thanks, Laila. We're so glad you could come."
"Thanks for inviting us," Laila replied, ever polite.
"This is Mitch, my fiancé," Ashleigh continued, gesturing towards Mitch, who was smiling politely.
"Nice to meet you," he said, shaking Laila's hand.
James and Carol went to greet Laila next, laughing and chattering about how pretty she was and how many good things Jeanine had told them about her.
I raised a hand, catching Laila's attention. She turned to me with a confused look.
"What?" she demanded, an eyebrow raised.
"Is it my turn to shout about how hot I think you are?" I asked her innocently. "'Cause if so, you're pretty gorgeous."
Nobody answered.
I walked into the kitchen while everyone else just stared blankly after me.
"Mom, make me food?" I said.
Everyone was fairly quiet after that random statement, but I was too distracted watching Laila's shocked reaction out of the corner of my eye.
"Is there something I'm missing?" Ashleigh said, sounding very confused.
"Didn't you know, Ashleigh?" Emma said, sitting on one of the kitchen counters, swinging her legs back and forth.
"Know what?" Ashleigh said.
"Laila and Justin are friends now," Emma said, her eyebrows raised.
"This certainly will be a wedding for the ages, I think, from what I've heard about you two," Mitch said, breaking the awkward silence.
I smirked, fighting back a laugh, and couldn't resist blowing Laila a kiss.
She glared at me, rolling her eyes.
Mitch was right. This definitely was going to be a great wedding indeed.
There was rapid knocking on the door, somebody banging their fist as hard as they could. I glanced up through the steamy water pounding down from the shower head with a frown.
Who the hell would be banging on the bathroom door when there were at least five more bathrooms in the house?
I yanked off the shower faucet and grabbed a towel, knotting it around my waist before stepping out to open the door. Much to my astonishment, Laila was standing outside the bathroom door in her Batman pajamas, hands on hips, looking beyond pissed off.
I blinked, a bemused expression coming to my face. "Yes?"
I'd been expecting that she would start blushing the second she saw I'd just gotten out of the shower, and she didn't disappoint. If it was possible, I think she turned the color of a brick.
"Uhm..." Laila trailed off, her sea-blue eyes glancing me up and down.
I smirked, leaning an arm against the doorjamb. "Can I help you?"
"I need the bathroom," Laila blurted, biting her lip.
Okay, so that was the last thing I was expecting her to say.
I hummed in thought, running a hand across my jaw.
"And why should I let you have the bathroom?" I said slowly, playing along. "Clearly you can see that I'm not finished."
Laila blushed even brighter at that, probably feeling more than embarrassed.
"Maggie's hogging the bathroom in our room, and we've got to leave in forty five minutes. Since Nick's ready to go, your mom told me to use your bathroom," Laila explained in a rush, adverting her eyes.
"Oh, really?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "And if I don't let you have the bathroom?"
"Excuse me?" she said, sounding flustered.
My smirk widened. "What're you gonna do, sweetheart? Grab my towel?"
Laila's jaw dropped and her hands flew up to cover her eyes.
"No!" she all but shrieked. "I just need to take a shower!"
There was no getting around the fact that I was a total ass, but admittedly, I was definitely getting some satisfaction out of seeing her so completely embarrassed.
"You can relax, Laila," I laughed with a sigh. "I'll let you use the shower. Just let me grab my things, okay?"
Laila let out a sigh of relief, her hands dropping. "Thank you."
I rolled my eyes with a grin and grabbed my pair of boxers and my Earth, Wind, and Fire t-shirt off the bathroom floor and stepped aside to let Laila pass me.
She slammed the door shut and locked it barely a second after I'd stepped out.
I burst out laughing, shaking my head.
"You're gonna need to work on that whole blushing thing at some point, Laila!" I shouted at her through the door.
I heard her purposely start humming loudly as she yanked on the shower faucet, ignoring me.
Since Nick had already headed down the stairs for a snack, I quickly toweled off and shrugged on the ridiculous clothing I'd been forced to purchace for the wedding.
After I towel-dried my hair, I stood in front of a full lengthed mirror that stood beside the marble fire place in the room Nick and I shared, rolling up my cuff-links, straightening out my shirt. In all honesty, I didn't think that I looked too bad.
Yeah, I was very tall, but the slacks I was wearing were long enough to not make it look like I was wearing high-waters. The white dress shirt didn't look that bad, either, once it was tucked in.
All in all, it was a pretty nice outfit to wear to a wedding if I do say so myself.
Laila was still in the shower as I left the room, so at least she wouldn't have to mortify herself being in a towel in front of me. I couldn't help but snicker at the thought.
"Don't you look nice, Justin!" Mom exclaimed the second I walked down the stairs, convering on me almost instantly.
I held out my arms, looking at my outfit appraisingly. "If you say so."
Mom looked pretty spectacular herself in a light green dress that flowed about, making her look exceptionally tiny in figure. Her blonde hair was pulled up into an intricate looking twist and she looked impossibly happy.
"You look good, Mom," I told her, kissing her cheek. "Excited?"
Mom's wide smile was definitely answer enough. "Thank you, sweetie."
She glanced over my shoulder, back up the staircase towards the rooms. "Where's Laila?"
I fought back a smirk, running a hand through my still damp hair. "In the shower, I think."
Mom caught sight of my devious expression before I could turn away and sighed heavily.
"Justin Andre, what did you do?" she demanded sharply.
I waltzed into the kitchen, humming loudly, purposefully ignoring her quesiton. Nick was sitting at the bar in the kitchen, a bottle of water in front of him, dressed in an outfit that was similar to mine, except with dark gray slacks instead of black.
Patricia, Jeanine, Dimitri, and Maggie were all seated at some various spot in the kitchen, or at the table that was in the small nook off to the right.
Maggie was parading around in a lacy looking gray dressed that showed off her incredible figure. No doubt it caught my attention, but it wasn't like I was about to let on to that.
"Bout time, man," Nick started, nodding towards me.
I rummaged around the fridge, grabbing a handful of grapes from a crisper before leaning against one of the counters, popping a grape into my mouth.
"I was kicked out of the bathroom," I said with a wry grin. "Sorry if I wasn't fast enough."
"What do you think, Justin?" Maggie interjected, cutting us all off.
She twirled about in her ridiculous dress, purposefully calling attention to herself.
"D'you really want me to answer that?" I asked her, fighting back a smirk.
She just stood there, looking confused, as if she couldn't figure out if she had just been insulted or not while I winked in her direction before heading over to take a seat beside Nick.
"Excited, Justin?" Patricia asked me eagerly, squeezing my shoulders as she stood.
In all honesty, weddings weren't something that I normally looked forward to. To me, they were just over necessarily long ceremonies that made everybody uncomfortable and feel really stupid in ridiculously fancy clothing.
But out of all my cousins, I was probably the closest to Ashleigh. I could tell by the look in her bright brown eyes last night that this meant the world to her, and that she was head over heels in love with Mitch.
He was definitely one lucky guy, that was for sure.
"I'm excited for Ashleigh," I answered, grinning at Patricia.
She looked a little surprise at my response, but grinned indulgently back.
Mom joined us in the kitchen a moment later with Emma in tow, who was wearing a bright orange dress with a sash tied around the middle into a perfect bow.
"Don't you look cute," Patricia told Emma with a smile.
Emma harrumphed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I hate dresses. But orange was the only color I could find that wasn't too ugly."
"It is certainly rather vibrant," Maggie noted under her breath as she sipped at some orange juice.
"Now who are we left waiting for?" Dad asked as he came striding into the kitchen, fixing the cuff links on his dress shirt.
"Jeanine and Laila," Nick said, leaning forward on the bar with his elbows.
"Wish they'd hurry up," Maggie muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.
Everyone either didn't hear her or pretended not to notice.
Almost as if they knew we'd been talking about them, Jeanine appeared in the kitchen a moment later dressed in a flowy purple skirt and a white blouse that made her look impossibly tiny. I could definitely tell where Laila got her figure from.
And then Laila rounded the corner into the kitchen after her mother, and that pretty much wiped all coherent thoughts from my mind.
If I'd thought that she'd looked amazing in the dress before, it was nothing compared to how I thought she looked now. She was completely and utterly breathtakingly beautiful. I don't know what she'd done, but it definitely worked for her.
Laila had pulled her wavy black hair up into a twist, her bangs occasionally flopping into her bright sea-blue eyes, an annoyed look on her face. I thought she might've been wearing lip gloss, since her lips looked a little more pink than usual.
I didn't know what it was, but she definitely looked amazing in the gold dress my mom had gotten for her.
"Hey," Nick snapped, whapping me upside the head. "Stop drooling. Your mouth was starting to hang open."
I glowered at him, resisting the urge to flip him off.
"You look gorgeous, Laila," Mom told me with a smile, squeezing her shoulder.
Laila managed a floppy smile in return, her cheeks pink.
"Now that we're all here...." Dad trailed off, a business-like look on his face. "What do you say we get this show on the rood?"
I sighed heavily, leaning back against the bar stool I was sitting on.
In all honesty, I'd been waiting to get this wedding over with since I first heard about it, back in March. It seemed a lot more trouble than it was actually worth, but hey, if Mitch loved my cousin, then it was all on him.
The ten of us filed out of the vacation house, Dad locking up behind us, and we all piled back into the same long, dark car that had picked us up at the airport back in Durango. This time I was smart enough to take a seat beside Laila and Nick, instead of my parents, which left Emma to take a seat beside Patricia and Maggie.
She kept shooting me disgusting glares already, and the car hadn't even started yet.
Laila kept her eyes fixed on the darkly tinted windows as we drove down the worn dirt path that lead up to the vacation house. Since she'd been asleep that we'd driven through Silverton and Ouray, I didn't blame her for ignoring everybody else.
The small, tourist town of Ouray was boxed together tightly, some houses newer than others, with a large spanse of hotsprings in the middle that drew crowds daily, especially since it was July. The shops were family owned and privately ran, most of them situated on either sides of Main Street. A lot of them looked interesting, but I doubted I was ever going to visit them one day.
"Have you ever been to a wedding, Laila?" I asked her out of the blue, my curiosity weighing out.
She looked almost excited and antsy as my mother, Jeanine, and Patricia looked, which was definitely saying something.
"Yeah, of course I have," Laila answered with a laugh. "Except most of my mom's family is Jewish, so..."
"How is that any different?" I said, intrigued.
"Well, there's mostly a lot of singing, dancing, drunk people, and broken glass," Laila admitted, looking sheepish.
"Don't forget Aunt Deborah," Jeanine interjected, wagging a finger at her daughter.
Laila sighed heavily, looking disgruntled. "Mustn't forget Aunt Deborah, can we?"
"Who's Aunt Deborah?" I asked the two of them.
Honestly, their family sounded beyond interesting. Way more interesting than my own. Nick looked just as much in raptures as I'm sure I did. Maggie just looked downright annoyed.
"My insane, senile old great aunt," Laila said with a sigh.
"And does that run in the family, Laila?" Maggie asked in an undertone, leaning toward us. "Because you know, we wouldn't want that. Right, Justin?"
"Considering I don't speak Yiddish or have a hankering for cat nip, I'm going to have to say no, it doesn't," Laila told Maggie in a rather snippy manner I didn't know she was even capable of pulling off.
Laila Hayes seemed way too sweet to even think about talking back to somebody. Even if that person was a grade-A slag. I still got the chills thinking about the fact that I'd made out with her.
"Sounds like my kind of woman," I blurted without thinking, trying to lighten the mood.
If Laila kept putting Maggie in her place like this, then there was a high chance that this day was going to turn out all right. I was going to help in any way possible, to say the least.
Lalia gave me an exasperated look, pursing her lips. I just smiled back in response.
We arrived in Silverton a half hour later, admist a massive amount of traffic that was heading towards the park that was situated towards the end of the small town. I caught sight of a few of my relatives here and there was I peeked out the window over Laila's shoulder. It was going to be pretty annoying being squeezed to death by all of my family members, but it had to be done.
The driver - some middle aged man with a few wrinkles here and there - pulled up to a stop at the edge of the park and clambered out to open the side door to us.
There was a plane, white gazebo off to the side in the park where a church pastor in dark clothing was standing, and no doubt where Ashleigh and Mitch would soon be married.
The driver drove off as soon as we were all out of the car, promising to be back as soon as we were ready to be picked up.
Mom started leading us towards the large expanse of white chairs set up in several rows beside the gazebo, each ends of the chairs decked with white ribbons and intricate looking floral arrangements of liles and orchids.
People instantly caught sight of our rather large group and started crowding around the older adults, calling out greetings, demanding to know how everybody was doing. Considering I was never one to feel cramped - and the fact that Laila was nervously pale - I decided this would be one awkward conversation we could avoid, and lead the rest of us over to a row of seats.
Maggie marched through and took a seat first, followed by Emma, then Nick, Laila, and I kept nervously twisting her hands together in her lap while I took the seat at the end of the row, next to the flower arrangement. An idea suddenly struck, and I plucked a lily from the bunch of flowers and leaned over to slide the pretty looking flower into place in Laila's silky hair.
Her eyes widened and she let out a gasp of shock. "Justin, you can'd do that! You're wrecking the flower arrangements!"
"Relax, sweetheart," I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Nobody's going to notice."
She gave me a shifty look, her arms crossed over her chest, but she couldn't hide the smile that was tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"See?" I said. "Not so bad, is it?"
"If you keep saying that, then it really will be bad," she said in reply, sounding all wise.
Maybe. Maybe not. But I doubted that was possible.
All of the guests, dressed in fashionable and incredibly nice clothing, tittered about, chatting with people, heading from seat to seat for the next ten minutes. Judging by the hused, excited air about the park, the wedding was due to start any minute.
Mom, Dad, Dimitri, Patricia, and Jeanine all clambered over us, filing into the row of seats to grab their spots a minute later, most of them looking pretty excited. Mainly the women.
Sure enough, minutes later the small band of musicians situated underneath one of the long, high-arched white tents that had been erected for the occasion started playing an upbeat, melodic harmony that caught all of our attentions.
We all stood when Ashleigh made her grand appearance, dressed in a flowing white gown that made her look absolutely stunning, clutching at the arm of her father, a boquet of pink looking flowers in her other hand.
I whipped my head back around and looked at Mitch.
The expression on his face said it all. There was no denying that he was absolutely in love with Ashleigh.
I wrapped my arms around Laila on an impulse, and she leaned back into me, lacing our fingers together. She glanced back up at me with a smile, a smile that was so infectious that I couldn't help but return it.
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