A blood spot was seen on her chest, making it stand out even more because of her white dress. I let my mom alone for a moment and instead started checking out who was killed by her hands. I approached the call box she came out of and opened the short wooden door, seeing Chester Campbell laying dead onto the ground, the booth decorated by his blood. I smiled slightly before closing the small wooden door again.
Looks like he finally got what he deserved.
~~~
"Where are they?!"
"I don't know, Tommy." Without them noticing I stole a piece of a cake and patted onto Tommy's shoulder so he knew I was there with them.
"What's the matter?"
"Arthur and John, where are they?!"
Behind us Jeremiah entered the room and was confused about what was happening around him when Tommy was looking sternly to all of us. I slapped my hand onto my forehead while finally Arthur and John stumbled in.
"I am telling you know, we got lost."
"Come on!"
"You REALLY need to do a map. Thomas." Arthur ran down the stairs with a big bottle in his hand. Leaning against the kitchen table, I watched Finn and Isaiah walk in as well. Everybody took their places into the kitchen and Tommy lit up his cigarette while walking back and forth. I didn't exactly know what he was about to make a point about, but I knew for sure it was about us being uncontrollable and that we should calm down for Grace's sake and her weird family. Glaring up again I stared at Tommy who finally opened his mouth.
"Right, boys, girl. You're all here." With spread arms he pointed at all of us. "Today, this is my fucking wedding day."
"Yeah, and you said there'b be no bloody uniforms."
"John is right."
"Nevertheless.... nevertheless, John... despite the bad blood, I'll have none of it on my carpet. Now for Grace's sake, nothing will go wrong. Those bastards out there are her family. And if you fuckers do anything to embarrass her, your kin, your cousins, your horses, your fucking kids, you do anything-...."
"Tom?" I shook my head at Isiah, but he shrugged back at me in respond.
"To... what!"
"What about snow?"
Irritated I already had stopped my attention at Isaiah. They are out of hand with the sniffing thing and it annoyed me a lot, even if it was their own fault if anything happened, but still.
"Yeah, their women are sports, I'll say that..." John grabbed Isaiah's head while rubbing his hair.
"No. No. No! No cocaine! No cocaine. No sport. No telling fortunes. No racing. No fucking sucking petrol out of their fucking cars." He stopped at Finn after he pointed at John and Isaiah and slapped his face slowly. I spotted my brother who looked uninterested, blowing out some smoke while listening to the statement. "And you, Charlie, stop spinning yarns about me, eh?"
"I'm just trying to sell you to them, Tom."
"But the main thing is, you bunch of fuckers, despite the provocation from the Calvary, no fighting. Oi! No fighting, no fucking fighting. No fighting. NO FUCKING FIGHTING! Good! Get the fuck off me!"
I couldn't hide a smile when Tommy made clear we weren't aloud to fight, but he afterwards angrily pushed a server to the floor, with Arthur throwing the empty bottle to his head. Walking out of the kitchen, getting sure I had a whiskey, I melted with the crowd. Nodding and smiling to everyone from Grace's family it was clear nobody actually listened to our side. I waited alone till it was time to sit onto the dinner table so I could sit with my family who actually was willing to listen to our interests and not only talking about themselves and their money.
~~~
"To the bride." Tommy stood up, he finally arrived downstairs, and the rest followed. All standing up as well, raising their glasses.
"The bride."
"And now, according to tradition, my best man will say a few words. Go on! Here he goes! Go on, Arthur!" We all sat down and Arthur nervously was the only one who rose to his feet.
"Right, um..... I'm not one for speeches-.."
"Sing then!"
"I will later, John. But, uh... I do, uh... I do have some words written down here on this piece of paper. This doesn't include everything that I want to say-..."
"Arthur, just, uh... just read what we wrote down, aye?" I kinda felt for Arthur, he was so nervous and wanted to do so good because he didn't want to let Tommy and Grace down.
"I will, I will."
"Mmh-mmhuh." Tommy nodded with a cigarette between his lips.
"But..." Arthur laid down the piece of paper and Tommy already stared to his feet.
"First.... first, uh, a few words from... From the heart. Um. This man here, my brother Tommy, helped me survive through some of the worst times." Tommy cleared his throat after he coughed.
"It's a wedding, Arthur, tell a joke."
"Yeah, tell a joke." I gave my brother a elbow in the stomach and he backed down, coughing like shit.
"What I'm trying to say is that.... my brother and the love of a good woman pulled me through that time. Now Tommy also has the love of a good woman. Her name's Grace. Like the Grace of the good lord. And even though, the circumstances of their union was tragic..."
"All right. Let's, uh... Arthur." Tommy slammed his fist onto the table before grabbing the arm of Arthur and his glas.
"Let's raise a toast, eh? To, uh... to love, to peace, to marriage."
"And to marriage!"
"TO MARRIAGE!" Arthur was patted onto his shoulder, only, in his eyes I could see he thought he had screwed up.
"Well done, Arthur, beautiful speech. Really nice. Really, really nice."
"Where is he fucking going!" I narrowed my eyes and stood up, same as Tommy.
~~~
Outfit: