Chapter 19 - Wedding
Louis watching The Fault in Our Stars with my mum wasn't exactly the scenery I had pictured when Courtney and I walked into the living room.
We spent an entire hour deciding on what I would dress for the wedding, deciding on a dark green dress and matching shoes. I have to look good today. Not because of my father, though.
"I brought you drink from that coffee place you like." Louis points at the drinks on the table. "An Americano for Courtney, the Spearmint Special, for you and me and Pipes are trying the blueberry milkshakes. Gotta be honest, they're not so good. I can feel the sugar grains and it tastes more like milk than berries"
I'm aware of that, thank you.
I snatch my drink from the table and take a long sip. And almost spit it all out.
This tastes nothing like before! This tastes like pure coffee with cold spice! When I kissed James, and this probably shouldn't be an example, it tasted like mints. I'm disappointed. But then again, he mostly drinks bitter drinks.
I'd like to change my previous statement about my favourite drink. Blueberry milkshake keeps winning.
I hear the bell ringing and turn to answer the door, but Louis surpasses me on our race.
"Wick, honey, how can I help you, sweetheart?"
James frowns at the small boy in front of him, surprised to see him here.
My eyes instantly wander down his body to look at the navy fitted suit he wears.
How to say: I'm sorry I can't go, I'm going into cardiac arrest because, DAMN
"Good morning to you too, Louis," he says in the most unimpressed voice.
"Can't you smile a little for me, babe come on? Just for me, I know you can, boo!" he presses, but James doesn't move a muscle.
I push Louis behind me, putting myself between them and resisting his attempts to overcome me. James grins when he sees me and I hear an indignation gasp from Louis.
"You son of a bitch! This is betrayal! Cheater! You cheater! How can you do this to me! You fucking cheater!" Louis dramatised, trying to reach him.
"Hi," I smile, ignoring the screaming, "I'll be right back. Let me just deal with my baby brother"
"I'm older than you!"
I close the door softly and turn to the human megaphone, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him to the living room. Somehow, I throw him onto the sofa.
He falls next to my best friend and puts an arm around her with a smirk. "Hey, Court. How are you?"
"Ew, no"
"Is he here already?" mum asks.
"Yeah. I'm leaving. See you later, okay?"
"Bye, honey. I'm just going to sit here with Louis while you're gone"
"You can call me Viz, Pipes," he smiles, and I repress the urge to gag.
James is waiting patiently for me to come back. Hands stuffed inside his pockets and leaning against the door frame.
"Are we ready now?" he asks "Or are we taking the chaperon?"
I shake my head and close the door once we were both outside. He wraps his arm around my waist and I press my lips to his. Minutes go by and none of us is ready to let go. I want all my moments with him to be like this.
A loud punching noise followed by someone yelling makes us step back and stare at the window, where Louis is making a scene. I guess the frizzy hair is my mum trying to hide under the windowsill.
"I didn't realise we have an audience," he chuckles and my cheeks heat.
WHY?
James opens the door for me to get in the car, the three spies still peaking from inside the house, and takes his seat next to me, taking off as soon as possible.
When we park in the middle of so many other cars, I feel my heart beating in my throat and I am going to be sick. Inside that church, my father is choosing a new life, a new family... I can't watch that. I can't!
"I don't want to be here," I mumble, looking at my hands. "I don't want to be here... I can't be here"
"We can leave," he says. "I'll take you wherever you want to go. It's your family, not mine."
"It's not my family," I tell him. "We should go grab a drink at WOTT and then we decide"
He nods and takes me there.
We sit on our usual stools, a little overdressed. My breathing had calmed down, but there is this lump in my throat making me sick...
"Spearmint Special and a Blueberry..." he orders.
I interrupt him "Vienna Caramel Jolt for me"
Gema and James eye me with a puzzled look.
"And you can add that vodka shot. I sure need it," I explain.
Still with a frown on her face, Gema left us to prepare our drinks. I turn back to James, leaning against the counter.
"Is that your ultimate choice? Your favourite drink?" I ask, noticing he already finished trying all the drinks from the menu.
"Not my favourite, but definitely on the top 5," he shrugs. "And you? What happened to your milkshake?"
"Blueberry milkshakes are Louis' thing. As much as I like them, there are better things on the menu. I just haven't tried them yet"
"So that's it? The end of blueberry milkshake?"
"Not quite the ending... maybe the beginning of a new chapter. Now, what do you advise me to try?"
The drinks are set in front of us, and I analyse mine through the plastic cup. It is made entirely of different layers. One cream coloured liquid, a thick layer of caramel, something dark like coffee, and then everything all over again and whip cream all up to the top.
"You don't like the same drinks I do," he answers.
"Says who?"
"You"
We have a stare off contest and I take the cup to my lips without ever taking my eyes off his. He doesn't break and I am the one to laugh and lose completely.
As I take a sip of my drink, the caramel sticks to my upper lip like a gloss. There goes my lipstick. I lick my lip, trying to get rid of the sticky gloss, but it doesn't go away.
"That's one I wouldn't recommend," he smirks at me.
"Fuck you"
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
I stop for a second. Did those words just come out of James's mouth? I think I had never heard him say such a thing before. Not that I mind it, I can't be the only perv in this relationship.
"Yes, I would," I say, making eye contact. He chokes on his drink. Two can play this game.
Gema is observing us from afar with a not-so-subtle smirk.
My phone buzzes. It's my dear father. Yeah.
I ignore it the first time and decline the second, so he texts.
"Is that you father?" James asks.
"He wants to know why am I not there... Look, I'm sorry for dragging you into this. I mean, we've been dating for a week and I'm already inviting you for family stuff. I'm so stupid," I sigh.
"I don't mind. And according to you, they're not family," he shrugs. "Now, I can take you out for lunch or we can go back to the wedding. You choose"
I smile "If it's okay with you, we can go to the wedding"
He nods and takes me back to the place where they were throwing the party.
People arrive at a slow pace, and we get there before most guests. Fact that leads me into being welcomed by all my family that I haven't seen in years. People who sided with my father and never gave a shit about me afterwards, you know?
"Avery, darling, how are you?" my grandma asks as she pulls me down into a hug. "And who's the young man with you?"
"This is James, grandma, he's my boyfriend"
Bringing him here was the worst idea I ever had. But then again, this wedding is my father's worst idea ever.
"Oh, you're so handsome! Look at those eyes!" she squeals, making a scene and calling my aunt to see him.
What have I done?
My aunt brings my uncle, who is not interested at all, but to be polite, shakes his hand.
As soon as he lifts his hand to grab my uncle's, the sleeve slips back and uncovers the tiniest bit of his skin.
"Firm handshake. I like this guy," my uncle says.
"What's that in your wrist, dear? Let me..." my grandma licks her thumb. I REPEAT. She licks her thumb and tries to wipe the tattoo off his skin.
"That doesn't come off," he says, taking his hand off her reach. "It's permanent"
"It's what?" my aunt looks disgusted. "You're dating one of those vandals? Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
I am between tearing up because this was a terrible idea or yelling at her for saying those things.
"It's pretty," I protest and James rose an eyebrow at me.
"Excuse me?" grandma asks.
I grab his hand and pass through them. "Prettier than ignoring your child for four years"
"That was kind of harsh," he says as I guide him to the tables full of people, trying to recognise which one was ours.
Number five says Avery and Guest, plus some other names, but right now it is empty. We sit next to each other and I look around, trying to find the people about to join us.
"They shouldn't have said that about you," I shrug.
"It doesn't matter what they think about me, it matters that now they will never side with you"
I laugh humourlessly, "They would never, no matter what"
There was a time they fought for me. When my parents got divorced, they all wanted to keep my custody away from my mother, claiming she wasn't my biological mother. They won, of course, but when my father could no longer have me, no one stepped up.
I have stopped wondering how things could have been a long time ago. I stopped defending them both. Even if my mum didn't want me to hate him, the waiting for something that would never happen did it.
The waiters serve the food, and James fills his plate, obviously starving.
I giggle but can't eat. I'm still disgusted with everything that is happening.
"Maybe they would"
"Never. They made a scandal when my father married a black woman and they didn't care about me when I was a child. I was always the unwanted one"
"Well, someone had to take that role" an unfamiliar voice joins the conversation and I turn to see the same idiot who stole all my dolls when I was a kid.
"Jeremy, how have you been?" I fake a cheerful voice and hug both my cousins.
"Bad," Claudia answers as they sit down next to me. "Your excuse for a father is marrying the most annoying kid ever"
"Technically, he's marrying his mother," Jeremy corrects. Then he looks around the table and notices James. "Well, I see you brought a hottie along the way"
I choke on my water, and James ignores him completely. Well, that lamb must be damn good.
"I'd prefer if you didn't address my boyfriend in that way"
Claudia murmurs beside me, "But he is"
Jeremy smirks. "Why? Are you afraid that I'll steal him from you? Or is he homophobic?"
"Right now I'm homophobic," James says and Jeremy seems to notice the offence in his answer.
"Me too. I hate those disgusting freaks" he sits between James and Jeremy, dressed in a brown suit and yellow shirt, looking like a clown next to them. "I'm Grant, nice to meet you, sister"
I don't have the time to appreciate the irony of Mr Homophobic sitting between two not so straight men who looked way hotter than he. Nah, I was too busy keeping the caramel inside of me. Is it normal that so many things have made me feel sick today? Maybe it's not them, maybe it's the stomach flu.
I looked at him again. Nah, it's not the flu.
"I'm not your sister," I tell him.
"Yeah, and I'm not your cousin," Claudia joins in.
"And I'm gay" Jeremy groans.
They look at James, waiting for him to say something. He doesn't.
Claudia giggles at the look he shots at Grant, and I whisper to her she has to stop fawning over him.
Grant moves a little to James' side, not so subtly, which makes Jeremy roll his eyes so hard I think he glimpsed his brain.
"You are, though. Stepsister. And in seven months we'll have a baby sister and we'll be truly a family. When are you moving in, though?"
"I'm not moving and we aren't family," I clarify.
He doesn't seem pleased. He gets up and walks towards me, kneeling beside me.
"Avery, sis, I know it's hard for you to accept this, but understand that you're better with us. We're your family"
"You're in my space. Go away," I tell him, holding myself back from kicking him where the sun never shines.
"Avery" he put his hands on my shoulders but he's forcefully yanked from me and falls on his butt in the grass. "WHAT THE FUCK!"
"She told you to go away." James points out, "Are you deaf?"
"You know what, this was a mistake," I say calmly and get up. "We should go. This isn't a place for us. I'm sorry a made you come in the first place"
James looks concerned for me, and Grant is already on his feet, complaining.
"I'm sorry about him," Claudia says and Jeremy gives me an apologetic hug.
"It's fine. I shouldn't have come in the first place," I sigh and turn back to James. "I'm really sorry"
"Next time I pick where we're going," he smiles before wrapping his fingers around mine and we make our way out of there.
We pass through the reception where my dad and his wife are welcoming people, and he grins as soon as he spots me.
"Avery! Come here, I want you to meet..."
"I'm leaving," I cut him off.
His smile falls and the dark-haired woman looks inquisitively.
"What? Why?" he asks.
"Why didn't you tell me you had such a pretty daughter." She asks.
"Maybe it's because he's a shit dad," I roll my eyes. "I don't know, I'm just spit balling"
He looks at me without understanding. "Avery, I'm trying"
"No, you're not!" I complain, "You disappeared for years! You never replied to my texts. And now you just show up and drop this bomb and want to be my dad again! You can't, you lost that opportunity years ago! If you were a good father, you would've stood by me!"
"I was solving my issues. I was trying to be better for you, and I am. Now."
"Too fucking late!" I shout and stormed out with James following. I feel terrible for him. Should have never brought him here.
We walk around the place through the white sidewalk that goes all the way through the garden to the parking lot. It was beautiful. I think I've never been to a place like this before. The pavement contorted its way up a large lake in bridge form, and we stop there. I take a while looking at the clear water.
"Have I already told you how beautiful you look?" he asks as his fingers brush the side of my cheek and place a few strands of hair behind my ear.
"I don't think you did," I reply, short of breath.
"Well, you are gorgeous," he whispers before pressing his lips against mine in a blissful moment.
My waist is pressed against the side of the bridge, but he is holding me back, holding me harder against him.
"Was this..." I try to catch my breath. "Was this how you were planning our first kiss?"
"Maybe"
I feel him smile against my mouth and I can't help but smile, too.
"I love you"
"I love you too"
☕☕☕
Shout out to vxy and my counsellor (you know I'm talking about you) who created WOTT and it's beverages. Any complains go to them, that's none of my buisiness.
Is this a good ending? Perhaps. I'm not good at ending but we are one Sunrise away from the Epilogue so...I hope you enjoyed it?
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