This is the first story I've posted in... months! I hope you like it. Scratch that, I hope you love it! I worked very hard on it.
“Annabelle, come on, wake up,” Aimee said while jumping on my bed.
“Aimee, please. It’s way too early for this,” I contradicted.
“It’s almost noon! Do you want to be late for your own brother’s wedding?”
“No, stupid.”
“Then get up!”
“Fine. Give me fifteen minutes to take a shower.” She got off the bed and scurried into my walk-in closet. My big brother, Billy, was getting married to Joy, an old friend of ours from high school. I was the maid of honor and Aimee was a bridesmaid.
I lazily tossed off the covers and dragged myself to the bathroom. Aimee and I lived in a mansion she inherited from her dad when father died a few years before. We were like sisters.
After taking a shower, I trotted back to my room where Aimee had laid out a red tank top and white shorts. Aimee was nowhere to be seen, so I put on my usual body spray, deodorant, and perfume.
As soon as I slipped on the shorts, she busted into the room, makeup bag in tow.
“Oh no,” I groaned. She always went overboard with the makeup, even for when we were exercising. It just didn’t make sense to me.
“Oh yes,” she responded while plugging her iPhone into my iPod dock. Schizophrenia by Jukebox the Ghost started playing. She dragged me over to my vanity and started unloading Clinique, MAC, and Nars makeup from her bag.
Fifteen minutes later, I had on bronze and gold eye shadow, brown-black mascara, black eyeliner, and pink gloss and was putting my blond hair in two horizontal buns. There was also a silver streak down the right side.
“Aimee, just this once, can I please do your hair and makeup?” I gave her my best puppy dog face.
“Fine,” she said reluctantly. I squealed in delight. “But make it look sweet and innocent.” We were both makeup junkies, but she never let me touch her hair or face when it came down to it.
I gave her pink and pale brown shadow, brown eyeliner, clear mascara, and nude gloss. I styled her bronze hair half up, half down with a purple streak down the left side.
“Can I look now?” She asked, her leg shaking menacingly.
“Almost,” I said while pinning up a section of hair, “Now you can.” I spun the chair around. She squealed happily at the reflection.
“Oh my gosh, I love it.” She stood up and hugged me. “And to answer your question, maybe I’ll let you do my hair and makeup more often.”
“I swear you’re a mind reader,” I said, then giggled.
“Am not.”
“Are, too.”
“Can we just get the dresses on so we aren’t late?”
“Sorry.” Since it was August and getting closer to fall, Joy had gone with ivory and leaf green for the wedding color scheme along with silver and purple. Our dresses were leaf green. Aimee’s dress had a halter neckline, but mine had a sweetheart. We slipped on the dresses, grabbed our phones, hopped in her yellow convertible Mercedes and sped off to the Church with the top down.
As we walked up to the Church, I noticed Aimee was excited and a bit nervous.
“What’s wrong?” I asked concerned.
“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done something… risky, so I’m hoping to have a meaningless hook up.”
“You mean a one night stand?”
“Yeah.” Her cheeks flushed a bright red that showed through the foundation. I giggled and called my attention to Billy pacing in front of the doors with his groomsmen attempting to calm him down.
“You’re here. I thought you wouldn’t make it,” he said while lifting Aimee in the air in a hug, then me. Billy was like a bear. We loved him a lot, even when we he annoyed us.
“Billy, put me down. Can’t breathe,” I muttered.
“Sorry,” he apologized while setting us down.
“S’okay, Bill,” I said, bringing up my childhood nickname for him. It was what I used to call him when I was learning to talk.
“Aimee, you’re makeup looks good. What’s the occasion?”
“What? I can’t look good for my surrogate brother’s wedding?” She asked innocently. I quickly whispered ‘one night stand’ in his ear, but unfortunately Aimee heard me and gave me a feeble punch in the arm. Billy’s booming laugh filled the air.
“Well, we have to go see Joy. We’ll see you at the altar, bro,” I said while we gave him a simultaneous hug.
“Before you go, Aimee, make sure you stay away from Joy’s assistant.”
“Why?”
“If you try to flirt with him, I will get my ass kicked for not warning you. Please, for my sake. But he apparently makes a good shopping partner for someone who likes to go on weekly shopping trips.” Aimee squealed and dragged me into the Church.
We speed walked into the little room in the waiting area where Joy was. She wore the prettiest ivory dress with a leaf green inset. Her dirty blonde hair was curled and she wore natural makeup. She was pacing.
“Aimee, Annabelle, you’re finally here! I thought you guys wouldn’t make it,” she said while hugging us. “I was getting nervous.”
“Well, we’re here now. And trust me, you’re not the only one who’s nervous. We just talked to Billy and he’s nervous, too,” I said, comforting her as best as I could. Trying to calm her down was like trying to get Billy to stop squeezing me so hard when he hugged me: impossible.
“I just can’t believe I’m getting married.”
“Well you better, ‘cause you’re about to get married in nearly five minutes.”
“Like I already don’t have enough reminders,” she said while nodding at her assistant, who was talking to Aimee.
“Hey, I’m just trying to help.”
“Yeah, thanks.” We hugged and I dragged Aimee into the lobby. I saw my boyfriend, D.J., across the room and waved at him. He waved back with his goofy grin. I giggled to myself, but stopped myself. Why was I giggling? I was going to break up with him. He didn't know I had seen him flirting with Emily Vaughn on multiple occasions. It seemed logical that I needed to break up with him that day.
“Come on, Annabelle, it’s time,” Aimee said while pushing me towards the door to the aisle. The only other girl there was the matron of honor, Langhorne, who was married to Casey Shea, one of the groomsmen. The best man was Joe, whom I dated in high school. The other groomsman was Ryan Scott. Joe offered his arm for me to loop my arm through and I took it. We walked down the aisle first and everyone else followed suit. Then came the flower girl.
When Joy walked down the aisle, I stole a quick glance at her, but mostly kept my sight on my brother. My favorite part of the ceremony was watching the husband-to-be’s reaction to seeing his soon to be wife.
The ceremony went perfectly. Joy’s dad got a little teary-eyed, which barely ever happened. Every once in a while, I would look over at D.J. and see him ogling Emily Vaughn.
At the reception, I made a toast to the happy couple.
“Joy, you have been a great friend. I couldn’t imagine my life without a great a friend as you in it. Billy, you’re a funny, sweet, big bear of a brother and I know you’ll love Joy with all your heart, but if you hurt her, I’ll murder you.” The room chuckled in response. “To Billy and Joy,” I said while raising my champagne flute. The room reciprocated.
A few minutes later, I walked over to the bar where D.J. was flirting with Emily Vaughn. Once he saw me, he smiled.
“Hey, baby,” he said while putting his hands around my waist. I could smell the alcohol on his breath.
“Don’t baby me. You obviously like Emily. We’re through,” I said while brushing his hands off.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I’m being completely serious. You can go out with Emily now.” And with that, I walked off. Halfway to the dance floor, Aimee stopped me.
“I found the guy I’m going to have slutty wedding sex with.”
“What does he look like?”
“He’s tan, with the most gorgeous brown eyes, and shaggy black hair. I’ll probably be back at the house tomorrow morning.”
“Okay. Good luck. I know you’ll need it.”
“Thanks,” she said while hugging me before prancing off. A slow song came on and I felt a tug on my elbow. I turned around and I came face to face with Joe. He had changed since high school. He had gotten tanner and his hair, which was usually looked like a Jew-fro, was shorter, but still slightly curly. Still the same prominent cheekbones, though. The way the suit hung on him made him look hot.
"What happened with you and D.J. earlier? I saw you reject him over at the bar," Joe said, pulling me from my thoughts.
"He's been flirting with Emily and I got sick of it, so I broke it off."
“Well then, may I have this dance?” He asked very politely.
“You may,” I answered. He took my hand in his and walked me over to the dance floor. He put his arm around my waist as I put my free hand on his shoulder. At the end of the song, he twirled me. I was in heaven.
“Good job on not tripping,” he complimented.
“Thank you very much,” I said while blushing and bowing a little bit. Suddenly, Thriller by Michael Jackson came on. Billy and Joy knew I couldn’t refuse dancing to it. Everyone cleared the dance floor except for Billy, Joy, Joe, and me. I started doing the dance moves, causing the people to shuffle back to follow my lead.
At the end of the song, Joe and I did the moonwalk. Everyone applauded at our dancing.
Soon enough, the reception ended and the happy couple left for their honeymoon. Joe stood at my side as we waved them off.
“I loved dancing with you tonight, Annie,” he said, bringing up my old nickname.
“So did I,” I agreed.
“Do you need a ride home? I saw Aimee leave earlier.”
“Yeah.” We walked to his black BMW my arm looped through his. I gave him the directions to my house as we talked about just anything and everything that had happened to us since college.
At my doorstep, we stood together as I looked for my keys.
“Do you mind putting your number into my phone?” He asked while he pulled out his iPhone.
“Sure. Will you do the same for mine?” I asked as I retrieved mine as well. We proceeded to program each other’s info and numbers. I said good night as entered the house.
In my retro, black and white themed room, I got ready for bed like I usually did. Then I got a text.
Do you wanna go out with me tomorrow? –Joe
1,000 times yes! –Annie
I’ll pick you up at 7 p.m. –Joe
‘Tis twenty years ‘till then. I texted back, quoting Romeo & Juliet.
Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow…
That I shall say good night ‘till it be morrow. Good night. I also texted D.J. to remind him we were through. I put the phone back in its dock, changed into my favorite nightgown, and went to bed.
More to come!
The break up between the MC and her boyfriend seems unreal, she was laughing and smiling at him when she entered the church and then at the reception, she just dumps him without any emotions. Why? Wouldn't she be pissed off he's flirting with other girls? Is this the first time he does this, or has it been a couple of times and she's through with it? And then Joe? Did he know she had a boyfriend and she just dumped him? Hope you know what I mean. You need more substance, for us to understand. I understand that you're trying to cover the most of your story within a short amount of pages, but seriously, I'd rather read a long, detailed story than to rush by one. It's way better when you have feelings and detailed actions. 