Back to December

Eight

"And this was Lizzie's wedding," I can hear mom talking to someone in the living room as I walk down the stairs. Like yesterday, I slept in again, this time with good reason though. Harper came to my room after she finished talking to Nikki, and we ended up staying up pretty late talking. She told me about how her senior year was going and about how she was on the prom committee. In return, she badgered me for stories of the city, ones that I couldn't share with mom and dad around.

    Obviously, I didn't have many, but I couldn't let her down. Instead, I pretend my love life is a failure because my expectations are too high for any man in New York City, and while that's true, I don't tell her about the fact that I don't even try.

    I find mom sitting on the couch in the living room, Nikki and Wyatt sat on either side of her, and Skye sat on Wyatt's lap. They all peered over at my mom's iPad, which she was scrolling through, showing them old photos. I stay behind them, not bothering to make my presence known just yet while mom slides past images.

    "Look how beautiful they all are," Nikki coos, I didn't need to see her voice to know she was smiling, "was Marley the maid of honor?"

    "She was," I can slightly see the images on my mom's screen as she scrolls past them, all of them are from Lizzie and James' wedding, "she gave a speech and everything, poor girl was so nervous."

    Wyatt, who hasn't spoken since I walked down, finally speaks up, "she always hated talking in front of crowds," He mutters it to himself more than saying it to the others.

    "She did so well though," Mom continues, not fazed by Wyatt's tone, "she'd just gotten her braces off too, which was good. She'd always been so insecure of those... do you remember the slight lisp she had when she first got them?"

    I cringe, glad they can't see me. I hated my braces when I first got them. Not only had they hurt like hell at the time, but they gave me this temporary lisp at first. I'd already had a hard enough time speaking up for myself during that time. Adding the lisp on top made it even harder, "What's a lisp?" Skye asks, looking back at Wyatt, her eyes squinting together in confusion.

    "It just means she had a hard time pronouncing words," Wyatt explains, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. He was the one who had to reassure me it hadn't been that bad during the time. Still, his reassurance never worked.

    Wyatt seemed a little more relaxed since last night. It appears that being around Skye has that effect on him. I can't see his face, but I can tell by how his shoulders are slightly hunched over, his posture not stiff like a board. I wonder if his mom told him about her conversations with Harper and I last night? And if she did, I wonder if he thought that meant he'd be getting an apology too?

    Spoiler alert, he's not.

    "Ah, here's the Marley you remember," Mom sighed, chuckling slightly to herself as she scrolled back to a picture of me that was taken before I'd gotten my braces off, one where my hair wasn't styled like it had been at Lizzie's wedding. I couldn't see it very clearly from here, but I could see my frizzy hair, which I wore straight now. It never could quite decide whether it had wanted to be straight or curly back then.

    The Marley he remembers... the girl who dressed to hide away in the crowd and not stand out, the girl with metal braces lining her teeth and hair that was unruly and wild. Part of me hates myself for feeling so embarrassed and insecure about how I used to look. Still, I feel better now; I learned an important lesson in college, you can care about what you look like and take over the world. I can be intelligent and pretty.

    "What are you doing?" I cringe at the sound of Harper whispering behind me, turning to look back at her. Unlike me, who'd already changed into jeans and a white turtleneck, Harper still wore her sweats from bed, her short hair pulled into a messy low ponytail. "Are you spying on them? Are they talking about us?"