Never Summer Again

Chapter Forty - Two - The Wedding

Score: Human - Rag'n'Bone Man

Mark

My dad and Laura are stepping down from the makeshift altar in my grandparents' back garden. Laura looks ridiculously happy. She has one arm hooked around my dad's elbow, and the other shot straight up in the air, with her bouquet clutched tightly in her fist. Her champagne dress looks like it is made of gold in the light of the setting sun.

I guess she's not that bad. She can be an overbearing bitch, when it comes to Alice, and she is way too much of a control freak for her own, or my father's good, but, if she makes him happy, I'll happily sit at their table on Christmases.

 I recall the conversation I had with my father at the house at the night of Gloria's birthday.

"Why can't you just acknowledge the fact that I have a shot at being happy again?" he had asked. 

Maybe I can now. Maybe I am ready.

Now that the anger from last night has dissipated, I feel a little less frustrated about his behavior at dinner. And, in the light of telling Lydia the truth about my feelings makes the whole world seem just...I don't know...nicer, somehow. 

I feel lighter. I feel free. I feel like the sun's shining brighter. I feel the resolve in my chest growing stronger. 

I'm not going back to LA. I'm going back home, to England, and there's nothing in the world that my father can do about it. I'm staying, for Lydia. She needs me right now, even if she'll never admit to it. Watching her shatter this morning, after seeing the response from Edin nearly broke my heart. She looked so vulnerable, so...broken. Lydia's one of the strongest people I know. She's been able to pick herself up and stand her own ground through way bigger issues in her life, but the look on her face today nearly sent me to my knees. She looked like she's had too much. And who can blame her? 

She's been through so much.

I don't want her to have to deal with this alone this time. Come September, she's going to literally have no one by her side, besides John, who is still in high school and isn't exactly an emotional support animal. With all of her friends going away and her father literally abandoning her, she needs somebody to lean on. And I want to be that somebody. I want to be there for her, every second of every day, I want to show her that life can be wonderful, without having to run away all the time.

You're the one to speak, the treacherous voice in my head whispers. I shake it off.

Not today, mate. 

I turn to Alice and offer her my arm, as we step down from the altar, at our old folks' heels. She is her mother's Maid of Honor. She's wearing a deep brown linen dress, matching her skin tone, and soft gold slippers

It is a relaxed, casual wedding, which is a surprise to me, given that neither Laura nor my dad do relaxed and casual.

I guess there's a first for everything.

My dad's wearing blue suede shorts and a white dress shirt, and even I feel overdressed, in my navy slacks and button-down shirt, but I feel that the black Converses on my feet are making up for that.

I feel like I've been paying way more attention to my looks recently. Like, I've actually put the effort in tonight. Not because I'm the best man. But because of her.

The guests are cheering, as we walk the aisle. A couple of kids are throwing flower petals at the newlyweds' feet. People are looking at me and Alice. But I have eyes for only one woman.