A Touch of Cinnamon

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I spend the next few weeks working tirelessly on the trading game. There are only a few weeks left until the tuition deadline, and I'm still quite a ways off from my goal. I do eventually trade the cookbooks for a French press, which I then trade for a small Bluetooth speaker. From there, it seems like things go faster. The items I'm trading for are now worth a few thousand dollars. At this rate, I'll definitely make my goal. Which means I'll definitely be leaving for Boston in August. Which means... no more Vale.

Not that it matters much, as I haven't seen Vale hardly at all since I told him I just wanted to stay friends. We've been together with the group at the mall, but we keep our distance. And we barely talk to each other. It's weird, because I should be happy. I'm so close to achieving my goal. So close to leaving this place and going to my dream school. But despite all of this, I'm miserable. And I cry myself to sleep most nights thinking about how much I miss my best friend. I'd give anything to go back in time and stop myself from kissing him that first night. Because that was the night everything changed. I miss how it was before.

People are starting to notice. Keke asks me what's wrong, but I just lie and tell her I'm fine. She doesn't believe me, but I can't tell her. I can't tell anyone. The only person I'd feel comfortable talking to about it is the one person I'm not talking to at all. This is killing me. And I'll do anything to distract myself from it. Including join Ava as we walk around this hotel banquet hall while she drones on about what she can do with it for the wedding.

"The maximum capacity is quite a bit smaller than the first venue," she says as she strolls down where I imagine the aisle is going to be. "So it'll be a little awkward having to uninvite some people."

"Why are we even here?" I ask grumpily as my eyes roam the room. "I thought you had a venue already."

She gives off a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, we did. But apparently they double booked us. Can you believe that? And the other couple technically booked first. So I've spent the last several days combing the internet looking for wedding venues that still had openings for our wedding date. This is the only one."

I nod my head slowly. "Right. Okay. And I'm here because?" Ava turns and glares at me. "Seriously, why am I here? I'm just a bridesmaid. What happened to your maid of honor?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" she asks, and I shake my head. "My maid of honor backed out last minute. So congratulations. The title is now yours."

I give off a heavy sigh. "Don't I have to like... agree to this?"

"Nope," she replies, and I scowl at her. "According to the Bride Bible, if the bride chooses her sister to be her maid of honor, she doesn't have to ask. Consent is dead in this situation."

I roll my eyes, then immediately wince. They're red and sore from all the crying I've been doing. Seems like lately I'm battling a constant headache because of it. "That's such crap, Ava. There's no such thing as the Bride Bible."

Ava smirks as she folds her arms over her baby blue peasant top. "What was your first clue?" she asks. When I begin to walk away in annoyance, she grabs my arm and says, "Okay, okay. I'm sorry." She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Gen, my loving, kind baby sister, would you please be my maid of honor?"

"No," I reply snappily.

She beams and gives me a big hug. "Thank you! You're the best!" Ugh, I hate having sisters sometimes.

"Yeah, yeah," I say as I pull away and continue walking around the venue. I hate to admit it, but the idea of being my sister's maid of honor cheers me up just a little bit. When she picked her friend from college, I was a little hurt, even though I hadn't expected much. We haven't been close since we were kids. But even so, I was hoping this whole wedding thing could bring us closer. Maybe, selfishly, I was hoping it could pull me back into my family a bit. But the only thing it's done is push me even further out.