𝐃𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 | 𝐁𝐗𝐁

ＦＯＲＴＹＳＩＸ

It was two months later that Kate found me lying miserable in the bathroom of our home. I was sitting in the backseat of my stepfather's truck, driving to the wedding I was supposed to attend. It's sadly ironic that something as joyful as a wedding can feel like a funeral for someone else, but that's exactly how long it took for me to get over Matt. Two months. Two nightmare months in which I heard nothing from him and refused to even answer my sister's calls.

It was suffocating for Glenn and me to wait for my mother to come out. After lighting a cigarette, he handed the package to the back seat. "Okay, if I was a minor they would have called social services about it." After playing a terrible joke on him, I took a cigarette out of the pack and let Glenn light it. Apparently my shitty mood was visible on my face.

"Are you okay, kid?" After rolling down the incoming window, he left a cloud of smoke outside. "I heard that girl broke up with you. Your mother told me, don't be angry with her."

"I'm not angry." I blew out the smoke in my lungs just like he did before. "I'm just a little nervous."

"Of course you are, your little sister is getting married today." Glenn looked understandingly at me through the rearview mirror. I felt like there was an air of questioning in the car and I didn't like it at all. Glenn wasn't much of a talker, and nothing was going to change today, but his silence was getting annoying. I wanted to change the subject and talk about something else, but he continued to dig into the wound. "I lost my wife before your mother to cancer and I loved her. Of course, I never stopped loving her until I met your mother, but life goes on, son."

"I'm not sorry about leaving Kate, it was the wrong match from the start." 

The last thing I expected to do on a day like this was argue with my stepdad about my twisted love life, but I figured if I didn't drop the subject that way, he'd keep pestering me.

Luckily, at that moment, my mother came out from the porch of our house. Glenn quickly threw his cigarette out the window and warned me to do the same. "Don't tell your mother, let's keep this between us."

"I'm twenty-three, Glenn, but if you say so..."

My mother got into the car with a huge bouquet of white wildflowers in her hand. She had been crying since the morning and while she was doing this, she would stop and rest from time to time. Very frustrating. In addition to all this, Luke promised to be with me today. He was the only friend I had and the only person who supported me in getting out of the darkness that Matt had dragged me into. I don't know if I was successful, but I do know that when we get to church I will have to watch my sister make her vows to the man I love, and a little support while I do that would be nice.

Before taking off, Glenn put on a corny rock song and we were off. It's funny, my family is nothing like Matt's. We're not rich people, we drink cheap beer and listen to eighties songs in a crappy pickup truck. However, his family are elite people. I can't help but wonder if this will be a problem in his marriage to my sister, but I think I should stop worrying.

I slid on my ass in the backseat and tried to hide as much as I could while my mom and Glenn screamed along to the scary song. There was nowhere to go.

We arrived at the church after a fifteen-minute journey. Luxurious cars were parked at the gate, which in every way screamed that they belonged to influential friends of Matt's family. I didn't want to go out because I didn't know exactly what to expect there. The unknown is killing me. Am I really ready for this?

"Are you going to hide there forever?" Glenn patted my seat as my mother ran into the church, where a crowd of people had gathered at the door. His eyebrows were curled suggestively.