A Starling's Awakening

Ostentatious Hymeneals

The guys lined up on the right side of the lobby. We gals were lined up on the left. When the wedding march began, Bret and I linked arms and walked down the aisle. It was all I could do to not kiss him before we separated to take our places.

Ewan and Raina were the third pair after Bret and me. The little brat was still flirting with him. He was still pretending not to notice. Once all of the bride's maids and groomsmen were in position, the flower girls walked up the aisle spreading their rose pedals.

Kylee and her father appeared in the doorway. Brian was fidgeting. I had never known Brian to get nervous. Bret leaned in and whispered something in Brian's ear.

Kylee and her dad must have practiced walking down the aisle. It looked like it was happening naturally. Kylee was doing a good job of keeping her emotions in check.

The ceremony went quite smoothly. They had opted to repeat after the reverend when exchanging their vows. Kylee went with the more traditional "love, honor, and obey," where Bret and I had both said "love, honor, and cherish."

As the couple exited the church, they were showered with white rice. When Kylee tossed her bouquet, it was caught by one of her cousins who were visiting from out of town. Brian and Kylee went to the reception in a limo.

Bret texted Ruby: "How is Paul?"

"Sleeping" was her reply.

The wedding cake was as tall as I am. To call it ornately decorated would be a gross understatement. It had six, or maybe seven tiers. The middle ones were carved out to look like a cave, with figures of the bride and groom dancing inside. As beautiful as that cake was, it had no flavor.

When Brian and Kylee fed each other a bite, they mashed frosting up each other's noses. They were both laughing.

The dancing was traditional. The bride and groom went first, followed by the father-daughter, and the mother-son. The very next dance had each of the groomsmen dance with the bride's maid he'd walked down the aisle with. That meant Bret and I got to dance.

Ewan gave Raina a pleasant dancing experience before breaking her heart. She was in tears when she joined Bret and I.

"Big brother, I want you to go beat him up!"

"I'm not beating anyone up."

"But he called me a twitterpated child! Bret, are you really going to let him get away with calling me that?"

"Sis, he's a college guy. He's a long ways out of your league." Raina looked ready to explode, so I put my arm around her shoulders.

"Little sister, Ewan can be a bit self-centered. When we were freshmen, he tried to date Cordelia, my former starling friend. He was intent on using her to enter our society, so he could get rich."

"I'm guessing it didn't end well?"

"She made a fool of him in front of the entire school."

Over the course of the next hour, Raina danced with several other guys. She finally settled on one, and danced the rest of the afternoon with him. When the dancing ended, she finally introduced us.

"This is Kylee's cousin, Eli Colgrade. He lives across the valley."