Hands on Me (A Twilight Fanfiction written by IndependentIndividuality)

Chapter Eight: In Which Everything is Going to Be All Right. Or Not.

Chapter Eight: In Which Everything is Going to Be All Right. Or Not.

and even if we never marry

i will always love you baby, childishly

- shakira, something

I was wrong about the dawn's first light thing. I awoke the morning of Grandpa Charlie's wedding on my own, around ten in the morning. I vaguely remembered cool arms carrying me up the stairs and into Dad's old bedroom, my parents climbing in with me and curling into either side. I was alone now though, and I sat up and ran through the long day I had ahead of me in my head.

I padded down the steps in my wrinkled clothes from yesterday and was immediately intercepted by Scary Aunt Alice, who had morphed into Strangely Calm Yet Infinitely More Scary Aunt Alice, and she ordered me straight back up to Dad's old bedroom to double-check my dress and "essentials and accessories". After that little bit of horror was over with, I was released for the time being.

I thanked the heavens, not for the first time, that I was not a vampire when Strangely Calm Yet Infinitely More Scary Aunt Alice informed me that I would be the last to get my hair and make-up done because I wasn't as skilled at not fidgeting as my vampire family and she didn't trust me not to ruin my hair before the wedding had even started. So it was with a slightly grateful air that I sat in her and Uncle Jasper's cavernous bathroom and watched my grandmother, mother, and aunt be subjected to the wrath that was Alice.

Aunt Alice had decided that all the bridesmaids were to wear their hair down and be given finger-waves. I watched with interest as Alice pulled and pinned my mother's hair until it was perfect. She applied her make-up quickly, keeping it simple and finishing with a bright red lip. It was all a very quick affair, but Mom still looked more than relieved when Alice told her she was free to go.

Mom quickly mumbled some excuse about heading downstairs to check on the favors and flashed out of the room as quickly as she dared.

Grandma Esme was next, and she was given a very simple updo and no make-up. I didn't think anyone would notice, since she was so gorgeous anyway. After she was done, she swept out of the room to go "arrange the men".

Aunt Rosalie left her hair mostly alone, wearing her golden tresses long and flowing down her back, but in true Rosalie style, her make-up was an affair of its own entirely. She showed unprecedented bravery by calmly disagreeing with Strangely Calm Yet Infinitely More Scary Aunt Alice, and arguing her point until they came to a compromise. When she rose gracefully from Alice's beauty chair, it was with dramatic smoky grey eyes and pale pink lips.

As Strangely Calm Yet Infinitely More Scary Aunt Alice turned on me, I wished harder than ever that there were more bridesmaids or vampires to go before me. Leah, who was Maid of Honor, finally submitted to the inevitable tide that was Alice and agreed to wear the chosen dress and hair style, but refused to have her hair and make-up done by a vampire, so was instead having it done at a local salon. This resulted in Scary Aunt Alice paying a visit to the head hairdresser at said salon and scaring her nearly senseless with precise instructions and ominous hints about what might happen should the results not be to her liking.

"I'm not going to do your hair until right before we leave, so you'll have absolutely no chance to mess it up," Infinitely More Scary Aunt Alice told me, and I barely had time to sigh with relief before she was out of the room.

Strangely Calm Yet Infinitely More Scary Aunt Alice spent the rest of the day flitting back and forth between our house and Grandpa Charlie's, giving orders with a calm precision that left no room for variation or argument. I spent the rest of the morning and first part of the afternoon with various family members, wandering through the house and stopping whenever I saw someone doing something interesting.