Sequel • Worth Fighting For
It is commonly known and spoken that time heals all wounds.
But what they don't tell you is that those wounds remain, leaving behind a plastic film of torment and affliction with those subconscious memories nudging you l...
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Joshua Parker
"You look so handsome, Joshua," my mother's incessant fussing was the last thing I truly needed when getting myself ready for my own engagement party. She resisted the urge to straighten out my tie and most likely attempt to change something else with my collar.
She smiled with ease, age having taken her gracefully and keeping the beauty that she possessed through life. My father was the only other person to be able to make her smile like she was now, and that thought alone was warming to my heart.
Madison had already made her way to the venue only a few short blocks away to greet her parents while I stayed to wait for my mother and Beth to get themselves ready.
At the thought, Beth appeared from the guest room she'd stayed in last night, wearing a dark navy dress that I was sure our mother had picked out for her. At almost twelve years of age, it was hard not to imagine her as the small toddler I would look after for hours on end, aiding her every need with my company.
She was gracing the early teenage years of her life, being rather irritated by minor things like her older brother pulling her in for a tight hug, exactly as I was doing at this very moment. "Get off of me, Josh! Mom, can you tell him to let go of me, please."
"Josh, let go of your sister," Mom mentioned in distraction while wearing her own elegant, blush pink coloured dress and stuffing various essentials into a small hand purse. "Is Harvey going to be there tonight?"
"Well, I invited him."
I straightened out the black tie and white collar I was wearing in the mirror myself after finally letting go of Beth and realising I had managed to mess my clothing up already after my mother's fussing.
"What about Savannah?" Beth questioned with her usual elation at the thought of seeing a familiar face. They had always been close all through Beth's childhood, making her feel like just another family member. Except that without Savannah in my life for the past four years, she'd also been missing from Beth's.
"You ask him that every time you see your brother," my mother added as she applied her lipstick in the mirror beside where I was standing. "They're not together anymore and Josh is marrying Madison, who makes him very happy." She looked to me for confirmation as I sent her a quick nod and a convincing smile.
Even an idiot could sense the slight dejection in my mother's voice, a tone I was very much inclined to hearing at every holiday I had spent with my family after the break up.
"I just don't think it's fair that I don't get to see her anymore just because you choose not to," Beth spoke to me again, almost to the point of pleading for me to invite my ex-girlfriend to my current fiancé and I's engagement party.
