In Wonderland

The Wedding

~July 22th~

~Earth 16~

~Artemis~

~Star City~

I can't believe Raquel is getting married. I have to be honest, I really hate the groom. Noble is a lowlife, criminal, deadbeat and an all around bitch, but as long as Raquel is happy I'm fine. The dress I'm wearing is weird, I have never seen another green bride's maid dress, since I was supposedly dead untill 19 days ago, we had to get a dress at last minute, so I got a dark green dress with only one strap. I don't have anything against green, it's actually my favorite color, but green at a wedding is a really bad idea.

Right now we're trying to make Raquel's peircings go with her dress, but Zatanna gets impatient so she just switches the dress into something completely different... About 8 different times becuase Raquel hated all of the other options. I don't know if I hate or love my friends right now.

It feels weird to be at a wedding right now, after Wally died everything seems sort of jumbled, every morning I reach out to touch the warm body that used to lay next to me on my bed... only to remember that he's not there. And he never will be again. I used to love going to weddngs, everything about them was amazing, the food, the dresses (if you tell anyone I will cut out your toungue and feed it to the person you love most in the world in front of you), and the general feeling of love in the air. But now it just hurts; I think it might be the absence of Wally, who cracks endless bad jokes at any serious event we go to; or maybe it's the knoledge that I will never have a wedding, or a baby shower, or an anniversary, or a first day of kindergarten, or anything else with Wally.

I want the people I care about to be happy, but it's really hard to will someone else to experience joy when your depressed. I couldn't just tell Raquel to stop her wedding, and I can't just run out, but it hurts to see other people be happy when you know you never will again.

"ARTY!" Raquel shrieks in my direction. "Help! These are harpies are attacking me!" She reaches her ringed hand out at me as if she was drowning and needs me to pull her out.

"Number 1: Don't call me Arty, and Number 2: You practically mauled me at prom." I exclaim, laughing slightly at her pathetic attempt to escape Zatanna and M'gann's girly ways (Wally may be dead but he would be turning in his grave if I didn't laugh at that hilarious gesture- if he had a body to turn in his grave with."

"That's different! It's my wedding day, not prom! Besides Wally-" Raquel stops short. I feel tears brimming in my eyes and I look down, instantly feeling insecure. "Artemis I-"

"Excuse me." I exclaim, walking out of the room quickly. The second I get out I bolt down the stair of the mansion that the wedding took place at and ran down a long hallway. I shove past several confused maids and Kaldur. I eventually spot the door to a janitors closet and dive in.

I close the door and curl up into a ball. For the first time in several days I'm completely alone and I can let out all the tears I was holding in. The salty tears stream down my face in rivers and I let out a moan that proves how much pain I'm really in. I can here several feet running by and voices calling my name, but I don't tell them where I am and I don't open the door. I'm suprised that they coudn't here me, I'm practically screaming in agony at this point.

I hear the light padding of feet outside the door and a gentle knocking sound. "Artemis, may I come in?" It was Kaldur. "I saw you running down the hall and I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Just go away." I half sniffle, half speak.

The door creaks open and I see a somber Kaldur looking down at me, a look of concern in his eyes. "Like I said Artemis, I wanted to make sure you are fine, and I can see now that you are not so I will not: 'just go away'." He walks further into the room and closes the door. As he bends down to sit beside me he asks: "Whats wrong?"

I wait for a moment to respond and in this time he puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. The sadness inside me boils over at this small gesture and quickly turns into anger. I shove his hand off my shoulder and stand up. "What's wrong?! Whats wrong?! My boyfriend is dead, one of my best friends is about to make a stupid decision that will ruin her life, and I'm wearing a green bridesmaids dress!" I finish screaming and realize that my face is probably as red as Wally's hair- god I need to get that boy out of my head.

I expect Kaldur to give a long lecture about how it will get better and blah blah blah but all he does is pull me into a tight hug and whisper: "I'm sorry."

"It never gets better does it, he's only been gone 19 days and I already feel like I can't breath when I think about him." Kaldur just hugs me and dosen't let go.

When he finally pulls away and says to me: "I know how you feel."

"How could you Kaldur, you don't know." I exclaim, my already tear filled eyes beginning to overwhelm my tear-ducts.

"The love of your life dying to save the world, and you never said good-bye?" Kaldur says with a dark and depressed expression. "And then the red-headed freckle face you love is gone and your stuck in a cycle of hate and revenge." Kaldur pauses, looking away from me as if he was wishing he could join the lover that he could never be with.

"I'm sorry, I forgot about Tula." I pause, nominating myself for the role of cheering up my friend. "But it has to get better, it has to."

The Kaldur looks back at me, stares into my eyes and whispers the words: "No it dosen't, and it never will."

~Earth 16~

~Artemis~

~Star City~

~3 hours later~

"I now pronounce you man and wife." The pastor exclaims, trapping one of my best friends in a relationship that I'm sure she'll regret. This is followed by a lot of hooting and hollering, some wolf-whistling (and a concerned look from Icon) then the afterparty.

While everyone else was partying in the white tents and I hear a loud giggle from Raquel that sounds something like: "No, stop! We're in public and there's children present!" Ew, I don't even want to know where that's going to end- wait I already know, and I'm even more grossed out. But anyways, I'm staring out at the rocky coast of the ocean that is on the edge of the city.

"Artemis, hey are you okay?" I quickly wipe away a tear that escaped my eyes.

"No, I'm not, but go enjoy your wedding." I respond.

"Okay, are you sure?" She replies with a look of hesitation on her face.

"Yeah." I say back to her, even though I know I wasn't. I watched my friend be happy with something that I know I will never be able to have.

A/N Tigress here, I'm not dead! But yeah I'm here, and really sorry it took me forever to update. But I've had a lot of shit going on in my life, and it would take me several chapters to describe it all so, yeah. But thank you all for so many reviews and hearts, it means a lot to me. But anyways thank you guys for reading! So as always, have a wonderful day!