My Sister's Big Fat Wedding

The Groom's Speech

-Will-

The most boring part of this entire function was the fact that no one really even talked to me. I was basically standing in the corner drinking water because according to the waiter I was still underage. How did that happen? I am 22 and that means I am allowed to drink.

 “What are you doing here, standing alone, go talk to your aunt, she has been asking about you.” My mom yells at me indignantly, walking towards me with a glass of champagne in her hand.

Well, when a normal mom asks you to go talk to your relatives you may so no, but when my mom asks you to talk to relatives you say yes because she may just blow up. So I said yes.

 “I am drinking water, taking a little break.” I say untruthfully. I hadn’t even spoken to Alia let alone any of my relatives. Plus there was media standing on my head and I had no intention of destroying my reputation among people who I don’t even know.

 “Who did you meet?” My mom asks skeptically.

 “Um…Aunt Parminder and Uncle Balwinder, they are doing really well and even asked me if I wanted to come to Florida with them next year. I obviously said yes. They also asked if I wanted to come to their annual pooja.” I said making up stuff about two only relatives I knew.

 “Will, I hate to burst your bubble of going to Florida but both of them are dead. They died two years ago and, coincidentally, we attended their funeral in which their bodies were buried. So if you are saying that they asked you for the pooja, you should be worried because you are seeing ghosts.” My mom says dispassionately.

 “Um…Aunt Jane is calling me.” I say faking a smile and walking away towards no one in particular. Coincidentally I bumped into Arjun along the way.

 “Bro, what’s up?” He asks me in a casual tone.

 “Just ran away from Godzilla.” I say referring to mom. I know I was a bit harsh but it was a pretty accurate term.

 “I am so bored it’s not even funny. Aunt Margaret has been chewing my brains about how her dog drowned in their two feet swimming pool. You want to know what’s funny, they don’t own a dog.” He continues to ramble about the many dysfunctional people of our family.

“But I thought she had a dog…wasn’t his name Million?” I ask confused by the large amount of people on our family tree.

“Oh yeah, I guess she isn’t as weird as I thought she was.” He says sheepishly and shrugging.

“Anyways… why is mom so pissed?” I ask him.

“Don’t you know what happened?” He asks and takes my blank expression as a ‘no’.

“I don’t where you were but mom scolded Alia a lot at home and after coming here.  Then Alia was talking to Harry and then she walked into a camera man. She fell down, twisted her ankle, and got screamed at by mom. She didn’t make a big scene because the press would have a field day, but rather talked to her in the ‘cold’ voice.” He says gravely. Mom always picked on Alia. It was a known fact that she was the weakest amongst us and would get the most affected.

“Is she at our beach house?” I ask him. He nods in response.

“Is Harry there with her?” I ask my next question.

He nods again.

“Shouldn’t we-“As I begin to ask my next question I see Harry walking into the tent. He looked livid but at the same time miserable. I think something was bothering him. Surprisingly, he walked towards us.

“Hey guys, Alia isn’t feeling real good. One of you should go talk to her.” He says and then turns around and walks away merging into the growing crowd.