·put your arms around me baby don't ever let go·

[❀ Melíssa]

      Jessénia Larcombe was still drunk.
      Standing in her wedding gown, she willed her eyes to focus as she peered into the mirror. “If I throw up today,” she began. “I will kill each and every one of you.”
      Her sister, the matron of honor, snickered. “Look, it’s not our fault you can’t hold your liquor. We didn’t make you imbibe the drinks that were being bought for you.” Tatum Feldman’s own eyes were glassy, as she was out of drinking practice herself. Last night’s bachelorette party had been her first foray into drunkenness since having her son River earlier in the year.
      “Besides, none of us would let you puke,” Abigail Harvey said soothingly, indicating herself and the two other bridesmaids, Taryn McLoughlin and Riley ter Laak.
      “How exactly are you going to prevent that?”
      Abigail laughed. “I have no idea. It just seemed like the right thing to say.”
      “We’re such a cliché,” Riley groaned. “Drunk bridesmaids.”
      “We’ll all be fine. No one will notice. Sénia, chew some gum,” Taryn shoved two pieces in her friend’s mouth. “And just don’t fuck up with you’re doing your vows. The important question is this: Are you sober enough that you’ll remember this moment? Well, not this one, exactly,” Taryn had one hand down the front of her dress, adjusting the girls. “But the walking down the aisle part. Seeing Richard, vows, rings, all that.”
      “I don’t see how I could not commit that to memory,” Sénia wore a silly grin.
      “Aww,” Abigail cooed. “I can’t wait to do this all over again,” she gazed down at her engagement ring.
      “Hopefully with more time between the party and the wedding,” Riley moaned.
      “Please,” Tatum laughed. I was stoned through my entire wedding. Then we got drunk between the ceremony and the reception.”
      “And Mom almost killed you when Jeffrey got drunk.”
      “Yeah… got him a drink from the wrong punch bowl,” a smile slid across her face as Tatum recalled how their baby brother, eight years old at the time, had gotten just this side of tipsy at her wedding.
      “We blamed it on George,” Sénia told the other girls, just before the door to the room opened.
      “Aha!” Elysia Larcombe slipped into the room. “I knew it was you who got my baby drunk.”
      “Better me than anyone else,” Tatum laughed.
      Elysia surveyed the room, taking in the spacey look on Taryn’s face, the way Sénia kept studying her eyes in the mirror, and Riley seated on a chaise, feet on the floor past shoulder width, and her elbows on her knees with her head in her hands. “Would any of you pass a sobriety test right now?” Silence met her question, and she poked a finger at Tatum, “This is your influence.” All Tatum could muster was an indignant grunt to go with her aghast face.
      Abigail responded to a knock at the door, revealing George, Nordin, and Jeffrey Larcombe. “It’s time,” George spoke, before complimenting all of the present ladies on their appearance. Jeffrey held his arm out for his mother to take, ready to escort her down the aisle. She accepted, kissing each of her daughters on the cheek before exiting the room and moving to the waiting area next to the double doors that led into the ceremony.
      Jeffrey and Elysia disappeared through the doors first. Riley took her place in the doorway next, taking her first step as soon as Elysia was seated, followed by Abigail after a count of ten, then Taryn. Before Tatum fell into step behind them, she turned to her twin.
      “Last chance to run.”
      “Never.”
      Smiling, Tatum hovered in the doorway before beginning her walk.
      “You ready?” Nordin nudged his sister.
      “Absolutely.”
      “Sure you don’t want one of us to give you away?”
      “Positive. Such an antiquated practice. I hate the very idea of being ‘given’ away’. I’m fine.”
      “Okay. It’s all you now,” Nordin and George each squeezed her hand before each taking a side of the runner, and stepped into the doorway. As they began walking, the runner unfurled, laying out the white carpet Sénia would walk down, and the double doors were closed once again.
      As the processional music faded out, she started to tremble with nerves and anticipation. The wedding coordinator, an employee of the hall, gave her a smile. Her entrance music started up, much to both Elysia Larcombe and Mitzi Urban’s dismay. Their children had opted not to have the traditional wedding march, but to have Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship playing as they first locked eyes on each other. With the opening drum machine beats, the doors were pulled open once again, and she slowly stepped into the doorway.
      Richard stood like a beacon at the other end of the aisle, his eyes lighting up as she took her first steps, in time to the song. Her nervousness evaporated as she slowly closed the gap between them. He resisted the desire to run down and meet his bride halfway, while she suppressed the urge to start skipping down the aisle to him. After what felt like an eternity, she reached him, and he came down the steps to meet her. He held out his hand out to her and she took her place by his side. Oliver clung to his father’s knees, the minister extended a greeting to everyone gathered, and Richard and Sénia began their new life together.