Editor: From Beginning to The End
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cora
. . .
Youeither love weddings,or you hate them.
The thing is, no matter which camp you’re in, there comes a time in all our lives when we end up attending them. That and funerals.
I once attended a funeral where the guest of honor requested it be a party, complete with balloons, disco music, and flashing lights. A group of her closest friends wheeled her coffin down the aisle while dancing. That made a hard day bearable.
My sister Emma, who is only eighteen months older than me, is firmly in the wedding camp. The romantic in her can’t help but come out. She gushes over every tiny detail.
The day her boyfriend proposes to her, I’m certain she’ll keel over. Then start planning while everyone around her panics. She’s dreamed about her wedding for as long as I can remember. Before she was old enough to date.
I’m kind of in between. I can take them or leave them depending on who is getting married. All the better if there’s a free bar, and you can’t go wrong with good catering.
This wedding has all that and more. The groom is my sister’s boyfriend’s cousin. Or his cousin’s best friend? I can’t remember. It’s a head fuck and a half, no matter what.
Because Diego, my sister’s other half, is a part of the wedding party, she wanted me to come along so she wasn’t alone.
I’m not sure why the bride and groom are happy to have me, a stranger, show up to celebrate their marriage. According to my sister, I was more than welcome.
Who am I to complain? It’s in an enormous mansion. The appetizers are excellent, and the booze is free flowing. The ceremony is outside in the glorious sunshine, facing the water behind the property.
Nothing formal or stuffy, no churches or priests. In fact, the officiant is a young guy wearing linen pants and a halfway unbuttoned blue shirt.
I’ve been itching to take photographs since we walked in. Emma said that would be a massive faux pas. You don’t take random pictures of people you don’t know at a wedding. Plus, there is a professional wedding photographer already taking pictures.
There are so many beautiful things here andmyphotographer’s mind is awash with ideas for the perfect shot. My equipment is in the car. It wouldn’t hurt to go grab my polaroid and take some pictures, right? No one would notice. It’s not like I’m going to bring out the digital camera, whichis expensive enough to rival the one the photographer here is using.
I’ve always loved the pictures a polaroid creates. No manipulation, no do-overs. Only that perfect moment in time.
“Don’t even think about it.”
I side-eye my sister. I swear she can read my mind. “You’re no fun.”
“Cora, you can go a couple of hours without having a camera in your hand.”
“Of course I can. I wasn’t even thinking about getting it.” I lie. “What time is the show getting on the road, anyway?”
She moves out of the way as two women who look like they stepped off the cover ofVoguemagazine walk by. Emma’s shoulders go up and she averts her gaze. God, I wish she wasn’t so self-conscious.
My sister is gorgeous. So what if she’s voluptuous? To me, she has the perfect figure, a sculptured face that stops traffic and to die for golden curls that fall down her back. Diego loves everything about her.
Bullies in high school shattered her confidence. It should have been the other way around, my big sister protecting me. I’d be damned if I was going to let a group of jealous, stuck-up, nasty bitches humiliate and hurt my sister.
I make no excuses about being a hellion in high school. My attitude got the mean girls to back off. No one needs to re-hash how I did it. Purple hair dye, glue, and rumors about STDs may have been involved.
“Not until two. Enjoy the champagne and relax.” Emma breaks into my thoughts.
“I’m relaxed,” I argue back.
Or so I’m telling myself. Three days ago, I got kicked out of my apartment because the landlord needed a place for his niece to stay. Given I was renting on a month-to-month basis, he fucked me over. Everyone warned me, but I never thought it would happen to me. We had a good relationship me and my landlord. Until his family got involved.
