My mom cried through the whole wedding ceremony. I stood next to my sister and Aurora and did all of the maid of honor things a girl is supposed to do. When my sister’s friend from high school, Taylor, messed up the words to the song she was singing, I tried not to laugh. No one else seemed to notice, probably because nobody knows the song “Broken Arrow” by Rod Stewart except my sister, me, and Rachel Hunter, Rod’s wife.
The preacher pronounced Cadence and Aaron man and wife, and everyone cheered. I averted my eyes from the kissing again. When the pianist played the wedding processional, Elliott and I looped arms and followed the happy couple down the aisle. I have never seen my sister look so radiant in all of her days, and that’s saying something. Aaron looked like he just walked out of a GQ photo shoot, and Elliott had scrubbed the orange from under his fingernails.
We formed a line. People came by to congratulate all of us, not that I had done anything, but I accepted the accolades, the pats on the back, the hugs, and the occasional kiss on the cheek.
My friends all came through the line together, Brandon in the lead. He shook my hand. “Congratulations on getting rid of your older sister.”
“Thank you, but unfortunately, she’s still my boss,” I joked. I was standing on the other side of my parents from Cadence so she couldn’t hear.
“Still, now that she’s out of the way, it’s your turn.” He winked at me and moved on, and I felt my knees grow wobbly. I knew he was mostly joking, but the thought of doing this myself one day, maybe sooner than later, was intense. I had to push it aside.
Dax, Tara, Lucy, and Emma all came through and hugged me, along with a million other people. Then, the wedding party went off to pose for a million pictures. Just the couple. (Another magazine quality photoshoot). The couple and the parents. (Obviously, Aaron’s parents have been dead for a while, so just Liz and Eli.) Just the bridesmaids. (Aurora is six feet taller than me and Meagan.) Just the groomsmen. (Elliott can’t take a picture without looking cheesy, and Ward and Jamie couldn’t take a picture without looking serious....) The groomsmen and the bridesmaids (Insert myself between Aurora and Elliott.) It seemed to go on for hours.... I was ready to eat and have some fun with my friends.
Even at the reception, though, with the music playing and all of my friends—including Milo and Wes who were invited to that but not the wedding because the church was too small—I was distracted. Brandon and I danced, and I was thinking about Alex. We ate steak and cake and drank sparkling cider, and I was thinking about Alex. We went outside to catch our breath and watch Elliott and Shane trash the outside of Aaron’s Lamborghini, and I was still thinking about Alex.
“What’s on your mind, Cass?” Brandon asked, pulling me a little to the side.
My long red gown dragged on the ground if I didn’t hold it up, so I gathered it in one hand, hoping my heels didn’t sink into the grass. I wasn’t used to them. “Not much. Just... stuff.”
He smiled and brushed a loose strand of hair from my eyes. “I know you miss him.”
“It’s not that.” It was to a degree. He was supposed to be here, hanging out in the corner, aloof and observant. “I just can’t stop thinking about how I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
Brandon kissed my forehead. He hadn’t read the message. In fact, I’d taken a picture of it and stored it in my IAC where no one else could access it and then deleted it off of Alex’s phone because I didn’t want Brandon to ever read it. There was no point. When he’d asked me what it said, I was very vague and didn’t tell him anything at all about Alex admitting he had feelings for me. It wouldn’t do any good. “He did what he thought was best, Cass, what he wanted to do. I was there. You might not have gotten to tell him goodbye, but I told him you’d miss him. And he got to tell you.”
“Yeah.” He was right. I needed to snap out of this funk and just let it go. Alex was gone because he wanted to be. He’d even said in his message that it was for the best. If he had truly cared that much for me, he would’ve stayed, wouldn’t he? Or was it the fact that he was trying to be the bigger man that had caused him to make the ultimate sacrifice?
One of our favorite songs started playing, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, and Brandon wrapped his arms around me and started to sway. Filtered through the walls of the reception hall, the song sounded even more haunting than normal. I rested my head on Brandon’s chest.
“Do you ever think about it?” he asked quietly, only the music and sounds of Elliott and Shane carrying on over in the parking lot disrupting the otherwise still of the night.
“About what?” I asked, glancing up at him.
“About us. Doing this. Someday.”
“Decorating Aaron’s car? No.” He smirked, but I could tell he didn’t think my putting off his question was funny. “Yeah, of course I do.”
That made him happy. I put my head back down. “I know you’re not even seventeen yet, but someday... someday I’d like to think we’ll be as happy as your sister and Aaron.”
“Aren’t we as happy as they are now?”
“Sure.” I’m not sure his heart was completely in that answer. If it wasn’t, it was my fault. I knew what he meant, though. Not just as happy as them but as positive as they were that there was no one else.
I looked up at him, and he tipped his head so that he was staring into my eyes. “Someday.” I smiled, thinking of all of the things I wanted to do before I got married. There were still Vampires out there to be caught, landmarks and foreign countries to visit, possibly even other guys to date, though I didn’t see that happening soon. Still, Alex had opened my eyes to the fact that I wasn’t ready to commit to Brandon, not yet. That didn’t mean I loved him any less than I had before. It only meant I loved myself enough to make sure I was true to my own heart, for the sake of both of us.
Brandon leaned down and kissed me, and it was as perfect as Ed Sheeran’s song. Somewhere out there in the world, evil was brewing, but for now, we were safe in each other’s arms, and no matter what happened, I vowed I would never, ever let him disappear on me again.