December 25th 2019

Chapter 359
Their Ceremony of Preparation

As cutting it close went, having a good chunk of your wedding party arriving in the city and in the state at all with just hours to spare before the ceremony was absolutely up there. They had originally been meant to fly in the day before, but at the last minute something had come up. None of them had specified what that something was at the time, but either way they had chosen to all fly in today, together, as it had been intended.

"Please, can you text Maya so she'll let Nadine know they're landing now?" Zay asked as he and Lucas stood waiting at the gate. "One less thing to worry about?"

"Yeah, already on it," Lucas assured him, putting in the text. Maya soon replied, telling him that she and Nadine would be waiting at a coffee shop near the salon. She also specified that they were not supposed to tell Zay this was where they were, only that they were dropping off Isadora and Rebecca, who would then go on their way from there. Less temptation for the bride and groom to see one another…

Finally, the group came through the gates, and oh were they a sight for sore eyes or what… Asher and Ray, soon to be residents of Texas once again, of Houston if not Austin. Farkle and Isadora, who would once again, with one exception, be the sole New York contingent of their group. Joey Garcia, their Broadway and soon TV star, remaining in New York. And Rebecca, who was returning to them now, solo, to follow her culinary dreams with an opportunity she could not turn down. They had all been back to visit a number of times over the past four years, but something about this one just felt much more personal. Two of theirs were getting married! Zay and Nadine, who had been together longer than any of the other couples among them… A day they would all remember…

"How was your flight?" Lucas asked Farkle when they reached one another and said hello.

"Fine," Farkle told him, and Lucas didn't know if he was being weird or if he was being Farkle. He kept staring at him, until Farkle looked at him again. "I don't like being late," he finally said.

"You're not, really, we've got a few hours."

"It wasn't so complicated when we got married, I don't know what the big deal is," Isadora appeared at their side, and Lucas gave what was now a habitual tip of the head, the one he'd use to ask if it was okay to hug her or not. Much as she had grown to accept them, there would still be times where she wouldn't be feeling up to it, and they would respect that. This time around, she moved right into that hug, with a determination that felt… maybe not strange but definitely different, and he couldn't explain it. Isadora Smackle had been in his life for near on a decade, and in that time he had seen her evolve.

All of them had grown and changed, sure, but her change had come from a different place, of knowing who she was and what she did or didn't want, and moving from there. Even so, for all the time he'd known her to hug people, hug him for instance, there had always been some quality to it like 'this is a hug, this is how people hug each other,' and when she'd pull away she would look at you sometimes like she wanted to make sure it was right.

There was still that look at the end here, but now maybe she'd worked a lot on those hugs over the last few years, because when she held him he felt it was easily the most genuine embrace he had ever received from her. It must have shown on his face. When she gave her look of appraisal, it soon turned into a sort of satisfied little smile. She turned to Farkle and gave him a nod before moving off to go and greet Zay. Lucas watched her go before looking to Farkle again, who was watching Isadora with the groom.

"What was that about?" Lucas had to ask. Farkle turned back, blinking like he didn't know what he meant before pausing and nodding once.

"I'll tell you later, it's a long story. Come on, we should get moving."

The luggage was retrieved, and the eight friends moved out to the parking lot, where they had to work for several minutes before they could manage to fit everything, both people and luggage, into Zay's aunt's van. When they finally got through this, they took off, on their way to drop off the girls. Whatever activities may or may not have been on the horizon for the young bachelor and his friends, before he took his walk down the aisle, it had sort of been shrunk down by the delay in arrival. It didn't seem to bother Zay so much. Just the ride out of the airport was already something. All they were missing was Dylan, and he would be waiting for them at the tailor's where some of them still needed to have some things fixed on their suits. The session had been a gift arranged by Sophie, as they would never have made it in time otherwise. A couple of them were also due for a haircut.

It didn't take long for Lucas to learn the 'mystery' of what was going on with Isadora and her new hug mode. First things first, they had dropped her and Rebecca off outside the coffee shop, driving off and on their way to the tailor's without Zay noticing a thing. When they'd arrived there, Lucas, Zay, and Farkle were of the group who had their suits well squared away and instead were due for a cut, so they'd left the others and gone up the street, promising they'd be back soon.

"You go first, your hair's most important than ours today," Farkle declared.

"I wasn't going to put it like that, but you did, so… yeah…" Zay clapped him on the shoulder before moving to take his place on the barber's chair. Once he was gone, Farkle turned to Lucas and nodded back toward the door. They stepped outside, sitting on the bench in front of the shop.

"Is everything okay?" Lucas had to ask, unsure whether this feeling in him was foreboding or…

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Farkle asked.

"I don't know, just the way Isadora was acting back at the airport, and now you, bringing me out here… You two aren't splitting up, are you?"

"That's what you got from all that?" Farkle stared at him in surprise.

"What else was I supposed to get?" Lucas shrugged. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself, no? There was so much going on today, and these last few days… Was he misinterpreting things because of tonight, the proposal? Farkle looked at him, though at the same time something in his eyes felt far away, like he was recalling something. Whatever it was, it felt to Lucas like it was something that made his friend and almost brother happy.

"Isadora's been trying to get better at some things, because as much as they made her uncomfortable before and still kind of do a lot of the time, she wants to change that."

"Okay…" Lucas nodded slowly, feeling like this was only half the story. Farkle was looking back at him, and soon Lucas would piece together the fact that he was the first person Farkle had actually told…

"She wants to get better at holding people, so she'll be better when she gets to hold our baby." It took Lucas several seconds to process the words he'd just been told. Farkle wasn't the type to say something like this as a joke, and the look on his face, now that he'd said it, the bright spark of happiness blooming in him, that was definitely not fake. Even so, this was Farkle… one of his oldest friends, him and Isadora both, but Farkle was like a brother to him, and now… now he was going to be a father, he…

"Woah… hey…" he finally snapped out of it and hugged Farkle, laughed and hugged him some more before pulling back to look at him. "How long have you known?"

"Like a month now," Farkle told him. "She didn't want to tell anyone right away, so we figured we'd wait until we'd all be here together. We're still not going to tell anyone until tomorrow, so…"

"Got it," Lucas promised him. "Is she going to be telling anyone?"

"She said she'd probably tell Maya, because if I told you, then she thought it was only fair. We didn't know that we'd actually tell anyone today, but she decided back at the airport." Lucas recalled that little nod they'd shared, and now it had a whole new meaning.

"How are you feeling? Both of you…"

"The first few days I almost couldn't believe it. She thought it meant I was upset, that I didn't want it. But as soon as I knew that she believed that, it was like everything came into focus. It's not that I never imagined us with a kid, never imagined myself as a father, but it wasn't until it was actually happening that I just… I realized that what I had been feeling since she told me was joy, in a way I'd never felt before. And Isadora, she… she's been amazing… On the one hand, she's still Isadora, same as ever, and she's getting ready for this new thing that's coming into our lives, doing research, preparing herself, and me, and thinking about what we'll need to get, and learn…

"And on the other hand, she's sort of… teaching herself… that it's not just going to be about research, that she can't… memorize how to be a mom, she has to just… be… And right now, that includes hugging people."

They'd had to go back into the shop to get their hair dealt with, so they could get back to the tailor's as soon as possible. The whole time Lucas sat in that chair, the man working on him could have been shaving weird symbols into the back of his head and he wouldn't have noticed a thing. The news that Farkle and Isadora were having a baby was still just dominating his every thought.

"So, how do I look?" Zay asked, dropping into view. Lucas looked at him. "Does this say 'man about to get married?'" he asked, standing up straight, hands joined together with a serious look on his face.

"It might say 'welcome to the theater, here's your ticket' if you don't loosen up a bit," Lucas informed him, which made the barber chuckle.

"You want me to be loose? Do you think my mother will keep herself from calling 'Isaiah Babineaux, you stand up straight, young man' in the middle of church?"

"I'm not saying you have to slouch, just look… happy about what's about to happen, you know? You and Nadine, til death do you part and everything."

"You won't be responsible for that posture as soon as you lay eyes on your bride," the barber piped in. Zay took in all that they'd both said, shifting his stance now. "Better," the barber told him.

Finally, they were off to the tailor's. As they walked along, Lucas couldn't help but look to his friends as they stood on either side of him. Today just felt so much bigger all of a sudden. Zay was getting married, Farkle was having a baby, and he… he was about to get engaged… All their lives were changing, and it was all piling up more and more, faster and faster, and it was wonderful.

They arrived at the tailor's to find the other four guys in what could only be described as an uncomfortable silence. Joey was standing, still getting his suit adjusted, while Ray moved about, looking around at whatever there was to look at, like he was trying not to get involved. Dylan was caught in much the same pattern, though he also would steal looks toward his best friend, with this sort of helpless spirit in his eyes. Meanwhile, Asher sat watching his twin, with a look about him like it was taking everything in him not to say what was on his mind, even though it was plain to see, going by his face, that it was nothing good.

Lucas knew, for having spoken to Asher, though mostly for having spoken to Ray, that the Garcia twins hadn't exactly seen eye to eye, ever since Joey and Rebecca had split, with Rebecca returning to Texas and Joey staying in New York. None of them could really get why Asher was taking it the way he did. Maybe it was some kind of twin thing, and if it was, well, none of them could say what that was like or what it would mean. Joey and Rebecca had reached what everyone could agree to be a fairly amicable split. His future was keeping him in New York, hers was leading her back to their home state, and with how they had already grown apart, no one would think it was the wiser choice for them to remain together. Knowing all that, Asher's attitude just didn't add up. So, was it something else? Whatever it was, Ray wasn't getting in the middle of it, and as soon as they saw that Lucas, Zay, and Farkle had returned, it was night and day. They looked up and smiled at once, possibly out of relief for the change of subject.

"Looking good, man," Asher nodded approvingly of Zay's new cut, taking advantage of long years of friendship, going right ahead and turning his friend's head this way and that so he could inspect the barber's work. "Now I'm starting to think I should have gone, too."

"Your hair's fine," Ray insisted, coming up to join them.

"Yeah, you look like you just stepped out of a fashion magazine, give me a break here," Zay told him, and Asher was forced to smile and accept the compliment. "Hey, we're all going to be out of here on time, yeah?" Zay asked now, looking at his watch.

"We're right on track," Ray promised. "We're in good hands here with Fabrizio," he indicated the man who was now pulling the jacket from Joey's shoulders and bringing it into the back while Joey moved to get out of the pants. "An hour, tops. He said if it takes longer, he will close his shop and declare himself unworthy of his reputation."

"That's intense…" Farkle declared.

"Yeah, I love it," Asher grinned.

"Come, sit," Ray guided Zay over to the stuffed chairs, where they all sat around, soon joined by Joey, back in his street clothes. "Tell us about the wedding, how's it coming together? Family driving you crazy?" Lucas could just see Zay hesitate here, like the very first thing that had come to his mind at Ray's question was something he wasn't sure he should tell them about. He turned his eyes to Lucas, seeking his opinion. He was perplexed, too, but then sooner or later they were bound to hear about it, and maybe in the long run it was better if they were told here, now, and not later.

So, they told Asher, Ray, Farkle, and Joey about what had happened with Nadine and her grandmother. It wasn't exactly the kind of conversation they would have looked forward to on a day like this, but now here it was. Joey retreated into his old bubble of silent shyness, not knowing what to say. Farkle looked as though he just didn't understand that the old woman could say or do what she'd said and done, not in that he didn't get that people might react this way but more that it just didn't make sense to him for family to hurt family. For what Lucas had just discovered outside the barber's, he guessed it hit him in a whole other way than it might have done a month ago…

For Asher and Ray, of course, it would have a different resonance. Ray especially would be much too familiar with how family could turn on you. He'd been kicked out of his own house, ended up living with the Friars until he would graduate high school and go off to college. It had been over five years now since that night Lucas had texted Maya and she'd convinced her parents to let her go and be with her friends. Ray had not once seen or spoken to his parents. Much as he got by and didn't let it weight on him, there was no doubt that, given the choice, he would have rather had his family again. And Asher, much as he'd gotten nothing but support and acceptance from his parents, had seen some parts of his family grow distant from him, like they'd blotted him out of the family tree. He didn't talk about it much, would try to brush it off, and yet…

What was happening with Nadine, it was different and it wasn't, and they felt it, all of them. She was their friend, and this was to be her day as much as Zay's, one made of smiles and laughter. So, it was clear, that was what she would have to get, and they would all see to it.

Fabrizio was a man of his word, and they left the tailor's fifty minutes later, with their suits, shoes, everything they'd need to get ready. They would have gotten dressed right there at the shop, but then Zay had nothing but his father's voice in his head, recounting how, at his wedding, one of his cousins had spilled something on his dress shirt, right as they were leaving the house, and he'd had no other shirt that could really take its place, so he'd had to have GiGi, his grandmother, work whatever kind of magic she had to get him fixed up in time for the ceremony. Even with all that, he'd needed to get creative to hide what remained of the stain. Zay's mother had not let him forget about it for the past thirty years.

From having kept in touch with Maya, Lucas knew that the girls hadn't arrived yet, so they made their way in to the room where they would get to go ahead and get dressed. Lucas had a feeling that, the moment he took out his suit, Zay would not let any kind of food or beverage get anywhere near him.

He didn't know if it was that they were here now, or that it had been a couple of hours since he'd last thought about it, which meant that they were a couple of hours closer to The Moment, but there was his heart again, thumping along with the prospect of the coming evening, his proposal… maybe some of that thudding in his chest had been allocated to Maya and that lauded dress, fine, but mostly it had everything to do with finally getting to say the words he'd been preparing to say for nearly a year already.

"Hey, are your hands clean?" Zay appeared out of nowhere while Lucas had been lacing up his shoes. He turned his eyes up to find the groom standing there with his shirt collar up and an unmade bow tie in his hand.

"You want to bust out the black light and make sure?" Lucas joked, finishing up with his shoes before standing up and taking the tie when it was offered to him.

"Just making sure," Zay defended his question.

"Yeah, okay," Lucas just smiled, putting the tie around Zay's neck and working to fasten it properly, just as he'd been taught by his grandmother Marianne when he was seven. Every time he did it – which wasn't that often, truth be told – he could still hear her voice, heard her kind laughter when he would get frustrated over messing up. He wasn't messing up now, and he smiled to himself at the thought.

"Granny Bow Tie?" Zay guessed, like he'd seen that smile before.

"Not her name," Lucas reminded him, though he went on smiling.

"She would make those little chocolate balls, remember those?"

"Yeah," Lucas nodded. "My mom's tried to make those like she did, but they never came out right." It was one of Melinda Friar's greater frustrations in life, not being able to replicate her mother's recipe. For all her talents in the kitchen, this one just failed her. Marianne had never written out the ingredients, the steps… No matter how many times little Melinda had watched her make those chocolate balls, every Christmas, something continued to escape her. She'd try and say that she'd put it behind her, but Lucas knew she would still try, once in a while. It wasn't even that what she made tasted bad, it just wasn't her mother's way. Those had always been superior and would forever be.

"Maybe she should get Maya in on it, apparently she's turned into the baking wiz kid," Zay told him as he stood very still, so not to be strangled mid bow tie.

"What, because of the cookies?" Lucas laughed.

"Those aren't just any cookies, like your grandma's chocolate balls aren't just any chocolate balls, okay?" Zay insisted. He briefly rolled his eyes at himself, like all this talk of food, of sweets, was making him hungry and he wasn't supposed to get any food near him or his suit. "Maybe they can figure it out, you know, mother and daughter-in-law style." Oh, he just knew how to play him, didn't he?

"I'll consider it, alright?"

"That's it," Zay nodded, once Lucas was done. He turned to look at himself in the mirror, touching the bow. Lucas had absolutely mastered the technique in the seventeen years or so he'd known how to do it. "And if you need anyone to taste anything…"

"Yeah, I've got your number," Lucas promised him.

They stood quietly for a moment, looking at one another. They'd been best friends… longer than Lucas had known to tie a bow tie, and now one of them was getting married. There were just no words for what it felt like to know it was happening, in just over an hour now. In place of the words they didn't have, either of them, Lucas pulled his best friend into a hug, wishing him all the best with his arms, with claps to his back before they pulled apart again. He gave Zay a nod, and Zay returned it, taking a deep breath that briefly revealed his nervousness. It went away again though, with his best friend there to remind him there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

When the time finally came for them to head out, to start getting into place, they strode out, all of them. The group of friends, the members of both the Babineaux and Zhu families here to take part in the ceremony… Lucas could tell Zay was so very anxious to finally see Nadine in her dress, to see her at all after having been apart from her since the day before. Lucas knew how he felt, and he wasn't even the one getting married. Not yet… soon… But just ahead of Nadine and her father, ahead of the ring bearer and the flower girls, there would be Maya, and there had been enough emotions left to run rampant today that he didn't know how much longer he could bear being apart from her. Not long now…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners