October 10th 2020

Chapter 284
Their Celebration of Growth

As he'd watched Maya drive off in her minivan, Lucas headed toward his car, pulling out his phone to text Zay and let him know that he was on his way. He would meet the rest of the guys and they would head out for what was getting to feel like the cursory wedding day haircut stop. As he put his phone away again though, he turned to see Sam headed back toward the house from across the lane.

"Going to get ready?" Lucas called after him, and Sam nodded. "Hey, come here a second," Lucas motioned to him. The look on his face had just felt a bit distant from the rest of him, and Lucas could not have felt right to drive off and leave him like this without inquiring. Sam walked up to him, looking very much like he would have rather not deal with this right now but also just didn't know how to convincingly refuse. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I am," Sam nodded. "It's just, you know, it's so early and we did all that," he pointed out to the chairs and the flowers and everything. "Maybe I have time to take a nap or something?"

"Sam…" Lucas held his gaze, and Sam sighed, a dejected sort of head shake showing he hadn't believed this would work anyway, and he should have known better. "You're nervous about seeing her?" Lucas asked, figuring they might as well cut to the chase and he could help his brother get there. Sam gaped now. "Please, of course I know. And Maya, too."

"Right," Sam bowed his head, rubbing at his face for a moment before looking up again.

"What are you afraid of, Sammy?" Lucas slowly asked. Sam received the question, considered it for a moment, and another, and a third.

"I just… I don't know… I don't want to make things worse today, for anyone."

"How would you do that exactly?"

"Well, we could get into a fight, make a scene, and it could be awkward and ruin Riley and Dylan's day. Or… Or I might get carried away by all… all that," he gestured to the altar again. "I could try and make some weird spectacle of myself to win her back. In the moment I might not realize it, but right now I know I'd just do something stupid and she'd never speak to me again. You have to watch me, okay? Promise you won't let me make a fool of myself."

"What are brothers for?" Lucas nodded. "Do you think you will get back together?" He didn't know why he asked, why he felt he needed to know, but once the question was out, the answer felt clear. The look on Sam's face was one of a definitive no. "What happened with you two?"

"I… I told her that I wanted to stay here after next year, when I graduate," Sam confessed, and Lucas blinked in surprise. All this time, he and Maya had been waiting to hear what Sam would do, where he would end up. They'd hoped, selfishly if from a good place in their hearts, that he would stay here in Austin with them, and if not then as close to here as possible. They had kept that hope to themselves, wanting him to make his own choice, without their influence, and now… Oh, Maya would be so happy. And then again…

"I'm guessing she had other ideas?" Lucas asked.

"Literally anywhere but here. And I get that, the same way she gets why I want to stay here. But then once we knew that, we got stuck in this place of 'would I go for her, would she stay for me, could long distance work?' We talked it out, and we came to the decision that it was better to salvage what we could of our relationship. Any other options would have probably made us fight, and we might not have had a chance to be friends at least."

"Right," Lucas could only nod slowly. To look at Sam, it felt like there was so much more to it, but he wasn't ready to share, now if ever. So, he didn't push. "I have your back today, okay?"

"Thanks," Sam gave him a smile.

Lucas left Sam to go and get ready, the better for him to be on hand to receive anything or anyone that might come along before he returned with the groom and some of the groomsmen. He wished he could have stayed with his brother right then, but he also knew he had duties today, ones he had committed to, it felt, even before the engagement had occurred, months ago.

None of them in their group would apply any different kind of feeling, of friendship, to one another depending on how long they had known one another and been friends. But sometimes, it was just hard not to remind themselves of where they had come from, how far they'd gone. And the thing he could not forget was that for about as long as he could remember it had been him, and Zay, and Asher, and… Dylan. They had seen so much together, they were… his first brothers. And now the last of them was about to tie the knot, so, yeah… He was feeling a lot for him.

Arriving at Dylan and Riley's house, he pulled out his keys and let himself in. By the sound of things, he probably did the right thing, as the bell might not have been heard. The only one who looked aware of his arrival was Door the dog, who came yapping up to him. Lucas smiled as he picked her up. All their dogs, Coraline's litter, had their own sort of looks, but it still felt clear that they were brothers and sisters. Once in a while they'd manage to get several of them together again, and nothing beat seeing them find each other again.

In the kitchen, the guys, which presently counted Dylan, Asher, Ray, Zay, and big brother Kyle Orlando, were all talking over one another. They were arguing… over basketball. Specifically, they were recounting their days back on the high school team, and who had the better run, Kyle's team or theirs. It was definitely an uneven match, with the older Orlando son having no one in his camp against the other four, but none of them seemed to mind this. They were all dressed to go, though not for the wedding yet, as their suits were back at the house on the lane.

When they noticed him standing there, the guys quickly insisted for him to pull up a chair and put in his vote: who had the best team? Lucas smiled, not even needing to think about it.

"The girls from our year." The guys stared back at him for a moment, like he'd betrayed them, but then almost just as quick were left to have to agree with him. It was the honest truth.

Once the conversation had been cut short with Lucas' sorting them out in five words, everyone had started to pick up after their breakfast dishes before getting everything they needed to bring for that day, leaving Dylan to sit out as long as he could, what with this being his and Riley's day. Now that he was just sitting there though, it left Lucas with the impression that the basketball conversation had been started with the sole purpose of keeping his mind occupied in some way that would not involve them going out to shoot the ball around for a while. Knowing him, Dylan would have found a way to get hurt, and then they would have been in big trouble with their bride.

"Is everything set back there?" Dylan looked up to Lucas with big, curious eyes.

"Yeah, it's just like we said it would be," Lucas promised him. "You'll see."

"Okay… good…" Dylan quietly told himself. "Maya, she's…"

"On her way to the Matthews' house, last I heard," Lucas replied. It was hard not to respond to his face's urge to smile, to laugh, as he took in his friend's whole demeanor in that moment. It almost felt like a part of him had taken on Riley's persona, the better to have her near when she couldn't be there for real. Lucas understood that feeling very much, how could he not? He'd gone through the same thing the year before.

"Okay… okay…" Dylan replied, sounding as he'd done the last time he spoke.

"Do you know how much you'll get cut?" Lucas asked him, trying to find something to keep him from spiraling in pre-wedding jitters. Dylan's hair had been short a while, though in the last year his longer hair had made something of a comeback. As they'd found, it really didn't take much for it to grow back, and though it had not gone as long as it had once been, it was really getting on that way.

"Oh, well, Riley and I talked about it, but she said she'd be happy with it either way. And me, well, I kind of feel the same. So I haven't decided. What do you think I should do?" Dylan asked, as he stood and the two of them made their way out to the car, so they and the others could head out.

"Well… I guess you can ask yourself if you were planning to cut it off anytime soon?" By the look on his face, Dylan only had to think of it for a moment before he had his answer. After this, he let out a breath.

"I don't know why I'm nervous like this. Is it bad?"

"No," Lucas chuckled. "Comes with the territory. It's the biggest thing we've done in our lives at this point, and we put so much pressure on ourselves to get it right, and then when we need each other the most, we're not actually with each other. But hey, ask any of us here, and we'll tell you the same thing. It's going to flip around so fast, the second you see her out there," Lucas smiled, especially at the way this notion got his friend's own happiness to rise up.

Once they were driving off, with Zay at the wheel, while Asher and Ray were checking up on Sophie and the imminently due Chiara as they drove in from Houston, Lucas did some texting of his own.

Lucas: How's it going out there? My guy is feeling it right now.
Maya: It's a mad house out here. Reinforcements on their way. 366!

Lucas smiled when her reply came in. As much as today was all about Dylan and Riley, about getting them to the altar in the way they wanted to be, about witnessing their union and then celebrating it, Lucas couldn't pretend as though being here today wouldn't be reminding him of the day he had married Maya, just a little over a year ago. He even found himself thinking of the day Zay and Nadine had been married, three years prior, which was also the day he and Maya had been engaged. All those memories swirling through his head were keeping him as energized in looking to this day as the thought of their friends getting married did. As much as it had come hand in hand with Riley and Dylan's freaking out and then with his and Maya's house being overrun with tables and chairs and decorations, Lucas was actually really glad that the wedding would be happening where it would. Each of them had chosen one place or another, and it had felt right to each of them. For Riley and Dylan to be married in this place with so much connecting to who they were and how they'd been brought together, a place out in the open, with the August sun shining on them… They couldn't have hoped for more.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners