So, I just thought I get this chapter out there for you guys since I'm going on vacation for two weeks and I don't know how much writing I'll be getting done and then i have the last few days of my internship when i get back.
but i know you all would love to see how the wedding goes off so here you go, my last gift to you for a while!!
Disclaimer: I own nothing at all, not even the music.
Chapter 10: The Wedding pt. 2
"And yet there is no shame in us and no regret. We say to ourselves that we are a wretch and a traitor. But we feel no burden upon our spirit and no fear in our heart. And it seems to us that our spirit is clear as a lake troubled by no eyes save those of the sun. And in our heart-strange are the ways of evil!-in our heart there is the first peace we have known..."~ Ayn Rand "Anthem"
"Ouch! Watch it Kay, the hair is still attached to the head!" Emma cried out as I pinned the gardenia into her hair.
"Sorry," I patted down a few extra hairs.
"You've been all spacey for a week, what's up?" She wondered as I plopped down next to her. She pulled out her blush and padded her cheeks with it.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I retorted without looking at her.
"Um, last week you tried to leave the house with your shirt inside out, you forgot to order the egg rolls," she listed off. "You almost gave us all bright pink nails at the salon and ….you burned the coffee this morning."
"We've all been stressed and scatterbrained all week," I replied running my hand down my left leg, the weather was due to change and I'd been feeling it all week.
"You never burn coffee," Emma muttered as she fixed her mascara. "It's like sacrilege to you to you or something."
"Seriously, Em…." I groaned. "What is your point?"
Emma rolled her eyes. "Fine. Why are you so spacey? It's not like you."
"I'm fine." I insisted.
"I didn't ask if you were fine, I asked why you're so spacey."
"Can we talk about it later?" I wondered.
"Will you tell me later?"
"If you stop bugging me."
"Fine. Mirror!" Emma called and we stood in front of each other, tucking back stray hairs and re-adjusting dress straps and sash bows.
"Perfect," I declared her and grabbed my flowers.
"So are you. Ready?" She motioned for me to follow her out to the foyer to meet up with Dee and her father.
"Let's go!"
As we waited in line the dining room for the music to start, I glanced back at Dee. Her long auburn hair had been pulled back into an elegant chignon, pinned with gardenias like Emma and me. She pulled her shimmering veil over her face, smoothing her cream complexion into that of a porcelain doll's. Her huge blue eyes were even wider today with the make-up we applied.
Dee looked past her father's arm and smiled at me.
Love you I mouthed to her.
Her blue eyes were glassy for a second. Love you, too.
Suddenly the music started, shocking me back to reality. I gripped my bouquet, took a deep breath and then started to walk. As I walked, I passed all of our friends, all of the kids we taught, our whole town was gathered in Dee's back yard.
True to his word, Logan was there in the third row on Paul's side. He watched me walk past with that same sort of wonder I'd seen on his face at the site when we'd first met.
I only smiled and took my place beside the minister, watching Emma walk down the aisle too.
The rest of wedding went off without too many hitches; the toasts were given including mine, before everyone was too drunk, and no one laughed too hard at Emma's toast and funny faces.
My favorite part of any wedding, the first dance, began with the first few bars of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's "The Nearness of You" came on. Everyone oohed and ahhed, clapped and whistled as Dee and Paul took the stage. They invited anyone else who wanted to dance to join them. Dee looked especially at me when I propped my aching leg up on an empty chair.
Since the cast had been removed and I didn't have to wear the brace, I found that when the weather changed, it felt like someone was attempting to play "Chopsticks" on my leg and knee. When I got home from all this, I was going to soak my leg for the rest of the night.
Emma poked me and I leaned toward her. "What?" I whispered as I took my heels off.
"They're so cute…" Emma grinned. She showed me her camera. "I'm gonna go get pictures."
"For us or for your 'creative output'?" I wondered sarcastically.
"Both." And then she vanished.
I watched Emma circle around the makeshift dance floor, snapping pictures from every available angle, glancing up at the twinkle lights as if they offended her. Her face, like Dee's was flushed and excited. She looked so much like Mom when she was alive, so real as she flitted back and forth, saying hello to everyone and smiling and laughing.
I lost her after a while in the crowd, and turned my attention back toward Dee and Paul's dance. I settled back into my seat, ignoring the ache in my leg, thinking how nice this all had turned out. We'd managed it, somehow.
When the first dance ended, a new one came up. Billie Holiday's "It Had to be You." Just then, one of Paul's Best Man leaned toward me. I claimed to be a psychic and here I was almost hearing the invitation to dance before it left his lips.
"No dancing for you?" Logan appeared next to me, pulling up Em's empty chair. The Best Man took one look at Logan and leaned back into his chair.
"Nah," I shook my head. "I'm not a good dancer anyway. You?"
Logan shook his head as well. "I don't dance."
"You don't or you won't?"
He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. The one I would dance with, can't."
"Yeah?" I asked, glancing around to see a few of Dee and my fellow female teachers eyeing him. They probably would have if Dee hadn't threatened them within an inch of their lives. "That's too bad because I'm sure you'd have plenty of takers."
Logan followed my gaze for a second and then back at me. "Nope. There's only one person I want to dance with. Just one."
"How about a walk then?" I eased my foot to the floor and used the chair for support until Logan caught my arm. "I need to stretch out my tendons."
"I thought you liked Billie Holiday," he gestured to the dance floor.
"Who told you that?"
"Well, you play her all the time and Emma…" he pointed to where she was conveniently standing on the opposite side of the dance floor from us. "kept hinting that you loved this song."
"I see." I slipped my hand into his and pulled him away from the party. "You should ignore her, I do."
But as we walked, I could still hear Billie singing. I sang along with her in my head, the words as familiar as my friends' names.
"For nobody else
Gave me a thrill
With all your faults
I love you still
It had to be you
Wonderful you
It had to be you…." Sometimes I honestly wondered if there was such a thing as fate because it seemed just too ironic that my favorite Billie Holiday song was "It Had to Be You" and there I was taking a moonlit walk with whom else but Logan.
I let out a little laugh at myself then stopped when Logan shot me a confused glance.
"It's nothing…"
"What?" He wondered as if he really wanted to know
"Life is a funny, funny thing is all."
"You're just now figuring that out?"
"No," I shook my head. "I knew that. It's just weird when it hits you in the face, that's all."
When he didn't say anything, I glanced up at him and saw his downcast stare, the tension in his jaw line. "Is something wrong?" I squeezed his hand.
He didn't look at me. "No, nothing's wrong."
"You're lying."
"And how would you know?"
I pointed to his face. "I told you, your eyes always give you away."
"You don't want to know. Really."
"Is this about last week? About how you…?"
He stopped, his hand suddenly gripping mine for a moment. "You really want to know?"
I could say no. No, I just want be friends. No, I can't do this. I can't be what you want; I'm a fraud, a fake. None of this is real, not in the way you want it.
He needed this, to bleed this out. And I realized that all I wanted was for him to smile again. So, I nodded. "I told you that you can tell me whatever." I sat on Dee's garden wall, half way between the backyard and the front. I could still hear the music and see the lights but they couldn't see us unless they came looking.
He stopped pacing and sat next to me. "I'm going to tell you something that no one but my brother knows. Because…you should know the whole truth. It's only fair to let you know what you're getting yourself into."
I nodded solemnly, knowing what he was going to tell me already.
He took a deep breath. "I was born in 1832…." But Stryker hadn't told me nearly half the things that Logan did. Logan held nothing back, filling in the details he edited on New Years, all the wars, Stryker, Weapon X, why he left. The claws that he saved for last and he held them out for me to see.
"Does it hurt?" I breathed, still trying to wrap my brain around all of it. Especially the fact that he was a hundred and forty one. "When they come out?"
"Every time." He sighed and pulled them back in, his hand hanging in the empty space between us.
I tried to find the words. "I-"
"I understand." He murmured. "If you'd…rather not-" He stopped short when I took his much larger hand in mine and pulled him back to me.
"Aren't you going to let me speak for myself?" I smirked and I inspected his hand like a fortune teller would; turning his hand over and over in mine, running my fingers down his knuckles. They were rough, full of calluses and tough patches. I remembered briefly when he kept me from falling on my ass in front of the Wong's, his hands warm on my waist.
"I didn't think that you'd think of me the same way if I told you."
I glanced down at our hands. "It doesn't matter to me…." And it didn't. Logan was still Logan. And I remembered what my mother had said to me all those years ago. "You are who you are-"
"'What' is more like it," he hung his head.
"No." I reached up, ran a hand from his temple down to his cheek with my other hand. "'Who'. Who you are. It doesn't change anything."
"Really?"
I let go of his hand and hopped down from the wall, wincing as my leg throbbed when my bare foot hit the ground.
"What are you-" he started to ask but I pressed my finger against his lower lip. His eyes widened at my boldness as I grabbed hold of his collar and pulled him down to me, showing him that it didn't matter to me. I knew all too well that I shouldn't, that it was wrong and I would only hurt us both later.
But when his arms came around my waist, his hands settling on my waist like he did all those months ago, I forgot everything else. It faded away and settled like the music from the reception in the background. My brain completely short circuited when I kissed him again.
Jesus, I forgot about kissing, about how his hand cupped the back of his neck, his thumb trailing across my neck. About how I weaved my fingers into his hair and pulling him down because I wanted him closer and closer still. I forgot how the right kiss made you forget about the world. For a blissful minute or two, there was no Stryker, no Victor, no Emma or Dee or Paul. I never had a mother or a broken heart or leg. All I know was that Logan's lips were on mine and his hands were on my neck and hip. And I couldn't get enough or it or him.
This wasn't part of the plan, the rational half of my brain screamed. This could only lead to bad things. I shivered as his hand ran down my spine and his other hand held me tight. Very very bad things.
Suddenly, I could hear someone call my name, very loudly and trampling around trying to make a lot of noise. Whoever it was knew we were out there. Three guesses said it was Emma.
With a groan of hatred toward my sister, I pulled away. "She's looking for me." I whispered.
"Let her look." He insisted, running his hand over my shoulder.
"Logan…" I sighed.
"Kayla?!" Emma was close.
"I bet it's to take pictures." I reasoned. "I promise there will be more of this," I pointed to the both of us. "When I'm done."
"Promise?"
Stretching up on my tiptoes, I kissed him just once and let him go. "Promise." And then I dashed back to meet Emma, hobbling a little as I did.
Emma was standing by the side of the house, her eyes trailed over me as I fixed my mussed hair. Her camera hung dangerously from her left hand and there was a gleam in her eye.
"Don't even think about it," I threatened.
Emma only laughed.
Once we got back to Dee, Paul and his groomsmen for pictures, I saw Dee and Em exchange little glances as Dee handed us our bouquets. Apparently blood wasn't thicker than water.
"Now," the photographer (Steve, the only guy in town with a decent camera) waved his hand to get our attention back to him. "Everyone smile! And a real smile, Kayla!"
Just then, Logan appeared behind Steve along with a few other guests, I couldn't keep the smile off my face as his eyes met mine.
"Very nice!" Steve commented as he took more. "You actually look like you're having fun!"
"I'll say!" Emma snorted under her breath.
"How about you find your own ride home? How fun does that sound?" I snarled through my smile.
"With that smile, I don't think I want to be at the house tonight anyway," Emma retorted as we posed again. "Not that I blame you, he is hot."
"Hey, hey!" I wrapped my arm around Dee's waist. "We may be sisters, but I don't share."
Dee whipped around, wide-eyed. "Oh my God! Kayla!" She squealed.
"You will both shut up right now, because he can probably hear you," I snapped when pictures were over, and I pulled them close.
"So what's the deal?" Emma poked me in the shoulder. "We want details."
I ran my hand through my hair. "I'm not entirely sure at the moment."
Emma rolled her eyes. "You just love to make this as difficult as possible don't you?"
"Yes I do." I retorted. "It's fun."
"Well," Dee's smile was wise and all knowing. "Go sit down, and prop your leg up. Emma will bring you cake." She motioned behind us and Logan appeared. "Logan, take Kayla to her seat and keep her company."
"Yes, ma'am." He saluted. "Very good, ma'am." And held out his arm to me.
As we walked away, I could hear Emma and Dee giggle. "You do know that we are never ever going to hear the end of this, don't you?"
He shrugged. "You know, we've been through worse."
"You don't know Dee or Em."
We spent the rest of the wedding sitting in our own corner while everyone else danced around us. But neither of us minded. Any time I was with Logan, the rest of the world just seemed to disappear anyway. From our little corner, we watched the garter and the bouquet being tossed, made no move to participate, partly because my leg hurt too much and partly because, like always, I liked being with him.
A few hours later, Emma came and perched herself on my lap. "Are you ready to go? I'm beat."
I grinned and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ears. "What? Dee doesn't need any help…?" I glanced around and realized that most of the yard had already been cleaned up and nearly all the guests were gone. "Wait…where did everyone go?"
Emma rolled her eyes. "It's almost midnight."
"Well, I suppose I should get you home then." Emma jumped up and Logan helped me to my feet.
"Are you going to be okay to walk?" He asked as Emma skipped ahead of us.
"I could always use a little help," I grinned as I slipped an arm around him and him around me.
He only smiled as he helped me to my car where Emma was waiting behind the wheel. She started fiddling with the radio and going through the console while I opened the passenger side door.
"So," I turned around to face him. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow." He agreed and kissed me only once because Emma was right there and we were in Dee's floodlights.
When he pulled away I watched him walk to his motorcycle and head off into the darkness. I sighed as I sat back in my seat and pulled the seatbelt on as Emma pulled out onto the road. I couldn't believe how much I hated being away from him.
"If you're going to throw your life away on a guy, he better have a motor cycle…" Emma muttered.
"You are so very funny!" I retorted
"Your lips are all puffy," she accused with a sidelong glance.
"Shut up…" I growled and put my hands over my face. "Just shut-up."
"Touchy!" Emma shrugged.
"I'm sorry," I sighed. "My leg is just killing me ."
"Fine, I'll get you home and you can boil your leg."
"Sounds like heaven." I replied as we pulled up the house. I couldn't say that I'd ever been so happy to be home. As soon as we were inside, I threw my shoes into the hallway and headed straight for my bathroom, tearing the gardenia out of my hair and starting to unzip my dress.
I stripped down to my underwear and turned the spigot on as hot as it would go. The ache had gotten so bad, I could barely think straight.
As I sat there on the bathroom floor, watching the hot water fill the bathtub, the steam rising in swirls and making my eyes water, I saw Emma's face swam before my eyes, her mirror blue eyes full of joy and her cheeks dimpled with a huge smile.
I heard Mom telling me to take care of Emma, to make sure she didn't do anything too impetuous.
Stryker extended his hand toward me, sealing all our deals. Behind him, Victor exposed his canines, a wild feral light in his eyes.
I leaned my forehead against the side of the bathtub, and let loose a few tears over what I'd done.
If any one can guess which tv sitcom I stole Emma's "If you're going to throw your life away on a guy, he better have a motor cycle" line, I will be very impressed.
Anyway, peace out guys and see (Well i suppose write) you in AUgust!!!