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Chapter 8: Wedding

2015: Claire 12-years-old

Quil's POV.

I was right about the hangover. I awoke to the sound of Jake retching in the toilet and Declan's snores. Embry groaned and rolled over onto his face at the loud sound, muttering something inaudible under his breath. Just as I registered that I was in a hotel room, my stomach churned and I rushed to the toilet, shoved Jake out the way and threw up. I copied Jake's movements of brushing my teeth and washing my hands before going back into the room.

We had just taken a seat on the sofa when Brady woke up gasping. He ran off into the bathroom and I heard him spewing, quickly followed by Collin.

"It's a good job you're getting married on the night, Seth," Timmy murmured from his sleeping spot on the floor. James chose this moment to run over to the bin and puke. "I don't think we would have made it for this-morning."

A half asleep Seth grunted from the floor.

It took us an hour to come around enough to go and get breakfast. I was glad for our super healing because it seemed to work on hangovers, too, so I was totally fine after getting a coffee down me. Aiden met us in the restaurant after getting a text from Sean that we were at the closest diner to the hotel. He had spent the night with the girl he had been making out with last night, a pretty brunette if I remembered correctly. There was no comment as he sat down, we were too used to this happening. Whenever we went out, Aiden was sure to go home with some girl.

Once we had all eaten and had a coffee or high-energy drink, we got ready to go home.

Seth had perked up from his hangover and was now radiating happiness and excitement as we walked to the Clearwater house. The guys had been shoved into the Clearwater household to get ready while the girls were just down the road at Connie Littlesea's house, which she had kindly lent out for the day of the wedding.

All of our stuff was laid out in Seth's old bedroom, which was now a guest room, so the guys went to watch telly for a while. I ran over to the Littlesea house to see Claire and keep my promise of visiting her. When I walked in the girls were sat in the living room, though it had been turned into a dressing room for the occasion, getting ready and laughing. Claire was getting her nails painted by Nessie on the futon near the window. Without making my presence known, I strode towards her and scooped her up into my arms like I did when she was a baby.

"Ah! Quil, my nail varnish!" she squealed, but she sounded more happy than annoyed.

I hugged her for a little longer and then set her down onto the futon again. "Sorry, Claire-bear. I missed you, that's all."

She smiled softly. "I missed you, too, but you still don't need to smudge my nails."

"You're not allowed to be in here," Leah smirked, walking over with a glass of champagne.

I chuckled and brought her in for a quick hug. "Hey, Leah, how're you feeling?"

She snorted. "Old. My little brother's getting married, when did that happen?"

"I think you're a little slow, Leah. They've been engaged for four months."

She thumped me in the arm. "You know what I mean, idiot."

I sat down next to Claire and made conversation with Leah. She had opened up her own bakery in Seattle with Fiona called FairFood, it was doing well, apparently, and she had a few big events coming up for the summer time. I knew she had made the food for this wedding, Sue had bragged about it for a week, and her friend Fiona was finishing the final touches while Leah served as bridesmaid.

After Claire's nails were done she requested me to blow on them and I obediently supplied. She giggled as Leah made a comment about me looking quite the woman and then jokingly scolded Leah for her dig at me. Claire threw her legs over my lap as Leah painted her toenails the same colour as her fingers, an emerald green, and started talking about last night. They had wonderful food and Emily had let her have a sip of red wine. She didn't like it. Just as I had thought, Emily, Rachel and Maggie were roped into clubbing and Claire had spent the night with Kim, Jared and Landon. She had felt Kim's baby kick and said it was cool, but really weird.

Aurora walked out of the bathroom with Sue soon after. She had her golden hair curly and half pinned off her face. When she walked further forward I noticed she had small white flowers woven into her hair, which I think were orchids. "Oh, hey Quil," she greeted, smiling. "How did last night go?"

"Okay. Jake had a little too much, though. Actually, most of us did."

Nessie laughed from where she was getting her make-up done by Leah. "Oh, God, he isn't going to be complaining all night, is he?"

"No I think he sobered a little," I replied. "Though he might need some energy bars later."

"Just bite him, that'll wake him up," Leah muttered.

Claire rested her head my shoulder as I told the girls about last night, leaving out the erotic details for the sake of Claire. When I remembered about Marina, I threw my arm around Claire's shoulder and squeezed almost unconsciously. I was chucked out of the house by Sue when Aurora had nearly finished her make-up.

"Tell Seth I love him!" she yelled after me brightly.

I gave her the thumbs up sign, waved to a grinning Claire and sprinted to the Clearwater house. I jumped into the empty shower and scrubbed off remaining dirt before walking into the guest room in my boxers.

"Just what I wanted to see on a hangover, Quil half-naked," James snorted from the chair.

I blushed and hopped into my black pants while James sniggered into his beer. He was a weird one, cool and hilarious, but weird. I had just finished my tie when Seth came out of Leah's room in his matching suit. I couldn't smell alcohol on him so I knew he had taken a shower in Leah's old room.

Seth pulled on his black jacket and buttoned up the front before checking it out in the mirror.

"Do I look okay?" Seth asked nervously.

"Actually, your arse looks a little big in those trousers," James smirked, rolling his eyes. He had the same English accent as Aurora did and everything he said made me laugh. Who says "arse"?

"Mate, Aurora wouldn't care if you turned up naked for this," Jake put in soothingly.

"I think she'd prefer it," Embry sniggered.

"Ew, gross," James huffed.

"I hate you all," Seth declared, his face turning a little red as he turned back to the mirror. He retied his shoes and messed up his hair a little more and then took a seat on the bed.

"Aurora said she loves you, by the way," I recited. "And Leah said don't fall on your ass because they'll be people video recording."

Seth snorted softly and seemed to relax at my words. Embry had stopped checking himself out when Tiffany, Embry's mom, came in to tell us we had to make our way down to the beach. The wedding was set up near the sea with the sun setting behind it, thankfully. The whole thing was set up simply, but effectively. Rows of seats were set out facing the archway, the chairs had a white cloth thrown over each other and an emerald green bow tied around them. The archway was thick with lush green vines and leaves that had blooming lilies intertwined within. Down the edges of the aisle, around the back of the archway and around the seats were lit candles that give of a strong vanilla scent. I turned my head to see a large white marquee a little ways down the beach set up for the reception.

"Oh, Seth," Sue beamed as we took our place near the arch. "You look so handsome," she said, kissing both his cheeks.

"Thanks, mom, but you really need to sit—"

She attacked his face with kisses, cutting him off. Seth grumbled and pried her off of him, handing her gently over to Charlie who chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her. Elijah, Leah's husband, was sat with them with a video camera I was sure Sue made him hold.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Seth mumbled as the Edward began to play the music signalling the bridesmaids arriving.

"Please don't or I will be too," Jake muttered.

Seth flipped him off.

Claire walked down first in an emerald green dress that had a thick tie belt around the middle, a little bit of a sweetheart neckline, and she had a holey cotton white shrug covering her shoulders. She threw the lily petals gracefully along the aisle and took her place at the arch. She looked over to catch my eye and I smiled widely at her showing her she had done brilliantly. She beamed and turned to watch as the bridesmaids came down. Nessie, Leah, Rosalie and Rachel walked down the aisle in a strapless, flowing chiffon, sweetheart neckline emerald green dress.

Rachel winked at me as she took her place beside Rosalie. Rosalie, for once, wasn't scowling and was smiling as Edward began to play the wedding march on the piano. She and Aurora had formed some bond over the past year, Seth told us, because Aurora needed a mom and Rosalie needed someone to be a mom to. If I didn't find it highly weird, it would have been sweet.

Aurora walked down the aisle with Emmett, who had called dibs on being her dad for the day, by her side. She looked even more beautiful than usual (and that was pretty damn hard) in a long net and lace dress that sparkled in the candle glow. Her net train floated over the sand as she walked and I could see she was wearing no shoes, just emerald nail varnish. When she turned to hand her calla lilies to Nessie, her maid of honour, the flower and lace bodice glittered.

Billy Black did the ceremony, like most Quileute weddings, saying most of the traditional stuff in English and then doing a special Quileute paragraph in our Native language. At the end he said a heartfelt speech about Harry Clearwater that made Aurora start to cry, along with most of the people in attendance (even Leah). They kissed for a lot longer than they should have after Billy announced them man and wife before running down the aisle together.

"That was so beautiful!" Claire sighed, joining my side and grabbing hold of my hand as all of the attendants rushed past to get to the reception. "Aurora looks gorgeous."

"You look better," I winked, chuckling.

Claire rolled her eyes, but I didn't miss the slight redness of her face. "Shut up, Quil."

The tent was buzzing with people when we entered through the drawn back curtain of the tent. The ceiling had draping curtains and was covered in glowing fairy lights instead of chandeliers. There were uncountable cream clothed circle tables, set around a square dance floor and stage, that all had plates and cutlery set on green placemats and napkins. In the middle of each table was a bunch of stargazer lilies and around the flowers were a few lit candles. The dark brown chairs each had an emerald green cushion on them. At the front of the dance floor was a stage were I could see Jasper, Alice, Bella and Edward crowded around a piano.

Seth and Aurora were called for their first dance as husband and wife to Make You Feel My Love by Adele. Afterwards, the wedding party were motioned to the dance floor by a demanding Alice so I grabbed Rachel and gently danced with her, making talk about her sons and primed her about going clubbing. She half-heartedly slapped me and I quickly dipped her, earning a scream of fright.

Nessie made me dance with her and then I joined Claire at Sam and Emily's table. She was playing with Tyrone and I watched as he giggled as she tickled him. He walked over to play with Noah, Landon and his cousin, Jack, some time later and Claire chatted about how beautiful Aurora looked in her wedding dress. Listening intently, I wrapped my arm around the back of her chair and laughed when she pointed out Sean and Timmy doing the robot dance. To the left I could see Nessie and Aurora slowly dancing together whilst giggling away, Rosalie and Emmett were making out behind them, while Alice and Jasper were twirling around the dance floor.

"Quil," Claire said shyly, twirling the end of her hair on her finger. "Will you dance with me?"

I grinned at her. "Yeah, come on."

She beamed as I took her hand, span and dipped her. We rocked back and forth for a while in silence, letting the music and happy atmosphere float around us. "I can't wait to get married," Claire sighed, lifting her head off my stomach and watching as Seth and Aurora danced, looking into each other's eyes and kissing like they were the only two in the room. "My wedding will be amazing. I just hope my groom is cute." She glanced up at me and blushed before letting her head fall onto my stomach again.

I looked at Claire's dark brown hair for a beat longer and then focused on Edward as he played the piano with Bella by his side. My mind ran to my wedding day, me stood at the archway waiting for my blushing bride. No matter how much or how long I thought for, I couldn't imagine Claire as the bride. My bride was faceless. Then it ran to Claire's wedding day, her dressed in a long white dress, her make-up done, grown up as she got her nails painted and laughed with a glass of wine in her hand. When I thought about her groom, he wasn't me, but he wasn't someone else, either. All I could see was the ecstatic smile on Claire's face as she put on her dress.

It made me wonder, would I be okay with her marrying someone else as long as she was happy? Obviously, I wouldn't try to stop or convince her otherwise if it was what she truly wanted, but what if I never saw Claire in a romantic light? What if we were destined to be best friends forever? I couldn't imagine me seeing her as anything other than my Claire-bear right now. What would happen to me if she married someone else, had kids and went off to live in New York or something? Could I marry someone else? Could I start a family and have a home with another woman? How was I going to survive without seeing Claire every day when I missed her when she was even gone for an hour?

It scared me that I had no answers.

Thoughts?

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-Laylax