Love That Leaps Without A Shove

“So… what was it you just said?”

I stared blankly at the tree in front of me, enthralled by how the roots twisted and turned into the ground. Everything was so green.

“Huh?”

“What are we even doing here…?” Tom asked.

I shrugged, setting down my wine bottle and scratching my head. “When did we even get here?”

Tom looked drunk. “I don’t know Tigerlily.”

“Oh my god what if I was a tiger?” I jumped up and almost threw up with all this movement. I pranced around, roaring in an intimidating tiger voice. Hey… tigers didn’t have a voice, they just growled a lot. I sat back down, pouting.

“I’m so drunk right now man…” I mumbled.

Tom was lying on his back, comatose to the world and not responding to me so I got up and left him, with my bottle in hand. Where was I? Okay, this wasn’t the hotel. Oh yeah, we had left and arrived at this other place. Ah… this was where the wedding was taking place.

“More like suck my ass event of the year, ha!” I shouted to myself and there was a gardener giving me a very scared look. I kept walking… or maybe I was gliding ‘cuz it sure as hell didn’t feel like normal walking.

Maybe I was walking in circles but I found a place filled with chairs. Oh so many chairs, maybe it was a forest of chairs and this was where every chair in the world came from. The birthplace of seats to place your ass on. Poor things, they didn’t know what was coming their way, years and years of people sitting on them.

I should save them, save the chairs.

They were white and wooden. So I started throwing them around and breaking them; if possible. I was doing well until my foot got caught into one and I fell face first into another chair.

“Fuck… the pain…” I let out in a muffled cry, not bothering to get up. If I forgot about the throbbing pain in my head it would go away, wouldn’t it? Oh great, the bottle of booze broke. I closed my eyes for a moment while the pounding headache seemed to fade and resurface every now and then.

Out of nowhere, I felt a violent shake on my shoulder. I opened my eyelids slowly; they felt like they were being weighed down by bricks. There was a stranger standing in front of me… and the sky was very dark. Damn, it was night already? How on earth did that happen?

“Excuse me miss, everybody has been looking for you, are you okay to get up?”

I tried nodding my head but the only affirmation of approval was a guttural sound coming out of the back of my throat. The employee or waiter or whatever he was held onto me from my elbow and waist and lifted me up carefully while I felt like I was spinning out of our planet’s gravitational field.
I dragged my feet through the grass and wondered how long I had been out here… and where was Tom? What a traitor… The dude took me through the lobby but not from a visible route, so people wouldn’t flip out seeing a barely-breathing girl pass by. Right by the elevator stood two stressed-looking men, with bulging eyes and shaky hands.

The bellboy stayed until it was sure that I could cope by leaning against the elevator walls and he left, exhaling loudly. Okay then… let the nagging commence.

“Lily, what THE HELL was that all about? Are you out of your fucking mind? Seriously? Getting wasted and wandering around!” Brad shouted.

“You have dried blood on your head!” said Joey, joining in. The shouting was making me dizzy. “You could have gotten really hurt!”

“Ah… but that is impossible my friends. As long as I’m drunk, I feel noooothing.” I told them, closing my eyes and rubbing my temples.

“Well, get your shit together ‘cuz we just covered this thing up. You demolished the seating area for the ceremony.” Brad stated, sighing.

I started laughing. “Isn’t that convenient.”
They both shook their heads and lead me to my room once the elevator reached our floor. Joey got me a glass of water with lots of ice in it and Brad turned on the water in the shower for me. I silently thanked them and chugged down the water.

“We’re having dinner in an hour. If you’re up for it be ready, Joe’s parents are going to be there as well.”

They left and I sat on the side of the big queen sized bed for a while, trying to set my brain back into normal mode. I had just lost everything that mattered to me, my notebook, my dignity… well, the small amount of dignity I had left anyway.

I jumped into the shower and scrubbed and rinsed my hair and all the grime and grass that had stained my legs and arms while I had been outdoors. It was gross watching the water run down the drain filthy dirty, it made me cringe to think that all that gunk was on my body. I stepped out of the shower feeling sober-ish, wrapping a towel around me and staring at the mirror across me.

Oh boy…

If looks could kill.

Dark circles around my eyes, too pale and a weird aura around it… I looked like a different person. And this change was just in a matter of days. Crap.

I brushed my teeth, brushed my hair, washed my face two times and put on a cream I found there, some kind of moisturizer. My suitcase was lying down on the floor in front of the bed, I opened it and found a make-up case. I applied a light brown eyeshadow, some foundation and a pink blush that would cover the zombie look I had going on. I dried my hair and let it hang down my shoulders.

I found a simple black dress that fell a bit higher than knee-level. It wasn’t slutty but wasn’t innocent either. But it was suitable for a dinner at an expensive restaurant while surrounded by a rock n’ roll band, your ex-boyfriend, his future wife and his parents. I remembered Elyssa and mentally pictured grabbing her head and smacking it multiple times on her plate, while it was filled with food.

I put the dress on, found a pair of flat shoes and grabbed a pack of cigarettes, I closed the door behind me and got the elevator, pressing the lobby button. I hummed to some tune while I waited and stretched my arms out.

The doors opened and I asked someone where the restaurant was. I followed the burgundy carpet to a big archway, where the light chatter of conversation and silverware on plates could be heard.

“Hello miss, have you made a reservation?” the older man at the reception asked me.

“I’m with… Mr. Perry and his family,” I said blankly.

The man extended his arm and I walked behind him until I saw the table and joined all the others. I smiled sweetly when I saw Joe’s parents, Tony and Mary.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Perry, its very nice seeing you!”

Joe’s dad looked a lot like him, just older, heavier and more tropical-looking. “Lily! We haven’t seen you in a long time, how have you been doing? Engaged yourself?” he asked jokingly.

The same ol’, getting drunk, doing drugs with your son and conspiring on ruining his marriage with that blonde piece of bitchy meat. “I’m fine and no, so far, I’ve realized marriage is not my friend.”

Steven chuckled into his wine glass but he was the only one to take the hint. Elyssa was cold to the world, eating tiny bites of her food and ignoring everybody. I ordered and was about to have my glass filled by the waiter but Brad took my glass and set it aside.
“The lady is not drinking anymore, thank you.”

I stared at him with hate while the others had heard what had just happened. Great, so everybody had just assumed that I was a raging alcoholic. Though, to be fair, it seemed like they had pulled the same move on Tom, ‘cuz he was sitting there, looking hungover and quiet…

“So, two days until the big day! I wish your uncle could have made it Joe… but you know Los Angeles is too far for him, if only you had this at Boston,” his mom said.

It took me a second to watch Elyssa’s face distort into the face of Satan ready to attack those unlucky enough to enrage him. She dropped her fork on the porcelain plate loud enough and turned to Joe.

“We’ve talked about this,” she said through gritted teeth, referring to Joe’s mother but looking at him instead.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Joe mumbled, clearly uncomfortable. There was a dark cloud looming over our table and nobody knew what to do except sit there awkwardly and look at their plates, pretending nothing was happening.

Elyssa stood up, grabbed Joe’s arm and pulled him away.

Steven, Joey and I exchanged looks of pure terror while Joe’s parents looked like fish out of the water.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“Its not your fault dear, we know how couples are before they get married, the stress gets to all of us,” Tony said, smiling lightly.

It wasn’t until we were having dessert and enjoying a joyous conversation about vacation and dreams about traveling destinations when Joe came back to the table with a sullen expression and a clenched jaw.

Elyssa was nowhere to be seen.

“Elyssa isn’t feeling that well…” he said under his breath and started eating the cheesecake, probably because it was yet another thing to do rather than talk about his marital problems.

I couldn’t help noticing the left side of his face had a small pink tinge. I bit the inside of my lip hard enough to feel the pain and not burst out screaming about what a gigantic bitch she was.

As the night drifted on and the darkness outside of the windows started getting darker and the people slowly retreated to their rooms, Joe’s parents bid us goodnight and left the six of us at a table that looked intimidating…

“I think you need to go to rehab Lily,” Brad said.

I choked on air. “What?”

“You heard me. You’ve gone way overboard in just a week, I’ve never seen anyone do that so quickly!”

“Listen Brad,” I told him, making myself more comfortable in my chair. “I drink a glass of wine every day after work, I’m not an alcoholic.”

“Just be careful, its scary seeing you constantly drunk,” Joey said.

“Hey, you guys can’t talk, you drink and do drugs!”

Steven laughed. “I think we fall into a different category, love.”

It was my time to let out a sarcastic laugh. “Oh just because you’re rockstars and have so many responsibilities. Come on, we all know the cliché that surrounds your business. It’s the sex, drugs and rock n’roll, give me a fucking break.”

“Yet sometimes the drugs is the only thing needed,” Joe said darkly.