Your Voice Was The Soundtrack Of My Summer

“I feel infinite!” I yelled, stealing off of Perks Of Being A Wallflower.

“I feel like a hero!” Martin shouted.

“I feel like a heroine!” Lacey screamed as they both shot up at the sunroof, waving their hands like they were drunk.

“You’re my heroine,” I whispered into Indigo’s ears.

“Get down you two! We’re here, you’d think that Martin and Lacey are the bride and groom instead of Indigo and Paul,” Bryan turned the engine off as we filtered out off the car.

“Now, Bryan, don’t get your panties all up in a bunch,” Martin scolded.

He rolled as his eyes as we went inside the reception room, being greeted by paparazzi of families and friends.
-

Guiltily I flung the garter towards Martin’s waiting hands, holding up the garter like a prized possession. Indigo shyly pulled down her dress and clutched my arm, as we made way for the ceremonial cake cutting.

It was a small cake, but it wasn’t a Publix made cake, not by a longshot. It was so intricately designed, with purple roses and small silver beads decorating the premise of the cake.

It had Indigo & Paul in elegant cursive, and I wonder how they got that written on a cake with icing when I can barely write half as nice as that with graphite and paper.

People loaded with cameras gathered around us as Indigo and I started to make the first slice together.

She put her fingers around the white knife, I bunched my bulkier fingers around her delicate ones, as we cut through the cake, revealing a lilac colored sponge like cake inside.

Purple cake?

The flashes glittered madly all around us, as we transferred the purple cake to our plate.

“Purple? Is it lavender flavored too?” I groaned as we got a bit from our forks.

“I have no idea,” she laughed.

We hooked our arms together as I aimed to get the purple piece in her mouth, she did the same with me as my taste buds registered the taste, I tasted strawberries.

Purple strawberries?

My mom was insane.

The audience cheered as the flashes went full blast in our face once more.

The song we requested the DJ to play was Iris. As I took Indigo’s hand in mine, and her waist in my other hand, we slowly swayed to the words of the song, the wise lyrics and the beautiful acoustic guitar.

After the first verse, I twirled to find Martin obliging a dance from Indigo, and Lacey waiting for me.

We switched partners, and I held Lacey in my arms.

It felt like an adrenaline rush, and it was so different gathering her in my arms as opposed to Indigo.

“Enjoying yourself Mr. DiGiovanni?” she asked.
“More or less, although we both rather be home right now, and how’s toying with Martin’s emotions?” I asked.

“He’s fantastic, but I doubt he’s the one, he’s just too eccentric for my taste,” Lacey stuck her tongue out.

I had to hold my laughter. She was the one saying ‘too eccentric’? Sometimes her true colors did shine.

We were dancing to some Baby Got Back and me and Lacey started doing the robot and Indigo watched us with a superb smile on her face.

And the night I kissed her came rushing back to me, and I felt guilt run down my throat, drying it, shriveling it and my pride that day.

But I was happy, Indigo was happy and that was all that mattered.

-

“It says a 90% chance of rain Paul,” Indigo reasonably said.

“I know it’s perfect! Come on! Please?” I pleaded.

We were curled up on my sofa, watching Zoolander on our flat screen TV. I was convincing Indigo to go out with me to the beach in the middle of a thunderstorm. Indigo was still on the jedi side. Cookies wouldn’t convince her to come to the dark side.

“Perfect? We could get killed out there!” Indigo protested.

“That’s why we’ll be careful, please say yes Indi,” I asked.
“Paul, we’re not even allowed out there!” she insisted.

“Yes we are, please pretty please?” I didn’t stop asking her.

“Paul, I don’t,” she started.

“Come on, it’s the least you can do if you don’t want me to take you to Hawaii or Paris or Australia,” I cut her off.

“Ugh, I hate it when you bring my guilty conscience into this,” she complained.

“Great! I love you I love you!” I kissed her on the cheek, as she folded her arms, still staring into the screen with a hint of annoyance.
“Let’s go!” I cheered.

“No wait, this is my favorite part,” she cracked a smile, as Ben Stiller knocked down a model wooden building.

-

“It’s so scary, the lightning strikes the water,” she said, her voice drowned by the roar of thunder.

“It’s beautiful, after a while, once you stop tensing up,” I said, massaging her back playfully as we sat a far distance from the raging waves.

“It’s midnight and we’re outside on the beach with a thunderstorm raging on. It’s like a paradox. My fears, my husband, and my favorite place in the world,” she rationalizes.

Husband.

It sounded so weird.

“You’ve got to get over your fears sometimes, don’t you?” I reasoned with her, as the waves madly crashed on the shore. Lightning crackled at a distance, leaving streaks of electricity in the midnight sky. Thunder roared from everywhere, shaking up the earth as Indigo screamed at each one.

“My heart is beating a million miles a second, I’m more nervous here than I was walking up the aisle,” she said.

“You were nervous?” I asked.

“Yeah. First I told myself I couldn’t trip, but then I guess my mom could hold me up for that. And then, what if I fainted? God, that would suck, and I could faint from two things you know? And then what if I get cold feet right before I reach the altar? My mind was buzzing,” she explained.
“I’m happy we made it out,” I smiled.

“Right, the paparazzi didn’t help that much,” she shook her head.

Lightning struck in the distance, and I held her tightly, knowing that thunder would collapse somewhere.

“Relax,” I whispered.

I held her closer to me, and I put my hand near her heart. It was beating sporadically fast. But as I held her close, it slowed down a tiny bit.

Thunder struck and I felt her feel more relaxed, even if the thunder boomed and shook the sand.
Now the trickle of rain started to pour buckets, drenching Indigo and I in water.
I felt the waterfall soak us head to toe, and our clothes plastered to our bodies, her hair was clinging on to her porcelain face.

The waves were angrily crashing onto the sandy floors, lightning streaking across the gray midnight blue skies. I held her cold skin against my warm body, feeling tiny goose bumps arise on her skin, hugging her entire torso, as she was facing the ocean sitting between my legs, curling her legs up on my drenched jeans, leaning her head on my shoulder.

I held her hand, feeling her ring on her finger pressing it hard against my warm palm. I tightened my grip around her whole hand and we stayed like that what it seemed like for hours.

We didn’t emit a sound, there was no need to. We almost found ourselves completely in the thundering rain. And what could be a better place than here, in the middle of a raging thunderstorm on the beach, to spend one of our last precious days together?

“I’m never going to fall in love again,” I finally whispered in her ear, as the rain died down a little.

“What?” she turned to me, her face set into a contorted form of confusion.

“I’ll still be in love with you, even after, you know everything,” I repeated, kissing her rain soaked, beach scented hair.

“Paul, you can’t just throw away your life for me,” she answered matter-of-factly.

“And why not?” I asked adamant to defend my position.

“Because, you’re still young and have so much more life to live, and I don’t want you to waste all of that on just me,” she answered.

“But I won’t do it, I can’t do it, you know I can’t,” I almost pleaded, sounding not unlike a seven year old whining in the middle of Wal Mart.

“Promise me Paul, that you won’t waste away after everything?” she asked, pressing her hands forcibly around my wrists.

I wanted to shake my head, for all it was worth. I wanted to deny it, and I wanted to believe that I was incapable of love since I already met my true one. Mostly the image of me and Lacey on her porch painted itself in my mind and I wanted to undo that moment, ashamed that Indigo could somehow see my thoughts like a slow motion movie through my seemingly transparent forehead.

“I will, but that won’t mean I won’t stop loving you,” I whispered into her ear.

She turned around to face me, her eyes expressing her shock her face trying to configure a smile but shock was the prominent expression on her face. Her face softened, her lips finally shaping into a crescent moon and the three words I heard next never meant so much to me now. Maybe it was because we were married. Maybe it was because it mattered the most now. But whatever it was, when she said I Love You, it was like the whole world stopped turning and time froze for a second, just so I could treasure those words and tuck them away forever.

“I love you too,” I told her, caressing her cheek with a stroke of my finger.

The thunder rolled on. The lightning still streaked the sky. The waves crashed on the shore as if Neptune and Zeus were having a fight. And a drop fell from Indigo’s face.

With the rain, I couldn’t tell if it was a teardrop or just raindrops falling from the sky and into our hearts, staining it for eternity.