You Found Me

I stared at my reflection in the mirror and smoothed down my dress, taking a deep breath. For some reason, I was getting major butterflies in my stomach, and I wasn’t even the one getting married.

The put-together image staring back at me didn’t look anything like what I was actually feeling. Inside, my stomach was turning in on itself, doing back flips and handstands, my heart palpitating. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Jared was invited to the wedding.

“Don’t worry,” Jenny had reassured me. “He’s not going to show his face there after he broke up with you. Even he’s not that dumb.”

But I wasn’t sure. When he and I went out, I heard how he used to talk about how he loved to mess with his ex-girlfriends by getting inside their heads.

I shook my head and ran my hands through my hair, making sure that the little messy-neat style that I’d put it in wasn’t flattening out.

“Leigh!” Ariana exclaimed as she burst into the room. “Tell me the truth right now. Does my wedding dress make me look fat?”

I thought about telling her that asking me on the day of her wedding whether her dress made her look fat or not was probably one of the worst decisions she could make, but I held it back as I turned around.

She was gorgeous. Her hair was curled into beautiful ringlets, her face was made up to perfection, accenting her beautiful dark eyes, and her dress made her look like she had the figure of a goddess.

Fat was the last thing on my mind.

“Um, no,” I answered finally. “Don’t you have a mirror in your dressing room? It’s pretty obvious that you’re not fat.”

She bit her lip and ran her hands down the front of the semi-see-through bodice on her dress. Right on her lower stomach. Again and again and again.

Something clicked. “Holy fuck,” I breathed, my heart racing even faster. “Ariana Katherine, are you pregnant?”

Her face turned bright red as she ran over to me and slapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh my God, shut up. Everyone’s going to hear you!”

That was enough answer for me.

She sighed and took the hand off my mouth, her jaw tensed. “I’m not letting this ruin my big day. I’m just not. And don’t you dare tell Dad. He’ll cancel the wedding if he finds out that my white dress is a lie.”

I nodded, pulling a seven-year-old move by pretending to zip my lips and throw away the key. But I was afraid I was going to have a heart attack. When Dad finally was told about the baby, he’d be able to do the math. He wasn’t a moron.

My aunt called Ariana from the hallway, landing a couple solid knocks on the door. “Honey, it’s time to wait to walk down the aisle.”

Ariana looked over at me with wide eyes. “I’m not ready for this,” she breathed, sneaking a peek at her reflection again. “I’m way too young to get married. What am I doing?”

I walked over to her and put a hand on each of her shoulders, making it impossible for her not to look me straight in the eyes.

“Ariana, breathe,” I demanded. She obliged my command. “Now think about it: you love Mike more than you’ve loved anyone in your entire life. He makes you incredibly happy, and you guys get along like best friends that have known each other their whole lives, yet still never manage to get sick of one another. The way his eyes light up when he sees you is something that even rom-coms can’t imitate.”

She tried to look down at the ground, but I grabbed her chin to make her look at me. “Ariana, you’re getting married to the love of your life, even if I have to put a knife to your back to make you say all the vows properly.”

She let out a tearful laugh and planted a kiss on the side of my face. I immediately started rubbing my cheek, hoping to God that she hadn’t left behind a lipstick stain.

“Ariana!” my aunt called again, her voice slightly more frantic than it had been before. “Come on! People are waiting.”

“Leigh, you’re the best sister in the world,” she told me in a rushed voice as she hurried toward the door. “No matter what I say in the future, remember that. I love you.”

“Yeah, I know,” I grinned. “Just get going. You’re already late to your own wedding.”

She shot me another grin before ducking out of the room, walking straight into the chaos of my aunt freaking out about Ariana not being on top of things.

Shooting myself one more glance in the mirror and sighing, I scampered out of the room, shutting the door behind me, ready to take my place at the front of the aisle.

* * *

There was a lot of chatting and clanking glasses as everyone settled into their assigned seat in the dining room. A couple of waiters, dressed in suit pants and white t-shirts with black vests over them. Most of them had super short haircuts, but the couple that didn’t had slicked their hair back with gel to keep it from falling into their faces or, God forbid, the food.

The din quieted as Mike’s best man, Jeff, got to his feet and clanged the knife in his hand against his champagne glass. I leaned forward in my seat so that I could see him around Ariana and Mike, who were sitting between the two of us.

“Man, I can’t believe I’m at Mike’s wedding,” he laughed, clapping a hand on the groom’s shoulder in a brotherly way. “It seems like just yesterday that we were in high school and college together, making bets to see how many girls we could shag before the year was out.”

There was a ripple of soft laughter throughout the room, a few champagne-fueled guffaws rising above the noise of the others.

Mike blushed up a storm, his pale face completely overtaken by a deep tomato-red color.

“Obviously, I always won those,” Jeff snickered. “Mike never was much of a ladies’ man. But he really didn’t have to be.” He looked around Mike to stare at my sister, who still looked absolutely beautiful. “Somehow, with his ugly face and lack of charm and grace, he managed to land a girl that couldn’t be any better for him than Ariana. I love both of you, and I wish you guys the best of luck in the crazy adventure you’re about to enter.”

The room erupted into applause and whistles as Jeff and Mike hugged, slapping each other on the back and murmuring ‘thank you’s and ‘I love you’s.

Once everyone quieted down, I got to my feet, running my hands down the skirt of my dress, a nervous habit. I was never one to be good with public speaking, and having a room of two hundred fifty people stare at me was even on my list of fun things to do with getting caned in the town square of another country.

“Ariana’s my sister,” I stated plainly. Already, I was starting off on a way worse note than Jeff. But I took a deep breath, trying to block out the negative comparisons. “Growing up, we always depended on each other, like a lot of sisters do.” I smiled at her, seeing the tears already pool in her eyes. “But it was different with us. To me, Ariana was the only woman in my life. I watched her grow and observed how she acted so I could be just like her. She was, in every sense of the word, my role model, even though she’s only five years older than me.

“I remember when she first brought Mike home.” I let out a laugh and grinned at her groom. “Dad hated you,” I informed him. “And, he probably won’t admit it, but it was because he knew, even then, that you’d be the guy that would take away his oldest daughter. And thank God, really. She could never have found a guy that loves her and cares for her and will take care of her more or better than Mike can.”

I realized that I was rambling, so I picked up my glass of champagne and raised it in the air. “To the married couple,” I toasted.

The people in the room echoed my toast, clanked glasses with one another, and started to drink.

I sat down, my eyes scanning the room. Just as I was about to bring my gaze back down, I felt someone eyes on me. My stomach lurched violently when I turned to the direction the stare was coming from, and I could feel the blood drain out of my face. I was petrified that I was going to get sick, right there in front of everyone.

Jared smiled at me, waving a little. And sitting next to him was his Scottish foreign exchange student, who I knew hadn’t been invited.