It's Been a While

“Oh, Natalie,” Jillian and I breathed out in unison. Considering the last time I saw Natalie, the contrast from her normal, professional looking but not flashy self to the Natalie we saw in the dress was like night and day.

Not really sure how to react as this was the first time I’d been a bridesmaid for someone who didn’t call me drunk at four in the morning because they’d made the made the most fantastic vows and wanted a pseudo wedding as practice, I settled for something from the heart.

“It makes your shoulders look like tiny gerbils.” The sales attendant frowned at me, but Natalie smiled.

“It’s nice having you guys around again,” she explained, looking in the mirror and slightly shifting the skirt of the dress around. “I love Aiden but you can’t beat family.”

Jillian’s phone beeped.

“Damn it, sorry for the interruption, Natalie. It’s Frank. Dom got into the attic and the guys are all too big to fish him out, so they’re wondering if they should call the fire department.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time,” I joked. “Remember? Frank? With the leashes, and the authorities, and- Natalie?”

“Yes, Becca?”

“Care to explain the tiny tuxedo?” I’d spotted it out of the corner of my eye, sitting in a little plastic dry cleaning sleeve next to Natalie’s bag. She shuffled off the Bride’s platform to get a better look.

“Well, I was hoping that maybe if you wouldn’t mind Cupcake could be a part of the wedding too? See, Dom’s the ring bearer and Cherry, Lily and Bandit are the flower girls along with some of Aiden’s cousins, so I figured Cupcake could sit on the pillow with the rings around his horn.”

“Dom talks to him like, all the time,” Jillian added. “And from what he says, Cupcake’s exactly the way he was when we were teenagers.”

“People have been in my room?” I asked, slightly dejectedly. That meant things could’ve been removed and changed and the only bit that still was mine wasn’t actually mine.

“Nah, he got one of those toy cell phones. He sings the ringtones when he’s getting a call.”

Natalie filled out the appropriate work for our dresses and then drove with an iron foot to get back to the house. There were no fire trucks yet, but if we waited any longer they might’ve started showing up.

“Dom?” Jill called into the apparent entrance of the attic. “Dom, you should get out of there. It’s icky and dirty.” Dom giggled somewhere from the depths.

“We’ve tried that,” Aiden sighed, putting an arm around Natalie. “Gerard doesn’t even know what’s up there, apparently so god knows what he’s gotten into.”

“And none of you fit?”

“Too broad. We figured one of you girls could shimmy through.”

“Nope. The boobs would get in the way.”

I sighed.

“I can probably do it,” I volunteered. “If someone gives me a boost up and promises to catch the two of us on the way down.”