Kissing Cousins

It was a Thursday night. It had been about a week since I met Jared and he had only crossed my mind a few times since then. This particular day remains a blur in my mind, but a few things I am certain on. I am certain that I began to feel miserable later that day. My cousins and I figured out that if you dressed in full or partial cow attire, you could get free food at Chick-Fil-A. We thought that was really cool and decided to go all out by adding paper cut out spots onto our clothes. We even went as far to go from Chick-Fil-A to Chick-Fil-A and get food for the rest of our family. I decided that I wanted to get out of the house and join them in this silly, but fun day. So, I decided to be the one different cow out of the four of us and dress up as a black cow with white spots. I don't mind standing out, as I tend to do that anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me.

The drive was a bit long and I could feel myself coming down with something in the car. As the ride dragged on, my headache began to get much worse. I am used to being carsick, so I figured it was nothing. I have allergies in the summer so I thought it was a sinus headache that would pass. Boy, was I wrong!

We got home from a successful night and brought two meals to our families, one from each of us. I could tell that I was definitely coming down with something because my throat got sore, the most sore it has ever been in a long time. I could not remember the last time I had been this sick but the pain was pretty bad.

My older brother, Jeremy, could tell that something was off. He could tell that I had not been acting like myself for a little while. He could see it in my eyes that I was feeling absolutely terrible, miserable even. He brought me into his room and asked me a few questions. I had told him earlier when we were in the kitchen that I felt like there was a razor blade scratching against my throat. He asked me how sore my throat felt on a scale of one to ten and my response was a seven or an eight. I cannot remember the last time my throat had gotten this sore to actually be physically painful. It hurt to swallow and I could tell that was a bad sign. My brother decided that the right thing to do was to ask my soon-to-be stepmother for comfort and reassurance that everything was going to be alright. However, she came into the room and the first thing she mentioned was the fact that she did not want to pay for me to go to the ER because she believes I am a hypochondriac. The situation escalated from there and the two of them ended up raising their voices at each other. This could not get any worse.

I'm pretty sure that my brother was trying to figure out if I had a sore throat or strep throat. He's had strep throat in the past, so he's well aware of the symptoms. He left me in the bedroom for a while, possibly trying to figure out what he could do for me the time being. After a while, he told me to join him in the kitchen. I went straight to my mom and she did the right thing. My mom's good at comforting people and taking care of me when I am sick and that is exactly what she did in the moment. I hugged her and cried for a minute, while she told me that everything would be okay. She got me a glass and told me to put some ice cubes in it, the ice would numb the pain. The next thing I knew, Paula (my stepmother) and my brother were going at it again. They were not exactly fighting but they were definitely arguing. A friend of the family told me that everything would be alright and that I need to take some deep breaths. It helped but I just wanted to not be the center of conversation or attention.

* * *
The next day came around and it was the big day! My parents had been divorced for about two years now, so to think that my dad would be tying the knot again was quite an odd concept to me. However, I knew that my father and Paula were destined to be together and I could not be happier. I slept until about noon, like I do most days. However, I woke up feeling terrible again and could tell that the sickness had kicked in full force. It was physically draining to move around a lot and be active. I decided to lay down on an recliner chair and managed to fall asleep with our 5 week old puppy on my lap. I woke up from my nap, grabbed a bite to eat, and then went back upstairs to the bedroom my mom and I share to take a nap until about three in the afternoon. The wedding was at six and I had a lot of getting ready to do.

I took a shower, then decided to pick out a dress and do my makeup. My makeup would be kept simple, as to not take any attention away from the bride. Getting my hair done however, was another story. My mom was a bridesmaid or maid of honor and would be walking down the stairs of our house a few minutes before my stepmother-to-be, so she wanted to look great. My cousin, Alivia, decided she would take the time to do my hair before deciding that she would be doing my mom's hair as well. I began to feel anxious because we were running out of time, it was about five thirty and my hair had not been done. It approached the hour of six and my hair had still not been done. Alivia took me into the upstairs gaming room (basically the upstairs living room) and did my hair. She told me I was not allowed to move, so I obeyed her command for the most part. A few of my cousins had managed to make their way upstairs before the wedding had started and I turned my head to see who they were. It was my uncle's boys: Eric, Jerry, and of course, Jared. Time was running out and
Alivia did a great job on my hair in just a couple of minutes. Now that I was all taken care of, I decided to see how my brother was doing. Apparently, my brother did not get the memo that the attire was supposed to be grey, black, red, or white for picture purposes so I helped him find something to wear. His girlfriend did not know that the attire was semi-formal so I lent her one of my dresses and it fit really well. I straightened her hair in the few minutes we had left and I missed a few family members walking down the stairs of our house. I did the best I could and began to take pictures of the wedding party. Everything went pretty smoothly that night and it made me really happy to see the look of pure happiness in my dad's eyes. He married his soul mate and could not be happier.

Later on that night, my brother, his girlfriend and I decided to head upstairs to play some video games with our cousins. The game of choice happened to be Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii. At first, we just watched but then we decided to join after a few rounds. I couldn't help but notice my feelings for Jared again and I wished that my feelings would just disappear. One of the first things I noticed was a physical attraction once more. He looked really good dressed up for the occasion. While we were playing, I made it a point to fight against his character because I felt like that was a way of showing interest. Throughout the course of the night, however, my younger cousin, Jerry, beat me several times in the game. I could not figure out how he did it and requested that someone else take his place in the game. It turned out that Eric was pretty good at this game, too.

It was beginning to get late and one by one, the guests were beginning to head home. My cousins and I were having a great time playing this game, and did not want to stop. However, my uncle came upstairs and told us that it was time for them to head home. He mentioned that he would have to bring his sons over again to play video games with us and that thought made me excited. It made me upset to see them leave (especially Jared, but there was no stopping them. We were all getting tired anyway, so my brother, Andrea, and I decided to play a bit more before going to bed. Overall, it was a good day.