by Kent, Rina
“Piss off.”
A Cheshire cat grin appears on his lips as he abandons his book on the red velvet chair and stands up to join me by the mirror, watching me intently as if he’s a cat who found a fish. “You are, aren’t you?”
“Are you going to be useful anytime soon?”
His grin widens. “Not until you admit you’re nervous. Aww, should I have been a good best man and got you a hooker last night?”
“If you had done that, I’d be getting Queens a male stripper on her wedding night.” I grin back, and his falls as he flips me off.
He heads back to the chair. “Looks like you don’t need help, after all. You can have a wedding without the bowtie.”
“Nash…” I warn.
He stops midway and throws me a glance over his shoulder. “Do you admit it?”
“I’m not nervous.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m not. I’m just…” I release a long breath. “I can’t believe this is happening. My mind keeps sending these signals that something will go wrong, like back when we were eight or afterwards, when she didn’t remember me.”
“Or maybe she’ll one day wake up and realise she deserves better than you.”
“You fucking —” I’m about to punch him in the face but stop myself because I can’t have my best man with a bloodied nose.
“Relax.” He smiles a little. “I was speaking from my point of view. That’s what I think Silver will do every day. It’s not a fun feeling.”
I exhale deeply. “At all.”
We remain in awkward silence for a few seconds. Neither Cole nor I are good with directing feelings to the outside. We’re inward people and I think that’s why we gravitated towards each other in the first place.
He takes the bowtie from my fingers and straps it around my throat, aiming his attention on it. “Elsa chose you when she could’ve gone with someone different.”
“If you don’t stop saying shit like that, you’re going to get punched, and fuck having no best man.”
He chuckles. “Just saying. My point is, she chose you and she knows exactly what she’s in for. If she still hasn’t given up on you yet, I say it’s for the long haul.”
“Long haul?”
“As long as you make it, King.”
He finishes off and steps back to stare at his handiwork. “There. Done.”
The door flies open and in comes Ronan, holding Xander’s shoulder as they laugh about something while stuffing their faces with appetisers.
As soon as they see us, Ronan barges between me and Nash, holding an imaginary microphone. “Yo, King. How does it feel to be getting married?”
“Nervous.” Nash smirks and I flip him off while smoothing my jacket.
“I’ve got to admit, I thought I would be the first one to get married.” Xander pouts. “But I guess my father is stricter than Jonathan King.”
“Jonathan is strict.” Cole retrieves his book. “Aiden just doesn’t give a fuck.”
“Okay, Aiden wins in the wedding department.” Astor points a finger at himself. “But my Teal and I got engaged first. We’ll get married before you know it, so try to beat us, Xan.”
“Oh, you’re on.” Xander hits his shoulder playfully and the latter returns it.
They start one of their bickering sessions before I turn around and ask, “Have you seen Elsa?”
“Fuck yeah. She was my fiancée first, remember?”
“And my girlfriend.” Xan grins.
I’m about to jam their faces into the wall when they burst out laughing and mocking me while Nash smirks in the background like the little bitch he is.
The door opens again before I can ask them how she looks. Not that I should. I want to see how she is for myself.
Levi hobbles in, leaning on his crutch. He had a small injury during a game, but he needs to rest for a bit before he can resume practice. Despite the crutch, he appears his best in a tux and with his blond hair styled.
“Looking good, little Cousin.” He approaches me and squeezes my shoulder in a hug, then releases me. “Ready to join the marriage train?”
Not really. This isn’t about marriage for me. It’s about being with Elsa for as long as possible. It’s about the life we’ll have together and the memories we’ll make in the future. It’s about becoming one.
Am I ready for that?
I smile in the mirror.
Abso-fucking-lutely.
Half an hour later, I’m standing in front of the aisle in Ethan’s house. That’s where Elsa wanted the wedding, and Jonathan wasn’t the least bit pleased about it, but he’ll live. This day isn’t about him, it’s about her.
Cole is on his best behaviour at my right, which has to do with the girl who’s sitting a few rows across from us with her parents. Silver smiles at him but quickly averts her gaze because they’re still at the stage where their relationship is a secret.
Teal is hanging on to Ronan’s arm as he whispers things in her ear, then grins like an idiot. Xan is sitting with Knox in the front row and sulking like an abandoned kid because Kimberly is standing opposite me as the maid of honour.
I’m focused on anyone but myself because my impatience is getting the better of me.
Just when I’m about to send Cole to look for Elsa, the music changes. I straighten as Ethan appears with the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.
It’s like a recurrence of those times when she first found me in that basement — when her eyes met mine, and she told me she’d save me.
She did in more ways than one.
Now, she’s doing it again.
Her full white dress outlines her soft curves and its hem sweeps the floor. She didn’t pull up her hair like I expected her to. Instead, the blonde strands are intertwined with flowers as they fall to the sides of her face. She has no veil, and her expression is bright, soft, and so alive, I want to run there and place my ear to her chest in order to listen to her heartbeat.
When her electric blue eyes meet mine, the world stops moving for a second.
It’s only the two of us, like when we were eight and she told me she’d marry me. When she made me promise her the same.
We’re both making that promise a reality, and because of that, today is another beginning of our lives together.
Elsa’s lips pull in a smile and I smile back.
She’s always been mine, when we were eight and when I reunited with her again at sixteen and when I finally got her at eighteen.
I was lucky to find her and I’ll spend the rest of my life making her feel like the queen she has always been.
Now and forever.
8
Xander
Age Twenty-one
When Kim said she wanted to get married in this place, I thought she was joking.
But I should’ve known better. There’s no joking about such things with my Green.
I adjust the cuffs of my jacket as I wait for her to appear at the end of the aisle.
The wedding planner turned the small park where we used to play as kids into a piece cut from heaven. Lights fall over the trees and form a path on either side of where the attendees are sitting.
It’s cosy and small, and we only invited the people who actually mean a fuck to either of us. Needless to say, neither my mother nor Kim’s mother were invited.
Jeanine sent a congratulations card that Kim barely looked at before she pushed it to the middle of the endless wedding gifts we received.
We don’t need the toxicity of our mothers’ in our lives. Those women were never meant to give birth to children in the first place, and while I could get over that fact with time, Kim is different. She loves too deep and doesn’t hold grudges. Evidence? She forgave me when I shouldn’t have been forgiven.
She also forgave Silver, who’s currently standing with Elsa opposite Ronan and me. Not only has she picked up her friendship with Silver, but it’s like the years in between never existed. It took them some awkward moments du
ring university, but they soon returned to being the two girls who barged in on Aiden, Cole, and me when we were young and demanded to play with us.
The Silver and Kim from those times were so tight and inseparable that I hated Silver sometimes.
What? Kim wasn’t the only one who was possessive about the other’s time. I didn’t like that she shared a connection with any other person. I still don’t, but I’m better at compromising right now — I think.
“Stop it!” Ronan whisper-yells in my ear. “You’re making me look like a loser best man with your fidgeting, connard.”
“Shut the fuck up, Ron. You’re already married.”
“That I am.” He winks at Teal, who’s standing beside Silver, and she shakes her head with a smile. It escapes me how she keeps up with this disaster of a man on a daily basis.
“You’re not supposed to be noisy at weddings,” Cole says from his position beside Ronan.
“You’re not supposed to be here in the first place, Cole,” I grumble, then shoot a glare at Aiden. “You either, King.”
“Nonsense,” he says. “If Elsa is here, I have the right to be here, too.”
“Besides.” Cole pokes Ronan. “If you only had Ronan, your wedding would be destined to fail before it even starts.”
“Hey —” Ronan opens his mouth, probably to curse him, but he stops mid-sentence when Kim appears, one hand laced through Calvin’s arm and the other through Kirian’s.
While both are wearing tuxedos, Kirian’s is white, like the colour of his sister’s dress. He’s just twelve, but he’s grown so much now, and he insisted that he’d be giving away Kim, too, because he’s her brother and protector.
That little guy isn’t so little anymore.
It takes me a few seconds to completely take Kimberly in. The way her brown hair with green highlights falls to her shoulders. The way her white dress has a green ribbon at the middle to match the bright colour of her eyes.
When her gaze meets mine, she bites her lower lip slightly before releasing it.
Fuck me.
That woman will be the death of me. It didn’t happen when we were kids, but it sure as fuck is going to now.
I wait for her to reach my side, then Calvin puts her hand in mine. My biological father and I exchange a look before he smiles and lets her go.
“You better take care of Kimmy, Xan.” Kirian narrows his eyes on me. “This is your first and only warning.”
Both Kim and I grin as I ruffle his hair. “Sure will, Superman.”
Seeming satisfied, he follows his father to where mine is sitting. Lewis’s eyes are bright and shining as he watches us together. He might be Kim’s biological father, but he always stayed as mine. Just like Calvin is hers.
Taking her hands in mine, I tug her close until I can smell her. Only, it’s not perfume that seeps into my bones. It’s the scent of summer — the grass and the pistachio gelato she was licking that day when we were six and she named me her knight.
It happened at this same park, under this same tree, when I knelt in front of her and she blessed me as her knight with a bamboo sword.
That’s why she wanted to get married here. Kim said this place reminds her of the time she really wanted to be with me for good. The time she knew she’d always be my Green and I would always be her knight.
There isn’t any better place for our eternal union.
My story with Kim might not have been the best. It could’ve gone differently, yes, but if it had, we wouldn’t have met halfway as if it was meant to be.
She wouldn’t have overcome her demons, the mental abuse by her mother, and the depression that ate away at her soul.
Likewise, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the shadow my mother left on my life or overcome my alcoholism issues. Today, I’m three years sober. Now and again, I drink diluted beverages and only when Kim is there, because she’s the compass that sets me straight every time. Just like she did when we were eighteen.
Kim used to tell me that souls are attracted to each other and that my soul completes hers.
She’s wrong. My soul doesn’t complete hers. If it weren’t for her, my soul would’ve been non-existent.
That’s how deeply she impacts my life. That’s how far gone I am for this woman.
Every day, I wake up and worship her body as a small show of how much she occupies my every waking and sleeping moment. She’s grown more confident in herself and her body over the years. She once told me that I’m the best thing that could’ve happened to her.
It’s the other way around.
Kimberly is the green of my life. The reason I’m standing right here without a fuckload of addictions hanging off my shoulders. If I hadn’t found her again, I would’ve ended up just like my mother, roaming somewhere on earth, scamming people and begging for a drop of alcohol.
Kim saved me, and now I’ll become her shield for the rest of our lives.
Still holding her hand in mine, I get on my knees. Murmurs break out amongst the crowd, but I ignore them. My sole attention is on the woman who’s watching me with tears in her eyes.
“When we were six, you named me your knight, and I’d be honoured if you’d repeat that again, Green.”
She grins, her eyes closing a little with her happiness as she releases one of my hands and taps me once on each shoulder. “You never stopped being my knight, Xan.”
“And you never stopped being my Green, Kim.”
9
Ronan
Age Twenty
There goes my plan to get married when I’m thirty-five — or forty. Seriously, I was even planning on staying a bachelor for life, like Lars.
But, hey, things don’t always work as planned, do they?
One day, I was sitting in peace, smoking my weed, and then a wrecking ball in the form of a tiny woman barged into my life. And now I couldn’t let her go, even if I wanted to.
See, Teal isn’t just my fiancée — correction, my wife in a few minutes — she’s also the one person I never knew I needed until I had her.
The one person who seeped through my flesh and caught me by the throat. Well, I’m the one who grabs her by the throat sometimes, but figuratively speaking, she’s the one who does.
Xander keeps poking my side and waggling his brows at me, and I’m about ready to throw him in the pool. The only reason I don’t is because no one but my Teal is allowed to be the main event today.
We opted for a wedding in my parents’ mansion. I could tell you that Lars had a field day with all the preparations. He refused any wedding planners, saying they were amateurs and had no idea how things are actually done.
He turned the garden into a sitting area with lace ribbons decorating the trees and lights shining all over the pathways. Then he transformed the pool into a reception area. When Teal told him it was beautiful, he was like, “Of course it is. I made it happen.”
She laughed and thanked him, and he grumbled as a form of reply before he disappeared inside — probably to write in his black book about how Teal lacks noble manners.
Mum helped with the entire process, not leaving Teal’s side for even a second. Ever since she gained her health back and could move freely, she has made it her mission to be in on every moment of my life.
Dad, too, even though he’s not forthcoming about it. We agreed that Mum would never know about Eduard the fucker, and I guess, ever since that scum’s death, Dad and I have grown closer than before. It’s like we’re back to those times when I was a kid and I ran to him whenever I accomplished something exciting — or when Lars made me drink fucking milk.
Are we a perfect family? Far from it. But both my parents and Lars are the best family I could’ve asked for.
My gaze trails to the three of them sitting on the front row and I grin. Lars. Sitting. I know. I don’t remember the last time I saw him rest his butt down. But I told him he’s not allowed to stand during my wedding or I’ll kick him out.
He bitched for some time in his snobbish
tone, but obviously I won, because he complied.
Elsa walks down towards us with Knox by her side. He serves no role, except to piss off Aiden, who’s glaring at him from his seat while Knox smiles from ear to ear.
After he delivers Elsa to her place as the maid of honour, he kisses her cheek and retreats. I’m surprised Aiden doesn’t jump down his throat here and now.
Soon after, Teal appears with her hand tucked into Ethan’s arm.
She’s wearing a long black dress with a huge skirt and a lace bodice. Some people stop and stare at her unconventional choice, but my grin widens even more.
Putain.
That’s exactly how I imagined ma belle when she said she would wear her favourite colour for her favourite day.
She told me that, in Spanish origins, wearing a black wedding dress means devoting the marriage until death.
I like that idea.
In fact, I like that idea so much that I would’ve been disappointed if she’d worn a normal white dress.
Teal isn’t normal and she never will be. This is only further evidence of how deep and far she goes.
Nothing deters her from expressing her thoughts, and while that drives me insane sometimes, I can’t get enough of her or her sarcastic comebacks. Or how she holds on to me as if I’m her world. As if she’s as thrilled she found me as I am about finding her.
My favourite time of the day is when she crawls into my side and hugs me to sleep because it makes her feel safe.
My favourite part is when she says my name with that softness that she shows to no one but me.
My favourite meal is when she tries to cook something and makes me taste it first in case it’s rubbish.
My favourite activity is when we run together and challenge each other on who gets to finish their lap first.
My favourite person is her.
I never thought I would allow someone so close, to the point they’d become my favourite. Or that they’d become the centre of my life.
