With the Wedding
We spent two wonderful days helping the newlyweds in any way we could while also relaxing. Miss De Ville still drilled me with her gaze at every opportunity, especially when we had to sit across from each other at the table. Leo found great amusement in this, while Lelía always looked at us with pity and tried to somehow separate us. I enjoyed the moments when I was talking with Leo, and his mother was wandering back and forth, watching us, probably feeling jealous. I couldn't tell what pleased me more, the fact that she was annoyed, or that the blonde himself was getting riled up.
On the day of the wedding, I woke up way too early. Outside, gray clouds stretched across the sky, rain tinkled on the yellowish crowns of the trees, reminding me of some melody I had never heard before. My clock showed just past six, so the girls were still sound asleep. I tossed and turned for a long time, tangling the sheets, but I couldn’t fall back asleep. The walls radiated cold, and the wind fluttered between the windows. I finally crawled out from under the warm blanket and threw on a beige woolen robe that hung on the chair. I slipped out of the room, and when wandering the corridors became tiresome, I decided to open the glass doors that led outside and stepped into the drizzling rain that had turned into a mist. I liked standing there, feeling the fog settle on my hair while the trees seemed to wave their branches in a friendly manner.
— Merlin's beard!
— Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, — Lelía appeared beside me as if out of nowhere.
— Are you still awake? — I asked, turning back to the horizon.
— I couldn’t fall asleep, — Lelía confessed. — I read all night just to keep entertained, — there was sorrow in the girl's voice. — I don’t know what we’ll do if this keeps up…
Lelía's fears didn’t come true, because an hour later the sun was shining outside, there wasn’t even a puddle left, and it was hard to believe that it had rained here just recently. By eight in the morning, there was a terrible hustle and bustle in the house: people, dresses, dishes, and chairs all merging into one indivisible entity, and I stopped distinguishing shapes and colors. Outside, they set up an improvised banquet hall with long tables covered with white tablecloths, and among the trimmed bushes stood plaster sculptures here and there, everywhere long candles were placed, and dark green runners spread out. Just a royal wedding. At some point, I realized I was staring at all this from the window instead of focusing on how Sara was doing my makeup.
— Girl, I swear, if you don’t sit still, I’m going to poke your eye out with this pencil, — she remarked. — And you have very beautiful green eyes, so let’s not take it to extremes.
— Sorry, — I replied, redirecting my gaze to the mirror in front of me. I sat at a wooden vanity painted coffee with milk, while Sara ran around me, trying to, as she herself put it: “make the ideal of beauty even more beautiful.” One thing was for sure, the girl knew how to give compliments, although she looked like an ancient goddess who had stepped out of Renaissance paintings. She didn’t do eyeliner as was usual; she simply lined her eyes with brown pencil and applied dark beige lipstick, twisted her hair into a high bun, and wore long earrings with large white stones. When she finished with me, I saw my thick black lashes and lipstick almost the same shade as Sara’s. And above all, the girl somehow managed to make my gaze even more cat-like than it was before.
— It suits you, — Ella, who was already ready, said from behind. She had chosen the same shade of lipstick as me and arranged her curled hair, tossing it to one side. The girl was fidgeting and smoothing her swampy satin dress with puffed sleeves.
While I was fastening my shoes, there was a knock at the door. Elizabeth stood up to open it.
— Beth, my lovely, how beautiful you look, — Merlin! Please, not her. — Sara, and you too, I came to take you. The guests are arriving, Lelía wanted you to greet them.
I remained silent, although I doubted that this was Lelía's decision and not Loretta's.
— Adelina, you come down too when you’re done changing.
I looked at my friends disappearing through the door — they were sending me sympathetic glances. I was already dressed in my wedding gown.
By the beverage tables, "spectators" were milling about. Almost all of them were dressed according to the dress code, so green-beige groups of people formed in the yard. Voices and the clinking of glasses could be heard from all sides. I spotted a familiar blond head. Leo was busy talking to a girl I already recognized. Her skin was so rosy that she looked like a baby, although she was probably no older than me. The dress of the girl was "Barbie pink" and barely reached her knees. The hem was adorned with ruffles, and the belt transitioned into a large bow at the back, the ends of which almost reached the ground. It all hung on straps. The Barbie look was completed by a high ponytail of straw-colored hair and pink shoes on a gigantic platform. I gaped at the girl, not understanding whether she seriously wanted to go like that to the ceremony or was just joking. Nearby, just in time, Sara was passing by, and I caught her by the elbow.
— Do you know why she’s here? — I asked my friend.
— What, are you jealous? — the girl raised her brows meaningfully, and I just brushed off her hints.
— Don't talk nonsense, I’m just curious, — I countered.
— Well, okay, I do know — Sara hesitated. — More accurately, I guess, despite that outfit, — I was glad that someone besides me found her look unacceptable.
— So?
— She’s not just Leo’s ex, she’s Leo’s ex-fiancée. You know, her parents are family friends and all that… — Viskonti grimaced and added. — Good luck, I’m off because Dad will drive Loretta mad with his jokes, — in a moment, she was gone.
— So, an ex-fiancée then, — I pondered while eyeing this Rose. Even from here, I could see her incredibly blue eyes, which didn’t appear in the tabloid photos. The girl laughed and stroked Leo’s shoulder, while he behaved as if he didn’t notice it. However, I managed to thoroughly scrutinize him. For the wedding, he had dressed in a green tuxedo, but since it was quite warm outside, he remained in just a white shirt, as usual with the top buttons unbuttoned.
Holy Merlin! My green eyes drowned in gray — he was staring intently at me.