The bonfire on the beach went exactly as I had expected. James was a jerk, everyone was drunk, and a lot of girls ended up crying. What I did not expect was the question James asked after he drove me back to the house.
"Do you have a date for the wedding?"
We were sitting in his hummer and I looked over to see him staring at me.
"No. Why?"
"You sure you're not going with Gale?" I felt myself holding my breath. There was a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach and I felt like my world was seconds from crashing down around me.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I should get inside." I grabbed my door handle but James grabbed my arm to stop me. Reluctantly I turned back towards him.
"I'm not going to tell anyone if that's what you're worried about. It's funny though because he's just an older version of me."
"Shut up."
"Come on you know it's true. I mean honestly how many women has that guy fucked? Whenever he's here he sleeps with a different girl every night. At least tell me you make him wear a condom. A guy like that is bound to have a few diseases under his belt." James was stroking my arm with his thumb.
"How did you find out?" I felt the same feeling in my stomach.
"I haven't seen him with anyone since you guys got here. Plus most the women under that roof," he pointed towards the house," are either married or under 15 years old. You're the only one who isn't. Plus I figured he'd try to get in your pants the second you turned 18, most guys would." James had progressively moved his hand down my arm and to my leg while he had been talking.
"It wasn't like that. I was the one who initiated everything." I was so happy it was dark because I could feel myself blushing.
"Sure it wasn't. I mean it totally doesn't seem out of character for a guy that age and with his background to want to have sex with a beautiful girl like yourself." James had moved his hand to the top of my thigh. "I'm sure he never fantasized about being the first guy you parted those sexy thighs for either." James was inching his hand between my legs.
"Go fuck yourself." I grabbed his hand and jerked it away from me. I grabbed the car door and yanked it open. Before I could get out James caught me off guard with another unexpected question.
"Do you know who Gale's going to the wedding with?" I stopped and turned back to him waiting for a response.
"Actually no you should ask him yourself. But I was wondering if you might want to go with me? I promise I'll be a gentleman. Plus if you go with me I won't tell anyone about your relationship with Gale. If that's what you're calling it even." He winked.
"Fine." I turned and walked inside the house. All the lights were turned out and I assumed everyone was asleep. I glanced at the clock before I made my way upstairs and was surprised it was already 4.
I walked past Gale's room and stopped. I immediately turned around and walked into his room. He was sitting on the bed typing on his laptop.
He stopped when he saw me and smiled. "Good morning. How was your date with your boy toy?" He moved his laptop next to him.
I folded my arms and frowned. "Who are you taking to the wedding?"
"Jenny, why?" He grabbed his laptop again and started typing.
"You're taking my cousin?" I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest.
"She's your third cousin." He was still typing.
"She has two kids!"
"Yeah and she's divorced. She had no one to go with so I figured I would take her. Is there a problem with that?"
"She is 12 years older than you!"
"I'm 21 years older than you."
"Maybe I wanted a date for the wedding!"
"Don't be ridiculous, you know that wouldn't work. Your parents might have a heart attack if we showed up together. Ask James if you want someone to go with."
He was acting so calm, it was driving me crazy. I had no idea how to respond. I walked over to him and he stopped typing. I stood there for a few seconds waiting for him to look up at me instead of the stupid screen. I then did what anyone else in my shoes would have done, I slammed his laptop shut.
"What is your problem?" Finally he was reacting.
"Are you going to fuck her?"
"What?"
"Are you going to fuck her?" I still had my hand on top of the laptop. I was bent over at the waist waiting for his answer.
"What do you think?"
"I think you didn't have the balls to tell me you were taking someone in my family to a wedding for someone else in my family. I think you would love to take the opportunity to have sex with someone else and say that we never said we were exclusively only fucking each other. That's what I think."
"Are you sure you haven't fucked James? It's past 4 and the morning and you smell like whiskey. You were out with him all night and I'm sure you had a good time even though you would never admit it. Are you sure you didn't decide to have sex with someone other than me just for the sake of it? Honestly it probably wouldn't be that hard for him to convince you to have sex with him. You already like him."
I snapped. Before I knew what happened I pulled my arm back and smacked Gale across the face. I was stunned that I had actually done it and immediately took a few steps back.
A few seconds passed and neither of us said anything. Gale's face was still turned away from me and he had his eyes closed. I felt the tension throughout the room.
Finally I stepped towards him. He looked at me and I stopped. The left side of his face was a deep shade of red. It contrasted with his olive skin tone so much more than I would have guessed.
"I'm so sorry." I moved towards him and kneeled next to him on the bed. As gently as possible I brought my hand to his cheek and slowly rubbed it. "I'm sorry."
He didn't say anything. Instead he grabbed my the outside of my hand. I felt myself flinch away but he held my hand.
"I'm not going to hurt you." For the first time in what felt like a million years I actually took the time to look at Gale's eyes. They were the exact same shade of green as emeralds. It was cliché but I felt like I could get lost in them for hours at a time.
Gale moved his other hand to rest on my cheek. I closed my eyes and moved my hand to rest on the outside of his, like he had done to me. I turned my face in towards his palm as I felt the calluses from his fingers brush across my cheek.
Gale moved towards me and brought me in towards his chest. "Everything is going to be fine, I promise."
I breathed a sigh of relief as we both sunk to the bed. "Everything's going to be okay?"
"Yep."
I'm still not sure if it was because of the sense of closure I felt or the utter exhaustion but I quickly drifted off to sleep that night.
"Oh my God!" I was immediately woken by a shriek from downstairs followed by what sounded like pots and pans clanking everywhere.
"Oh my God," I groaned to myself as I sat up. My eyes felt like they needed to be soaked in water and my stomach felt like it had been burned from the inside out.
"Who was that?" Gale sat up next to me. He wrapped his arms around me and dug his head into the back of my shoulder.
"I think it was Sydney." Sydney was my 14 year old cousin who was a bitchy version of me. We got along great but I felt bad for people who had to actually spend large quantities of time with us when we were together.
I got up and Gale groaned as I slid out of his grip. "Come back to bed."
"It's going to look great when we walk out of your room together and I'm wearing the same clothes from last night."
Gale groaned again and flipped over. "It's not fair."
I rolled my eyes and smiled to myself, "Not much of a morning person are you?"
"Morning people are psychotic," he moaned into the pillow.
I went to my room making sure no one saw me. I slid out of my clothes from the night before and put on a pair of cotton pajamas from Victoria's Secret. I still heard a lot of commotion from downstairs as I walked out of the room.
"For the love of God get out of my way you idiot." This time it was Anne's voice.
"No. Listen everyone stop moving!" Finally I heard my mom taking charge of the situation.
"If you are a male I want you out of this kitchen right this second! If you are under 40 I want you out too!"
I walked down the stairs and saw that the living room was full. Everyone was talking and I silently cursed to myself for having an Italian and German family.
Sydney walked over to me, "You will never guess what just happened."
Her younger sister Paige ran up behind her, "Nicole, Nicole! Sydney dropped all the scrambled eggs, then Don slipped and dropped the bacon. Then Zach's girlfriend called him and broke up with him so he got mad and threw the orange juice at the wall. And now I'm mad because I love orange juice and there's none left!" I rolled my eyes.
Gale came up behind me. "What's going on?" He looked incredibly tired. Paige quickly repeated the story to him. My head was throbbing from listening to the noise occurring all around me.
I felt myself lose my balance and slide into Gale. He grabbed me before I fell to the ground.
"You either need sleep or a really greasy breakfast." I looked up at him and smiled.
"I think breakfast sounds great."
Within an hour everything had been cleaned up and we were at the one of the local cafes. Gale and I ended up at the same table as Sydney and Paige.
I leaned against the glass as the waitress took our order and promptly left, obviously frustrated by so many people being there.
Gale moved his hand to my thigh.
"She's going to spit in our food." I commented.
"If we're lucky it will be Anne's plate," was Sydney's snide comment.
It was no secret that as a whole we did not like her. Everyone thought it was pointless to get close to a woman who would be gone in 4 years. Plus she thought she was incredibly knowledgeable in whatever topic anyone was ever discussing. Honestly she was just annoying.
"The rehearsal dinner's tonight." I folded my arms as I said this.
Everyone at the table remained silent until the waitress brought us our drinks.
"Why the long faces guys?" I finally took a second to look at the woman. She was probably around 50. Her hair was dyed a very dark red and she had very wide hips.
"We hate our new aunt," Paige boldly responded. Everyone smiled at that point and the waitress busted out laughing.
"Well at the end of the day all of you girls can remember that you are each utterly gorgeous and you," she nudged Gale, "remember that you have this one to flaunt to all of your friends." She looked at me now.
I averted my eyes and blushed. Gale quickly responded, "Oh we're not-"
The waitress cut him off, "Your hand has been on her leg for the past ten minutes, that means you are definitely together." She winked at us before she walked away. I was so sick of everyone winking.
"I guess she needs to have her eyes checked," Gale quickly moved his hand off my thigh and placed it on the table.
Sydney was staring at me. We had been sharing the room since she got in and she obviously knew I didn't sleep in there with her last night. I looked over at Paige and she was too busy doodling in the maze on her coloring sheet to pay attention to what the woman had just said.
The rest of breakfast went well. We all made small talk and Gale kept his hand on the table in sight of everyone.
