Becka was excited that Alice was getting married, but Becka hated bachelorette parties. Becka had been in two or three bridal parties by now, each one accompanied by an alcohol-fueled rager in a city that was too far away, followed by a hungover miserable car ride shortly thereafter.
But Kady, the maid of honor, had been insistent and Becka wouldn't be the one to spoil Alice's bachelorette party. Truthfully, Becka was pretty sure that Kady's favorite part of Alice getting married was a cowgirl-themed binge drinking bar crawl. It was the first thing that Kady talked about when Alice showed off a diamond ring.
Becka was sharing a hotel room with Rachel, another member of the bridal party. Rachel had been the first of the friends to get married. That had been five years ago and ever since, Rachel had been obsessed over hearing every little detail of her single friend's lives. She wanted to know who everyone was dating, if they were having sex, what type of sex they were having, and even how big their partners were in bed. Becka thought that Rachel was happiest when one of them broke up and Rachel got to hear the story. Becka was single at the moment, but she always privately thought that Rachel was evidence of how boring married life would be if Rachel was that eager to hear about non-married life.
Becka and Rachel checked into their hotel, about a quarter mile from the strip that they would be bar crawling on, and carried their bags up to their room. It was about two hours before the dinner that would kick off the night.
"Do you think anyone's gonna hook up with anyone tonight?" Rachel asked as they entered their room. She then narrowed her eyes at Becka. "Will you?"
"Nope. Not if everyone follows the rules," Becka said. "Alice said she wanted a girls night for her bachelorette party. All girls, together, no boys."
Rachel looked a little disappointed. "Yeah, but... I mean, Kady ends up in bed with people a lot." Rachel wasn't wrong, but Becka refused to take the bait.
"This is Alice's night," Becka said. "If Kady wants to go out and find a hookup, let her do it on her own weekend." Becka felt a little bit like the group 'mom' at the moment, but she genuinely did worry that sometimes Alice's special night became everyone else's excuse to do what they wanted. Becka continued, "I think if we see Kady getting cozy with someone, we run interference."
"What? I don't want to stop Kady's fun," Rachel said, appalled. 'You probably want to hear all about it tomorrow, too,' Becka thought.
"I don't want Alice to end up the last one alone at the end of the night," Becka said. "She wants a night with her girls. All her girls." She shrugged. "The bride gets what the bride wants."
Rachel mumbled something that Becka hoped was agreement, but she knew it was all she would get from her as far as commitment. Becka hoped that pulling the "bride card" would help the other girls stay in line.
They started to get dressed. Like every other bachelorette party in this city, they had agreed on a cowgirl theme. Becka took out the same outfit that she had worn for Jenny Philip's bachelorette party last year: jean shorts with frayed ends, a white tank top with a plaid short-sleeve left open over it, brown cowboy boots with swirling white engraving, and a cute brown cowboy hat. Becka looked down at the outfit in wonder for a moment. She was an accountant in real life. During bachelorette parties she cosplayed a cowgirl. She dressed quickly and took the bathroom first to do her makeup. When she came out, Rachel was also dressed.
Rachel was wearing the stereotypical "mom jeans", with a tied-off long-sleeve shirt. Her hat and boots were both a faded red and looked very worn, perhaps from a yard sale. Rachel did a quick mental inventory: How many bachelorette parties had Rachel been invited to since her own? Maybe not many? Or had the few that she had been invited to been the very rare non-cowgirl-themed ones? Becka had a momentary flash of guilt. No wonder Rachel felt so much longing to hear about single life... everyone else had seen her as an old maid and started forgetting to invite her out. Now, she was beaming in excitement.
"How do I look?" Rachel asked.
"Good," Rachel lied. "Cute, actually!"
"Thanks!" Rachel gushed. "I'm so excited. This is gonna be the best bachelorette party ever!"
--
The main strip of the city was famous for parties like this. Dozens of bars, each with live music, novelty themes, and bouncers at the door lined the street. Neon flashed from every direction, advertising drinks, celebrity endorsements, and even a mechanical bull.
"Oh! We should do the mechanical bull!" Rachel exclaimed as she registered that particular sign. It was early yet and they were weaving their way through the streets towards the restaurant Kady had sent them for dinner.
"Maybe after dinner," Alice said. "We'll see what Alice wants to do."
They were apparently the last ones there. As Becka and Rachel were led to the third-floor balcony, overlooking the thoroughfare, Kady met them.
"I saw you from up there!" Kady exclaimed, wrapping Becka in a hug before Becka had time to register her sudden appearance. "You look so cute! We're gonna have the best time tonight." Kady let go of Becka, leaned back, and let out a loud "Woooo!" It was then that Becka had the first opportunity to look at her. She was dressed in black, with her cowboy hat and boots in black leather. A black crop top clung heroically to her ample chest, while a short black leather skirt did the same with her hips. Becka saw she had chosen the dangling belly button piercing for tonight instead of her normal stud.
"You look so cute too!" Rachel exclaimed. Kady seemed to register her presence for the first time. Becka saw Kady's eyes move from the faded boots to the mom jeans to the long sleeves. Becka was afraid for a moment about what she would say, but Kady surprised her with believable grace.
"Oh my gosh, look at your boots," Kady said, perhaps a little overdone. "They're so cute! Vintage?"
"Thank you!" Rachel said, glowing in the complement and apparently oblivious to the shallowness of its sincerity. "They were my moms!"
Having that mystery solved, the three moved back to the balcony seat they had reserved. Alice was sitting at the table, glowing in the backlight of the outdoors. It illuminated her white boots, white hat, white shorts, and white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. To ensure that no one missed that she was the bride of the party, a thin veil was attached to the back of her cowboy hat. With the entire outfit, she looked like an angel straight out of Hollywood old west heaven.
Next to her was the final member of their party, Alice's younger sister Samantha--or, Sammy. Alice had actually postponed the party by three weeks to get on the other side of Sammy's twenty-first birthday. She was a Junior in college and had reportedly spent the entire drive down doing homework. Sammy looked vaguely like an American flag, with bright red boots and a bright hat, both bedazzled with stars. Her shorts were bright blue, she wore a white tank top with a denim vest overtop.
The two sisters were talking together, but when Alice saw Becka and Rachel approaching, her face contorted into the oddly joyous mix of cringe and grin that only a sorority girl ever seemed to be able to perform, and let out a high-pitch squeal that drew eyes from all nearby tables. The first several words she spoke were still in the squealing pitch. If Becka hadn't known Alice for several years, she wouldn't have been able to understand.
"Eeee meeee geeeeeesh!" (oh my gosh) "Eeetts meee bashawloreeette pawteeee!"
"Yes it is!" Becka grinned. "You're gonna have so much fun!"
"We all are gonna have fun," Kady corrected. "It's gonna be a night to remember."
"And I'm so excited to be here for it!" Rachel slapped her hands together excitedly, bouncing on her heels.
The girls settled down for dinner. No sooner had the first wine been poured than Rachel was on Sammy.
