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🪽 nineteen. 4morant . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.
TWENTY-TWO YEARS EARLIER.
Tala was absolutely buzzing by the time she walked into the banquet hall in all of her white gown glory. Parents and extended family members were milling around, catching up on different lives and rumors while shouting over loud music that boomed. They held glasses of champagne and water while they milled around the open space. Some elderly relatives opted to sit down at the fancy tables and they talked calmly even though the music was too loud. They were impatient with the way they fidgeted; their fingers tapped importantly on the rim of glass champagne flutes, the repeated tapping of watches and feet against the well polished ground.
A wave of relief washed over the crowd when the double doors finally opened and they turned with smiles as if they hadn't been waiting for long. Tala felt like everything played in slow motion. Her smile was wide as she had her arm interlocked with her now-husband and her other hand held the bouquet of flowers. This was what her life had culminated to. This was what she had dreamt of ever since she was a child, ever since she had watched Princess Diana's wedding on the VCR tapes in her family's home.
Her wedding wasn't as grand as Princess Diana's wedding since neither she nor her husband were incredibly famous or anything like that, but it still felt like a fairytale. The wedding was approximately twenty minutes short with eighteen minutes of the officiant talking his head off and two minutes were spent on vows. There was no carriage, but a beat up work truck with cans strung onto the bumper and a banner reading JUST MARRIED! duct taped to the back of the window. The groomsmen were made up from her husband's family; his best man was his older brother and the others were his cousins. The bridesmaids were coworkers from Tala's work and the flower girl was her nine year old niece.
The first thing that registered in Tala's mind as she entered the reception hall with her arm entwined with Tommy's were the various faces that were smiling at them. They arms held up the champagne flutes as a way to toast the newlyweds, and her ears were ringing because of the loud music before it was dialed down when they walked in. She took in their appearances in slow motion.
The men wore sharp suits with polished shoes and they had expensive watches strapped to their wrists as they held the champagne flute in between their index and thumb fingers. The women had their makeup on with rouge coloring their cheeks, manicured nails with white tips, and their dresses were either floor length or knee length. Either way, they all looked like cousins from Tala's or Tommy's side. Still, the mix of both men and women were rather different.
As Tala took in their appearances, she found everyone from her family, to cousins to aunts, in the crowd except for her mother. Her father was there, politely watching while he weakly leaned against his wooden cane, but her mother wasn't there. Whatever. Tala didn't care.
