the first one • j. hughes

21

I woke up to an earthquake. Which is weird because there aren't really earthquakes in— Luke. Nevermind. Luke's the earthquake. He's pushing my shoulder over and over.

He stops and holds his phone out to me. "Finally. Your sister needs you."

"What?" I mumble. 'Cause, y'know, waking up is not fun. But I take the phone anyway and say, "Hi?"

"Listen. I am having a fucking Murphy's Law morning here and need all the goddamn recruits I can get," Holly says. "I need you to go get me literally so many pounds of cherries and the smallest paper bags you can find and tags and—"

"Tags?" I ask.

"Like, to attach to said paper bags."

I rub my eyes. "Did you not get the shit for your rehearsal favors you've had planned since before you even planned the rehearsal?"

"They were supposed to be customized as fuck but the package got delayed or lost or something so, no. No, Kennedy, I didn't. I was gonna get the cherries myself but like I said: Murphy's Law Morning."

"Anything else?"

"No. That's it for you. For now," she rushes out. "Thanks! Gotta go."

For at least a minute, I don't move. Not even to take the phone away from my ear. I sit. And I think. How much could go wrong before 10 AM on the day of the rehearsal dinner? Well, this did.

I sigh and give Luke his phone back. "We have a mission."

* * * * *

"Ma'am, I don't think you get it," I say carefully. "I need these. A wedding depends on these."

Luke, Jack, and I had already found the smallest little bags that fit Bridezilla's criteria. Little tags too. Now we were at a fruit stand about halfway from the store to the Reed lake house. Fruit stand is a bit of an understatement. I mean the thing is huge. More like a small store that happens to not have actual walls and doors.

The soccer mom looks at me in disdain. "A wedding depends on you buying the entire stock of cherries?"

"The entirety of what's left of the stock of cherries but yeah."

"Your wedding?" She questions. Before I know it, I'm nodding. "And you're doing this alone?"

"Well, not alone," I say because Jack and Luke are in the truck waiting. Luke refused to get out because he won Rock, Paper, Scissors to be driver and thought I'd try and get it back again if he got up. He's right to think that. Jack... I don't know why Jack didn't follow me in when he had to get out so I could get out.

"Y'know, I got married young."

I put on my best smile. Ready to entertain this in hopes of her letting me buy all of the cherries. "What? A year or two ago?"

"Ten," she corrects. She jerks a thumb to the side and I follow, seeing three kids playing in a patch of grass and flowers. "Got those. That I deal with alone."

"They're still alive so... Solid job."

"They're actually angels. Some moms say that and don't mean it. I'm telling the truth." She beams proudly over at them for only a moment. I glance over again and see Jack now at this patch of grass. What on earth is he doing? Looks like he's picking flowers. She hesitates, keeping her eyes locked on Jack. "Uh. What was I saying?"

I chuckle nervously. "Your kids are angels."

"Right. Yeah, they are. But I think I rushed into it too much," she says. "Just make sure you aren't rushing into it too much. Think things over. It's a big thing."

My eyes are glued to Jack too. For different reasons than hers, of course. She's concerned there's a random grown man in the same grass patch as her three kids under ten. I'm concerned about how this little crush thing is starting to feel more intense than any of the other ones. Maybe it's the fact there's a chance. Maybe it's the way he's been messing with me and calling me perfect and there's nothing truly in the way.

"Have the cherries," she says. "Have a good wedding. My kids like raspberries better anyways. I'll let them be picky today."

I breathe out my relief. "Thank you."

"Is he yours?" She's staring at me.

"Hm?"

She nods toward Jack. "The guy picking flowers? He's yours right?"

"Oh, right." I shrug. "Yeah."

"Cute."

"The cutest."

* * * * *

"I don't think I even want to see another cherry for the rest of my life," I mumble.

It's insane to me I ever tried saying that sister of mine isn't truly a Bridezilla. Luke, Jack, and I just put together so many goddamn little paper bags with the tops of them having to be rolled down perfectly. The cherries couldn't be anything less or more than perfectly ripe. I'm glad I wasn't her maid of honor who got put in charge of writing the tags. That was meticulous as fuck from what I could hear.

Jack sighs as he sits down next to me and puts his head on my shoulder. "Quinn's so lucky he got to be the quick errand boy."

He is so lucky. He got recruited before I did but he got to try and fix the chaotic start to the day with Brosie and Penn. According to Holls, Brosie needed to be back at the house every few hours to make sure he makes it back in time to get ready and get to the venue on time too.

"Prez, if you do anything even close to this shit on your wedding day, I'm not showing up," Luke says. People think I'm the dramatic one but he's the one who's laying on the floor as if he worked a twelve-hour shift.

I choose to ignore him and Jack as they argue about whether Luke's even allowed to do that. All I can think about is the little orange I'm peeling. Cuties? Or is that only a brand? Mandarins? I think they're mandarins. Either way. I meant to eat this in the truck and never did.

Jack's entire upper leg pushes into mine. Manspreading in this day and age? Jeez. I move my leg over and he follows, nudging his knee into mine a few times. I nudge back and that seems to settle it.

"You know," Luke pauses, "I'm not holding your purse for you tonight."

"What about tomorrow?" I shoot.

He scrunches up his nose slightly. "Why do you even need a purse?"

"Lip gloss," Jack says before I can. I take the first little slice of my orange and hold it out to him. He takes it almost instantly, nudging my knee with his once more.

"I should've known that one," Luke says. I hum out an agreement because I'm finally getting around to eating my orange.

The boys fall into discussion again. Something about their outfits and hoping Trevor's on time. The guy only gets to come to the rehearsal because Ki had a family emergency and can't make any of it anymore. I should probably call her. She might be busy. She'll get mad at me for calling her when my sister is getting married tomorrow.

I flinch as something heavy is on my thigh. My idiotic best friend laughs once I realize it's Jack's hand palm up on my leg. How easy would it be for him to flip it upside down? Rest a hand on my thigh in a different way. How easy would it be for me to put my hand on his? Hold his hand.

Pretty fucking hard probably. I place the last two slices of my orange in his hand. He scoffs while Luke starts rambling off on some tangent about something. Jack takes his hand off my leg for only a moment. It returns with the final slice.

I pop it in my mouth right as the front door opens and slams shut, Holly shows up in the doorway a moment later. "Kenny, can you help me out with my hair? I need to do it and my nails at the same time to be in the clear. Barely."

Through her panic transmitting to me, I nearly miss Jack's hand flipping over and squeezing my leg not once, not twice, but three times. I'm in a daze getting up and following my sister upstairs.