“You aren’t even invited!” I hollered back her way.
It only took a few minutes before Mama walked into my room with narrowed eyes. “You girls had another fight, huh?”
/> I shrugged. “She was just being dramatic again.”
“For two best friends, you sure get annoyed with one another quite often.”
“Yeah, well, that’s kind of what girls do.”
She smiled and agreed completely. “Well, just remember, she’s younger than you, Maggie, and Cheryl doesn’t have it as easy as you do. She’s a bit of a loner and an oddball, and doesn’t quite fit in. You’re her only true friend and her sister. She’s family, and what does family do?”
“Look out for each other?”
Mama nodded and kissed my forehead. “That’s right. We look out for each other, even on the tough days.” Whenever Cheryl and I got into fights, Mama always said that to me. Family looks out for each other. Especially on the tough days when it was hard to even look at each other.
I remembered the first time she had said it, too. She and Daddy had sat Calvin, Cheryl, and me down in the living room and told us all it was okay to call them Mama and Dad if we wanted to. It was the night of their wedding, and we were officially a family. As we sat there, Mama and Daddy had us pile our hands on top of one another and make a promise to always look out for each other. Because that’s what families do.
“I’ll apologize,” I whispered to myself, talking about Cheryl. She was, after all, my best friend.
I spent the rest of the afternoon planning the wedding. I’d been dreaming of my wedding since I was seven years old, so a super long time. I wondered what kind of music Brooks liked. Since he wouldn’t let me listen, I had to guess on my own. He and Calvin had been messing around with Daddy’s guitars a bit each night and said they were going to be famous musicians someday. I didn’t much believe them at first, but the more they practiced each night, the better they got. Maybe they could play at the wedding. Also, maybe I’d pick his favorite song to walk down the aisle to. Then again, he and my brother had been singing “Sexy Back” by Justin Timberlake for the past week, and that didn’t seem wedding-y enough for me.
Maybe for our first dance, though.
Each night after Mama and Daddy put us all to bed, I’d hear music playing downstairs in the living room. It was the same song every single time: Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me”—their first dance song. Tiptoeing out of my room, I went to the top of the staircase and looked downstairs. The lights were dimmed, Daddy took Mama’s hand and asked her a question. “Dance with me?” he asked her every night before they started to dance. Daddy was spinning Mama around in circles, both of them giggling like they were kids. Mama had a glass of wine in her hand, and as Daddy swayed her, the wine flew from the glass and onto the white carpet. They giggled even more at the mess and pulled each other closer. Mama’s head rested against Daddy’s chest as he whispered into her ear, and they danced so slow.
That’s what true love meant to me.
True love meant you could laugh at mistakes.
True love meant you could whisper secrets.
True love meant you never had to dance alone.
The next morning, I woke ready for the day ahead of me. “Today is the rehearsal for my wedding day!” I shouted, stretching my arms out and jumping up and down on my bed. “It’s my rehearsal! It’s my rehearsal day!”
Calvin stumbled into my bedroom, rubbing his hands over his sleepy eyes. “Gosh, Maggie, can you shut it? It’s three in the morning,” he griped, yawning.
I smirked. “It doesn’t matter, because it’s my rehearsal day, Calvin!”
He grumbled some more and called me a name, but I didn’t care.
Daddy stumbled into my room almost exactly how my brother had, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He walked over to my bed, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, forcing him to hold me up in the air.
“Daddy, guess what? Guess what?” I shrieked with excitement.
“Let me guess, you’re having your wedding rehearsal today?”
I nodded quickly and laughed as he tiredly spun me around in a circle. “How did you know?”
He smirked. “Lucky guess.”
“Can you make her stop yelling so we can go back to bed?” Calvin groaned. “It’s not even a real wedding!”
I gasped and went to sass him for his lies, but Daddy stopped me, whispering, “Someone’s not a morning person. How about we all go back to bed for a few hours, and then I’ll cook you a day-before-wedding-day breakfast?”
“Waffles with strawberries and whipped cream?”
“And sprinkles!” He smiled.