Dizzy (20 page)

Twenty-Six

~ Ziah ~

I’m not sure what time I crashed last night, but this morning is the first day where my legs don’t feel like lead. Last day before Spring Break. The morning of the rehearsal, though with Dylan still MIA, I’m not sure what will happen.

Dylan is too draining to think about. I’m mad and I’m hurt and I’m sorry. Those are some exhausting emotions to roll through day after day. I take a shower, spend some time on my hair, and even run mascara over my lashes.

No mid-terms today. I already have an A in English, so I’ll be able to spend that class time buried in a book. I may just survive my day a little better than I’ve survived the week so far.

Then Alyssa picks me up with James in the backseat. The drive is tense, but we’re all in the same car and no one explodes. The conversation rests on the weather, calculus, and biology. I take a deep breath when we hit the parking lot.

“We survived.” Alyssa rests her arm over my shoulder as James jogs to catch up with another friend.

“We survived.” It hits me hard. We’ll be able to be friends, and we’ll be okay. Not perfect, not the way we were before, but okay. And I guess that’s enough.

School passes in a haze. We’re all half on Spring Break already. I check my phone like a million times, but I guess I’m sort of resigned to silence. And I’m starting to get nervous about maybe seeing Dylan tonight.

***

Lora’s handling the cancellation of her rehearsal incredibly well. Like I’m almost suspicious as she chomps down on her fiftieth carrot stick since her dinner salad.

“How hard could it be?” She smiles, but it looks a little forced. “I walk up the aisle. You all stand on either side. It’ll be fine.”

“What about…” Dylan?

“They’re driving back from the coast tomorrow morning. Sounds like he’ll be with them.” She studies my face more carefully.

Hours before the wedding. “And you’re okay with this?”

“I love Derrick. I want to be part of their family. So, yeah. I’m okay with this.” She sits back.

“Wow.” Not only are we gaining a Derrick, their family is gaining a Lora. They’d better recognize how amazing she is.

“You’d better go put on those heels and get some more practice.” She nudges me with her elbow.

Yeah, I’d better because not only will I have to walk in those heels tomorrow, I’ll have to walk in those heels while holding Dylan’s arm.

Twenty-Seven

~ Dylan ~

I’m freaking out. Yeah, I know. I should totally be over freaking out by now, but this time it has nothing to do with the wedding, Mom, or even wanting to run away from Ziah. It has to do with seeing her and putting it all out there with her again. It’s the second… third time I’ve had to do it, but she’s worth it.

We’re both worth it.

All I have to do now is hope she’s not with James.

Dad and Derrick were obviously thinking ahead because they brought their tuxes with them to the beach house. Paul showed up, and now we’re all decked out on our way to Vista House.

“Is she coming?” I ask Derrick.

I’d been afraid to ask him before, but I need to know. Regardless, I’ll be good. I’m over it.

“Nah.” He shakes his head. “It was never about that, D. I think I just needed her to know we’re good—that we turned out okay without her.”

I nod. “Yeah, I can kind of get that.”

“Are you nervous?” he asks. He’s in the passenger side of Mary. Dad and Paul are in Dad’s car.

“Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that? You’re the one about to go down the aisle.”

“And I’m seriously going to celebrate the hell out of it. I can’t wait, but that’s not what I mean. Rumor has it some stuff went down with you and Ziah.”

A laugh jumps out of my mouth. “Rumor has it? Why don’t you just say Ziah said something to Lora who then said something to you? Dumbass.”

I glance over and see my brother smirk at me. I wonder if I should feel weird talking to him about Ziah, or if he’s going to warn me away from her again, but I squash those thoughts quick. Somehow, I think we’re past that.

“I like her a lot, but she was with James. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Derrick sighs. “What’s going on is you reacting before you think, like always. She was upset, D. Talk to her. It’ll be cool.”

We don’t get a chance to continue because I’m pulling into parking lot of Vista House.

***

I’m outside when the limo pulls up. My heart rate kicks up a few notches. Ziah is the first one to step out. I expect to see her in her dress, but she’s wearing a tiny tank top and a pair of jeans and running shoes. Only her. Her hair is all done though—curls and knots on the top of her head with little strands falling down.

Her eyes catch mine and holds them. She’s got a lot of make-up on—way more than usual—but she’s still gorgeous. Stupidly, I hold my hand up and give her a small wave.

“Ziah! Hurry. Derrick’s not out there is he?” Lora pulls her attention away from me as I walk over to see if they need any help.

“Hey,” I say to Ziah. “He’s not out here.”

“Hey,” she says.

“Crap. I’m stuck,” Lora says from inside the limo, and I hear girls giggling while they do whatever it is they’re doing in there.

Ziah takes a step toward me, her face looks so uncertain. “James is just a friend. It was a project. It’s not—”

“Dylan! Come here, man. I need your help.” Derrick steps outside, and all the girls start screaming and yelling for him to go away because he can’t see Lora.

Knowing they’ll lose it, and Derrick needs me for whatever, I smile at her and touch one of those strands of hair before I turn and jog inside—already missing her.

***

I clutch my phone to my ear. “What do you mean the cakes got ruined? Don’t we have like, insurance on them or whatever?” Again, I’m freaking out a little here.

The guy on the other end of the phone starts yapping like crazy, and what he’s saying doesn’t even matter. All I know is the cake got screwed up while they were putting it in the van, and Lora is going blow a gasket. And after all the cake I gorged myself with, I’m a little pissed about it, too.

My first thought is to tell my brother, but I also don’t want to stress him out. He’s tripping out about this day because he wants it perfect for Lora, but I know he really wants it perfect for both of them. He’s just as into this as she is.

Ziah. She’ll know what to do.

I hang up the phone, which probably isn’t cool, but we’ve got a wedding disaster here. I mean, the cake is important, right? Lora and Derrick put way too much into it for cake-tastrophe to screw it up.

So now I’m scouring Vista House like crazy trying to find the maid of honor because I’m the best man, and it’s our job to handle shit like this.

I hit the room Ziah was in last, but as soon as I raise my hand to knock my brother’s voice drifts out from inside. He’s not supposed to be in there.

“I love you, Stiches.”

Stiches? What the hell kind of nickname is that? And wait, I thought it was like the end of the world for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding.

“I love you too.”

“Thanks for being cool about last night… Missing the rehearsal and the party.”

Guilt stabs into me. I screwed up last night, but I’m fixing this cake shit.

“It’s okay. It was important. You would have done the same for me and Ziah.”

“Yeah, but how am I going to know when to kiss you now?”

Damn…Derrick’s good.

Cake. Gotta figure out the cake. They’re obviously busy and will be for a while. I turn and head down the hallway. As soon as I round the corner, I run into Ziah.

Wow… do I run into Ziah. She’s in her dress this time and looks even better in it than she did when I saw her try it on. I’m man enough to admit my breath hitches a little. Girls are incredible. I wonder if this girl knows just how incredible she is.

“You look amazing.” I can’t help but tell her.

Pink colors her cheeks. “Thanks. We need to talk.”

“We do, and I’m not trying to put it off because there’s nothing I want to do more than talk to you—okay, that’s a lie. Looking like that there are a lot of things I can think of to do with you instead of talking, but unless we want our siblings to lose it, we have a cake emergency we need to figure out.”

She’s blushing until the last thing I said hits her. “What? Cake emergency? What happened?”

That’s when an idea pops into my head. The day I saw Ziah trying on the dresses, they’d eaten Voodoo Donuts. Lora brought them over one day.

“Holy shit, I’m a genius.” I laugh as I do a search on my phone for their number.

“Now’s not the time to be cocky, Dylan. My sister is going to go nuts if we don’t have a cake.”

“We do! We have a cake. Or we’ll have something. I’ll fix it.” I’m fully aware I’m not giving her much to go on, but I want to do this. To fix my screw up last night and all my other screw ups with this wedding stuff. “It’s under control. I got it.”

And then on reflex, I lean forward to kiss her. She freezes and I freeze and things are suddenly awkward.

“Sorry… I just… Sorry. We’ll talk.” If she wants. For all I know we’re over before we even really started. I’m not sure I can blame her. Or maybe we’re fine. Yeah. We really need to talk. “I better go. I have to get us some donuts.”

I start dialing as Dad’s voice echoes in the hall. “Dylan?”

“Coming!” I give Ziah another short wave as I turn to catch Dad.

I walk away trying to figure out what I just said to her. There are a million things I want to say to her—that I need to say. For starters, I get it. Everything Derrick ever said about Lora, I get it, but I settled on ‘I have to get us some donuts?’ If she’s even half as confused as I am, we’re screwed.

***

A whole lot of money later, we have a shitload of donuts on order. Paul’s picking them up between the wedding and the reception. I finish setting it all up as Derrick and Dad step into the room.

“It’s time.” Derrick has a huge smile on his face. Dad gives him a hug and then me. Paul and Sam are here with us, too.

Everyone files out of the room, but Derrick’s lingering behind with me. “I’m nervous as hell,” he says as we step into the hall.

“That’s normal,” I say as if I know.

“Yeah…yeah. I know. I can’t wait. She’s incredible. I’m going to work my ass off every day to make sure I deserve her.”

I look at my brother, proud of him. He’s not the douche or the sell-out I thought he was. One day I’ll be lucky to be like him. “You already do, man. You got this.”

Then we’re ushered through a door and head up the aisle. The whole time I’m hoping I don’t mess this up since I screwed up the rehearsal. We get to the front and stand where we’re supposed to. The music starts, and then Lora appears. Her eyes catch Derrick’s, and he smiles.

“Yeah… I got this,” he whispers.

Behind Lora, Ziah steps out, somehow even more gorgeous then when I saw her a little while ago. She doesn’t look up at me, but I can see the concentration on her face. I know she was nervous about the shoes, but she looks like she’s doing it right to me.

“Yeah, I do too.”

Twenty-Eight

~ Ziah ~

I catch Dylan’s eyes as I step slowly down the stairs, and he’s smiling at me, which makes my heart stutter, which I’m terrified will make my feet stumble. Miraculously I make it to the bottom. Now I’m following my sister, whose short, lace train flows out behind her, and it hits me again what a big deal this is for her. For all of us, really.

Derrick’s it. My brother-in-law. My grin spreads as it hits me again that Dylan will be sort of my brother-in-law, too. Now that I’m thinking about him, I glance his way, and his eyes are still on me, making me blush. I have got to hold it together or I’m going to fall on my face.

Dad gives Lora a kiss on the cheek before putting her hand in Derrick’s, and I’m amazed he remembered to do that.

In what feels like seconds, but also hours because of my shoes, I’m holding Lora’s bouquet and looking at all our friends and family—Mom wiping her eyes and Dad looking both proud and stunned.

Then I turn toward Dylan’s dad and the very well-dressed group sitting on the Gibson side of the room. And I think about Dylan and his mom and what a big deal it is for him to like me enough to move forward. I think about how Lora’s going to laugh and love the donuts because after losing the perfect wedding cakes, it’s the only way to make it better.

And Dylan did it.

I catch his eyes only once as Derrick leans over to put the ring on Lora’s finger, and the way he’s looking at me makes me feel like we’ll be okay.

After they kiss and we cheer, it’s time to touch Dylan again. I get to touch Dylan again.

“Hey,” I say as I slide my arm through his for him to lead me back up the aisle. I’m an idiot. Hey?

The photographer kneels down to take pictures of us, so I plaster on the smile I know Lora would want to see.

“I’m sorry, Ziah. I shouldn’t have bailed like that, I—”

“And I should have told you that James and I are talking as friends again.”

It sucks that we’re walking arm in arm and not talking somewhere private, but after being interrupted over and over, I can’t wait.

“I just freaked. It was me.”

“If you would have stayed on the phone, Dylan. I would have helped you. Gone with you, or…”

“I had to do this on my own.”

I finally laugh. “Let’s just say we both screwed up, is that cool?”

“Start over?” he asks as he tips his head toward mine. “Do you still want to?”

“Yeah. I want to. But no more disappearing. Talk first, okay?”

“Deal.” His breath hits my neck and shoulder sending shivers through me. “I’m totally falling for you, Hanes.”

I stumble, nearly fall, but he grabs my waist, holding me up. I can hear the photographer clicking away, and my face gets hot. So much for playing it cool.

Dylan’s eyes meet mine. “Don’t worry, Ziah. I got you.”

And he does.

Right there, a few feet off the end of the aisle, I drop my bouquet to throw my arms around Dylan’s neck and give him a kiss that makes Derrick and Lora look like amateurs. We’ll definitely be okay.