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Amber

I took one last glance at ear I wasn’t one of those tools who constantly leaned into photographer’s shots or tried to act like I was some sort of camera aficionado, so my phone could happily be tucked intoit out at all, butinsistently to take my birth control

Which, obviously, I didn’t need anyet an i forward to not having to live and die bya pill at the sae to delete the stupid notification, so I hadn’t done that yet

Wait, what kind of person mused about their birth control when they were at a friend’s wedding? Only a real weirdo or someone as real desperate, and I was neither, so I quickly returned my attention to the actual ceremony

Just in tie, beautiful conservatory opened and a little flower girl stepped in

She was almost too cute, all blond curls and chocolate eyes She had the chubby, chubby cheeks of a little cherub and was haphazardly throwing multicolored rose petals this way and that Of course, I cooed and aith everyone else until she reached the end where I recognized Annika’s sister crouching with open arms

Beth and I weren’t anything like ene either Only two years older than Annika -who I had been best friends with since the fifth grade- I got the feeling that she had always considered me as the loud-mouthed companion to her little sis

Maybe that hy I wasn’t in the wedding party like my ultimate best friend, Michelle was Well… no, I knew that wasn’t true Between the bridal shower, the bachelorette party, the fittings, and everything else, I just hadn’t had the tirun over by it

Yeah, it sucked so a woman who ran a stunt performer company with only one other partner, but in a lot of ways it hat I had always dreamed of

Ever since I was little, I had been a h and tumble and into sports, but I also loved heels and ot intofe ass So, considering s that satisfied all ofbetter

…except, you know, better insurance and steadier workflow andtoo greedy

The ed and reminded me to focus on the scene at hand The beautiful scene at hand One ofto sit there and pay attention I hadn’t taken a whole two days off work and I wasn’t going to spend the about work

I couldn’t remember the last time I had taken a vacation that wasn’t proainstall the lavish ceremony all around me

Mickey went down the aisle first as one of the groomsmen He really had filled out his lanky frame since we had been kids In fact, he was quite the muscleman noas faintly aware that he had a very successful career as an MMA fighter, but I had been so wrapped up in ed to catch all the details of it

But maybe that was because I still partially saw him as the tall and lanky ten-month-older brother of my best friend, Michelle

While Annika’s older sister had never really liked me, Mickey was the exact opposite It was clear from very early on that he had been ena how churlish and h school era He had trailed after us like a lost puppy dog and while I never took offense, I wasn’t really interested

And not because there was anything wrong with him, just mostly because boys were stupid, and I was busy Also, I’d been quite the chubby high schooler and of course I had a whole lot of internalized self-hatred from that

Thankfully I was mostly over that

Mostly

It was hard, being a fit stunt woht, and ran,When I had first really gotten into martial arts, I’d been so confused But thenbodies looked the sa as I did my best to be healthy, that I was exactly where I needed to be