And just like that, the two of them made eye contact.
The bride and groom managed to rent out the ballroom for the entire weekend to celebrate their wedding. The wedding was to take place Saturday at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and so the entire wedding party was sitting in the same ballroom they’d be dancing on the next evening, but to have a pre-dinner. The ballroom was yet to be decorated; Scarlet would know, due to the fact that she’s heard her sister go on about it for the past few weeks.
Scarlet’s older sister Olivia was getting married to a man named Mason, and Scarlet could not dread this wedding any further. While Scarlet used to be close to her sister when they were younger, she hadn’t been so close with her lately. Olivia had just graduated from Rutgers University, and conveniently found Mason her freshman year when they discovered he lived in the next town over. From then, it was fate; and little Scarlet was drawn out of the picture.
Now they were in a beautiful country club in Long Island, not too far from where the two adjoining families lived. Scarlet knew nothing of this man and of his family because granted, Olivia wasn’t thrilled about sharing him. Every time he came over for dinner she conveniently wasn’t home, and every time Olivia invited her over to his house she declined. Olivia didn’t fight it, as she didn’t really want to bring her there, anyways. After all, as summer was coming to a close and school was starting in less than two weeks, Scarlet was only concerned about finishing up her senior year and attending the school of her dreams: UNC Chapel Hill.
And while school had always been her main concern, she then saw him.
He wasn’t sitting down; he was standing by the bar, talking to a few of the other guests that were unrecognizable to her, so she only assumed they were with the other family. Scarlet had always wondered what it would be like to do something spontaneous for the first time in her life, and what better place to do that then at a wedding?
The eye contact was unbearable.
Even in conversation, he’d glance at her and their smiles drew into each other. Her brain fumbled from the sudden attraction she felt towards him. He was clearly around her age, but he was tall, had a nice build, squinted eyes and beach blonde hair. He looked like a younger version of a Baywatch lifeguard, Scarlet figured. Her tan skin and dark hair and eyes certainly offset his blonde and glowing complexion.
“Scarlet!” She was caught out of her trance to see her tall sister scurrying over to her. And she certainly was scurrying; if her dress were any tighter, she’d pop. “Why are you sitting over here? Oh, never mind that. I need your help!”
“Yes?” Scarlet was sitting at a table further away, as she was closer with the cousins that were over here. She had Nolan, her cousin that also lived in the area and went to the same school, who just so happened to be one of her best friends.
“Mom and Dad are at it again.”
Scarlet rolled her eyes. The worst part about family events is when it brings the mother and father together. They had a patchy divorce and, after 9 years of being apart, were still unable to settle their differences.
“Oh, no,” Scarlet grumbled.
“Could you grab Mom a glass of wine and Dad some scotch?”
“Liv, they won’t let me do that. I’m underage.” That didn’t totally matter anyways: due to all of the older relatives, she had been sipping on wine the entire dinner party. She was pleasantly buzzed.
“Just say it’s for the bride! Please I don’t want them to cause a scene!”
And granted, neither did she. So as Olivia ran back to control the raging parents, Scarlet found herself sauntering over to the bar where she found the mysterious boy talking to what was now one older relative.
As she approached she couldn’t help but glance at him from time to time. And every time she did, he was staring at her. It was now apparent that his eyes were a blaring green, and she couldn’t help but be drawn to them. He gave her a smirk—it looked almost seductive and playful—and Scarlet shyly turned away. While she wanted to play this game, it certainly put her out of her comfort zone.
She approached the bar with fake confidence. She said smoothly to the bar tender, “Could I have a glass of Merlot and Scotch? It’s for the bride.”
The bartender nodded and continued to fix up the drinks without hesitation. Saying ‘it’s for the bride’ really was a good party trick.
Scarlet turned around, her back facing the bar and stared at the ballroom. Mostly everyone was standing now, as the DJ played classic tunes for the elderly guests to dance to. Some of the little kids were on the dance floor—she noticed her baby cousins Craig and Julia dancing wildly—as well as their parents. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight, seeing everyone so happy.
“Hey.”
Scarlet turned to her left, as she now found the blonde-haired, green-eyed beauty leaning right beside her on the bar. Her stomach twisted and her heart squeezed, as now his face was right next to hers. She suddenly felt heated and intoxicated by his looks and his smooth voice. And all it took was one word.
“H-hi.”
“You here with the bride or the groom?”
It amused Scarlet, the way this boy talked to her as if they were two adults searching for sex at a wedding. Scarlet had always been shy but she did have one long-term relationship in high school. It ended roughly halfway through junior year, and from then on decided to stay dedicated to school.
But what could one weekend do?
She grinned. “The bride.”
He nodded. “Nice. I’m here with the groom.”
Perfect. “You know him well?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, we’re pretty close I guess.”
A silence fell between the two. Scarlet’s mind was swirling with ideas, with what she wanted to do. She heard the bartender behind her place the drinks down, so she turned around to scoop them up before the boy in front of her stopped her.
“You going to drink those yourself?” he couldn’t help but snicker. “Didn’t think you were twenty-one.”
“I’m not,” she countered, “but these are for my parents.”
“Well,” he whispered huskily, snaking his arm around her waist and bringing his lips very close to my ear, “when you finish delivering those, meet me by the bathroom.”
And in a sliver, the boy walked away. She watched him walk out of the ballroom, and give one glance back to look at her with that same seductive-yet-playful grin. Scarlet’s insides fumed; she needed to get these to her parents immediately.
She paced herself through the ballroom, heated with excitement and nervousness, as she couldn’t totally process what was going on right now. She didn’t know how far this was going to go or to what degree he was expecting it to go, but the buzz was slowly growing stronger as the wine really began to settle. All she thought about was placing these drinks down in front of her parents and meeting the blonde beauty by the restrooms. So that was what she did. Without a word, she went over to her mother and placed the wine in front of her and then the scotch in front of her father, and next thing she realized she was outside the ballroom walls and making her way down the hall to the bathrooms.
In between the men and women’s restrooms she found the boy leaning up against the white wall. He glanced up at her once the loud clacking of the heels echoed, and he grinned up at her again. She couldn’t help but swoon a bit.
“So,” Scarlet started, her unknown confidence controlling her.
He nudged his head in the opposite direction and said, “Follow me. I found something.”
With that, the boy took her hand, and the two walked around the corner and down an unknown hallway. As they were walking, his eyes were scanning the walls. She watched him, still unfathomed by the fact she was even doing anything like this. But finally, he stopped abruptly, and in front of them there was a door. He jiggled the handle for a few seconds, before finally pushing it open, before bringing the two into what seemed to be a supply closet.
“Wow,” Scarlet said sarcastically, “this is something else.”
He snickered at her comment, before closing the door and hearing a ‘click’ for what she assumed was the lock.
“Y’know,” he started, as she heard him begin to approach her. “You’ve had my eye all night. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone quite as beautiful as you.”
“I think,” she quickly stopped him, as she felt his arms circle her waist, “we should take two seconds to learn each other’s names. I don’t think knowing that you’re with the groom and I’m with the bride is enough.”
“Fair,” she heard him say. “My name is Liam.”
“Scarlet,” she replied. “So, you weren’t expecting to have sex in here, were you?”
“What?” he took an abrupt step back. “No. No? Wait, no sex?”
Scarlet, within it all, couldn’t help but let out a giggle. He actually began laughing too, which immediately eased all of the tension built up in Scarlet’s body. She couldn’t shake the fact that she was nervous, as the only interaction she had with this boy before now was a stare across a ballroom.
“I mean…if no sex now, then maybe sex at the end of the weekend?”
“Wow, you’re something else!”
“Just like this room, right?”
She snickered again. At least he was lightening the mood.
She mumbled quietly, “We’ll see.” She said that with the fakest pride she ever had, because she wasn’t about to have her first time with a boy be a stranger that she met at her sister’s wedding. “But for right now, just kiss me.”
His grip on her tightened, and he lowered his lips down to hers as Scarlet’s heart bounced around her ribcage. Her arms snaked around the boy’s neck as they kissed heatedly, their bodies pressed together, their tongues dancing wildly, and a few chuckles here and there. She couldn’t believe it. She was kissing the cute boy from across the way.
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The two snuck their way back inside the ballroom without any glares. Toasts were about to be made, and so the two parted ways, still smiling about their little rendezvous in the supply closet. The two merely just made out a lot, but there was something about it all that sent a fire in Scarlet’s stomach, one she had not quite felt before. She felt rebellious and wanted, and she was about to have the weekend to remember.
So Scarlet circled the back of the ballroom and made her way back to her seat. She sat right next to her Mom and squeezed her hand, as she squeezed it back in delight as we waited for the toast to begin. She let out a sigh and a smile, still recuperating from what had just ensued.
That was until she glanced out in front of her.
Directly across from their table, was the Mason Butler family table. Both of his parents were there, as well as Mason’s younger sister as well as his younger brother.
However, when Scarlet and said younger brother made eye contact for the first time across the way, the world froze.
Liam, to her demise, was staring back into her eyes. They both shared a horrified look; a look that concluded the realization of how well each knew the bride and the groom.
Oh, no.
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