Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [15]
The wedding was a mess. Everyone stampeded the bar and ordered tequila shots until the bride’s father demanded that the bartenders stop serving them. Their friend Isabella was one of the bridesmaids, and she informed them that the bride’s mother had been crying all morning. “She kept saying, ‘I can’t believe this is how it’s happening,’ ” Isabella said. “It was awful.”
Their friend Joe threw up on the dance floor and it had to be cleared and cleaned before anyone could continue dancing. One of the bridesmaids was found passed out in the bridal suite and had to be sent home. People made out in corners, girls fell down and ripped their dresses, and finally the band stopped playing and everyone was kicked out and decided to go to Life’s Too Short. Shannon kept slurring, “Their lives are ruined, you know. Their lives are ruined.”
Louis was at the wedding and they all knew this meant Ellen would cry. Louis and Ellen danced together at the reception and then sat alone at a table in the bar. They were sure that Louis would stand up at any moment and storm out, but every time they looked over, Ellen and Louis were laughing and he was touching her knee.
Tripp was at the bar and when he saw Lauren he said, “Oh, you’re here?”
“See?” Lauren said to Shannon. “Chivalry is not dead.”
Tripp didn’t say anything, and Lauren had a feeling that he didn’t know what “chivalry” meant. It was becoming clear that he was stupid. She would have to end it. But before she could say anything else, he walked away.
“What a loser,” Lauren said. Shannon nodded.
The night ended when Tripp and Margaret Applebee left together. Lauren started crying, and Shannon and Isabella decided they should go to the diner and eat. Lauren ordered eggs and corned beef hash, poured ketchup all over her plate, and didn’t eat anything.
“He’s not worth it,” they said to her. She went home, left her dress in a pile on the floor, crawled into bed, and cried until she fell asleep.
By the time Lauren woke up the next morning, most of their guests were gone. Only Isabella remained, sitting on the couch with Shannon. They both looked like hell.
“Where’s Ellen?” Lauren asked.
Isabella shrugged. “She didn’t come home. We think she stayed at Louis’s.”
“I can’t believe she went home with him,” Shannon said.
“Who? Ellen or Margaret Applebee?” Isabella asked.
“Both, I guess. But I was talking about Ellen,” Shannon said.
“Can we please not talk about Margaret fucking Applebee?” Lauren said. She could feel Shannon and Isabella exchange a look behind her back.
Ellen came home later that afternoon, carrying all of their usual supplies for a Bloody Mary–and–summer sausage picnic. She hummed as she mixed together a pitcher of drinks, and bounced around the kitchen getting glasses and knives.
“You seem happy,” Shannon said.
“I am,” Ellen said. She smiled. “You guys, I had a really good night. Louis and I decided to get back together.”
“Oh,” Lauren said. She waited for someone else to be supportive.
“You can’t date him,” Shannon finally said. “He’s awful. He’s awful to you, and he’s awful to us, and he’s just awful.”
“He does seem to make you really unhappy most of the time,” Isabella said.
“Do you really think that?” Ellen asked. She looked straight at Lauren. “Lauren,” she said. “Do you think that?”
Lauren had no idea why she said what she said next. Sometimes she thinks back to that moment and imagines that she could take it back. She blamed it on being hungover, on the wedding, on Margaret Applebee, but really she had no excuse. Because what she said was “He’s just so ugly.”
Ellen was cutting the summer sausage when Lauren said this, and they all watched the knife slice right through her finger. Her hand was completely covered in blood before she even looked down.
“Holy shit,” Shannon screamed. Isabella ran inside to get a towel, and Shannon called 911. When they answered, she apologized and then spent