Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [58]
The train pulled into the station, and they all got up and left in silence. They stood in the sun for a moment. “It’s really nice out today,” Mary said. Lauren ran to a garbage can on the platform and threw up. “Yes,” Isabella said. “It’s beautiful out.”
As Kristi unwrapped mixers and place mats, Lauren and Isabella snuck out to the patio to have a cigarette. “I bet she gets pregnant right away,” Lauren said. She was sipping her third mimosa, and was in much better shape already.
“Why?” Isabella asked.
“Because then she’ll have a reason for everyone to give her more presents. We’ll have to throw her a baby shower too, and talk about her being pregnant, and then we’ll have to babysit the little fucker.”
“That’s lovely,” Isabella said. She peeked through the sliding glass doors to see if anyone missed them. Mary had been grabbed and chosen to write down all of the gifts, and she was looking around the room for them. She seemed pissed and Isabella felt bad, but better her than them. Their friend Abby was constructing a bouquet out of the ribbons Kristi threw at her as she tore into the packages. Abby worked with her head down, like a child in a sweatshop. Kristi had debated whether or not to even make Abby a bridesmaid in the first place. “I mean, I know she’d be honored,” Kristi said. “But maybe it would be too much, since she just called off her own wedding not long ago. I don’t want her to be a downer.” Abby had shown up at every shower and party, and been a good sport. And now, here she was threading ribbons through a paper plate. She glanced up and saw Isabella through the glass door. Her eyes looked wounded, like she believed that Kristi was getting married just to punish her. Abby gave Isabella a small smile and kept her fingers moving, twisting and tying to make that stupid ribbon hat. Isabella tried to smile back and then had to turn away.
“This is getting ridiculous,” Lauren said. She was cranky. “This is my fifth wedding this year. And I’m done with it. What I don’t get is why there have to be so many showers just for one person. And why do they have to have themes? Why? Just to make it more annoying than it already is?”
Isabella shushed her and then glanced inside to make sure no one had heard. The theme for this shower was “My Favorite Things.” They had all received invitations that read: “Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes! Please come and celebrate with our bride-to-be, Kristi Kearney. Bring her one of your favorite things!”
“I should have brought her cigarettes,” Lauren said thoughtfully. She took one more drag and then stamped her cigarette out on the ground. “They are one of my favorite things. Thank God I have them today. Kristi’s being a nightmare, huh?”
Isabella didn’t have anything to say. Kristi wasn’t a bad person, she didn’t think. But she was acting like one. “Maybe she’s just stressed,” Isabella said. They had been talking about Kristi for months now. If the wedding didn’t come soon, they were going to have to stop being friends with her.
On the eve of Kristi’s engagement party, Todd’s great-aunt died. There was talk of rescheduling, and Kristi came to see them, crying. “I’ve just really been looking forward to this,” she said. “How could they do this to me?”
“But someone died,” Lauren said.
“I just think we still could have it. I mean, it’s a party for me,” Kristi said. She put her head in her hands and they all looked at each other. Then they all kept drinking.
The party ended up happening. And later, Kristi would say that it was a shame that the aunt’s death had put such a damper on it. “I just felt like I couldn’t really be as happy as I wanted to be, you know? Like I had to dial it back to be appropriate. It was really unfair.”
“Do you think she needs to be on medication?” Mary asked later. No one laughed.
They kept waiting for it to stop, waiting for Kristi to realize that she was acting like a beast. But she never did. At her bachelorette party, she cried when one of their friends announced