The Game Of Lust

Engagement night

“I've suddenly become a man, haven't I? ” he asked in a sultry tone. I scanned from the top of his head down to his feet. Tyler had on a heavy looking pair of glasses, which somehow gave him the idea he was Clark Kent. He wore a light blue long sleeved shirt, he buttoned from the top to the very last and brown cargo shorts. I quickly retracted my eyes to his face after beholding the strip pair of shocks he had on.

“Not really, I still see a seventeen year old,” I replied and his face fell.

“You know I keep trying to be the man you want me to be, my love.” he said wistfully.

“Well give It time,” I replied as I patted his shoulder.

“We can get married in the next five years, can't we?.”

“How about ten.”

“I'll do anything for you Regina,” he Smiled,

“Anything?” I asked, I'd thought of just the perfect way to get rid of Tyler, even though it would only be temporary and Tyler most surely would come running back, luckily for me, Vivian's siblings only came by occasionally on Sunday's.

“I'll do anything! ” he reassured.

“Then let's get married on the Grand Canyon!” I said giddily and took his hand. I knew he had a very strong fear for heights.

“The grand … The Grand Canyon?”

“Yes!” I spouted happily,

“We can invite all our friends, I want at least a thousand guests!”

“On the Grand Canyon, you're joking right?”

“Why would I joke about something that important?”

He stared blankly at me, perplexed rather,

“And I want a dress made entirely from diamonds, you know how we women love shiny things.” I added.

I could see the bewilderment on his face, “Oh! we can even have like an after party with confetti and fireworks everywhere! ”

“On … the Grand Canyon? ” he repeated mechanically.

“I thought you would do anything for me?” I asked

He looked around nervously,

“I think I hear Jules calling me, ” he muttered quickly and sprinted away.

Vivian swung the door open causing a loud bang and marched out angrily, “A dress! You know I hate dresses, Regina!” she yelled, looking down at the short white tulip dress she had on.

“But It looks so good on you.”

“When did you suddenly become fashion police?”

“What does that mean?”

“I'm the one who started making you dress better, just so you know.” she crossed her arms stubbornly,

“That's isn't … ok I agree with you but you can't wear sweatpants to every occasion,”

“I look like a lace underwear!”

“You look gorgeous,”

“Who the hell sends wedding invitation cards before the engagement party?”

“I think she did that to spite us both,” I replied,

“And who sets a dress code for an engagement party? ”

“Apparently Sharon does.”

I adjusted the pin on her curly hair and took all the shorter strands away from her face.

“You're all set! Let's go!” I picked up the red purse I'd given her year's before, which was the only purse she had. Backpacks were more of her thing.

As I dragged Vivian to the door, Olly rushed to her and held onto the hem of her dress,

“I wanna go with you guys,” he said and began to cry.

“Get Your sweaty hands off of me,” she sighed, “But I wanna go with you!” he said and began to throw a fit. Lying on the floor and kicking at the air.

“Stop it olly, ” she pulled his hand off her dress and left him lying on the floor. “Tyler! Come pick him up.”

Tyler dashed out and pulled Olly off the ground.

“I'll get you Ice cream on my way back, I love you all. bye bye,” she said as she blew them a kiss and she ran out the door.

We reached the venue an hour late and met an believable number of people in the hall. They'd already announced their wedding, that day also happened to be their six months anniversary, so the engagement came as a surprise to those whom I suppose weren't in town to witness Sharon's bridal shenanigans. Everyone raised their glasses to the new couples. Matt had a grey suit on and Sharon as I expected had on a pink corset gown with a long side slit that exposed her tanned skin. Her hair was wrapped into a neat bun at the top of her head, she looked princess-like.

“Tells us how you met!” someone yelled from the gathering.

Sharon snickered as she took the microphone,

“I'll him tell the story!” she said and handed the microphone to Matt.

He paused for a second and took it from her hand.

“Just look at him! He's such a puppet,” Vivian pressed her palm against her forehead and sighed

“Just leave him alone will ya?” I snapped as I pushed her by the shoulder.

Everyone waited eagerly to hear what Matt had to say, he chuckled softly before talking, “It's kind of a long story but I'll say it anyways,” he laughted, “It was pretty much the beginning of the year. At a friend's goth themed birthday party, Sharon happened to be the only one in pink,”

He said and everyone laughed,

“I was on key duty, to put it another way, my job was to make sure no one drove home drunk or without a designated driver, I couldn't even focus cause the whole time, I was looking at the lovely Miss Jefferson,” he recounted, “She was like a light in a dark tunnel and trust me, people go all crazy at themed parties but she was different, I couldn't stop staring at her. That night I remember she approached me asking for her keys and I ended up diving her the wrong one. she didn't notice and neither did I.” he paused for a moment and turned to her, “by the end of the night, I still had one key left with me and I couldn't find the owner. Funny enough She'd also spent the entire night looking for me as well. Finally we found each and switched the keys back and lemme tell you this, she was quite pissed.” he laughed, “And that was just how we met.”

The crowd uhhed and awwed at his tale but I knew it was nothing but a fairytale written by non other than Sharon. I had to give her a hand for her creativity and imagination, I guess the rom-coms paid off in the end. The real story as it should've been told was that I was the one who introduced them, at Josh's birthday party not a goth theme party, Josh was Matt's younger brother. Apparently sharon was the only one of my friends he'd never met untill year three years ago when she got back from college but the party wasn't the first time he saw her.

That night I happened to be drunk and sharon as we all knew, wasn't a big fan of alcohol. She also didn't wear pink it was neon green the same thing I had on. The mixed up keys was my fault as well, in my drunken frenzy I snatched whichever key he had carelessly stretched to me. By the time we got outside, we spent about an hour looking for my car in the dark plus I couldn't remember where I'd initially parked it and when we'd eventually found it, we realized the keys didn't work so Sharon sat me down on the ground while she ran off to go look for Matt.

I didn't know how to feel about their cooked up lie, but Vivian was certainly perplexed by it, she turned to me with her jaw hanging loose.

“I'm don't know if I'm impressed or disgusted,” I said, shaking my head in disappointment.

“I asked her to marry me after she'd spent an entire weekend at my grandma's house, she was ill and that woman is not the jolliest person to live with but Sharon surprised me, she still surprises me till this very day and I am the happiest person in the world to be standing here with you today,” he pulled her in and kissed her.

“I love you,” he said to her and everyone began to cheer, the air around me suddenly felt hot.

Vivian rolled her eyes as she sighted Sharon's new girlfriends all decked out in pink as well. I'd never been more horrified of the colour pink in all my life. She climbed the stage right after the couple had gotten down. There was something familiar about all Sharon's friends but I couldn't quite stamp my finger on it, perhaps it was the matching gait, or the hair maybe the matching dresses. Judging by the way they all looked, The event was simply a foot away from been an actual wedding ceremony. She wiped her hair dramatically before speaking, “I just have a few things to say. So this won't take long.”

She switched her weight to her other leg, “We've been friends since highschool, Sharry I'm so proud of you! You used to talk about becoming a princess so you could marry a prince, you've got your Prince Charming and I'm so happy for you and everything we've achieved together.” she dabbed off the tear in her eyelid carefully with her fingertip trying not to ruin her makeup. Thirty minutes later her speech had still not ended. I felt a yawn coming up.

“Matthew! you better take care of my bestie or I'm gonna hunt you down,” she giggled and handed the microphone to Sharon's other friend who was eagerly waiting to speak.

“You people made me understand the true meaning of love and I hope the love you have for each other never dries out,” she cheered and got down from the stage with the mic still in her hand, she approached Vivian and I with a giddy smile on her face, as she reached Vivian, she was greeted with a threatening scorn and immediately she cautiously tuned around and faced me.

“Oh no I don't think I can ..” with very little time complete my sentence, she handed me the microphone and led me up to the stage, “ And now a word from the Sharon's long time best friend,” she announced and excused herself from the stage.

From up there I got a bigger view of the wall and everyone, my eyes shrunk at the all the pink on display, the balloons, the flowers and even the curtains. Sharon and Matt were seated at the front in a decorated table. She didn't look like a princess, she looked more like a doll. At that moment it all seemed to me that I was standing before a stranger and another stranger, I had to think back deeply to assure myself that my Friendship with her was not a myth, I'd made made up all these years.

“Sharon!” I cleared my throat, thinking of the words to say.