Their Days of Nights

Bonus Chapter : Gathering

Jessica

I straighten my black pencil skirt and convince myself that I made the right decision. The halter top, with a dark-pink and dark-grey combination of diagonal stripes, looks better than the buttoned maroonish-red sleeveless shirt I tossed a while ago. I'm going to my brother's wedding, not a training-for-trainer workshop.

Benjie is on the couch, with his arms spread on the backrest, watching something on the TV. He's the first one here to get ready. Why not? This is his special day.

With that get up, he either looks like a deviant corporate employee or a newbie door-to-door salesman. Or if he rolled the sleeves up to the elbows, he might blend in as one of the members of his favorite alternative bands. Knowing him and Kim, it's likely a part of their gimmick. They're not strictly required to be formally dressed to show up in front of a judge. Presentable is enough.

"Here." I toss Silvester's key to him.

He catches it. "Thanks," he nods. "Just for two days, then he's all yours."

I sit down beside him and wait for everyone else.

I join my parents on the ride. My little sister is with Benjie.

I'm on alert in case my phone receives a message or call from Ryan. He spent the weekend in their province with his family 'cause of an "emergency." He texted this morning that he'll leave there after lunch. But I know him, so that means at around two p.m. It's an average of a three-and-a-half hour drive from there down to the Metro. He'll make it later for the gathering, though I doubt he'll meet the five p.m. time stamp Benjie and Kim wrote in their online invite.

My family arrives in the courthouse a couple of minutes earlier than Kim's.

Everyone greets everybody. And we wait in the hallway outside of the judge's room.

I know a bit about Kim's barely-there relationship with her parents. But even if I don't, anyone would say that she's rigid around them.

She's wearing a quarter-sleeved, lacy, knee-length, off-white dress with a black silky ribbon tied on her waist. She mixes boho with a touch of punk. The dye on her hair seems redder this afternoon. Her hair simply hangs loose, and the bangs carefully sweep on the sides of her forehead.

That's already her most dressed-up mode. Other girls would probably get out of their houses in that kind of dress just to catch a movie. Therese is one of those girls. I invited her over for the little party later, but she's currently out of town and won't be back to the mainland until next week.

My brother hasn't let go of Kim's hand since they greeted each other a few minutes ago. Her brother, Kelvin, is in a conversation with my uncle, who's one of the wedding's witnesses. Althea alternates her attention between the phone in her hands and some framed words on the old wooden wall.

I take a few pictures of everyone before the secretary calls us inside.

Three-thirty on my watch. Half-an-hour later than the scheduled time.

Oh, well, whatever. Nothing ever starts on time here.

*

The whole thing was fast.

At four-fifteen, we're already stuck in traffic going to the building where the gathering is taking place. One of our aunts has a friend who has a cousin who owns a building with a rooftop that they rent out for small parties. My brother got lucky they got the venue for this very day and time.

We reach the place at four-forty.

I hear Kim's perky petite friend Aya's excited shriek when the elevator doors open.