The Attorney ✓( A White House occupants prequel)

Chapter Eleven

A few years ago

  I shouldn't have agreed to come here. We're not that close- we just shared the room for a few years until he moved out. In my borrowed, horribly fitted suit from The school's tiny store, I feel out of place. The store is where a lot of students rent suits for days in court, where we get to observe real trials. Then- almost nobody's looking at us. Now, because for how the seats are arranged and because I am sitting in the front row, I feel like half of the room is looking at me though I know that's not true.

Non-family guests are just now starting to file in, near the back unless they're super close to my brother or his soon-to be wife. Honestly, I feel bad for her. Nobody should be marrying into this family. We have more issues than one could possibly count, issues that could permanently fuck up her kids. My personal favorite is the purity culture mom likes to push, one that the girls of our family have dealt with more than the men, which- I know, is beyond fucked.

"I waited until your father and I got married." She once said. "It's really not that hard."

Except it is, and it's none of her business. I told her that and I thought she was going to kick me out right then and there. Instead, she just made me go to church an extra time that week. I sat in the back the entire time, reading the satanist Bible just to fuck with anybody who might see and just to be an ass. If there's a hell, I'm definitely going to it- but I don't care.

"Sweetie-" I hear her nails-on-a-chalkboard voice behind me. Fuck you fuck you fuck you- "The rest of us are going to church after the reception. You coming?"

I simply scoff. She can't be serious. This is the same woman who kicked me out, the same one who made me almost consider not coming. I only came here for my brother- I will not be interacting with her any more than necessary. "Fuck you, mom."

"Joey, I understand you're hurt by my actions but -"starts.

"But what, mom?" I interrupt, forcibly lowering my voice so I don't cause a scene right before this damn wedding. "What bullshit religious justification are you going to come up with for kicking your kid out when they didn't have any means of making money?"

"That was your own fault. I encouraged you to get a job more times than I could count and you wouldn't take any of the opportunities!"

"How the hell was that my fault?" I laugh because I don't know what else to do. She is the crazy, deranged one. "You are the one that raised me not to settle, to always find the highest paying job so I could support a family. Well guess what- that's what I'm doing. You happy yet?"

She shakes her head. "I did not raise you to disrespect your parents or god. What happened to you out there?"

"You happened to me, sweetie." I mock her tone of voice, and I'm pretty sure half of the guests are now staring at us, but oh well. I'm done caring, I have to be so I don't go insane like the rest of them.

Then as I'm about to lay into her, one of the groomsmen comes in from the back and shouts "Okay everybody, sorry for the delay but we will be starting soon."

Finally. I don't know how much more of this I can take. I'll be gone as soon as possible.

And it's not that I don't like his fiancé, she's the genuinely nicest person in the entire world- but I don't think she really knows what she's getting herself into. They haven't been dating for very long, not a time period that most people would consider "long enough to get married", anyways.

So as the groomsmen and my brother start arranging themselves and the classic wedding music starts playing, I want to run into the preparation room and shout "Don't do it! We're all crazy!"