"annabeth, come on before we're late for Aaliyah's wedding!" my dad hollered to me from the top of the stairs that led to the basement where my old bedroom used to be when i still lived in the house.
"Coming! Give me five more minutes!" i shouted back to my father who was waiting impatiently along with my mother in the dining room. I'd come back to my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario for the wedding from where i was now living, Calgary. I had moved to Calgary for university straight out of primary school, to study journalism, where I had then gotten a job for the local news outlet in Calgary. We were going to my dad's old best friend's daughter's wedding, which was being held somewhere in Toronto. Toronto was only about a fifty-minute drive from Hamilton so we had to leave an hour an a half before the ceremony started.
I was currently throwing on my baby blue babydoll dress, along with my crème suede vans. I had just washed my long, wavy blonde hair and was letting it air dry. I hated blow drying my hair because it tended to make it extremely dry and brittle. I fixed my dress and hair, looking into my mirror, reminding me i needed makeup. If I was trying to pull a guy tonight, or at least get a number from one, I had to cover my current breakout. At twenty-two years old, I still tend to have breakouts every few months and it so happens with my luck, I was having one this week. Once I had applied my makeup quickly, I grabbed my white, Michael Kors purse, phone, and glasses, before i jogged up the stairs from the basement.
"Okay, mom, dad, I am ready to go" I gasped as I had ran out of breath from the jog up the stairs. I definitely needed to start going back to the gym.
"Then let's go Annabeth !" my mom said with a little bit of annoyance, most likely due to me almost making them late to Aaliyah's wedding. We walked out of our house that was located in the suburbs, as we made our way to my mother's black porsche suv. My mom was a physician's assistant and my dad was a salesman, so they definitely weren't hurting in the economy department. Manny, Aaliyah's dad and my dad had met way back in the day when Manny had moved here from Portugal. He had two children who I don't really remember, Aaliyah and Shawn.
Aaliyah was my dad's old best friend's daughter. I had met her once when she was like two-years old. I had also met her brother who at the time was around seven-years old. I on the other hand was about four-years old at the time, so I honestly don't remember a whole lot about the two of them, except Shawn, Aaliyah's brother was kind of dorky and was really into soccer and hockey. I don't remember anything about their mom, I only remember what Manny, their dad, used to look like, thanks to some old photos of him and my father from back in the day. I remember Manny having long, curly brown hair, as well as glasses, as well as being a bit on the taller side. I don't remember much more though about my dad's best friend.
"Grandma said I might find a cute, single guy tonight at the wedding. If I'm being honest I just laughed at her and went on to tell her about my new job with the local news outlet in Calgary. Which I totally forgot to tell you guys, they're transferring me to the Toronto one in three months" i told my parents as i sat in the back seat as my mother drove to the venue.
"Are you for real?! Does that mean you will be home every Sunday, for either brunch or dinner?" my mother asked excitedly as she continued to watch the road as she drove.
"Possibly. It honestly depends on my hours for the Toronto news outlet though. Since I'm a transfer and kind of new to the team I might be put on Sundays unfortunately. That's what sucks when you start a new job, you don't have seniority" I spoke as I tried to take a selfie with the amazing lighting the sun was giving off in the late afternoon hours. Once I had snapped the perfect photo, I posted it to my snapchat story and my instagram story as well.
"Well if you can get Sundays off, definitely do that so we can all three have brunch or even dinner together!" my mother spoke with so much enthusiasm it was nauseating to hear.
"Yeah yeah mom. I hear yah. But I can't make any promises. You know that by now" I told her as i started to text my best friend Cindy, who lives back in Calgary.
Cindy: lmk if you see any cute guys tonight at that wedding! also you must tell me if you get one of their numbers!!! got it?
Me: girllllll there won't be any cute guys at that wedding. i'm telling you that now. so whatever you do don't get your hopes up!! but if i do end up getting one of their numbers, you'll be the first to know'
Cindy: yayyyyyy!!!!! cant wait to hear back from you in a few hours🥳
Me: goodbye xoxo
Shortly after I had finished my texting conversation with my best friend, we had arrived to the venue. Now all that we had to do was find parking. Finding parking in downtown Toronto is nearly impossible if you ask me, but somehow my mom found the perfect parking spot not too far from the venue.
I got out of my mother's car, as the wind started to blow. "Ugh! Why didn't you tell me it was gonna be windy out this evening?" I asked my mom as I was holding down my dress from flying up. Luckily I had put on a pair of spandex which was winning in my favor at the moment.
"Annabeth don't forget to grab the wedding gift from the back seat" my father spoke to me as he got out of the car, fixing his tie.
"Okay. I'm getting it, will you hold my purse mom?" i asked my mother as she grabbed my purse from my hands so i could grab the wedding present.
Once I had grabbed the present, I took my purse back from my mom. We then started our small journey to the building where the ceremony and reception would be held. As we were walking there were several police officers outside the venue. One officer wouldn't have alarmed me but five?! There had to have been a reason why there were five officers. It's not like the venue was in the bad part of Toronto, in fact it was in the high end of the city.
"Hey, dad, why are there five officers?" i asked my father, who turned to look at me as we walked inside the building.
"Probably because of Shawn is my guess" he said in a whisper.
"Wait. What do you mean because of Shawn?" I asked my father as we were greeted by two teenage boys who asked which side we were going to sit on.
"The brides side" my mother spoke politely to the two boys. One of the boys took the gift while the other took us to the fifth row to the front on the brides side where we sat towards the aisle.
"Dad, hello what did you mean by most likely because of Shawn?" i asked him as he shushed me because he saw one of his other old friends seated in front of us. This left me to my imagination. Was Shawn famous? There's no way he could be. I could only remember him as the dorky kid who loved Harry Potter and enjoyed trying to sing, however he was not particularly that good at the latter one.
Ten minutes had passed by, leaving only three minutes until the ceremony started. I decided to turn my phone off and urged my father and mother to do the same, that way if anyone called we wouldn't be interrupting the wedding ceremony. Once my phone was turned off, I threw it into my purse and brought my attention to the front of the room.
