Grapes Bridges and Stars

Chapter 7

The next morning, Lorise and I went to church. Lorise rarely came to our church. She said it was too long. After church, Ava Grace came up to me. 

"You didn't call after the date."

"I got home kind of late." Her eyes widened. "Oh really, why is that?" She asked curiously. 

"We just lost track of time talking to each other." She smiled. 

"How was your date?" I asked her. She sighed. "Magical!" We walked to my car. 

"We should hang out sometime, Liberty." Ava Grace suggested. I could feel the tension in the air. Lorise was glaring at her. "Yeah, sure!"

As we left, Lorise was quiet. She finally spoke up while I was driving and said, "so you're best friends now?" I sighed loudly. 

"Of course not. You're my only best friend." She crossed her arms. "Seems like you tell her everything." Truthfully, Ava Grace tells me everything, and that's only when it's about James. 

"Why are you always hanging with her?" She was acting as if we were married or something. 

"I've only been there once and that was to help her find an outfit for her date." I was becoming a little frustrated with her jealousy. 

"Okay." Is all she said. This also means whatever I'm not convinced but we'll talk about it later.

***

Later that day, I called my cousin Rita. "Hello?" She answered sweetly. "Congrats," I said sourly. 

"Liberty," she gasped excitedly," how are you?"

"Could be better." I was being rude and I knew that. 

"What's the matter?" She asked concerned. "A certain cousin of mine didn't think to invite me to her wedding."

"Who?" I rolled my eyes. "You Rita! You!" It was quiet. Then I heard laughter. 

"You must've really hit your head that hard when we were kids because if I were getting married I would tell you. You'd be my maid of honor. Heck, I'd call you on the day he, whoever he is, proposed." I knew she wouldn't leave me out, but that meant my parents lied to me. Why would they lie to me?

"Rita be serious!" 

"I am! Who told you that anyway?" I didn't answer for a second. "Um... I'll tell you later, alright?" 

"Alright, see you later crazy!" She laughed and hung up.  

"What's going on?" Lorise asked. "My parents lied to me." 

"About?" 

"Going to my cousin Rita's non-existent wedding." Lorise got excited. "Ooh! We can go on a mystery." I rolled my eyes. "Lorise, I'm serious."

"Me too. We can be like scooby doo and them. We just need two guys and a dog." I cracked a smile even though I didn't want to. 

"Can you be surprised? They were always leaving. Like 3 months ago they went to some funeral of an uncle you never heard of, remember?" 

That was true. Which meant my parents were possibly lying then too. But why? I needed to find out. I didn't know how, but I would.