a wedding. It’s not like she’s always like this…right?”
Then Carrie spins to J.J. “Let’s join in. We haven’t danced all night. It’ll be fun.”
J.J. raises his eyebrows. “You sure you’re up for it?”
Carrie rolls her eyes. “Worry wart. Besides, she’s in the mood to
move
!”
For a second I think Carrie’s talking about herself in the third person. Then she pushes back her chair and stands and I see the giant pregnant belly stretching out of her dress. Carrie grabs J.J.’s hand and puts it on the ginormous lump. “See? She’s already dancing! She just wants her mommy and daddy to join in!”
J.J. smiles, but his face pales.
“NO!”
I gasp. “No-no-no-no-no.” I walk through the table to get in J.J.’s face. “What did you do? I mean, I know what you did, but…seriously? Is this for real?”
The minute Carrie and J.J. are gone, Nathan leans across the table to Reenzie and drops his voice. “Okay, you have to spill. Jack tells it like it’s a major soap opera. Is it true? She trapped him with the baby?”
“What, you don’t believe me?” Jack asks. “She
totally
trapped him. And they weren’t even together. He broke up with her six months before it happened.”
“But it’s not like he was forced,” Taylor says. “He didn’t have to—”
“He wouldn’t have if he knew what she was planning!” Jack shouts a little too loud for the room, and Nathan puts his hand on Jack’s arm. Jack looks at the guy…lovingly? Then he puts his own hand on top of the guy’s.
My head is still reeling from J.J. and Carrie, but I lean down and put my face closer to the guys’ so I can check this out. Something’s happening here.
“Hold up,” I say. “Are you guys…together?”
“Look, Jack,” Reenzie says, “I’m with you. I think they’re throwing their lives away. But it’s their choice. How would you and Nathan feel if J.J. got all upset about your choice?”
Nathan smiles. “Did she seriously just say being gay is a choice?” he asks Jack.
“I warned you,” Jack says, though he doesn’t seem angry. “She and Amalita are the two.”
“So you
are
together!” I say, grinning at Jack. “So all your jokes and lusting after Carrie…what was that, a cover? Why didn’t you just tell us?”
A glass clinks across the room. I wheel to the sound and expect to see my mom kissing Giganto Groom, but instead I see something worse. It’s my brother, Erick, at age sixteen, and apparently he gets even more serious about the weight training, because his neck is as thick as a tree, with veins snaking up from his tuxedo collar. He’s several shades too tan and wears a sleazy thin mustache. And mirrored aviator sunglasses. Inside. At his mom’s wedding.
Immediately I know I must have gone away to college. No way would I let Erick do this to himself. And who’s the bleach-blonde sitting next to him with the pushed-up boobs and spray tan? Don’t even tell me that’s his girlfriend. She has to be in her twenties! He’s thirteen! Okay,
sixteen
since it’s three years later, but still!
Erick’s been talking, but I’ve been too stunned to pay attention. I start listening now and quickly gather that he’s making some kind of toast.
“…and it’s a great thing to see our mom so happy. Autumn, you have anything to add?”
I freeze. I’m about to see myself, three years in the future! I’m about to
hear
myself make a toast! What will I say? Will I make a huge scene and scream at everyone for forgetting my dad? Or I bet I’ll be cleverer than that. I’ll say something that sounds nice and supportive. Only when everyone plays it back later in their heads will they realize how much I’m against this travesty.
I wait for me to stand up, but it doesn’t happen. What’s going on? Even Erick looks concerned. “Really, Autumn?” he asks. “Are you sure?”
Then I see me. I’m crouched low in my seat at a corner of Erick’s table. I’m wearing a blue sheath dress