The beautiful summer sun shone down from the sky as Maddie's small feet passed over the freshly cut grass. Gentle notes of the wedding march played over the speakers hiding under a flair of flowers on the altar. Though she had to keep her eyes on her steps to keep from tripping over her wedding dress, she could not keep her eyes off of Trevor in his smashing tuxedo, its black and white matching his dark eyes and beard against his skin.
This was no easy feat: the veil obscured her already impaired vision, now even worse because she hadn't put in contacts, her exquisite shoes were cumbersome, and there was her father to worry about. Tradition holds that a father should lead his daughter to the altar and give her away, but today, it was Maddie who was leading dad forward, step by clumsy step. Only half way to the priest, and Maddie thought she was going to be intoxicated from the drafts of alcoholic breath coming off of dad.
Even worse was the fact that every time dad had to wipe tears from his face, he lurched to the side, as if thrown off balance by the motion of his hand. Maddie tried to ignore the stares of her family and Trevor's family, convincing herself that those were looks meant for her, in awe of how beautiful she looked. But nothing could mask the sneer from her mother's and step-father John's faces.
More than a few of the wedding guests looked unfazed. Those would have been uncle Frank and Maddie's cousins, Alex and Mike, who had been celebrating with dad until the wee hours of the morning. Mike was, mercifully, passed out, whereas Alex's head bobbed back and forth to the tempo of the wedding march, his eyes nearly bleeding from the THC he had ingested at breakfast. The groomsmen were equally as wrecked, victims of Trevor's bachelor party. Luckily, Maddie's bridesmaids had done a good job of disguising their hangovers and trysts with make-up and perfume.
“Careful, daddy, there's a step,” Maddie whispered as they reached the altar. Dad fumbled, and turned back, taking a seat next to his ex-wife.
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