Joseph crinkled the paper in his hands. Three hours before the ceremony. He and the other groomsmen sat in a circle in the dressing room, laughing, playing cards, making friendly jousts at Don, the groom, and generally having a wonderful time.
He didn’t want to ruin it with his speech, but he had promised Don. So Joseph cleared the worry from his throat, straightened his shoulders. “Hey, guys.” All eyes turned to him, and he felt that pressure building up again behind his eyes. He tried to smile, but it felt wrong on his face. He ended up burying his eyes in the papers instead. “I have something I was going to read, so…here goes.”
Joseph cleared his throat again—it was becoming a habit—and landed his eyes on the first line. He opened his mouth. Stopped. Looked up at the guys. His friends. Some he had known for years, others for months. All brothers, colleagues, cronies in crime. He wasn’t going to do…this to them. Not this pre-written nonsense he had worried over for hours and days and frankly weeks if he was honest.
He put it down. Tried on a smile, and when he realized it didn’t fit, settled for an uneasy frown. His hands were shaking at the thought of it, but rather than hide them in his pockets, he set them on the table in front of everyone and started to talk.
“I love you guys,” he began.
And somehow, no one laughed. So he kept talking.
It was the most exciting day of Olivia’s life. She figured that maybe her own wedding might take the spot later down the road, but she didn’t have a boyfriend in sight, much less a ring.
But for Grace—for her best friend—it was perfect. Don was a great guy, and Olivia couldn’t have picked a more protective, more honest, honorable man for Grace if she’d been able to hand-pick him. Sure, it had been rough at first, and Olivia had been a touch jealous, but the more she had prayed about it, the better she felt.
This was right. So Olivia was going to do the right thing and put herself out there for once. She refused Grace when she asked Olivia to give a speech at the reception—that was far too much to ask—but maybe, in the spur of the moment, she could do this.
Olivia got up in front of the gathering crowd, an hour until the ceremony. She would chicken out by the time they got to the reception, but now, with her heart beating out of her throat and her palms sweating like it was the middle of summer, she poked the microphone and opened her mouth.
“Everyone, could I have your attention?” Eyes turned toward her. She didn’t look into any of them—if she just stood the course, she could say her piece before her best friend had the most important day of her life.
“I know we haven’t begun yet, but I want to seriously thank you for your time coming out here today. I know Grace appreciates every single one of you, and as her maid of honor, I couldn’t be happier to see you all here. Thank you.” There were some nods, some smiles. Olivia started to sweat. “Uhm…yeah, that’s it. Thank you.”
And stepped off. Somehow, no one laughed. The officiator, watching with his arms crossed, raised an eyebrow at her.
An hour later, her best friend in the whole world embraced her soon-to-be husband with the biggest smile on her face. Olivia stood beside her, clutching the ring, grinning almost half as much.
The pastor stood before the crowd and cleared his throat. The hullabaloo died down, and he looked out at the congregation. Made a short introduction of the day, said some kind words. Then he looked straight at Olivia. “You know, I’m amazed by one thing in particular. Our maid of honor absolutely refused to give a speech at the reception.”
Olivia’s blood froze in an instant.
“She made all this fuss, worrying, but look at her! She made it out just fine, speech and all. How bout we give her a round of applause?”
The crowd clapped, but all Olivia heard were jeers. She looked down at her feet and regretted ever saying anything.
Hours later, the moon rose in the sky. The tables were put away. The reception was over.
Joseph sat down, exhausted, tie undone over his shoulder. He felt good, genuinely good. His brain had told him it was going to be so hard, so foolish, to speak and not worry about the consequences.
But it had worked. Don had cried, and his friends had cried, and their prep had ended with them all in a circle, praying for each other and whatever came next. They had seen Don and Olivia off, and Joseph had stuck around a little longer to help tear down and talk with all the lonely mothers reminiscing over their marriages years ago.
Sobbing came from outside the warm, lit pavilion. Jacob recognized it and followed.
Olivia was sitting on the grass, knees up, crying, when she heard Joseph coming. She wiped her tears, sniffled, tried to put on a brave face, and failed.
He stepped up beside her and stared up at the moon. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
Olivia nodded. The crickets chirped noisily behind him. “Thank you,” she said.
Had he seen her mistake of a speech? She hoped not. He had encouraged her to speak but backed down when he saw it was too far out of her comfort zone.
Olivia let her face drop onto her arms.
Joseph sat down on the grass and crossed his legs. He wanted to punch the pastor in the mouth, but violence never solved a single problem it hadn’t started. Instead, he gave her some space but stayed there in silence until she was ready to talk.
Eventually Olivia lifted her head, sniffled, and looked at him. “How did it go?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I didn’t read the speech I wrote. I just…talked.”
Olivia turned to look at the moon, smiled, and sniffled again. Nodded. “You did good.”
Joseph smiled too. “Thanks.”
A short one, but I enjoyed writing it! It's been a while since I've posted a story, and this one stood out to me when combing through the stories I've wrote in recent writing groups. In my mind it's a part of a larger anthology I'm slowly collecting ideas for called Small Tragedies. I wanted to capture the seemingly insignificant, but full-of-pain moments so many people go through in our day-to-day.
Both of these characters' moments are based on true stories of people I know, which makes them hit a bit harder for me.
But thank you for reading!