"At Least We Had Each Other"

“At Least We Had Each Other”

Rebecca Kaiser

I’ve been to many weddings in my lifetime. This one was the worst wedding I have ever been to or ever will attend. The sad part is that I’m only 14. After three hard years of dealing with my dad’s girlfriend, they decided to get married. She was wicked; however, this story is not of the love between a man and a woman. It is between me and my sister. Most girls aren’t close to their sisters until their early twenties. This evil woman caused my sister and I to be best friends. To this day, we still are. We went through everything together. It was rough, but at least we had each other.

February 14, 2016

It was the day of my father’s second wedding. I had spent the night at my grandmother’s, so my dad’s fiancé, Ally, could pick up me and my sister, without being seen by my dad, because of the superstitions that it is bad luck to see the bride on her wedding day. Ally picked us up early, so we could go get our hair done. We went to Chicago Hair and Tanning. My sister, Grace, had wild hair, so she went first. She hated her curly hair, so she got hers straightened. My hair was stick straight, so of course, I wanted curly hair. I waited while Ally and Grace got their hair done. After they were done, it was Jessie, Ally’s mother’s, and my turn. Jessie had really short hair. She looked exactly like Jamie Lee Curtis. 

Once my hair was finished, I looked in the mirror. 

“What do you think, Beki?” Ally asked. 

“I love it!” I gasped, “It looks so good! Thank you so much!” I was lying. I lied because I didn’t want to be a problem to the hairstylist. Grace knew that I was lying. I looked like an old lady, due to the grayish, blond color of the curls. Grace and I had never liked Ally. Ally knew that I wouldn’t like that hairstyle. Grace had made a funny face at me. She was eight years old - two years younger than me. Whenever Ally brought me down, I could always count on Grace to dry my tears. 

After all of us had our hair done we ate lunch at Frisch’s Big Boy. It wasn’t a very good lunch, but it was food. Ally made my sister and I wear button down shirts, so we wouldn’t mess up our hair.

We then picked up our dresses from Jessie’s house. My dress was hideous. I didn’t get to pick it out, and none of the other bridesmaids were wearing ugly dresses. Grace’s dress was beautiful. It was sparkly, dainty and white, with satin roses. Grace would look pretty at least, I thought. Jessie came with us to the American Legion, where the wedding was to happen. 

Ally got us all dressed up when the flower girl, Martha, ring bearer, Roger and the maid of honor, Joline, walked in. They were late. Joline was Martha and Roger’s mom. They got dressed really fast. Martha was seven, but we were pretty close. Roger was kind of weird. But, he was five, so there’s that. Their dad was my dad’s best friend. 

Soon, everyone else had come in. My uncle Johan was who I walked down the aisle with. Grace walked down the aisle with my dad’s friend, Aaron, and Joline walked down with her husband Juan. Next, was Martha and Roger. Finally, Ally walked down with her grandpa. She didn’t like her dad much. I was crying. Not because she was beautiful because she wasn’t, but because I didn’t want my dad to even associate with this woman. Grace put her hand on my shoulder; she wanted me to know that it was okay. Grace was the only thing that was stopping me from running to the bathroom. 

After the ceremony, the reception started. I’ll have to admit, it was pretty lame. There was gross ham and turkey to eat. Also there were chips, cookies and casseroles. There wasn’t much else, besides cake. There was dancing and there were pictures. I hated it. I absolutely loved my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Johan’s wedding. I loved every other wedding that I had been to. But the groom was not my dad and the bride was most certainly not Ally. 

They left for their honeymoon to the Amish Country, after they dropped us off at our mom’s house. 

March 9, 2016

“Beki! Grace! Come get your dinner!” Ally cried from the kitchen. Grace and I hurried out to get our dinner. We grabbed our plates and went to sit at our step stools to eat. I was too gangly and long to fit my legs into the “seat” of the first step, so I sat on the floor. I looked down at my plate and on it, was a ham sandwich, and a cup of yogurt. I took a bite of the sandwich. The ham was slimy and gross; the bread was hard. I examined the outside of the yogurt container. I looked at the serving size, the sodium content and the ingredients. I looked at the bottom of the container and I saw the expiration date -- it was last week!

Does this woman even look at the expiration dates? I thought to myself. I already knew the answer to this question. It was no. I swallowed down that disgusting meal. Grace was crying because she didn’t want to eat it. I didn’t want her to suffer through it, so I ate half of her sandwich, and half of her yogurt. Once she finished, we had to leave for Catechism. We would be going to our mom’s house because we switched on Wednesdays. When we got home from Catechism, I threw up because of the expired food. But it was worth it. Grace got her desired snack of peanut butter and jelly. I felt good that Grace didn’t throw up. 

 My mom is the kindest person, however I never told her this story, in particular. I never told my grandpa either. Well, I told both of them when it was too late. My grandpa worked in child services, and he would’ve taken this girl to court, had I told him in time. He had retired before my mom told him. However, everything worked out, because my sisterly bond is  unbreakable.

Present Day

Once I told my dad about what was happening with Ally, he divorced her. I had suffered four long years with her in my life. Grace was the one who took the toxic away whenever we were punished by Ally for some made up reason. Grace and I are best friends. Some girls seem like they are jealous of our sisterly bond. Well, some girls haven’t gone through what we have been through together. When one of us suffered, the other one did too. Yeah, I’ll admit that times were rough, but at least we had each other.