Broken Chains

#2 Wedding (Part 2)

*** 

After singing until they almost lost their voices, they parted ways and Skylar followed Cody home. When they got home, Cody brought her to the pool for a quick swim while waiting for their parents to come home.

Skylar went to get change into her bathing suit which consisted of a turquoise crop-top with black shorts. When she got to the pool, she could feel Cody’s eyes on her bare midsection but then she just brushed it off by splashing the water at him. She regretted it though as she unintentionally started a water fight with Cody. He got out of the pool to get the water guns, one for her and one for himself. The guns were the ones that Tyler and himself used to fight with when they were young.

“Here. Gear up,” he said while tossing the water gun into the water for Skylar to fill up with water. She quickly got the gun filled up with water and started shooting Cody. Before long, they heard slow hand claps coming from the side of the pool. It was Tyler.

“Wow. It’s been like what a couple of weeks, and we already have you two having a water gun fight without me. Classic Cody.”, he said whilst clapping his hands. “Oh, yea Cody, there’s someone here to see you. Oh, wait he’s right over here already.” Tyler stepped aside and a hooded figure stepped forward to talk to Cody who was getting out of the pool. And because Cody did not want Skylar to hear the conversation, he brought him inside to talk.

The hooded figure spotted Skylar and asked about who she was but before he could get an answer as he was dragged into the mansion by Cody. The figure looked as tall as Cody. From afar the shadow inside the hood seemed to have glowing eyes similar to a cat. Skylar was still in the pool with a puzzled look on her face.

“Who is that?” she asked Tyler, but he just helped her out of the water and brought her to the side to dry off.

After she was seated at the side of the pool, Tyler sat beside her and told her, “That is one of Cody’s friends, Coyote.” It was a lie but then he could not tell her anything about it yet.

She was stunned by the name of the mysterious person who had just showed up at the house uninvited, “Why is he so creepy?”

He just shrugged it off, “Cody just has weird friends...” his voice trailed off.

***

“What are you doing here?” Cody asked the figure while drying off.

The hooded figure continued to put his hood down to reveal his face which had cuts at every angle and a scar that stroked right down his right eye. When he opened his mouth to speak, words just poured right out “Before I state my purpose may I ask who is she? Your new girlfriend?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because when I saw her, I saw the vision of the two of you being together in the future. Anyways, Prince Nicholas seeks your presence in the high court-”

“He isn’t a prince in my eyes. And I do not take orders from him.”, Cody interrupted.

“But you were the one who forfeited the throne to him-”

“I know what I did then, but it was for my own good. Now go back to wherever you came from, or I’ll make you.”

“Alright, I’m leaving.”

“Before you go, make sure to help me wish Nick good luck on his coronation.”

Coyote nodded before leaving in the eternal flame – one of the many ways to portal to Hell.

Just then Skylar entered the mansion to find that Coyote was gone already. Luckily, she had not heard the conversation as she was always very curious, and this meant that she would ask questions until she got the answer.

They all went to get ready to attend something that Cody had not informed them about. Cody just said that there was something important that all of them had to attend to and that this excludes mom and dad being part of it.

Cody went through her closet to find clothes for her. “Too plain...Too short...Too princessy...Ah just right...”, he was flipping through her clothes until he found a crop-top which she rarely wore and skinny jeans. He tossed the clothes to her and said, “Here, wear this and I’ll go get my leather jacket for you.”

And with that he left while Skylar went to get ready. It had barely been a day, and everything was still rather new to her as she had to find her way around the mansion. She was surprised to find the bathroom to feature the theme of a mermaid’s cove. Beautifully decorated with shells and even the soap dispenser was covered with real seashells. She was so caught up and mesmerized by how beautifully decorated the bathroom was that she did not realize that Cody was calling her name from the locked door. “Yes?” she answered the knocking door in shock.

“You almost done? We’re leaving soon...”, he said, “My jacket is on your bed, okay?”

“I’m almost done.” She was lost in her thoughts that she did not realize that she had been in the bathroom for about 30 minutes.

Cody just asked her to speed up as he did not know how long it would take a girl to get ready. Because it usually took him and his brother a couple of minutes to get ready.

Soon after, Skylar stepped out of the bathroom, her hair was matted to her head by water and all the ends were parted. She came out saying, “Where are we going anyways?” It was as if she knew that Cody was in her room waiting for her already.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”, he walked up towards her and instructed her to speed up and dry her hair which was still dripping with water from her shower. He grabbed her by her wrist and brought her to the dresser. After that he left the room to find Tyler.

That’s strange. She thought.

***

“What should I wear? The leather or denim?”, Tyler asked Cody while holding up two jackets. Cody, who was seated on his bed, deep in thoughts was not paying attention to what Tyler was saying.

“Look, I get that you are worrying about everything that has happened and yet you have to attend his coronation s***h engagement. But what is done is done-”

“That’s not what I’m worried about, it’s just that I’m just scared that Skylar would not get used to talking to us especially after finding out about you know. She will probably be uncomfortable to even talk to us.”

“Then why bring her? It could just be the two of us like always.”

“Then again she deserves to know the truth though but not this soon.”

“Why not we just ditch the coronation thing and hang out like how siblings are supposed to hang out?”

“How am I supposed to explain to her about rushing her?”

“Let me handle the small talk with her, alright? Now about that other thing though.”

“What?”

“Why the hell are we dressed so fancy?”

“Oh that, we could probably take her out on a drive to a nice place I know of-”

“Don’t you think that is a little too obvious?”

“No, we could always get the guys to tag along”

“Put her needs before yours, would you? Wouldn’t she be the only girl there?”

“That I can handle too. We could call her friends out to join us. That way, she would not feel too uncomfortable especially with Alexa and Brooke around.” With that Cody quickly took up his phone to call Skylar’s friends.

“Aren’t they a little busy?” Tyler asked while Cody was still on the phone “Christmas is rolling by sooner than we think it is you know? They would probably-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Cody said, “It’s all set, we’ll surprise her with a movie with her friends.” He wasn’t paying attention to a word Tyler said.

Skylar came into the room to find the brothers still in an argument about something but since they seemed not to notice her, she scrambled out of the room. But by the time she reached the door frame, she heard someone say her name which made her stop in her tracks. The voice was firm, “Skylar, wait.” It was Cody. He continued, “What do you say if we ditch whatever function that we were supposed to go to and go watch a movie instead?”

“Ss..sure”, she shuddered.

***

Carson drove to the mall as instructed by Cody. Some of the guys were already there. “Guys what’s up the urgent call? And why are we all here again?” Apparently being the first person that Cody called was really inefficient.

“Cody said that we are all here to watch a movie. Didn’t he tell you?”, said Ashton

“Sometimes having to tolerate his half messages is really a pain in the head but then that son of a-”

“Watch your language, Carson, we’ve got company” Ashton said while directing Carson’s head to what seemed like a line of girls approaching their way. Carson tried to jerk his head away from Ashton’s grasp and managed to do so.

“If you want to stare at girls all day, why not you get someone else to do it with you.”

“Because you're my bro, man and this is what bros do with one another.” Ashton said coolly.

“Quit staring,” a familiar voice came from behind. It was Cody. The guys directed their head to Cody’s direction. As their future captain they respected him for his duty as captain of the basketball team. “Those are just some of Skylar’s friends.”

“So why the urgent call.”, Carson said sarcastically. “You obviously have almost everything under control,” he noted while staring down at Cody’s fingers laced with Skylar’s. Cody took realized what was going on and took his hand away from Skylar. He did not want to make Skylar anymore uncomfortable than she already was. Skylar was shocked as she had been dragged from the car all the way to the entrance of the mall but then she still managed to keep her composure.

“Sorry to drag you all out here but we just wanted to hang out and get to know each other better,” Cody started, “So, we’re all here to have a good time.” This time he was looking over at Ashton and Carson, who seemed like they were not getting along.

“So are you guys like an official now,” Alexa suddenly asked which made Cody and Skylar really uncomfortable.

“N...no”, Cody shuddered and continued, “For those who have been living under a rock, our parents are getting married and everyone here is invited.”

“Are you inviting us to your parent’s wedding without their permission?” Carson raised an eyebrow.

“Technically not. Since we were helping with the design of the invitation, we are allowed to invite whoever we wanted to,” said Skylar helping to answer.

They all entered the cinema; Cody, Carson and Ashton went to buy the tickets for the movie leaving Skylar with the rest of his friends and her friends too. “Sky, why didn’t you tell us that your parents are getting married? I thought you trusted us more than anyone else.”

“It all came to me as a surprise as well. But then the truth is that I am developing feelings for Cody sooner than I thought and now thanks to the two of you, I can’t sleep at night as my mind is always on him,” Skylar replied.

***

It was already so close to the wedding and Skylar was rushing to the bridal shop for a scheduled dress fitting which she had completely forgotten about. Zaylee personally asked her to be her maid of honor. When she got to the bridal shop, Zaylee was already there in a white dress, backless and tailor made to fit her hour-glass body.

“What do you think? Too much?”, Zaylee sounded insecure.

“You look beautiful, mom,” Skylar just said to lessen her insecurities. She realized what she said and corrected what she said, “I mean, Zaylee.”

“It’s alright Sky, you can call me mom if you are alright with it.”

“Enough chit-chatting, we have to get you fitted in a dress.”, said the salesgirl. And in that moment, Skylar was whisked away into the fitting room which was filled with dresses to get dressed.

The first dress that was given to her was a dress design similar to the one that Zaylee was wearing, but the only difference was the color. It was in a ball gown style. The back part was like a corset which needed to be tied as tight as possible. That was the only thing that supported the whole dress. She liked it but she had to make sure that whatever she was wearing was alright with the best man which just so happened to be Cody.

When she stepped out of the fitting room to look at herself in the full-length mirror. She saw how her hair was pinned up into a messy bun with glitter hair pins. Just right there and then, Cody came up behind her and kind of startled her for a bit. She stumbled as she was in heels and almost fell back but then Cody broke her fall by catching her before she fell.

“You better not fall when you are walking down the aisle in front of mom.” Cody joked with her while she was still in his arms. She tried to gain back her strength to get back on her feet which were kind of jelly at that time for reasons that she could not explain.

“I wouldn’t have fallen if you had not snuck up on me,” she said in her defense.

“You know, you are cute when you’re angry,” he complimented.

Then Zaylee walked in to check on Skylar, she had not expected Cody to be at the fitting with Skylar. “Cody what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be at the-”

“Yea, I know the fitting ended early, so I came to check on the two of you-”

Before he could finish his sentence Skylar interrupted, “Cody, what do you think of this look on me? A bit too much?”

“You look beautiful just the way you are. You’d be the next beautiful lady in the room besides mom. The wedding is tomorrow after all.” With so little time left, she agreed with whatever Cody said. Zaylee bought the two dresses which made Skylar feel a little bad as it cost quite a lot.

***

The day of the wedding finally came, Daniel was already at the church with his best man while Zaylee and I were on our way to the church. No one thought anything could go wrong. When Zaylee and I reached the church, we were stopped by a sudden rumble from the ground. Suddenly, the ground parted and fire came out from the opening, along with something that emerged from it.

Zaylee immediately knew what it was. There were about several of them. “Run!”, she exclaimed at me before she was almost crushed by one of them. Demons! I ran through the backdoor to seek shelter. I had never seen anything like this before. Before I could even scream after she felt a hand reach out and she turned around to see Cody and Tyler looking like the things she saw. I could not even scream upon seeing their true form.

***

“Skylar! Wake up,” she heard a voice call out.  And she immediately woke up from her slumber to see Cody sitting next to her, but he was nothing like the demons in the dream. She was so relieved that it was just a dream that she hugged him without thinking or any hesitation. He was in shock too but then he hugged her back as he felt that she must have had a nightmare just by looking at how scared she was when he woke her up. Their eyes were still locked when Skylar pulled away. “Think it’s about time you got ready, I’ll see you at the event later. Save me a dance?”

She nodded as she watched him swing the jacket of his tuxedo over his shoulders as he left her room. She quickly scrambled to her closet to get herself dressed, but she realized that she needed someone’s help to tighten the back part of her dress. So, she left her closet still holding the chest part of her dress looking for anyone who could help her. Tyler came into her room at just the right time, “Skylar are you ready-”, he asked before he saw his sister standing there helplessly holding the dress up with her hand. He got ready to help her tie the back of her dress, “-There...” and his voice just trailed away.

She thanked him and went on to put on her high heels which made her about 3 inches taller but then still not as tall as her brothers were. In comparison with Tyler, she was still about half a head shorter. She was already quite used to being the shortest amongst her friends.

When she got out of the mansion, she was shocked to find that they were taking a limousine to the venue of the wedding which was obviously not at a church. They wanted the wedding to be held at a bigger venue as they were inviting not only friends and family but also some extended friends. It was quite unexpected as the number of guests were so many that Skylar herself could not count.

All families were united. After she marched down the aisle with her mother behind her; she was one of the eight bridesmaids together with the rest who were Zaylee’s friends and cousins, they remained standing there at the altar waiting for the priest to make his announcement before letting the guests take their seats.

Cody could not keep his eyes off her as she looked so much like a goddess in the gown and her hair up in a bun. But then he tried to avoid staring, reminding himself that she was his sister, and he could not possibly be dating her at any cause.

 ***

After the wedding ceremony, there was an after party for the newlyweds. Skylar was talking to her friends when Cody came to her and said, “May I have this dance?”, when the beautiful music started playing. Skylar placed her hand gently in his and he led her to the dance floor. He put one of her hands at the lower part of her back and the other laced with hers. The two of them swayed with the music.

She started feeling her cheeks burn as he held her closer to him as the crowd came to join the dancefloor, but she knew that she could not possibly be falling for Cody. Though Cody was literally a complete package for any girl; handsome, kind, generous and smart. She realized that it was forbidden to fall in love with him but the feelings she had for him were getting stronger than before.

Yet again she still had many questions in her mind set to ask him such as things about his interest. In a sisterly manner of course, as she did not want him to know about her true feelings towards him as it would be awkward if he already had a girlfriend.

She also did not want to destroy the mood, so she decided to leave the questions for another day.