Transcendance

28

We enter the reception hall when Jackson decides to pick up Heather and walk through the threshold with her. People start to cheer and clap for them.

"You ready?" Brendan asked. I nodded as he does the same.

"And there's the brides and grooms. Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Jackson Daniels and Mr. and Mrs. Brendan Howard!" Everyone started to clap even louder as we headed to the table. Lydia and my mothers had been decorating the venue all night. There was gossamer fabric pinned to the wall, strings of fairy lights hanging down from the drapes and fake flowers put together all around.

After a moment, the waitress comes offering food. Jackson takes the grilled chicken that my father had made, a side salad and some pasta salad. I took some carnitas, Brendan took prime rib and Heather took a brisket plate.

"Damn, this food is good." Jackson was halfway through the chicken. I saw Scarleth approach the table with no Ayleah.

"Congratulations on the wedding, Akenath!" She smiled at him. "I hope that you and your new wife will have a long and prosperous marriage!" She hugged Heather. "And congratulations to you too, Brendan and Erika."

"Thanks, Scarleth." I told her. Scarleth handed us an envelope and handed another one to them.

"It's a little something from me and Alaya." She spoke.

"Thanks, Scarleth." Jackson spoke. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Of course." She smiled.

"Congratulations on your weddings." Alaya/not Ayleah says, smiling at us.

"Thanks." Jackson responds. Soon enough, Heather and Jackson decided to do their first dance together to "Speechless" by Dan + Shay. Then we decided to dance to "Aliado del Tiempo" by Mariano Barba. I could see people recording videos and taking pictures. Then we did the dance with everyone who helped pay for the wedding on our own and did a money dance thing with Jackson and Heather. People were pinning money to our clothes and dancing with us. Afterwards, Heather and I threw our bouquets together. My cousin Christina caught mine and Karenina caught Heather's.

"Damn, you're getting married soon!" Imelda chuckled, gently grabbing Karenina.

"Well, maybe, I don't even have a boyfriend." Karenina sighed. Brendan and Jackson didn't want to do the garter thing in front of the families so they just threw their lapel pins for the men to catch. Funny enough, one of my maternal uncles caught Brendan's and Elliot caught Jackson's.

"Now the ones who caught the bouquets and the lapels have to dance with each other." They start to play something. My cousin and my uncle chuckle and head to the dance floor.

"May I have this dance?" Elliot jokingly asks Karenina.

"Of course." She pretend curtsies and joins him on the dance floor. Soon enough, we all decided to hit the dance floor. I saw Katya and Devin showing off their dance moves along with my parents.

"This is great!" One of Brendan's cousins puts an arm around him and I. She's holding a Seagram's which I think they bought in.

"Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying the party!" I told her.

"Always!" She joins her husband on the dance floor. Brendan and I started to dance on the floor.

"You know, I've pinched myself a few times to see if I was dreaming and I'm not." Brendan told me in the middle of spinning me around.

"You're not." I tell him as a bachata song starts to play. "I'm glad we're not. We have years to love each other."

"And a whole afterlife." Brendan and I start to dance a bit faster.

"With you as my moon god." I press my forehead to his face.

"And you as my sun goddess." He says softly. "Forever."

"Did you ever think you'd find someone?" I asked him. "Because, honestly I didn't."

"Maybe, but I never imagined it would be you." he responded. "But I kind of knew when I saw you at that bar when the stuff with the Leader."

"Funny how things work, isn't it?" I saw Kyra and Elliot dancing casually with some of the older Agents. One of my cousins was dancing with another one of Brendan's cousins. Katya and Devin were chatting with my parents near the cake table.

"This is a great party!" One of my cousins on Ivan's side shouted as she walked to her table with two plates of random Mexican goodies from the snack bar.

"It is!" Heather shouted.

"I love you, Erika." Brendan tells me.

"I love you too, Brendan." We kissed.

"We should do the toast and cut the cake." Brendan suggested.

"After this song, I kind of like it." I responded as we kept dancing.

"Fair enough." He shrugged and we finished off the song. We headed off to the little station where the wedding cakes and the toast glasses were. I smiled as I saw that my mom had gotten white zinfandel for the occasion.

"Alright, does anyone have any toasts they want to do for either set of bride and groom?" The announcer asked. I saw Jackson go to the stage.

"I wanted to thank everyone for being here. I know it's been a difficult two years for a lot of us but we did it. I wanted to thank Erika's parents for treating me like their son, I wanted to thank the Agency for watching my back and I wanted to thank Scarleth for helping to us plan the wedding."

Scarleth smiled as everyone clapped and he stepped down. I saw Brendan walk up to the stage.

"I wanted to thank everyone as well for being here. It means a lot to us. I'm so glad to have married a wonderful woman and have two wonderful pairs of in laws."

"Aww, thanks." I smiled at him as he stepped down from the stage. My father started to pour wine into our glasses. We got a few speeches from other family members and friends for us and for Heather and Jackson. As we raised our glasses to toast the wedding, I could only think of how exciting life was.