Change the Sunset

White lilies filled the room, enlightening everyone with a smell that can only be described as summer with a hint of vanilla. 

Andela stroked the smooth wood of the banister back and forth. Her rings lightly scratched the surface, and her earrings lightly scratched her neck. Her shoulders tensed up when Bohuslava brushed up against her back.

“Are you ready?” Bohuslava asked her while placing a veil upon her head.

“No.” Andela answered, fighting back the acid that was burning her throat.

“You never will be. But this is the only option.” 

Andela tied a scarf around her neck with care, trying her very best not to create any wrinkles or folds while Bohuslava powdered her face.

“You look beautiful.” 

Andela took this compliment and let it sink in. She would let this one in, and take it to heart. She did look beautiful.

The music began to play, everyone took their seats. Bohuslava tucked her hair behind her ears and gave her one last kiss, a kiss Andela would cherish forever. She took that moment to analyze her face, as if it were the last time she would see her. She had light brown hair, slightly waved. Her eyes were dark brown, but if looked at for a long time, little colours and patterns would start  to reveal themselves in her irises. Her skin was paper pale with dimples, and her nose was slanted with a birthmark right on the tip. She was breathtaking, to say the least.

While walking down the aisle, she desperately looked around for something else to focus on, besides the man in front of her. The sunset was stunning, she thought to herself. Colours were layered on top of each other, swirling around like paint. She reached out her hand as if to swirl the sunset with her finger. To change the scenery. To escape.

Her mind drifted off to some of her fondest memories with Bohuslava. They used to sit on the beach in silence for hours watching the sunset. Their fingers tangled together, both breathing in the scent of the ocean.

Andela forced that thought out of her mind and focused on the sunset, the man in front of her was nothing more than a blurry part of her peripheral vision.

She took his hands, and muttered the words. The words that would bond her to a man she did not love.

When the music began to play and when the man kissed her pursed and tense lips, she looked out again towards the sunset. Wishing ever so badly that she could swirl the colours. Change the narrative, change the sunset, change her story.