Stealing the Thunder

She sat down, and the clinking of wineglasses was mixed with applause. Zach sneaked a glance over and saw both Brandon and Meredith tearing up.

After that, there were the traditional dances. Zach knew Brandon had practiced—he and Christa had been dragged along for several of the lessions—but neither he nor Meredith was especially accomplished. They managed to avoid treading on each other's toes, though. Then Meredith danced with her father, while Brandon attempted (with some success) to keep dignity while dancing with Dr. Zelvetti. And after that, it was open season.

At any other time, Zach would've liked to keep track of who was dancing with whom—it was kind of fun to watch. Arie, for instance, danced a round with Brandon, who then (surprisingly) dragged Jane up for a very up-tempo sort of swing, which was an absolute disaster in terms of dancing but made them and everyone else laugh, so no harm done. He saw Jon Stanford get Caitlyn Delaney out on the floor, which surprised him a lot: both were such wallflowers in his estimation that being in the middle of everybody wasn't their thing. Zach wasn't like that. He loved being out in the middle of everybody. But he was a little too busy with his own issues right now.

Not long after her chaste, rather sisterly dance with Brandon, Arie wandered over. "So," she said. "Derek said I'm supposed to come talk to you."

"What?" said Zach, looking up suspiciously.

Arie sat down in Brandon's chair, between Zach and Meredith. "You tell him, hon."

"Oh," said Meredith, "does this have something to do with why you've been moping all day?"

"You know, weddings are a lot more fun if you pull your head out of your ass andenjoy them," Arie said.

"Right," Zach said angrily, "likeyou're having fun over there, sitting next to Derek."

Meredith gave him a look. "That was cruel, Zach."

Arie paled, but she said firmly, "Derek and I are friends. We were before we started dating, and we still are even though we aren't dating anymore. We've had issues in the past, and will probably continue to have issues in the future, but don't tell meyou get along perfectly withChrista all the time, because we know that isn't true."

"Andyou're thinking of marrying her," Meredith said.

Zach scowled. "What, did Derek talk to you too?"

"What?" said Meredith.

"Oh, isthat what this is about?" Arie asked.

"Wait—What??" said Meredith.

"How did you know?" Zach asked her.

Meredith shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Not to Christa, I hope, no," said Zach. "At least, not until I show her this."

Their reaction was different from Derek's, which he later realized he should've expected; they were, after all, girls. "It's beautiful," said Meredith, and Arie asked, "Where did you get it," and he had to explain that whole thing about his grandmother. Itwas a very nice ring—white gold, with stylized, double-lobed leaves clasping the diamond in the middle. One leaf was inlaid with green, the other red, and according to Zach's mother there was some significance in which color ended up on which side. Zach couldn't remember for the life of him.

"Isn't that a little unfair," Arie asked. "She just helped Meredith plan all this." She waved a vague hand at the wedding feast and almost hit a wineglass. "And then you're gonna dump another one on her almost immediately?"

"No, she'll love it," Meredith said. "Look at her." She pointed through a maze of leftover dishes at Christa, who seemed to have escaped the White Man's Dance Floor Curse and was currently having a ball with Jeff Gainesborough. "We're sitting down, because we're introverted. There's Brandon over there, talking with my parents. Sitting down." She waved. "Derek's over there with Sajel, and Jane is with Trevor and Jenny and Cassie. We're all mostly private people. Christa's the only one of us who really thrives on being the center of attention, on constantly having things going on. Sheloves being busy. Give her another wedding and she'll be ecstatic. Especially if it's hers."

Zach nodded. It was one of the reasons he loved her most.

"So, what's been stopping you?" Arie asked.

"Just... No time," said Zach. "You guys've been eyeballs-deep in this wedding thing for the past couple of months, I feel like I barely get the time of day out of her. I don't think we've slept in the same bed together in, like... I dunno, two or three weeks? And for sex, you gotta go back months. She always goes home to her parents instead of back to Brandon's place with us."

"Why?" said Arie.

"I dunno, really. She's just always, you know. Had problems with staying over at Brandon's place."

"Worried what her parents might think," Meredith agreed.

"Worried whathis parents might think," Zach said, "after all that, you know, that stuff that happened junior year." He gave a laugh that wasn't really a laugh. "At leastI've been sleeping well. She rolls around like crazy, you know? Kicks me in the kidneys every two minutes."

"There's something you don't find out about ahead of time," Meredith said.

"People should just have to wear signs that say, 'I sleep-flop,'" Arie said.

"Yeah," said Zach. "And then when—"

"Hey," Arie said sharply, and Zach tucked the ring back into his pocket. A good thing he did, too: Christa appeared.

"Zach!" she said. "Do you wanna dance?"

He knew he should. Christa had enjoyed the dancing lessons; she hadn't been the only one. It was the right thing to do—to reach out to her, to get over his deep blue funk and start being functional.

But he didn't want to.

"Sheesh," she said. "You know, Zach, this whole sulking thing isn't very attractive. Come out when you actually want to be a human being again." She spun away.

Meredith and Arie exchanged blinking shock.

"Yeah," said Zach. "And then, when wedo talk, half the time it's likethat."

"Are yousure that's the woman you wanna marry?" said Arie.

"I..." said Zach. No, was the simple answer. He wanted to marry the Christa he knew—the kind, outgoing, selfless woman he had fallen in love with. And he wasn't sure where she'd gone.

"Sometimes I feel like I don't know her at all anymore," he said, which wasn't an answer. But Arie and Meredith nodded as if it was one.

"Okay," said Meredith. "You know what?"

"What," Arie asked.

"It's time for an intervention." She stood up. "You—" She pointed at Zach. "—are going to stand up, and we are going to dance, and you are going tostop worrying about this, at least for the next few minutes."

"Meredith, are you— You're pregnant. Are you sure it's smart for you to be—"

"We double-checked that, the odds of something happening to this baby on a dance floor are extremely low. You're amuch better dancer than Brandon. So come on. Arie, grab his other arm, help me." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Brandon looking over and nodding and smiling.

"All right," Zach grumbled, acquiescing with bad grace. "But I swear, if you two weren't my friends..."

"But we are," Arie said, "so you can't. So suck it, bitch." She grinned.

So he did, and—why was he surprised about this?—had fun. He'd always had a little bit of a thing for Meredith, and she'd always had a little bit of a thing for him, and everyone knew it, and all that meant was that when he had her in his arms, he appreciated what he had.And Brandon does too, and he'll treat her like gold. He's an incredibly lucky man. Of course, Meredith's lucky too.

What he hadn't counted on was Gavin throwing on the fastest dance he had, and Arie grabbing him and flinging him around like a maniac. He saw Brandon and Meredith laughing, and Sajel throwing catcalls, and Derek cracking up—in the few moments in which his vision wasn't being disrupted by high G-forces. When the dance ended, Arie turned to the guests gave a very prim curtsy, and Zach concealed a grin and played off the cue, tripping around like a drunkard and eventually landing on his ass. And there was laughter. Laughter was good.

And he danced after that, with whoever seemed likely and once even with Christa, and afterwards she kissed his cheek and he told himself to follow his own advice.If you know you oughta get out there and dance, then get out there and dance. You aren't solving anything sitting around feeling sorry for yourself.

When it was the cake-cutting ceremony, he tried to find Christa, only to find her in her administrative element, organizing a queue and moving the photographer into place with the air of a forklift. The photographer seemed bemused. So, come down to it, did Sajel. "She must be good at moving furniture around. Do you folks wake up in the morning and discover you live in a different apartment?"

"Just on occasion," said Zach. Shewas good at moving furniture. It brought out her Incredible-Hulk tendencies.

"So, I was informed by a little bird," Sajel said, "whom shall remain nameless but whose initials are Arie Wanshang Chang—I was informed by a little bird that there was something you might like to talk about. Oh, and I brought Jane along, just to meddle."

"Hi," said Jane, with a distinctly guiltless grin.

Zach found his eyes rolling of their own accord. Who next, Caitlyn Delaney? Would Derek make good on his idea to get Gavin involved? Would Dr. Zelvetti come over? "And what, perchance, did she say you should talk to me about?"

"Oh, well, she didn't say," Sajel said. "But I gather it's got something to do with the sort of gloomy cloud you've been wandering around in."

"Even I saw it," Jane said. And if she'd seen it, it must be visible. That was what she was saying.

Zach sighed. "Right. Right..."

"It's a happy occasion," Sajel said. "You ought to be celebrating."

"Or at least knocking people over with Arie," said Jane, grinning. "It was like being at a bowling alley."

"So," Sajel said. "Wanna explain what's curtailing your joy?"

"Cur mywhat? Did you just show up from the sixteenth century or something?"

"Yes," said Sajel, "I'm the special time-traveling Indian. I came all the way up to the twenty-first century so that you could tell me what's going on. So spill."

Zach gave a cautious glance at Christa, who was now supervising the rapid dicing of the cake, and faded himself back into the crowd. Then he dug into his pocket.

"Oh-hhhh," said Jane, and Sajel said, "Christa will like that. That's her taste in jewelry."

Christa has a taste in jewelry? "Okay." He put the box back in his pocket.

"But shouldn'tthat be a joyful thing too?" Jane asked. "I mean... You love her, right? And I'm pretty sure she loves you. Not that I've seen you guys regularly since high school, but..."

"It should," Zach agreed. "But I have to do theasking. You girls get to just sit back and—"

"Says who," Jane retorted. "I dated a guy last year whereI had to ask him out. But I knew either he'd say yes, and I'd be happy, or he'd say no, and I'd live with it. I mean, if he doesn't want to spend time with me, that's his loss."

That smacks of Brandon's way of thinking, Zach thought. "Did he say yes?"

"Yeah," Jane said.

"Did you do it with him?" Zach said.

Sajel gave him a dirty look. "Are youever going to get over that?"

"No, as a matter of fact, we didn't," said Jane. "He turned out to be kind of a jerk. Maybe if we'd lasted past, like, three dates, I might havethought about it. But not before."

"Look, Zach," said Sajel. "Would you ask just anyone to marry you? Well, Jane wouldn't ask just anyone to have sex with her."

"Are you saying I ask just anyone to have sex with me?" Zach retorted.

"No, of course not," said Sajel. "But there was a little while, right before you met Christa..."

"Yeah, all right," said Zach. He wasn't proud of it. Brandon had been head-over-heels mushy-gushy with Meredith, and Arie and Derek had been sneaking off during breaks and coming back looking unspeakably smug; with company like that, one had to take what one could get. But the sex itself had been pretty unsatisfying: Zach had a longer fuse than most people were willing to put up with, especially a cheerleader-type who was only 'doing her duty.' Christa had been remarkably patient with him, on the whole; she often came more than once, and clearly enjoyed it, but if she was worn out before he was, she would take the time to bring him off with her mouth or her hand. It was yet another reason why he loved her.

"Marriage is special to you," Sajel said. "Sex is special to Jane. What's the big deal?"

"And isn't Christa going to say yes," Jane asked. "I mean, I'm not a guy, but I wouldn't evencontemplate proposing to someone unless I was pretty sure they'd say yes."

"Yeah, but—" said Zach. This was absolutely true. He was by far the most adventurous of any of them, including Derek and Arie (who simply had a few extreme behaviors, as opposed to his half-extreme everything), but evenhe wasn't going to go in blind and do something like this without at leastsome feeling of guarantee. "The thing is—"

"Watch it," Sajel said, low and sharp. Zach barely had time to yank his hand free of his pocket before Christa socketed neatly into the conversation.

"Anybody want some cake?" she said brightly.

"Umm, no, thanks," said Zach, even though he kind of did.

"Naah," said Sajel.

"That's okay," said Jane, looking away.

"Wow," said Christa, giggling, "I feel like I'm breaking into a conspiracy or something. Is there something I need to be brought up-to-date on? And if it's that Meredith is pregnant, sorry, I heard about that one already."

No one answered her. There didn't seem to be anything to say.

"Hunh," said Christa, with that irrepressible smile he loved so well. "I know whenI'm not wanted." But as she walked away, he saw her shooting miffed looks over her shoulder.

"Well,that'll do wonders to allay her suspicion-ometer," Sajel muttered.

"Maybe we should have wanted cake," Jane said.

"Right! Cake! That'll solve everything!" Zach snapped.

Sajel shot him a careful look. She had always known, better than anyone else, how to read him. "Anyhow. You were saying."

"I wassaying that I don't feel like I even know her anymore!" said Zach. "Every time, it's just, just..."

"Well... It could be she's just frazzled," Jane said. "She's got a lot on her mind right now. I mean, she's running a wedding."

"Yeah, but... Aren't I still supposed to know her?" Zach said, rubbing his face with his hand. And neither Jane nor Sajel said anything to him, which meant (he suspoected) that the proper answer wasYes.

"Hi, cake delivery," someone said. It was Caitlyn Delaney, bearing several plates with, of all people, Jon Stanford. Was something going on there? "Meredith sent me. She said to tell you guys to stop worrying and have fun. And eat some cake. It's chocolate. There's nothing chocolate can't solve."

That was, of course, a flat-out lie; the cake didn't solve anything. But at least it was good.

The rest of the party went relatively smoothly. Zach made a conscious effort to relax and stop worrying, and even succeeded to a rather minor extent. He spent most of the time hanging out near the DJ booth, catching up with Gavin Strickland, whom he hadn't seen since high school.I feel like a wallflower at a school dance—just sort of sitting there, gawking. Not really participating. And look, there's Christa giving me weird looks. Should I be out there making a scene? Well, today I'd rather sit back and reconnect with some old friends. Is that a crime?

And besides, if we wanted a scene, what's going on over there? It was Brandon, stooped over Meredith, who slumped in a chair in a rather dejected fashion; the flicker of motion had caught Zach's eye as Brandon attempted to take hold of her and was rebuffed rather forcefully. Bidding a quick excuse-me to Gavin, Zach trotted over.

"Come on," Brandon was saying when he arrived, "weren't you saying that you wanted to dance? I thought you—"

"Brandon, that was before the cake-cutting. That was two hours ago. I'm tired, okay? I've had a little too much to drink, my head hurts, I've been on my feet for hours—"

"Well, I'm sorry, I wasn't going to, like, fling you around or anything, we can ask Gavin to put a slow song on—"

"Oh, right, not fling me around, like you were doing to get me to stand up? Brandon, I'mpregnant. The last thing I need is to be jostled."

"The doctor said we don't have to worry about it."

"Yeah, he did, but he's not the onecarrying him. —Her. It. Whatever it is we're having."

"Well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to— Jeez, I wastrying to help you enjoy your wedding night, you only get one of those in your life—"

"Wow, good try, huh?" said Meredith in a truly acidic voice, and slumped back into the chair.

"Sheesh," said Brandon. "Who are you, and what have you done with my wife?" And Zach, who knew something about jokes that weren't actually joking, gave him a careful look.

"Look," said Meredith. "Forget it. We're done here. Let's just go back to the room and sleep."

Zach jumped into the conversation, doing his best not to sound desperate. "Oh, sleep, isthat what they're calling it nowadays?"

Meredith gave him a scathing glance. "And if Brandon's lucky, I won't make him sleep on the couch."

And Zach watched as Brandon, stone-faced, helped her to her feet, and walked her out of the ballroom, and wondered if his friends were about to break Britney Spears' record for world's shortest marriage.

Then he looked in the other direction and saw Christa gaping, taken totally by surprise. And then he what she must have already thought of: that, with Brandon and Meredith absconding, it was essentially her responsibility to wind down the festivities.

This isnot how weddings are supposed to go.

It took them almost two more hours to shut everything down; they had rented the ballroom from the hotel, and staff was on hand, but much of the other logistics were Christa's to discharge. They were aided, surprisingly, by Caitlyn and Jon, as well as Derek and Sajel. Arie and Jane wanted to help, and Mr. and Mrs. Levine, and most of the parents in fact, but Christa assured them that there was nothing they could really do. For that matter, there was nothing most ofthem could do: Christa, ever the perfectionist, would not dream of delegating responsibility to a proxy. She even toldhim that he could leave, if he wanted. For some reason, he said no. He ended up as part of the receiving line, ushering guests out the door, assuring them that everything was under control, wishing them well in Brandon's name. He felt both pompous and misplaced.

Finally it was all over, most of the guests disposed of and the hotel staff busy dismantling the party; evidently this ballroom was going to be used to host a business convention in perhaps eight hours. Zach found Christa standing in the midst of a sea of noise and commotion, the eye of a storm that was quickly demolishing the wedding. Tomorrow, it would look as if it had never happened at all.

"I think we can go home now," Christa sighed.

Of course,Home meant the suite Brandon had rented for them; he and Meredith had decided to invite their friends on their honeymoon, which itself was barely a week long. Everyone—Arie, Derek, Jane, Sajel—was staying here overnight, with the plane flight scheduled for tomorrow morning. It was the silliest thing Zach had ever heard of, but Brandon had simply said, "Meredith and I know each other. We have the rest of our lives together. But we never spend enough time with our friends—even you and Christa, whom we live with. We'd rather use our honeymoon on the people who really matter."