Run, Girl (If You Can)

After dinner one of Cameron's friends suggested a game where everyone had to go around the table and tell two funny or embarrassing stories about whichever half of the engaged couple they knew, one true and one false. Everyone else would have to guess which was which.

Next to Keeley, Valentina had a look of intense concentration on her face as she tried to think. She wanted to laugh. Of course her friend would take this seriously; she loved these kinds of games.

Embarrassing stories…goodness knows Keeley knew quite a few but what would be the most fun to share? And what fake story could she come up with? She had never been good at making things up on the spot. Her best bet was probably using a true story about somebody else rather than Jennica.

Jennica and Cameron weren't allowed to participate because they would be able to guess too easily. This game was solely to razz them, as close friends tended to do.

One of Jennica's actress friends went first. She told a story about how Jennica burped right before she began singing her song at an audition. The other was about how she accidentally kicked someone in the face while dancing and then laughed so hard she fell to the floor and couldn't finish the routine.

Keeley knew her friend—she was too professional for the second one to happen. "The burp story is the true one," she said confidently.

Jennica's face was bright red. "Nope. The dance one happened when I first moved to New York and didn't know much about auditions yet."

Everyone laughed and moved to the next person, Cameron's next door neighbor growing up.

He entertained everyone with a dramatic retelling of the time Cameron's brother thought it would be a good idea to tell him to hide inside the freezer in the grocery store and no one found him for fifteen minutes so he had to go to the emergency room.

The second story was about Cameron knocking out a kid's tooth by accidentally headbutting him in P.E. and the tooth was stuck in his hair for hours without anyone noticing. The neighbor's storytelling was so vivid for both that the rest of the party didn't have a clue which was the truth.

"The tooth story?" Aiden guessed.

The neighbor shook his head with a grin. "The freezer."

Jennica looked at her fiancé in alarm. "Which brother was this?!"

"Chase."

"…I can totally see it."

Eventually it was Aiden's turn. He talked about how Cameron tripped and dumped his entire lunch tray on himself in the cafeteria and another time when he called him crying drunk because his dog smiled at him.

Aaron spoke up for the first time in over thirty minutes. "The lunch tray is true. He came into my office covered in spaghetti sauce asking if I had a spare shirt."

"Did you?" someone asked.

"Why would I keep an extra shirt in my office? I called him an idiot and sent him home."

All of Cameron's friends found this hilarious but Keeley narrowed her eyes. It was Aaron's turn now. If they were actually best friends, what kind of stories would he have to offer?

When prompted by Aiden, he began to speak in monotone.

"Cameron was too lazy to get a real job in college and paid for all of his expenses by playing poker and blackjack in unofficial dorm room tournaments until he got banned for pissing people off by taking all their money. He also listens to electronic pop music on the plane every time he has a business trip."

Aaron really wasn't good at this game. Everyone who knew Cameron at least a little guessed correctly on the first try.

"How could you slander me like that, Aaron? I only listen to classic rock on planes!" he protested though it was obvious he was just giving his friend a hard time.

"…I'm not creative."

Keeley held back a snort. No, he was not. The only time she had ever seen him exhibit any creativity whatsoever was on that Star Wars poem in high school.

She felt a slight pang. When had he watched those? After she died because he missed her or after being reborn to impress her? That moron.

It didn't matter either way. He wasn't a part of her life anymore. At least, he wouldn't be once this stupid wedding was over. She still needed to have words with Jennica for tossing them together in the wedding party like this.

She tried to shake those thoughts free and focus on the next several guests' stories but she mostly spaced out until it was her turn. How had it gotten to her so quickly?

A deer caught in headlights, she froze momentarily because she forgot her story ideas. Help. They came back to her after a minute of awkward silence and clearing her throat.

"Let's see…there was the time Jennica held my cat up like Simba from the Lion King as she sang 'The Circle of Life'…and when she thought it would be interesting to try mixing every single flavor of Kool-Aid together at once and made me try it. We both puked in the sink afterward."

Aaron surprised her by speaking up. "The Lion King one is the true story. Your brother was the one who mixed together all the Kool-Aid."

Hold up. How on earth would he know that? In both her lives she never talked about Kaleb with him that much but she was positive she never told him that particular story.

"You're right," she said with an obvious question in her voice.

He explained himself as if no one else was present. "You mentioned it once when you were drunk."

How odd. She hadn't gotten drunk in front of him since they were newlyweds and she accidentally had too many cocktails at a business function. Yet he still remembered it so many decades later.

Valentina launched into her stories involving an exploded bottle of Ranch dressing and thinking there was a murderer at the door so they answered it holding improvised weapons such as rolling pins and a music stand but Keeley hardly paid attention to the laughter around her.

The next few months were going to be so tiring.