1. Extra

Vanessa Smiatek

von Vanessa Smiatek

Story

„We should dance!“ People rolled their eyes and hoped they would be sitting as far away from the hen party as possible. Julia would have loved to join them. But she couldn’t deny the sash reading ‚Bridesmaid‘ that ran across her chest. She knew why she was invited, but felt out of place. The other bridesmaids and the bride had known each other for the past two decades and talked exclusively in inside jokes: ‚Do you remember Mr Bell?‘, ‚Have you heard about Audrey getting married?‘, ‚Did you hear that Duke came out?‘, and so on…

The girls quickly emptied a bottle of sparkling wine getting louder and louder. Luckily, they reached their destination before Julia died from second-hand embarrassment. It was time for lunch, which gave drunk bridesmaids 1-3 and slightly tipsy bride the chance to sober up. Julia had looked up some restaurants, but before she could suggest something, they had settled on Chinese. A tradition among the girls.

The secret code conversations continued throughout the meal. Julia didn’t dislike listening to other people’s stories or her company. She just felt like a role without any lines had been assigned to her.
The waiter brought the bill with some fortune cookies and they each took one.
Starting with the bride, they read their fortunes. It was all quite generic about good opportunities coming up, friends being a blessing and hard work paying off.
When it was Julia’s turn they had already turned back for more stories and to catch up on more recent ones, triggered by the cookies. Only Nathalie, the bride, looked at her expectantly. Yet, there seemed to be something wrong with her message for it only had a single word written on it: Extra

Was this a printing error? Had they run out of messages and just put in a random piece of paper? Or was she supposed to be extra, as the young people would say? Just thinking that made her feel old.

Nathalie kept looking at her, so Julia turned the paper, shrugged and said: „I suppose they ran out of ideas.“
„That’s a shame maybe we could -„, before Natalie could finish her sentence, she was pulled into a selfie for an old classmate.

Maybe I’m an extra in this play. So it looks like a bigger crowd. Like a living prop.

Julia couldn’t tell whether this thought comforted or depressed her. It did take away some of the pressure. In the end, she decided to simply accept it and play along. They checked into their hostel, went out, woke up hungover and, before they knew it, they were back at the train station to split up again. Julia excused herself first and started walking away. But Natalie ran over to her.

„I know this must have been awkward for you. I wanted to tell you that having you as a bridesmaid means a lot to me.“
„It means a lot to me too. And I suppose awkwardness is part of being family.“
They smiled and hugged each other goodbye.

Walking to her platform home, Julia remembered that she was actually looking forward to having a sister.

© Vanessa Smiatek 2025-02-02

Genres
Romane & ErzÀhlungen
Stimmung
Reflektierend, Reflective
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