Page 42 of D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

My eyes widened and I looked back and forth between the two of them. “Wait! Are you serious?!”

Quickly, she started shaking her head as he held up a hand and dragged his fingers across his neck.

“You’re the only one getting married right now,” confirmed Kiana, “so you can calm down. We’re taking notes for future reference. Just...so when we get to that point, we’ll already have an idea of what we like and don’t like. That’s all. Cool your boxers. Thanks.”

Wiping a hand across my forehead, I shook off imaginary sweat and released an audible breath. “Girl, you really had me going for a minute.”

Kiana rolled her eyes and rubbed her belly. “That’s what you get for jumping to conclusions before I get to finish my sentence.”

Rhea frowned. “Nah, KiKi. There was definitely a period there.”

With her hands on her hips, Kiana arched an eyebrow. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, because there hasn’t been a period here in a long time.”

Josue started choking on air while Ray pretended to gag. Rhea and I busted out laughing, drawing everyone’s attention to us.

“You wild, girl,” I told her, catching my breath as I made my way back over to D’Vaughn. “Are we ready to go in?” I asked, grabbing her hand and linking our fingers. She wouldn’t look at me for some reason, but at least she didn’t pull away from me.

“Yep,” she replied shortly. “It looks like the gang’s all here.”

Something was definitely off with her, but instead of calling her out on it in front of everyone, I nodded and led the way inside of the building. We all stopped right inside of the door, looking around at the completely empty room. Straight ahead was a grand staircase that led to a second-level mezzanine. On either side of the staircase were open areas that were oddly empty. Just...wide-open spaces that looked as if they should have held tables and chairs, but for some reason didn’t. The floor underneath our feet was covered in a low-pile, cream-colored carpet with swirls of blue and green that repeated in a headache-inducing pattern from wall to wall.

“Hello?” I called out, taking a step forward. D’Vaughn, who now had a tight grip on my hand, tugged me backward. I looked at her in question and she immediately shook her head. “We have an appointment,” I reminded her. “C’mon. They’re probably in the back or something.” I tilted my head for her to follow before taking another couple of steps forward.

Then I stopped in my tracks.

The floor felt...squishy. Peering down at my feet, I bounced on my toes a couple of times, gasping when I noticed little bubbles of liquid rise to the surface of the carpet around my shoes. With my eyes to the ground, I walked a little further, noticing the same thing. Holy shit! The entire carpet near the door was soaked!

“Be careful, y’all!” I called over my shoulder. “The floor is wet.”

“Uh-uhn!” protested Ray. “This looks like the set of a horror movie in here!”

“Don’t say that!” Mami scolded, slapping his arm. “Give it a chance, mijo. It might be nice.”

Scoffing, Ray shook his head. “Sure thing, Mami. I’ll give it a chance, and then the next thing I know, I’m being sucked into the walls.”

“¡Ay Dios mío!” Mami whispered harshly before making the sign of the cross.

I started to roll my eyes, but then a low uttering caught my attention. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed Ms. Miller praying under her breath. She lifted her hands into the air as she walked to the right side of the room. Mami took one look at her and dug into her purse to pull out her rosary and begin reciting the Lord’s Prayer as she went to the left. My eyes ballooned and I spun to see if D’Vaughn was seeing this. Her and D’Niesha were exchanging a look that I couldn’t decipher, but neither of them seemed particularly surprised.

“Look what you started,” Papi muttered to Ray, who busted out laughing.

Raising his hands into the air as if that would prove his innocence, Ray shook his head. “I had no idea that they would start praying. You can’t blame me for that.”

“Yeah, doofus, we can.” Kiana rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who said the walls would start eating people.”

Ray pointed to the dingy, cream floor-length curtains that hung from the ceiling in intervals that didn’t make sense, especially since there were no windows on either side of this venue. It was in the center of a building, with storefronts on either side of it.

“Are you going to tell me that those curtains don’t look like they can wrap around you of their own volition?!”

Covering her ears with her hands, Kiana started singing a loud melody. “I can’t hear you!” she shouted.

Papi sighed. Rhea glared at both of our youngest siblings before settling on Ray and hooking a thumb in Kiana’s direction.

“She has pregnancy hormones. What’s your excuse?”

Rolling his eyes to the ceiling, Ray heaved a loud sigh of frustration. “Fine!” he snapped. “Don’t come running to me when you see some weird shit in here! Ghosts, monsters that wanna fuck you with their tentacles, little clowns on tricycles trying to lure you down unrealistically long hallways. I don’t care, leave me out of it!” He threw his hands into the air.

Slowly, I turned to face D’Vaughn, dreading the look on her face. I was used to my dramatic siblings and their theatrics. D’Vaughn’s family seemed significantly less outrageous by comparison. Her eyes were wide, mouth slightly parted.