Deciding I didn’t have time to be overanalyzing my text message mistakes, I hurried up to the second floor, which now was bustling and busy—I could hear a hair dryer going and the sound of water running in the bathroom. General Daniels, wearing a sharp dark-gray suit, was crossing the landing toward the guest room, his tie undone but looped around his neck. He gave me a nod, then headed into his guest room, pulling the door closed behind him.

I hurried up to the third floor, where things were about the same—I could hear hair dryers and music coming from behind the door of Linnie’s room and J.J. and Mike talking behind their door. Priya was standing in the doorway of Mike’s room, wearing her bridesmaids’ dress with a hoodie over it, laughing with Jenny K., who was still in sweatpants.

“Hey, Charlie,” Jenny said, smiling at me. “Did you get champagne? They just opened a bottle in Linnie’s room.”

“She’s underage,” Priya reminded her, giving me a wink.

“Um, so were we for most of college,” Jenny said. “And that certainly didn’t stop us. In fact, remember the night after homecoming when—”

“I’m not sure Charlie needs to hear about that stuff,” Priya said quickly. She frowned at me. “I thought you were going to get ready?”

“I’m working on it,” I assured her. I headed for the shower, then realized I’d left my brush in my room. I hurried over and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Danny said cheerfully, and I pushed the door open. Danny was sitting on my desk chair, already in his suit, tying his shoes. Brooke was standing in front of my mirror in a robe, leaning forward to put on eyeliner. She stopped as I came inside and gave me a tight smile, but not a particularly friendly one.

I realized I hadn’t seen her since the night before, when she’d stormed out of the capture the flag game. “Sorry,” I said, wondering if she was going to say anything about it, but Brooke just raised her eyebrows at me as I edged into my room. “I . . . just needed to get something out of my drawer.”

Brooke let out a short breath. “Of course you do,” she said, tossing her eyeliner down onto my dresser and taking a step back.

I blinked at her. “Sorry,” I said again, wondering if I’d done something.

“But if you could just take everything with you now, that would be great,” Brooke snapped. “So we’re not doing this over and over. Okay?”

I glanced at Danny. Now that she was taking this tone with me, it was like I was realizing just how friendly and accommodating Brooke had been up until now—it was like seeing a whole other person. “Um . . .”

“Whoa. It’s Charlie’s room, babe—she’s just going to get her stuff and then get out of our hair.”

“I’m aware it’s Charlie’s room,” Brooke said shortly, her voice getting higher. “And I’m aware that we’re only in here because nobody knew I was coming. . . .”

Danny ran his hand over his eyes. “Brooke,” he said, sounding tired.

“I’ll just . . .” I edged past her, grabbed my brush, and backed out of the room. Danny shot me an apologetic look as I left, and I gave him a look back, trying to let him know that I was fine.

I closed the door behind me, looking at it for just a second and hearing Danny’s and Brooke’s voices rising and falling behind it. Knowing I didn’t have time to worry about what was going on with them, I hurried across the landing to the bathroom, figuring that I should take advantage of it while it was still free.

After I took one of the quickest showers of my life and changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt—the makeup artist had lectured us all on not changing into our bridesmaids dresses until our hair and makeup were finished—I hurried across the landing to Linnie’s room. I’d towel dried my hair, but I could feel it dripping down my back—the hair guy was going to blow it out before doing whatever he was going to do with the curling iron.

“Charlie?” I looked over to see J.J. in the doorway of his room, wearing something white that covered his whole face. “Is that you?”

“What is that?” I asked, getting closer—there were eye and mouth holes, and the whole affect was like he was trying to dress up as a ghost, but was doing a very bad job of it.

“Rejuvenating sheet mask,” he said, adjusting it carefully. “Want one?”

“I’m okay,” I said. “How’s Mike?”

“He’s doing better,” J.J. said, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. “He’s resting now, and I made him drink, like, a gallon of water.” An alarm beeped, and J.J. pressed a button on his watch, then carefully removed the mask. “How do I look?”

“Rejuvenated,” I said, reaching for Linnie’s doorknob. I knocked once, then opened the door without waiting for a reply. The photographer and the other bridesmaids were gone—there was just my sister, still in her robe, looking more beautiful than I had ever seen her.

“Linnie,” I said, smiling at her. Her hair was down, spilling over her shoulders in soft curls. And her makeup was perfect, making her simultaneously look utterly gorgeous and also like she wasn’t wearing any makeup at all and just happened to look this way.

“You the last bridesmaid?” the hair guy asked, and I nodded.

“Finally,” the makeup artist said, shaking her head. She glanced down at her phone, which was on Linnie’s dresser. “Because we’re almost at the end of our window.”

“You have enough time for me, though, right?” I asked as I sat in the chair that was next to Linnie’s in front of the mirror.

“Just about,” the hair guy said, then picked up a comb and started combing out my damp hair.

“You look beautiful,” I said to my sister.

“Thanks,” she said, giving me a smile. She picked up a champagne flute that was on her dresser and took a sip, then held it out to me. I nodded and took a gulp of it, feeling that, at the least, it certainly couldn’t hurt. “Is everything okay out there?”

“Sure,” I said, a little too quickly. “Um, Liz thought she was too close to Jimmy, but it’s okay! We’re switching them.” I turned my head to look at my sister and was horrified to see her bottom lip start to tremble. “Lin?”

“I just don’t think I can take anything else happening,” she said, and I noticed both the makeup girl and the hair guy had stopped and were staring at my sister fearfully, like they were terrified all their hard work was about to get wrecked. “I mean, too many things are going wrong! And now Rodney’s relatives and their feud . . .”

“Are you going to cry?” the makeup artist asked, darting forward, tissue in hand. “Because if you do, I’m going to need time to retouch.”

This did not seem to be the thing to say to my sister, whose lip started trembling even more violently. “Linnie,” I said, turning her shoulders so that she was facing me. “Listen. It’s all going to be fine. Okay?”

“But . . . ,” Linnie said, and I could see tears in her eyes threatening to spill over. “So much has gone wrong. . . .”

“Yes,” I said, grabbing both her hands in mine, not wanting to dispute this, mostly because I couldn’t. “But you love Rodney. And he loves you, and that’s all that matters.” I searched my sister’s expression, and it was like I could see these words sinking in. “Right?”

Linnie nodded, and I noticed with relief that I could no longer see tears in her eyes. “You’re right,” she said, her voice a bit shaky. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s your wedding day,” I said, smiling as the hair guy started brushing my hair again with one hand, while the other reached for the hair dryer, which was plugged into Linnie’s wall socket, along with two curling irons and a flatiron. “You’re allowed to be emotional. In fact, I think it’s expected.”

“Everything is going to be fine,” Linnie said, like she was trying to convince herself, and I nodded.

“Nothing else,” I promised, “is going to go wrong.” Just as I said this, there was a faint pop and then the room was thrown into darkness.