Good Morning

After the party that was the night before, I am relieved to wake up in the late morning, getting some extra snoozing time.

Jennifer, Heraclio and I have to take turns using the bathroom and getting dressed, which is fine. However, I am very hungry as I always am when I wake up in the morning, so I am feeling slightly impatient. We are all ready soon enough though, and we head down to have some hotel breakfast. We are all already wearing what we will wear to the wedding later today. I have a blue dress on, with little blue bird earrings in that I absolutely adore. Do you remember those snap bracelets? Yeah, I'm wearing one of those too, except it's a watch.

We eat our breakfast, and then head back up to our rooms for refreshments. The wedding is in the afternoon, so not long from now, so we don't spend a lot of time in our room before heading down to the beach where the ceremony and reception will be.

The Wedding

There are already people on the beach sitting in the chairs, and enjoying adult beverages waiting for the people to start by the time we get there. We decide to sit near the back for the ceremony. I decide to not take any photos of the ceremony out of respect for the photographer that they hired. The ceremony is pretty brief, but it was beautiful nonetheless. They don't walk back down the aisle though, instead they go and sit at a table next to the arch where they got married to sign the marriage certificate. At this point, I am tired of sitting, so I stand up. I walk around the perimeter of people, and I am hot and sweaty, but trying to ignore the fact that I am hot and sweaty. I snap a few photos of the bride and groom signing the marriage certificate.

The Reception

Once they were done signing the paperwork, the party really took off. I didn't even notice if the bride and groom did a reception entrance, or if we all just migrated over to the reception area of the beach and started to eat and drink. We all each got our own tumblers to keep our drinks cold, and to ensure that I didn't mix mine up with anyone else's, I put my white snap watch around the cup. I get nervous about leaving my cup unattended, so my cup is staying in my hand, unless I'm standing at a table to rest from dancing.

It seems that everyone at this wedding is a partier. Just about everyone is drinking alcohol, and everyone, I mean EVERYONE, is dancing. I started the day feeling self-conscious about sweating in my dress and such, but as I look around, I am seeing that everyone is sweating. Hair is sticking to foreheads, sweat is showing through clothing, but no one seems to care. Everyone is just having the time of their lives dancing, and honestly, it's inspiring to me. I have always felt self-conscious about sweating, but seeing everyone else having so much fun, I too, begin to really dance. I dance with Jennifer, I dance with Heraclio, I dance with their friends, and I am having an incredible time.

The After Party

I am feeling quite tipsy, but still very aware of everything going on around me. The music has stopped, and the crowd of people is now migrating down the beach. Jennifer is right by my side, and we make our way with the crowd down the beach. I am not entirely sure where we are going, but if the party is going to continue, I want to be a part of it.

We all arrive at a bar on the beach, and the drinks continue. There's not really music here, I mean there is, but it's not nearly as loud as it was in the reception area of the beach. I logically understand this, as there are hotels that line the beach, and I'm sure there is a noise ordinance, and I guess a small part of me is relieved, because I am tired from all of the dancing. Some of the people at the reception have now gone back to their hotel rooms to sleep, and now only a small group of us remain at the bar.

A little while has passed, and now the bar is going to close. One of Heraclio's friends has a house on Aruba, and apparently we are all going to go there to continue shenanigans. By now it is 3am in the morning, and we are stuffing into the "clown car" again to go the house. It's not a far drive, and when we pull up I think the house is beautiful. The front of it kind of just opens up to the fresh air, almost like the living room doesn't have a wall. The beach is right across the street. There's a pool in the backyard, with some lounge chairs around it, and a separate guest house which probably used to be a pool storage of some kind.

Jennifer goes to one of the lounge chairs and falls asleep. I go and sit next to her, but despite the fact that I have been up all night partying, I am not ready for sleep. I go hang out with the boys instead. They are all smoking cigars and laughing about something, but I'm not entirely sure what since they are all speaking Spanish. I just kind of stand quietly off to the side. I get bored, since I'm not able to be a part of the conversation, and start walking around the pool, running my hand along the fence. At some point, my finger gets a small cut on it and it starts to bleed.

"Ope," I say out loud.

Heraclio turns from his friends and sees that I need a band-aid and asks his friends if any of them have a band-aid on them or know where one is in the house. Carl, who has been flirty with me all evening, immediately steps forward and says that he has a band-aid in his room. I guess he's staying in the guest house. I shoot Heraclio a side glance, something that means "Don't let me go with him alone", but he either doesn't notice or thinks I'm being overdramatic and ignores me.

I follow Carl to the guest house, and he opens the door for me to go inside. I cautiously step in. The guest house is really just a bedroom with a closet and a bathroom attached. He follows me in and closes the door. At this point I am feeling really nervous. I stay standing by the door. He attempts to coax me to come inside more, but I tell him that I'm okay, if he could just give me the band-aid that will be good. He goes into the bathroom and comes back out with a bandaid. I reach out my hand to take it from him, but instead he grabs my other hand with the hurt finger. He very gently puts the bandaid over the small cut and holds my hand for second. He looks into my eyes.

"You can sleep here, if you want," he says in a very soft voice. Immediately my stomach and my chest feel like they are turning into knots, I am nervous. I pull my hand out of his.

"I am okay." I reply. Not my best work, but I turn to open the door and I go back outside. It seems that Jennifer must have not been completely asleep after all, because she was looking for me. I tell her what happened and she just smiles at me and says, "Boys."

By this time it's about 6am and almost everyone is asleep, including the "boys". Jennifer and I go back to our lounge chairs and get a few hours of sleep.