kymmie!
i have pins all over me. you look great!
hah!
dad did not say "blow dealers."
you can always shoot up in the tree house.
i will have my phd. in a year and a half. and psychologists don't get prescription pads, right kym?
would you please put that out? emma designed this dress and there's forty-seven yards of it and i'll go up like the hindenburg. kym takes a last drag even though she's down to the filter, then flushes the butt down the toilet in the tiny bathroom.
she has this great little boutique in greenwich. she says things like "you need a fabulous jersey pant."
non-specified eating disorder.
angela paylin is coming to the wedding.
i know. and she confessed to you her secret elvis stoyko fantasy. i spied on you.
in her fantasy, she was wearing her hair up and very serious, responsible eyeglasses, because she was a world renowned judge at the winter olympics for men's figure skating. and elvis stoyko was skating in the finals to "could it be magic" for the gold medal. and just when barry manilow is singing "now.  now.  now and hold on fast" there's this electric connection between them and he stops in the middle of his triple lutz. axel.
there is silence as he stops in front of her, their eyes lock, and he reaches for her hand.  and angela takes it!
and he gets disqualified but he doesn't care!
well, i think you'll be assisting on floral detail. i want everything all drippy and luxurious and mom's a little bit tasteful--
--and i don't want to upset her.
it's too hot!
besides i'm in my dress!
kymberly!
no. you guys are not getting my design concept.
i know. we're having an endangered panda fleeing for its life for the ice sculpture. or impaling itself on some bamboo. kym! this is sidney williams, my betrothed. sidney, meet my sister, kym.
that's fine.
and this is best man kieran.
isn't the lilac fabulous? you look like a freesia.
you wore a lilac sweater with a cat face on it on the cover of seventeen magazine when i was at fat camp.
because.
i wasn't entirely sure when you were coming or even if you'd make it.
i wasn't sure if you'd have time for a fitting.
what are you talking about?
dad offers irish hunger strikers food every ten seconds.
oh, leave dad alone.
stop! you're like a harpy. is being my "maid of honor" this important to you? i didn't think you gave a shit.
jesus. emma!
emma, would you be horribly offended and hurt if i asked you to step down as.  "maid of honor?"
not really.
and bludgeons all and pillages all and leaves all for dead.
you've known most of those people since the eighth grade. you always pretend you don't know people.
aren't there some rules about helium tanks?
here's mom. the girls clamber up. kym brushes curry off rachel's shirt. abby, the girl's mom, and andrew, her husband, enter the dining room. abby is a beautiful, wise woman in her fifties. elegant, ladylike and graceful. andrew looks foxy in his abby-selected armani, but he has the shoulders and knuckles of a heavyweight. as the girls approach, abby acknowledges paul across the room but makes no move to go beyond an exchange of long distance little waves and tight smiles.
mom, where have you been? is everything okay?
you're paying for that, emma.
sidney's recording studio is there. kym, stung, exhales a plume of smoke.
that wasn't it?
i have no memory of that whatsoever.
gotta say no.
mahamoud! such a nice man.
where? where?
nice apology.
nice apology.
i know what the steps are.
i learned them in school, and i've visited you in various facilities, kym.
amends. noun. often followed by 'for'. offset a disability or frustration by development in another direction. rachel blinks at her sister.
you've never said anything to me, that's remotely apologetic. yet, all of a sudden, at my wedding dinner, in front of everybody, you decide to grace us all with your development?
"hey everybody! and guests! just in case you might be thinking about something else for five minutes, like, i don't know, my sister's wedding-- they just cut me loose!
an effort. that's what it was? because i think she presumes that since everything has always revolved around her disease, everything else is going to revolve around her recovery. that's what i think.
again.
i'm not.
i'm not uptight, dad.
you people? you mean the people in this room? your family?
please. that's hardly news. you may not know this. sure you do. the only way to engage dad in any meaningful communication is to start the conversation with your name. "have you heard from kym? how's kym?" it resuscitates him. it jars him into the moment. like an alarm.
and she's even worse! "dad, you're never going to believe this, but i lost the car again." "dad, you're never going to believe this, but that check you sent me never showed up and my landlord hates me." "dad, can somebody meet me downstairs with cab fare and you're never going to believe this but i need to go to the emergency room and my neighbor's suing me and my checkbook got stolen!"
are you kidding? the two of you are like a double helix of crises. in the language of psychology one could say you both suffer from acute boundary issues.
--oh god--
how come she gets to spout off about paternal issues, but god forbid i should even reference the "boundary thing," even though i actually know what i'm talking about?
you just got out of rehab!
oh, poor you. you're so much more evolved in your suffering. you know what? your suffering is not the most important thing in the world to everybody!
i'm pregnant.
i can barely believe it myself!
we told her at dinner.
kym, you're going to have a niece!
i am so fucking exhausted.
i just. i need to go to bed. sidney?
yes.
no thanks, dad. i really am pretty sleepy.
i've never been so tired in my life.
dad?
i hope it's okay, i told mom at dinner. about the baby.
i wish ethan were here.
look how exquisite this is. i can't borrow this. what do you carry in here? a vital organ? a tiny spleen?
i love the color. it's oyster.
yes, mom.
fine.
kieran.
i'm not exactly sure what that means.
you think?
mom, she's sold syndication rights to her troubles.
mom, does it bother you at all, carol doing so much wedding stuff?
yes, i'm sure, and that's so great and so you, but you can do whatever else you want, you know. i'd love it.
huh.
you're right.
hooray!
is she dead?
it's beautiful. thanks, mom. i hope it's a boy.
can we get back to what we were doing, please?
they're your friends, dad.
really? because right now i have her shoveling kelp in the laundry room. but i have it as a montage. kieran and kym arrive on the porch. kym settles herself on a big comfy chaise.
they're not invited.
i am.
i was thinking of putting you with cookie puss and the chicago cousins because they always get really drunk and need wrangling.
you're the only one they're afraid of.
dad, can i show you something in the kitchen?
i would just like to have a day please.
then why are you defending her?
why are you protecting her?
sometimes i don't want her. it's my fucking wedding, don't you get it? i want my table to be perfect. paul kisses her on the forehead.
well, she's growing them and choosing them - but they are being delivered by her people.
kym. can we talk about the candles for a minute? because --
oh my god, no. don't. just don't. that would kill dad. and mom. and me. and everybody. please, kym, please please please don't do that.
just drop it, sweetie, okay? please?
don't touch me.
i never had anorexia. you sure as hell didn't watch over me while i was sleeping and we don't have a
i'm hurt!
i hate her.
don't tell me what i don't hate. i hate, hate the lies. she lied in rehab.
she lied to the people who were working with her. who were trying to help her. she lies to everybody.
where am i now, dad?
are you kidding me?
why not? why wasn't it about me?
dad, stop. why not? i was hopeful. i was on your side. i still am. do you have any idea what that means? do you have any idea how lonely it was with everybody gone into your terrible world? there was nothing left. everybody was just empty. you think they remembered i was alive or needed anything during your.  life? and after all that loneliness and mom and dad blaming each other and worrying and death and divorce and that stupid hopefulness and dad not even being able to listen to music, you were in the hospital, lying about us! instead of telling the truth about yourself!
apparently she has a whole history of sexual molestation.
dad, look at me. i'm right here. i'm telling you that after ethan died i wanted her to get better or just die.
and dad, she was lying and she didn't give a shit about the rest of us. recovery can't work if you lie. she knows that. i was worthless to her. we all meant nothing to her.
kym, you took ethan for granted. you were high for his life. you were not present for his life. you were high. he was like a pet to you. you drove him off the bridge. and now he's dead.
aaaah! fuck! she is dressed in her sari and huge gold earrings and looks beautiful, despite a lack of sleep. seeing her bashed up sister framed in the doorway, rachel fights tears. she loses.
with the car?
you hit mom? you hit our mother?
i got it.
can you do this?
okay.
yeah, baby boy. rachel licks the frosting off sidney's finger then gives his mom a big wholesome smile.
can we all do this together?
mom.
friends and family, family and friends! i have an announcement to make! i'm the bride and i'm knocked up! surprised whooping and hollering.
i'm exercising my bridely, knocked up prerogatives and demand that
oh yay! dad c'mon. c'mon dad! this is my favorite song!
taking a break.
mom doesn't actually participate in things.
i was thinking about getting her a cat. cats are really annoying. at some point you have to deal with them, right? or they starve to death and piss on your sheets.
stop! stop you fiend! rachel and sidney fall to the floor writhing, sounding way too amorous. then:
hello? the ceiling light flicks on overhead and abby enters the living room. blinking against the light, rachel struggles to her feet smoothing her dress.
mom!
you're leaving?
you could make a little scene.
what about our post-nuptial wedding gossip reconnaissance, mom?
um.
wait! i want my mother and my sister!
yes. of course.
hi.
me too.