Nothing much happened for the next few months. Destiny lived a quiet life at home with Lance and Hunter. Estella continued her eduacation at Harvard as a junior. Her relationship with Nick remained strong throughout all the tourings and recording sessions and interviews and college classes, and everything else. Hope and Jerald Jr. were together for a little over a year when Jerald asked Hope to marry him. She accepted, of course. But nobody saw a proposal from Nick to Estella coming. Estella thought about it all of two seconds. Destiny was happy for her sisters. Howie and Claudia were to be married in
a double wedding with Kevin and Kristin. Brian started dating one of Destiny’s friends. Her name was Autumn Rios and she was a business major. Autumn wanted to start a modeling agency and a couple clothing lines. Brian seemed happy with her and enjoyed her company. He hadn’t dated much after his breakup with Leighanne, but once he saw Autumn, he couldn’t stay away.
Finally, it was time for Kevin, Kristin, Howie, and Claudia to get married. It was a major event in the music industry. Two of the most gorgeous recording artists were getting married. Like AJ and Destiny had done with their wedding, they held a contest were five lucky winners and a friend of their choosing would get to attend the wedding and the reception. Everyone arrived at the church at 5:00am, before any fans had gotten there to block the roads. Learning from experience, security had been tightened, traffic directors were ready to direct all the guest to parking, road blocks had been set, and baracades were also set up to control the crowd they knew was going to gather.
The day seemed to fly by. Destiny, Hope, and Estella did their best to help Claudia and Kristin to get ready. Both of their families were walking around, doing last minute things. Kevin was a nervous wreck, as was Howie, and they were practically useless. Destiny looked around at all the activity around her and thought of the day she and AJ got married. She walked up to the empty balcony and sat, thinking how happy AJ would’ve been to be there at that moment, seeing two of his best friends get married.
”Look at all thos people down there,” AJ said, looking at the scene from above. “Were there that many people at me and Destiny’s wedding?”
“Yeah, that’s about the size of the crowd outside,” said Reina.
“The people being escorted inside is about the same, too,” said Cheyenne.
“So you two saw your big brother get married,” AJ smiled. “What did you think of Destiny?”
“Well, when we first saw her, we were like....” Reina and Cheyenne looked at each other.
“No way,” they said together.
“But then we saw how you reacted to her the day you guys met and knew she was exactly what we were hoping you’d find,” Cheyenne said.
“I mean, not to be insulting, but that Amanda girl,” Reina said, her nose wrinkled in disgust. “She was a little too much like you for it to ever last. That, and she was an aspiriing star jumping at a major opportunity.”
“No, she wasn’t,” AJ said. “I really liked Amanda. She knew how to have fun, but she knew when it was time to work, too. I will admit that when I met Destiny, she never stood a chance.”
“See, Alex,” Cheyenne said. “Listen to your little sisters. We know what’s best.”
“Yeah,” Reina said. “Cheyenne and I know what were talking about. Destiny is perfect for you.”
“And we know you’ve been missing her a lot,” said Cheyenne.
“It’s hard for me not to,” AJ told them. “But it’s not just Destiny. I miss my sons. I’m never gonna get to show them a father’s love. The kind I wish I had when I was young.”
“Dad thought about you everyday,” Reina said. “He thought about us, too. He wondered how we’d look at this age. We’ve grown here and our 21st birthday is coming up.”
“I was suprised to find out they celebrate birthdays in Heaven,” AJ said. “It doesn’t seem right after you’ve died.”
“Just because you died doesn’t mean that you’re birthday is just ripped of the calendar,” Reina said. “We still celebrate all different people’s birthdays, even on Earth.”
“It just seems weird to say that I turned 23 in Heaven, that’s all.” AJ looked back down at the church. He peered into the church and saw Lance and Hunter crawling around the balcony with Destiny smiling at them. “Look at them. Seven months old and crawling. I was so happy the day they started crawling. I wish I could be there with them.”
“One day, we’ll all be reunited with our loved ones,” Cheyenne said. “We just have to be patient.”
“You mean, we have to wait for all of them to die,” said AJ. “Well, I can’t wait that long. I want to be with Destiny and our sons right now. Destiny was given a second chance, did you know that?” Reina and Cheyenne nodded. “Then why can’t I be given a second chance. I wanted to show that I could be a good father and a good husband. But as long as I’m here, I’ll never be able to.” He looked at his wife and sons one more time. “I can’t watch this anymore.”
AJ turned around and walked away. Reina and Cheyenne looked at each other worriedly. They didn’t need to speak words to know they were thinking the same thing. They went to the only spirit that could make that happen. They walked in the opposite direction.