The pocketbook Part 1

I excitedly put on my outfit and layers. I love weddings! I just…kind of didn’t want to get married this early in my life.

I took a big sip of my drink. I needed it to hold me off all night.

I heard a knock. I went to the door and opened it. It was my ex. I kind of really still loved him. He looked irritated with me.

“Wow, Loni,” he said softly. “You look so handsome…ugh, I wish this were us. We could’ve ran away together and got married.”

I felt guilty, but I wasn’t really interested in running away from home. Maybe Madenna is a nice woman and will like me. I want to chat with her. I wish she would’ve shown up to talk the day before. Hm?

Celesi sighed loudly.

“Neloni, can you focus?” Celesi said. “I just complimented you.”

He looked good, especially his body. I giggled.

“I heard you; I just can’t respond to that without getting frustrated,” I replied. “I want to get married. Maybe it won’t be that bad.”

Celesi looked irritable.

“Do I mean nothing to you?” He asked. “You don’t know this girl, you know me.”

He rubbed my cheek and held my waist. I gulped. Don’t cheat on your cugale, that’s not right. It doesn’t matter how much you love him. You’re getting married.

“Lesi, stop,” I said softly and giggling. “I don’t want to cheat. I just want a normal marriage.”

He still wanted to kiss me but then pulled away and frowned.

“A Nini, Loni…” he said. “Have you been drinking? You smell strong! What the fuck? You have to stop. What if—”

I could hear someone coming in. I pulled Celesi away.

It was my dad. He saw Celesi. Fuck! He doesn’t know I dated a guy like this! Oh no!

“Damijo, why is your coworker, Sr. Paqeda, here?” He asked. “And your cugale is taking insanely long. Are you being unfaithful with this _____ degenerate? Keep your legs closed.”

Paqeda frowned and grumbled.

“I can’t talk to your son?” He asked. “We are just friends.”

My dad looked up at him, he was shorter than Paqeda.

“Get your ____ ass out of my son’s room, you mangy freak!” He fussed. “Get out! Don’t touch Damijo and don’t ruin this for him. If you touch my son, I’ll kill you. Why do y’all people always do so damn much?!”

I cleared my throat. He’d never talk to my mom like that, I don’t know why he’s talking like that to Lesi. He’s always acting weird, maybe he’s on drugs.

“I’m not in a mood to talk to you, tato*,” I said. “I’m going on a walk.”

“Fine, whatever,” my dad said.

Celesi glared at me.

“I’m going to sit in the main hall with Kintin,” he said. “I’ll talk you later.”

Kintin? Why is he hanging out with Kintin?! That’s my ex! Why is he hanging out with her??? Are they dating???

I took a deep breath and masked my anger. I didn’t want to be mad at my wedding.

I walked in the hallway and saw a room. My curiosity got the best of me.

I walked in the room to a young woman who was fortunately clothed and was murmuring angrily to herself. She must be my cugale*, Madenna, because I didn’t know her, yet she was murmuring about me and her looks. She was very pretty from what I saw of her, but she looked a bit stressed and angry.

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Read this: it’s the actual footnote

*tato= father, cugale=fiancée

Ignore unless you just want to read this:

It might seem obvious to some, but I will still add a translation. Tato means father. It is an Indo-European like word made from baby banter–This is a word from the conlang I made but I’m sure it exists in real life because it is again, just Indo-European looking.

Babe or babai (it’s babe usually how I write it down, I don’t want it confused with the flirtatious diminutive “babe” so I) means mother. Child is guai (and is neutral)

These words look like mami and papi (which I got the words from. I switched the voices to something different. Papi to dadi/daddy to tato. I wanted the voiced sounds to be the same for mom and dad, so I switched it to babi then added the suffix grammatical gender (grammatical gender in language like Spanish are easier to replicate.) Look at this IPA chart and under pulmonic consonants and you’ll see what I did.

Cugalo and cugale translate more to domestic partners but are used by wealthier people to discuss who is engaged and who are future marriage partners. It’s related to the past Nini culture (that developed the culture ____ that states that cugale are the most important and highest form of personal relationships. It is simply just dating.

I will get back onto more history later.