Bishop/Marina --> Demi/Marina (just arriving)
“Fuck that. I’m a New Yorker and I always will be. Not that some of those Jersey Shore house wives didn’t have big hair, but it’s not really my style. I think curled, though. Doesn’t have to be big and obnoxious.” The generator they had to power the Cat House had been turned on in preparation for her arrival and after setting the hairbrush down, she picked up the curling iron and plugged it into a power strip.
As it was warming up, she faced Demi and smirked slightly. “Thanks for helping me get ready and not acting like we’re about to go to our first dance in the eighth grade. What is it about weddings that makes people lose their shit? It’s not like it actually changes anything, right? I mean, it’s not like your relationship is magically better just because you’re wearing some rings.” After a moment’s pause, she added, “Obviously I want to marry Vic but because I know it’s going to make him happy. And he’ll worry less about me if I’m his Old Lady. But I’m happy to just be with him, y’know?”
“Thank god,” Demi breathed out with a laugh. “Because I’m just going to tell you right now I would have had to bar you from leaving this tent if you went the whole big and obnoxious route,” the look on her face probably told Marina that she wasn’t kidding, not even a little bit. “Trust me, insane hypothetical you would thank me later.” She tacked on before glancing in the direction of the giggling gaggle of ladies in the other's portion of the Cat house. “You’re welcome, on both counts.”
Demi could admit she enjoyed weddings, had even thought about her own more than once. But she could understand Marina’s point as well. A wedding didn’t necessarily change your relationship, it just changed how others saw it. Or at least that was always how Demi had viewed it. “Honestly, I think it’s just the excitement people feel about the whole event. Two people merging their lives, even if technically they've been merged long before a ring got involved, so maybe it’s the change that people go batty over?” She gave a little shrug and her tone made it clear she didn’t truly have a clear cut answer. “I think weddings aren’t so much about how you perceive your relationship, but how everyone else does,” Demi paused. “Like you’re just happy to be with him, but other people, they’ll see that ring and they’ll know you're his and he’s yours.”
She refused in this moment to make any of this about her or how she couldn't get the idea of marriage or a ring out of her mind today. Demi might have been a self-centered creature, but she was not so unaware to realize that today wasn’t about her or her feelings about her own chances of getting married.
“I’m sure Vic told you it’s a status thing,” Demi pushed past her own thoughts, determined to stay focused on Marina. “That everything with an MC is about status. The other patches, the old ladies, even the camp bitches will treat you differently. Hell, you’ll be the highest ranking woman in camp, that’s why Vic will worry less about you.” She assumed that Vic had already told Marina all of this, but on the off chance he hadn’t Demi didn’t think it hurt to mention it again.
Marina nodded slowly as she listened to Demi talk. Vic had told her plenty of that and she understood where he was coming from. But MC life was different from how she’d grown up in the cartel. She never needed a ring on her finger for everyone to understand that she was under the protection of Emmanuel and anyone who fucked with her would have hell to pay.
“I can’t imagine trying to flaunt my rank or ever telling Noa what to do, even if I will technically be above her on the food chain,” Marina snorted. Noa was probably Marina’s closest friend here and as far as she could tell, the woman had earned every ounce of respect she had here. There was no way Marina would ever return all the guidance and friendship Noa had given her with that kind of disrespect.