Split Lip

There is a girl of about 25 sitting opposite me this morning who has the worst fat lip I have ever seen. She has two stitches (that I can see) in it plus quite a bit of bruising around the lower jaw, her lip is so swollen that it could almost be as big as a cricket ball. She is nursing her face like it is very tender and sore, if it feels anything like it looks it must be excruciating.
She looks like she has done a couple of rounds with a Cronulla front row forward.
I’m trying not to stare but it looks so bad I can’t help it.
I wonder what happened. Does she have a violent boyfriend? Did she go out on the weekend and get drunk and fall over or get too close to someone who was fighting? Did she get too close to a door handle?
Her friend just got on and sat down next to her and of course exclaimed loudly and wanted to know what happened to her.
Apparently she was at a wedding on the weekend and she lined up with all the other single girls for the throwing of the bouquet. She caught the flowers and was promptly beaten up by a couple of her rivals.
Obviously catching the bouquet these days is much more important than it used to be, maybe there is gold bars attached or money tucked up under the petals or diamonds threaded through the leaves.
You hear about girls who are involved more and more in violent episodes, but at a wedding? And over some poxy flowers?
I have been a witness to an altercation over the garter belt when the boys have been a little too exuberant in their efforts to catch it. No one has come to blows and it isn’t an arena you would enter light heartedly, but I have never seen a full on brawl. After all you are a guest at a wedding not a blow-in at the pub.
How classy, their parents must be so proud.
I’m sure some of the male guests had a lovely night, free grog and a bitch fight, how much more entertaining can it be.
The thing that bothers me the most is that she is proud of her injury and proud of her part in the incident.
I’m sure she doesn’t care that a total stranger or two is looking at her as if she is lower than pond scum, seriously though, is it ok to behave like that?