Jane
“You okay?” I heard a mumbling voice close to my ears as a hand touched my shoulder.
I glanced up at the person with chocolate eyes and a charming smile as he stared into my eyes.
He looks happy. I guess. On the other hand, I look as if I pissed on my pants, which I’m not even wearing right now. Yeah, I’m wearing a dress. Why not? It’s my wedding, it might be based on prepositions, but that doesn’t mean I can’t dress up beautifully.
So, today is the day after two to three days of discussion. Brandon and I decided to get married in a very private and plain, and by private, I mean only two of us and no one else. Nothing fancy because Brandon knows how prominent my sentiments are about weddings.
A wedding is a very special event in any girl’s life. We girls fantasized about ourselves as a bride from a very early age. From picking the perfect dress to the venue where the wedding should take place, we girls have all decided everything in our minds from a very early age, fantasizing about it to make it real. With the love of our life standing beside us as we vow to stay together in sickness and health, poor or rich, supporting each other, caring for each other whenever life is hard and sad when no one is by our side, but we hold each other with a bond called love. But not every dream is true. Sometimes, when everything is perfect, we think that no harm can strike us. That’s when life stumbles, punching us in our faces, and exposing us to the harsh reality which we didn’t want to expect. The reality is that, in one moment, all our happiness turns into our miseries. Where, in one moment, your wedding dress turns into a funeral dress. Where all your joy turns into the grief of a lifetime, where everything you ever dreamed of breaks like a piece of glass, with no hope of getting it back together. And, we as humans can do nothing about it, other than stand and watch all our loved ones leave us, all alone, in a world where there is only grief in living life. And death is not an option.
The story of my life and the person I wanted to marry is no longer with me. There are just memories of him.
Once a person dies, they never come back. We can remember them by their memories or by the moments we cherish with them.
Now here I’m doing something I never dreamed of doing ever in my life, and that is marrying someone other than Jared. Standing in the marriage registration office, I glanced up at the person who would soon be my husband. He is busy talking about something with the officiant that I’m not merely interested in; my mind is so focused on my thoughts, trying to process the situation.
My eyes scan my surroundings, trying to divert their focus to something else. Because the thought itself is confusing and distracting; The thought of being married to someone who is not Jared, but what other choice do I have to escape from this situation? My mind is profoundly looking for any other way to handle the condition other than marriage. But the more I think, the more confused I get about all this.
“Jane,” Brandon called, misleading me from my thoughts as he placed a pen in my hand, and slid the documents in front of me, asking me to sign them. My mind went blank for a second; If I don’t want this marriage. Then, it might be my only chance to speak now.
But my mind was busy weighing the pros and cons of the situation that my hand moved, signing the papers subconsciously, writing my name on the document. That binds us together with each other by law. From now, I’m married to someone I don’t love, or ever dreamed of loving.
“Now you can kiss the bride,” I heard the officiant say, the words making me choke on my breath.
I took a few steps back, looking at Brandon, who was standing right beside me. Brandon’s face, as usual, was unreadable, showing no emotions. And to my shock, he did something that froze all my senses.
“I’ll do nothing without your consent ever in my life,” he mumbled, with his voice so low that only I could hear as Brandon placed his hands on both sides of my head, planting his lips on my head in between my brows, kissing it gently. Both our eyes connected, staring at each other as his hands caressed my hair, gently.
“Now I pronounce you husband and wife,” the officiate said as we separated each other from our grasp. Brandon’s eyes focused on the officiator. I turned my head to Brandon. For the first time in the five years that I have known Brandon, I noticed something today that I had never observed before in his eyes. And that is a concern and care for me. Brandon’s unreadable as he always keeps the same stern face, hiding his emotions. But his eyes always tell the truth about it. It’s not a lie when they say, ‘The eyes are the mirror of the soul.’
“You okay?”
I nodded my head in answer.
“Let’s go home then,” Brandon said, taking my hand in his hand, as we made our way out of the office toward the place that we called home.
And for the first time today, I smiled at myself. Even though our marriage is nothing but a settlement between us, one thing I am sure of is that Brandon is a family. I don’t know if this settlement between us is good or bad. Only time will tell, but Brandon is someone I have trusted when I had no one in my life. And till now, he has never hurt or left me alone for once. I hope that the future brings happiness for both of us. Married or not, I don’t want to lose a friend like Brandon from my life.
And sometimes you can’t change your fate; you can delay it for sure, but you can’t change a thing that is about to happen in your life. The same happens to me, I guess. I tried my best to get away from the wedding, but in the end, the marriage happened. And within minutes, I’m married to Brandon.