After I got home tired from my carpentry job, I took my beautiful fiance into my arms. How can I be this lucky, I thought to myself as Jacq took the meatloaf out of the oven. I couldn’t contain myself to just stirring the green beans. It made me happy that even after 3 years, it still made Jacq squeal “Mason!” when I scooped him up in one big motion. Soon thereafter, I shut our bedroom door.
The final checks had to be done, so I headed to where Jacq and I’s wedding ceremony and reception was going to take place. Being a set designer, I couldn’t stay away from the action. I knew everyone would be there already working. I quietly slipped on his jeans to get ready for the day. I headed towards the door with a half-eaten sesame bagel in my mouth, but it was just too much of a temptation with the bedroom still half often. Okay, just a peek, I convinced myself as I deteried from my predisposed route.
I turned the corner to see sunlight streaming in across his tousled hair. It brought a smile to my face that the sheer curtains did nothing to disguise the bright sun on our wedding morning. The drool on the linen bed sheets proved that Jacq was sleeping peacefully, entangled with his teddy bear. Now I could go to the rooftop where our wedding would take place.
“Oh, Christine, how wonderful to see you here,” I said after noticing Christine, one of the theater hands and eccentric, eclectic people Jacq and I had come to call our family, was there.
“I wanted to see you before anyone else did,” Christine said, smiling weakly.
“You’ll be happy to know the groom was sleeping like a baby when I saw him this morning.”
“Mason.”
“What? It was just a peek!...Hey, what’s your diary doing here, Christine?” I asked, walking closer to where she was sitting. I picked the leather bound journal up and started flipping through it.
The words she’d written took me by surprise. At first, I started reading about myself and Jacq, but the further I read, it began to sound like Christine was describing less and less of me.
“…It makes me glad that Jacq has found someone he really loves, but it makes me sad for Mason.”
Me? My eyes frantically searched the page for more as my head spun.
“...He told me he told Mason last night, but I still don’t know. What am I supposed to do?”
“...Dear Diary, Henry just bought the theater on 31st Street. I can’t believe Mason still doesn’t know.”
After the words began to stick and the tears to flow, I mouthed the words, “Is it true?”
I expected to see Christine, needing her comforting presence, but she was not there. Instead, I looked up from the diary to see Jacq standing there. For a second, I forgot that I had just found out that Jacq was in love with another man. It’s just that he looked so beautiful, the picturesque groom straight out of a magazine with his suit of black delicate lace and sweetly-demurred powdered face, standing there.
“You look beautiful,” I said.
He took my arm, and I rested my head on his shoulder. Along with the lovely New York smog, I tried to capture what would be the last heavenly essence of my groom.
“What are we going to tell our guests?” I asked him as tears streamed down in mourning for the future we would never have.
We started walking. All eyes were on us when we walked hand-in-hand through the doors to the venue. The rooftop looked beautiful, a testimony to how far we had both come in the short amount of time that we’d been here.
“Everybody,” I said, clearing my throat. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there is not going to be a wedding.”
Christine turned her head, and Mylan on piano began to play the wedding march.
I didn’t know what was happening or why the guests were still looking lovingly at us.
“What?” Christine asked. “Don’t you think you both deserve to go out in style?”
So Jacq and I walked down the aisle dancing, and the minister even said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I now pronounce you ex-fiances!”
Champagne popped, streamers went flying, and music blasted. It was straight out of a movie. We partied hard the entire night, not wanting to accept that everything was going to change but knowing that it soon would.
Theme: When love ends, it hurts, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be ugly when it ends or that you can’t be happy for the other person in the relationship or even yourself.
This was a Fiction Writing Assignment in 11th Grade at Bettendorf High School. Extraordinary experience but not enough enjoyment out of life from peers. I understand the short story is not perfect, but it pays homage to the Young, Hopeful, and Clueless high school kiddo I was <3
Song Lyrics Story
Diary-Bread
Image Credits:
"Guy Man People" by StockSnap via Pixabay, 8 Aug. 2017. https://pixabay.com/photos/guy-man-people-dark-shadow-hands-2617866/. Accessed 27 November 2024.