AN- I recently got my hands on the movie and re-read the book, so of course I decided to throw some fic love Bryce and Juli's way.
I really hope I kept them in character enough. Italics at the very end is a line from the book.
Bryce sighs as he twirls Juli in his arms, the atmosphere of joy and happiness around them.
"What's wrong?" his ever intuitive wife asks.
"Nothing," he assures her as he twirls her yet again, smiling at the sound of her laughter. He presses his forehead against hers and thanks the stars that she's his.
"You're upset that our daughter got married today."
Of course she knows; she knows everything, though he never made it much of a secret that he resented losing his little girl.
"No-I'm happy for her," he lies unconvincingly and Juli sticks him with that stare and he knows it's hopeless. "Okay, so I'm feeling a little sulky. But I am happy for her."
"It's natural to feel a little upset. But you better be over it soon because she's found a wonderful man and you won't spoil it for her. It's always awkward when father and son-in-laws can't get along."
She's, of course, thinking of Chet and Rick but Bryce's eyes immediately flash to her father, seated at a nearby table with her mother, his mother and his step-father.
Reading his mind, she says, "My father doesn't hate you."
"Of course he does. He always has. I was a little shit to you."
Juli doesn't deny that. "But you changed and that's all that matters."
He pulls her close and kisses her tenderly, his whole body becoming a shower of sparks and she just fits against him like a puzzle piece and a throat clears rather loudly.
Their daughter is staring at them, a mixture of disgust and longing on her face. "Time for the daddy/daughter dance."
At this, Bryce beams and Juli pulls out of his arms to hug their daughter tightly. Bryce watches as she crosses the dance floor to sit with one of her brothers, then turns back to his daughter.
"So, what song did you pick for us?"
The answer comes to him as the music starts and he grins as "My Girl" wraps around the entire hall and lures everyone's eyes to them.
"Are you okay, daddy? You look a little down."
"You're too much like your mother," he says, but she still expects an answer, "I'm fine. Just a little sad."
"Because I'm all grown up now?"
"Something like that."
And they sway together, to the song her mother used to sing her as a lullaby and Bryce feels as happy as he did the day the doctor put her in his arms. Then the song ends and her husband shows up and asks to cut in and Bryce lets him.
He stands at the refreshment table, watching them lose themselves in each other's eyes and suddenly Juli is beside him.
"What are you thinking?"
He turns to her, smiling softly. "I'm happy for her."
"I knew you would be."
"Daddy!" his little girl screeches at the top of her lungs and Bryce is there in an instant.
"What's wrong? Who am I killing?"
"David Henderson!"
"Okay," Bryce nods, then starts searching the closet for a baseball bat or something. "Why?"
"He called me weird. He said that girls who sit in trees and read books for fun are creepy and that's why no one likes me."
Bryce turns to his daughter, a crying mess on her bed, and sits down next to her.
"Am I weird, daddy?"
His heart clenches at the sound of her small voice and he wraps an arm around her shoulders. "No sweetie. You're unique and you should be proud of it."
"I should?"
"Yep. You're one in a million. And one day, someone is gonna realize that and see how special you are."
"How can you be sure?"
Bryce smiles. "Because your mother was unique too."
"Mom?"
"Yep. And that's why I fell in love with her, sweetheart. You just wait; some boy is going to come along and I'll hate him because he loves you so much."
At this she beams and hugs him tightly. "Thanks daddy."
"And in the meantime, why don't you slip a whoopee cushion on David's seat?"
They both laugh but he sees the look in her eyes and knows she's considering it. He kisses the top of her head and leaves her to her dastardly planning. Juli surprises him outside her room.
"You heard all that?" he asks as she morphs into his arms.
"Yeah," and she's smiling and her eyes are kind of bright. "Did you mean it?"
"Every word."
She kisses him.
Bryce paces the room anxiously, wringing his hands and glancing at the double-doors every few seconds.
"Honestly, Bryce," his mother says, "You're going to give yourself an ulcer or something."
"She's been in there forever! What if something has gone wrong?"
Patsy stands up and gently guides her son into a seat between herself and Jerry. "It hasn't been too long and it's her first baby. Take a deep breath, collect yourself and calm down."
"Why didn't you go in there with her?" Jerry asks, glancing up from his magazine.
"They only wanted one person inside and I knew her mother really wanted to be there."
Jerry pats his shoulder. "Good call: most husbands faint."
Bryce cracks a smile and remembers that he enjoys his step-father for his sense of humor. And, of course, the fact that he makes his mother happy.
Then the doctor comes out and Bryce shoots over to him, barely hearing his congratulations as he pushes past him and towards Juli's room. She's there, a bundle in her arms and her mother standing proudly at her side.
She looks up as he enters and they share a smile as he makes his way to her other side, staring down in wonder at his daughter. His daughter.
Gently, she hands the baby to him and he cradles her in his arms. "What are you thinking for names?"
"No idea yet," she says, watching them. They don't notice her mother slip out the room.
"How about Sycamore?"
The nurse gives him a weird look but Juli laughs.
"We're not torturing her like that."
He sits on the edge of the bed and turns to look at her. "I love you."
She smiles at him. "I love you too."
Juli looks at herself in the mirror, in a poufy dress that isn't her and a veil that is way too uncomfortable. But her mother flutters around happily and Lynetta isn't sulking and Patsy is beaming so she can't exactly say she hates it.
Then her father walks in and ushers everyone out and when he looks at her, tears come to his eyes and he smiles.
"You look beautiful. But extremely uncomfortable."
And she laughs because her father has always understood her. She walks to him and he takes her hand gently.
"My little girl: all grown up and getting married."
"I'm nervous. What if I trip down the aisle or something?"
"I'll catch you."
"What if Bryce isn't there?"
Robert smiles, "He will be."
Juli smiles too and embraces him. "I love you daddy."
"I love you too, Julianna."
He clears his throat as he pulls away and offers her his arm. "Shall we?"
The walk down the aisle is slow and tedious but it's all worth it when she gazes into Bryce's dazzling blue eyes. The best man, Jon Trulock, is standing next to him, beaming in her direction. His father isn't here- after the divorce; they just grew too far apart.
Her father kisses her cheek as he gives her away and he looks at Bryce who nods back and takes her hand in his.
And there they stand, in front of family and friends, prepared to pledge their hearts to each other.
Forever.
"I'm getting too old for this," Bryce mutters as he settles himself on the branch next to Juli.
She smirks at him. "Bryce, you're twenty-eight. That's not old."
"It's too old to go climbing trees."
Juli just shakes her head with a smile and stares out at the landscape feeling thirteen again and loving every second. Next to her, Bryce clears his throat and she looks back at him.
"You look really pale. Maybe you shouldn't have climbed so high."
"No, no, I'm fine," he says looking everything but her, "I'm just nervous."
"You didn't have to climb."
"I know. I'm not nervous because I'm up here. I'm nervous because I want to ask you to marry me and I don't know how."
She's speechless.
"So I figured, why not climb a tree and do it up here because I know how much you love climbing trees and it was that picture of you in the tree that made me realize I liked you and now I'm nervous because you could say no and I would have climbed all this way for rejection."
"Or I could say yes."
He blinks. Then he smiles and pulls the ring out of his pocket. No words are necessary as he slides it onto her finger and she kisses him softly but surely.
"Why do you have so many boxes?"
Juli crosses her arms over her chest and raises an eyebrow at him.
"Not that I mind of course. It's just a lot to take in when you're moving in together."
"I helped. So did Matt and Mark."
"It's not the lifting. It's the space. We won't have room for everything."
"So? An apartment can't be cluttered?"
"Not when you want room to live in it."
"There's a whole empty bedroom right there to store stuff in!"
"That's a guest room!"
"Who's going to sleep here, Bryce? Our respective parents who live like ten minutes away? Our friends who have places of their own?"
"You never know, we might have guests and they have to sleep on the couch because you have too many boxes!"
"You're infuriating!"
"You're impossible!"
They stare at each other for a moment, then Juli slides into his arms.
"We just had our first Moved-In fight."
"Yeah," he runs a hand over her hair. "What now?"
"We could make up," she suggests, a lewd smile on her face.
He grins as she leads him into the bedroom. "And christen the bed at the same time!"
"I'll miss you, you know," she whispers quietly.
They're sitting under her tree, the dark sky around them filling with an abundance of stars.
"I'll miss you too. I'm almost tempted to ask you to stay. Or follow you to Harvard."
She smiles at this and snuggles closer to him. "I might take you up on that. The staying part, I mean."
"Nah," he says, sliding an arm around her, "You're gonna go off to college and meet some smarty-pants guy that you'll dump me for and live happily ever after cloning animals with."
She giggles, "'Cloning animals'?"
He shrugs. "It could happen."
"I'm not gonna dump you, Bryce. I hope you realize that I am perfectly happy with you."
"I realize that. I just don't realize why."
She sits up and fixes him with that stare, blazing eyes and all. "You need to stop saying that."
"Well, it's true, Juli. I don't deserve you."
"Yes. You. Do." She enunciates each word with a peck on his lips that soon turns into a fill blown kiss that sends shivers through her body and makes her toes curl.
"I love you," he whispers and she'll never tire of hearing him say that.
"I love you back," she tells him.
Then the rests her head on his shoulder and the stare out at the stars together.
"I can't believe we're at prom," Juli says, disgust in every inch of her voice.
Bryce chuckles quietly and pulls her closer as they dance to some cheesy slow song.
"Aren't you having fun?"
She wrinkles her nose at him. "You know full well I only came here to please my mother. And to get Darla to leave me alone."
They both glance over at the girl in question who is twirling around with Jon Trulock, looking like she's having the time of her life.
"Well, I'm happy you came. Otherwise, I'd look like a loser without a date."
"Oh, I'm sure Shelly Stalls would have fixed that."
He smiles at the bitterness in her voice, even after all these years.
"I wouldn't want Shelly. Just you, only you."
It's time like these Juli treasures, when Bryce says something absolutely cheesy and romantic that leaves her breathless.
"Suck-up," she whispers, before kissing him quickly.
After a moment, he speaks again and his voice is a little shaky, "So…I booked a room tonight. At a motel. I mean, I'm not expecting anything, I just didn't know what your plans were or anything and I don't want to pressure you or anything because that's not what this is about, I mean…"
He trails off and just stares at her.
"Won't it be a little cliché? Losing it at prom?"
"Well, aren't we cliché? The girl who pined forever for the boy, and the guy who didn't know what was right in front of him. Don't forget my big dramatic, romantic gesture."
She grins. "Good point. Cover story?"
"I got drunk at an after party and you didn't want to deal with driving me home. It's believable."
"You got that pretty covered Mr. I'm-not-expecting-anything."
"I was just planning it all out on the off chance you would, you know, agree."
"I haven't, yet," she reminds him, smiling.
"One more dance?"
"Two. And you need to buy me dinner."
"Agreed. Just nothing with eggs."
"Jerk," she says, smacking his arm.
But she rests her head on his shoulder and moves slowly with him, to the sweet music playing in the background.
"Why are you so annoyed?"
Juli whirls around and glares at him. "You interrupted my date!"
"He's a jerk! He only asked you out because you're a sophomore and he preys on underclassmen."
She counts to ten under her breath, then twists back around and heads towards the front door. At the last second, she turns back around and stomps over to him.
"How did you even know about it?"
"Jon told me."
Juli curses the fact that the two of them ever became friends. "Next time, I'll make sure he's more secretive."
"I'm glad he told me; I stopped that guy from-"
"You had no right to come barging in there and make a scene!" Juli hisses.
"Well, excuse me for making sure you didn't get hurt!"
"Why don't you just admit you did it because you were jealous!"
Bryce face turns an interesting shade of pink. "I was looking out for you!"
"Yeah, right," she scoffs then she turns back to the house. Once again, at the last second she charges back over to him.
"You're a coward, Bryce Loski! You plant me that tree then you ignore me for a year and a half-"
"You said you just wanted to be friends!" Bryce interrupts, throwing his arms akimbo.
"Yes. Back then. And it's not like you've been knocking down doors to find out differently!"
"I-I didn't know you wanted me to," he argues weakly.
"Of course you didn't. Because you're too chicken to-"
He cups her face in his hands and kisses her. It takes her breath away and she feels like she's flying as she finally, finally, gets the kiss she wanted for oh-so-very-long.
"I'm not a coward," he tells her breathlessly as he pulls away.
"No," she agrees moving towards his lips again. "Definitely not."
Juli knocks hesitantly on the door and it opens automatically to reveal a nervous Bryce.
"Hey."
"Hey."
They say nothing for a moment, looking at anything but each other and finally, Juli speaks.
"Wanna talk?"
"Sure," he says and he moves onto the porch, closing the door behind him. They sit down on a couple of plastic chairs and silence ascends again.
"Thank you for the tree," Juli whispers.
"You're welcome. I'm-I'm sorry for everything Juli. For the tree, for the eggs, for your Uncle. If I could take it all back, I would. In a heartbeat."
"I know. I think that's why I can forgive you."
"Yeah?" he asks, smiling.
"Yeah. But…but I just want to be friends Bryce. I want us to talk and get to know each other. We never really did that. Before."
"Friends," he barely hides the disappointment in his voice. But then he realizes that 'friends' is better than nothing. He repeats the word with a little bit more strength. "I think we can do that."
And he smiles at her and she smiles at him.
They sit until sundown on his porch, talking and meeting each other all over again.
Maybe it's time to meet him in a proper light.