"I shouldn't have said I'd marry him," Joanie said. "He was shouting, and I was shouting back, and he said he was going to ask me to marry him, and I said I would have said yes because it seemed like the right thing to say."

Joanie is still in her wedding dress, looking almost ridiculously beautiful and so very out of place on the bus. It makes Jenny's stomach twist until it's practically inside out. Jenny gets that feeling a lot around Joanie, and she used to chalk that feeling up to jealousy. Joanie had Chachi, and friends who weren't Jenny, and Fonzie. Why wouldn't Jenny be jealous of her?

That was why the idea of Joanie marrying Chachi made Jenny want to retch. It had to be. Because otherwise it would be something else, something Jenny didn't want to think about, now or maybe ever.

There are other things to focus on. Like Joanie's hand clasped in Jenny's. Like how Joanie thinks this is all her fault, even though it's a little bit Jenny's fault. Maybe a lot Jenny's fault.

"I told him you wanted to break things off," Jenny admits.

Joanie looks up from the floor to glare at Jenny. "You shouldn't have done that."

"You don't even want to marry him," Jenny says.

"That was for me to tell him, not you," Joanie snaps. She sounds angry now, which is good. She was nervous back at the wedding, then she was just sort of defeated, and now she's more like the Joanie Jenny knows and loves.

Joanie frowns, like she just realized what she said. "If he'd proposed without making it into an argument, then we wouldn't have had to get married in a week, because I wouldn't have had to prove to him that I really did want to marry him."

"But you don't want to marry him?"

"Not right now, I don't."

"When will you want to marry him?"

The bus stops moving and Joanie stands up. "This is our stop."

They weren't going anywhere in particular, so they don't actually have a stop. Jenny doesn't say anything, though, she just follows Joanie off.

—

Jenny had figured it was too late to do anything to stop the wedding when she went to see Joanie before it started. She'd tried seducing Chachi, she'd tried telling him Joanie was going to break up with him, and those had both been total failures.

Jenny had given up. By tonight Joanie would be Mrs. Joanie Arcola, and she and Chachi would be off on their honeymoon, and when they came back everything would be different.

This was what Joanie wanted. Right now the best thing Jenny could do was stand back and let her have her happy ending.

Still, she wanted to see her best friend before the wedding. (And Joanie was Jenny's best friend, even if Jenny hadn't always been Joanie's best friend. The only person who came close was KC, and considering KC hadn't called or written to her once since moving back to Texas, it wasn't really much of a friendship.)

Joanie looked as beautiful in her wedding dress as Jenny knew she would, and Jenny had to diffuse the tension coiling through her by suggesting more cleavage for Chachi's sake.

Joanie freezes up at Chachi's name. She was standing so still Jenny was worried she wasn't breathing.

"I can't go out there," Joanie finally said.

"Not without your veil -"

"No, I mean I can't go out there at all."

"You can't get married from in here."

"That's the idea."

"They're going to get suspicious when the wedding starts and the bride hasn't shown up."

"I know," Joanie said. "I was thinking about jumping out the window and hiding."

It would have been funny if it wasn't so terrifying. Joanie is supposed to be smarter than that, and Jenny almost said so, except that Joanie was already a bundle of nerves and Jenny didn't want to make things even worse than she already had.

"I just need to get out of here," Joanie said. "Just long enough to clear my head." She sounded like she was talking more to herself than Jenny - she wasn't even looking at Jenny.

Maybe Jenny hadn't always been the best friend to Joanie. Maybe it would have been better to just tell her to get over it - wasn't everyone supposed to feel nervous on their wedding day? Maybe men more than women, but women did too. It would have been a nice return to how things were supposed to be, too: Jenny the worldly one and Joanie the naif learning from her, before everything went all topsy-turvy and suddenly Joanie didn't need Jenny anymore and it became more and more obvious to everyone that Jenny was just floundering and trying to hide it.

But that felt like the cruelest thing Jenny could have done after she had (sort of accidentally but also sort of on purpose) set everything in motion, to just walk away like she had had nothing to do with it.

"With everyone outside, we could probably get out now without anyone noticing."

Joanie's shoulders relax, and even if it wasn't by much it was still something that showed that maybe Joanie would make it through this okay.

—

They're somewhere unfamiliar downtown, but at least they manage to find a payphone. Joanie left her purse at home and only brought enough money for bus fare, so Jenny lends her a quarter from her purse.

Jenny leans against the side of the phone as Joanie dials. A guy with a briefcase walks up to them, and Jenny scowls at him.

"Scram."

"I'm just waiting to make a call," the guy says.

"Well, wait somewhere else. Nobody likes an eavesdropper."

The guy scurries off, holding his briefcase like a shield, as Jenny glowers at him. Behind her, Joanie starts speaking. "Mom? I'm fine, I'm downtown with Jenny. I'm not getting married today."

There's a pause. Jenny can't hear what Marion's saying.

"It's not cold feet," Joanie says. "I thought about it, and I don't want to get married."

There's another pause. Joanie sucks in air through her teeth, and she quietly says "Hi, Chachi."

Jenny's head whirls around in shock.

"Chachi, I'm sorr -"

Another pause. Then she hangs up. Her face is almost as white as her dress. "He said if I had something to say to him I could say it to his face."

She starts walking over to the bus stop. "I have to go back there." She's rubbing her arms with her hands like she's cold, even though it's May. "Richie and Lori Beth flew in from Hollywood. They got a babysitter for Richie Jr. and Caroline and Richie put his career on hold for a wedding that's not even going to happen."

She stops walking and turns around so she's facing Jenny. Her eyes are stuck to the ground, though, like she can't bring herself to look at Jenny's face. "And Mom was so happy to plan it. And Fonzie got me and Chachi a car for a wedding present."

Joanie leans against the other side of the payphone. Her hands clench and unclench at her sides.

"I'm letting everyone down."

Jenny's not sorry she stopped the wedding. She is sorry that Joanie is suffering like this, sorrier than she's ever been in her entire life, except maybe for the time she got Joanie in trouble for stealing the statue head of Colonel Pfister. Jenny doesn't think she's a good person, but she's never wanted to hurt Joanie like this. It hadn't occurred to her before is that this could happen. Joanie's always seemed kind of invincible to her, and if Jenny succeeded in getting Chachi on the rebound, Jenny figured Joanie wouldn't mind, much. She'd be mad at Jenny for a while and then she'd get over it, because she'd find someone else, because any guy would have to be crazy not to see what a catch Joanie is.

Jenny takes Joanie by both hands. Joanie looks up from the ground in surprise, and she and Jenny are eye to eye.

"Everyone back at that house loves you," Jenny says. "Nobody would want you to marry Chachi if you didn't want to and be miserable for the rest of your life just to make them happy."

Nothing happens for a split second. The street around them seems to fade out of existence, and all there is is Joanie in front of Jenny, and Jenny hopes that she doesn't look as terrified as she feels.

Then Joanie cracks a smile. It's scared and sad but it's a real smile. Jenny's stomach twists and untwists, but this time it feels different. Almost nice.