Well this happened. I wasn't even going to update again yet, but the ideas flowed and then BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH stuff occurred and I realised that this is turning into Left Behind; The Soap Opera. BUT I'M OKAY WITH THAT.
Enjoy. I don't own LBTK etc. etc.
"They're here finally!" announced Shelly as she led Judd and Vicki into the living room/kitchen. They were greeted by an array of friendly faces.
Judd couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. Seeing all his friends back in one place, in one peaceful place. It then occurred to Judd, that he had never in his life been with all these people in such a normal everyday setting. He did so much of life with them over the last seven years, but there was nothing normal about it. He'd watched the world get torn apart, he'd watched some of these people die and now, here they were, all happy, peaceful and in one place. And so very… normal. It was almost as if the rapture had never happened, although, Judd realised, if it hadn't, he would never have met any of these amazing people.
Hugs and back-slaps were given all around as the friends reconnected once more.
"It's so good to see you, man." Judd grinned as he slapped John Preston on the back.
"You too. It's been a while." John smiled.
"What you did on that sub… that was incredible. I don't know if I could have done it." Judd was finally able to say to his brave friends face.
"I'm sure you would have heard from God, and in that moment, he would have given you the strength." John said, "Besides, you did some pretty crazy brave things after I was gone. I'm just disappointed I missed all this."
John nodded towards Vicki, "How did you two go from verbal sparring partners to wedded bliss, huh?"
Judd laughed, "It really is a long story."
"Mark told me some of it," John said, "But he didn't say much. He didn't really want to talk about it."
Judd sighed, "Well, when I stopped being Vick's, as you put it, verbal sparring partner, Mark kinda took on that role."
"Ohhh." John nodded, "Okay. Yeah he did say they had some tough times."
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure everyone's over it now." Judd said, "It's hard to be mad at anyone in this world."
"Too true, my friend, too true."
Judd took a spare seat on the sofa next to Mark and Vicki sat on his knee.
"Ok, everyone." Announced Shelly, "I have to admit, I had a hidden agenda inviting you all here today."
The group mumbled amongst themselves, confused as to what could be going on.
"Conrad?" Shelly motioned towards her boyfriend and he joined her where she was standing. She gave him a knowing glance as he put his arm around her shoulders and they both exclaimed simultaneously, "We're getting married!"
The room erupted in hoots and hollers of joy. Vicki launched herself off Judd's lap and almost knocked Shelly over in excitement.
"I'm so happy for you Shel!" she cried, feeling as girly as she had ever felt in her entire life. "I am going to be your Maid of Honor right?" Vicki smiled.
"Of course." Shelly grinned, "But wait, I think it's Matron of Honor, because you're married."
"Ew." Vicki screwed her nose up, "Matron. That sounds so old."
The two were joined by the other girls who all bounced around Shelly exclaiming their excitement for her.
The guys all crowded around Conrad.
"Congratulations man." Said Lionel.
"Married life, Conrad," Judd smiled, "You're gonna love it."
Mark rolled his eyes at Judd's comment.
Mark was of course happy for his friends, but whenever the talk of relationships or marriage came up, he wished he could tune out. Mark never had a problem being single. There'd never been anyone that he'd really been in love with. Well. Except for the one. The one, unobtainable one. He'd thought he was over Vicki. He really did. He didn't see any point in pining over her seeing as she was now married to one of his best friends, but whenever he saw her with him he got a knot in his stomach. An unmistakable knot of jealousy. He didn't hate Judd, he really didn't, and he didn't want to be so annoyed by his every move, but the reality was, he was ridiculously jealous of him. He had the one thing that Mark wanted, and couldn't have, and every time relationships or marriage were brought up, that's all he could think about. But he put on a smile and congratulated his friends.
"Let's see the ring then." Melinda teased.
Shelly blushed and took the little blue ring box out of her pocket, "I guess I can wear it now you all know."
She put the beautiful diamond ring on her finger and waggled it at her girlfriends.
"Can you believe this?" Darrion laughed. "This is the first time that we as a bunch of girls can celebrate something the normal way?"
"That's true." Vicki pointed out, "I mean, my wedding was great, but it wasn't exactly normal. But now, we can have bridal showers, and bachelorette parties, and actually have your wedding somewhere we can all be."
"Ok." Said Janie, "There's still one thing you haven't told us. How did he propose?"
Shelly blushed even redder, "Well, we kinda decided that this was where we wanted our relationship to go before the Glorious Appearing, but we decided to wait. So last night, he called me up and asked if I wanted to go out for dinner in the city, so we went to this really nice restaurant-"
"He didn't put the ring in your food did he?" Janie turned up her nose.
Shelly laughed, "No. It was after dinner. He drove us to the really secluded park up this hill, and from up there you could see all of the city lights and the Lake and it was a beautiful view and there was a swing set. He pushed me on the swing while we had a little talk about us and our future, and then he came around in front of me and went down on one knee and the rest is history."
"Aww!" the girls chorused.
"It was really sweet." Shelly was now beetroot red and giggling like a schoolgirl. "But I think Judd still wins the award for most memorable proposal."
Vicki rolled her eyes, "Don't remind me. He's lucky I decided to marry him and not kill him."
The rest of the lunch pretty much turned into an engagement party and was taken up with talk of the future bride and groom. When they all sat down for their meal, Judd grabbed his cup of soda and raised it in the air, "To the happy couple." He toasted, "the future Mr. and Mrs Graham."
The friends all raised their glasses in agreement as Shelly and Conrad shared a quick kiss.
"Keep it G-rated guys." Ryan interrupted, ruining the moment in perfect Ryan style.
Later in the afternoon, Mark, still in his bad mood, noticed that Judd and Vicki had stolen away to the kitchen to get dessert ready.
"What did you even buy Vick?" Judd asked as he looked at the boxes all confused.
"It's a cake!" Vicki laughed at his ignorance.
"A build your own cake?" he asked.
"You just need to assemble the two tiers and then put this frosting on, it's not hard." She replied as she placed the top tier on the bottom.
Mark watched as Judd playfully got in Vicki's way as she tried to ice the cake. Standing behind her he put his finger under the icing tube, acquired some of the sweet pink frosting and quickly licked it off his finger.
"Hey!" she scolded, lightly elbowing him in the ribs.
"What, you want some?" he asked sticking a clean finger in the frosting and waving it in her face. Mark shuddered as she nipped the frosting off his finger. How could they be so… sickeningly adorable? That was the only way he could describe it really. If he hadn't had been so jealous of Judd, he might have thought they were the greatest couple he'd ever seen, but he couldn't get out of his mind the fact that he wanted to be that man that could tease her and stick frosting in her face. He watched the way her red hair brushed her shoulders, and the way her green eyes sparkled deep jade when she looked at Judd, and the way her smile lit up the room… mark shook himself out of it, snap out of it man!
He couldn't believe how hung up he was. This wasn't right. He shouldn't be so jealous, he really didn't want to be. But he couldn't deny it. Mark was still in love with his best friends wife.
Oooooooooooh, drama. But jealous Mark is best Mark in my opinion. Also let's hear it for ShelRad! Oh and I soooooo enjoy writing adorable Jucki fluff. Those crazy kids are so cute. R&R!
