Chapter Four

Tris

After classes on Monday, Al and I sit down to talk about the wedding details. I tell him that I called my mom and my brother and Christina. Dad eventually called me back and I told him. He seemed supportive and was excited I am marrying Al, even though he gave me a lecture on marrying young.

"You fell in love with Mom when you were sixteen," I reminded him.

"That was different," he had said. "The divorce rate wasn't as high then." I had bit my tongue from telling him that didn't make sense. I just agreed politely and told him I'd talk to him soon.

"When do you want to get married?"

"I want to wait until we've graduated," I say. "I think it will be easier to plan without the stress of school piled on top of the wedding."

"I agree," Al says. "Is there any certain place you want to get married?"

"Is everything up to me?" I tease. Al smiles his beautiful smile that charms me to death. Every time he smiles, I melt. Every time he looks at me, I melt.

"You know I'm just going to agree with whatever you want because I want you to be happy."

"It's your wedding too," I say. "I don't want to make a decision you don't like."

Al leans forward, across the small space between our chairs in the library to kiss my head.

"There's nothing that will make me unhappy about our wedding as long as you are happy. I just want to marry you. We could get married in the courthouse this weekend or elope and I would be fine with it. Or we could have a fanciful wedding in Tahiti. As long as you're happy, that's all that matters." He kisses my head again.

I smile. "Did you know that you're the best fiancé of all time?" I lean further across the table than Al had to, and kiss him softly on the lips, letting my smile form against his.

"And you are the best fiancée of all time," he says.

"I want Christina to be there," I say. "And the rest of our friends from Chicago. And our parents and my brother and-"

"Then why don't we get married in Chicago?" he says. "It is much easier to bring five people to Chicago than to bring twenty five to Colorado." And it would lessen any wedding planning headaches.

"That's a great idea sweetheart! But is it really going to be twenty five?" Al takes out his old laptop that looks like it would break down with the click of a button, but is actually as sturdy as a tank. He opens a new file and shifts it on the table so we can both see. The screen is divided by a line, like a T chart.

"Who do you want to invite?"

I take the laptop and place it on my legs. Who do I want?

Mom, Dad, Caleb, Christina, Will, Marlene, Uriah, Lynn, Susan, Robert, Skyler, Gage, Victoria, Grandma, Jamie, Sarah Hollis

I hand the laptop back to Al. He quickly types in the people he wants that I left out.

Rick, Mom, Dad, Grandparents 2x

"Okay," I say, "so we're inviting twenty three people. Very close." Not that the number of people matters.

"All right. What else should we plan?"

A thought pops into my head. Why didn't I think of this before? I whip out my phone and shoot off a text to Christina. I apologize for the tackiness of the text, but her reply is far from being offended.

"What did you do?"

"I asked Chris to be my maid of honor." A smile graces his lips and he pulls out his phone.

"I'll be back," I whisper as I peck his lips.

I sprint from the library, up a few flights of stairs, back to the dorm. I hurry and unlock the door. Skyler is on her bed reading a textbook.

"What up?" she says.

"Skyler, you are such an amazing person, and one of my best friends. I love you dearly. Will you be my bridesmaid?" Skyler shoves her book out of the way and jumps off the bed. She flies toward me and wraps her arms around me.

"I was hoping you would ask," she says. "Yes, yes, yes! I would love to be your bridesmaid."

She squeezes me tightly, making it hard to breathe. Finally, she lets go and I let her get back to studying and I walk back to the library. Al stands right outside, leaning against the wall casually, with his bag.

"Got Skyler?" he asks happily.

"Yep. Did you get Will?" He laughs and wraps an arm around my shoulder.

"I did," he says. "I was looking over the lists. Who is Sarah Hollis?"

"She's the friend of mine from Milwaukee. The one I tripped in front of my fifth grade crush."

Al starts laughing. He obviously remembers the story I told him from writing class.

"I want to meet her." I smile and we walk back inside the library.

"What else do we have to plan for the wedding?" I ask. I've never had to deal with wedding planning and am absolutely clueless. I wish I knew someone who was an expert with weddings.

"I don't know," he says. "Let's look it up."

Good, I think. I'm not alone.

After we look up how much we have to plan, we put it away for a while. When I get back upstairs, I make a post on Facebook with an old picture of me and Al with a caption of: We're engaged.

I separately email Sarah and ask her to come to the wedding and then decide to erase the email before I send it. I email her the time estimate of the wedding and ask her to be a bridesmaid.

Sarah was one of the few people who wanted to be my friend in elementary school. She was such a great person and I haven't seen her since seventh grade. She was so nice and I miss having her around.

Back on Facebook, my page blows up. Messages and congratulations are tacked onto my post. Friends of mine, family, friends of my parents, and others I don't know. They must be relatives and friends of Al's.

"When do you think the wedding will be?" Skyler asks.

"After next year," I say. "We want time to get stuff ready and to graduate."

Skyler sighs dreamily. "I'm so excited for you guys! Can I make a speech?"

"Of course you can," I say. "Remind me to let you when the time comes."

"I won't let you forget. I'm going to jot down ideas now." I smile and shake my head at her enthusiasm.

As I review some of the comments people are making, I get a notification of an email. I click on the link and read Sarah's reply.

Dear Beatrice,

Congratulations! I am so happy for you! I would love to be your bridesmaid at your wedding. And how come I have never heard of this boyfriend/fiancé of yours? Who is he? What's he like? What's his name for starters? Tell me everything. How did you meet? How did he propose?

Everything!

Reply ASAP!

Love always,

Sarah

I reply to Sarah's email and then shut the computer down. I don't need anything else to distract me from school. So naturally I'm going on tumblr on my phone.