Please review. Please? It would make me very happy :)

I opened my eyes again and wiped away the tear rolling down my cheek. Carly had died a few months ago, and it still hurt to think about her. When it happened Sam was completely inconsolable, spending days just sitting in her armchair at home and looking out the window. She refused to eat, and I had to carry her into bed when she fell asleep there every night. Eventually she began to get over it, but even now I would come to visit and I would find her lying in bed with a faraway look and tears in her eyes. When we all went to university we had been worried that Carly would forget about us and make all new friends, but it didn't happen that way. She called us once a week every week, even if it was just a quick hello before she ran to class, and when she came home we saw each other all the time. Carly had brought Sam and me together, and the three of us stayed a tightly knit group until she died. We were friends through it all – relationships, break ups, marriages, kids, ups, downs, happiness, sorrow. Our kids treated Carly like a second mother, and are still best friends with Carly's kids, who are the same sort of ages as ours. When our kids began to have their own kids, they also became best friends. When Spencer died (in a fire, unsurprisingly) we were the only ones she would let into the house, far less talk to. Spencer had been a father figure to not only me, but Sam as well, and in that respect, Carly was like our sister. The three of us extended beyond friends – we were family. And although both of us were devastated when Carly died, Sam took it particularly hard. I knew that one of us had to be strong and it wasn't going to be Sam, so I hadn't really properly faced it yet, because I knew that if I did, I would break down, and Sam needed me. I pushed the thoughts of Carly out of my head and got up to get a tissue from Sam's bureau. While I was there I saw our wedding picture, framed, sitting at the forefront of all the others. I picked it up and looked at it, smiling at how young and happy we looked. I thought back to our wedding day with a smile.

I was petrified. If I thought that proposing was nerve-racking, that was nothing compared to what I was feeling now. I was pacing around the small room where I was getting dressed, and I was having a major freak-out. I wasn't even properly dressed; I was just pacing frantically in circles wearing my pants and an unbuttoned shirt, my eyes wide and manic. I caught sight of myself in the mirror and I couldn't help but notice that I looked quite deranged. Why didn't we just elope? I thought. That would have been so much easier than this. I heard the door open and Carly poked her head inside.

"Freddie?" she asked. "Are you dressed?"

Like it mattered. Over the years, Carly and I had become so comfortable around each other that we had seen each other all but naked. As we got older we realized that it didn't really matter, and I had zipped Carly into many a dress and come into her room to help her decide what to put on when she was pacing in her underwear panicking that she had nothing to wear. Also, more than once when one of us got really drunk, the other had to put them to bed, which involved changing them and occasionally shoving them in the shower in their underwear if they really reeked. Carly walked in and closed the door behind her, and then looked around and saw me walking in frantic circles around the room.

"Freddie! Are you okay?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned. I stopped pacing and whipped around to face her.

"Do you have a cigarette?" I asked her. She looked at me, puzzled.

"Freddie, you don't smoke"

"I've decided to take it up"

"Freddie!" she half-shouted. "Relax. Breathe"

I spread my arms and put my hands on the table, hanging my head and taking deep breaths. Gradually I began to calm down. I stood up straight and looked at Carly.

"You okay?" she asked me. I nodded and closed my eyes, still breathing deeply. I heard Carly come clacking over in her heels, and I felt her begin to button up my shirt.

"Freddie, you can do this" she told me quietly. "This is Sam we're talking about. All you have to do is go out there and repeat after the minister"

I nodded and opened my eyes. Now that I had calmed down, I actually looked at Carly.

"Carly, you look beautiful" I told her. She smiled and gave a little twirl, showing off her dress.

"Oh, I'm nothing. Wait till you see the bride" she said, winking. She had finished buttoning up my shirt and was now tying my bowtie for me.

"There" she said, straightening it a little. She held open my jacket for me and I shrugged it on and buttoned it up. Carly spun me around to face her and smiled.

"You look great, Freddie. Slightly panicked, but that's okay" she said with a smile. She took my hand and squeezed it.

"You ready?" she asked. I nodded, my heart racing and my palms sweating. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and then headed out the door. I took one last look at myself in the mirror before I turned and followed Carly out the door. As I walked out I could see people sitting down, chatting with each other and fanning themselves with the order of service. The wedding was outside in a garden, and although we were all thanking God that it wasn't raining (a rarity in Seattle) we were cursing the heat and humidity, despite the fact that it was late afternoon. I took my place at the top of the aisle, trying to look calm even though my pulse was racing. I took deep breaths to calm myself and tried to ignore all the people looking at me. Suddenly, I saw Carly appear at the other end of the aisle. She signalled the pianist to begin playing and gave me a reassuring smile before disappearing again. As I heard the familiar wedding march, my heart rate increased tenfold. Carly appeared around the corner and began walking up the aisle, holding her bouquet of flowers and smiling. Behind her came Melanie, also smiling as she sashayed down the aisle. The music swelled and everyone stood up as Sam appeared around the corner on Spencer's arm. As soon as I saw her, everything else disappeared. The people in the chairs, the photographer, the bridesmaids, my mother sobbing loudly into an enormous handkerchief – they all vanished. Months of deciding on food and flowers and colour schemes and decorations, and suddenly, none of it mattered. All that mattered was the girl walking down the aisle, looking happier than I had ever seen her. Over the past few weeks I had been mildly curious about Sam's dress. Sam wasn't your average girl, and she didn't really do dresses, so I was wondering what it would look like. I had asked, but of course I wasn't allowed to know. Even if they had told me, nothing could have prepared me for this. Sam looked breathtaking. Her dress was strapless and tight to her hips, highlighting her narrow waist and slender figure, before it flared slightly and fell loosely to the floor. Her hair was loose, her curls tumbling over her shoulders as usual and her makeup was subtle. She looked like the Sam I knew and loved, only amplified. She reached the end of the aisle and she gave her bouquet to Carly before giving Spencer a huge hug. Spencer walked over and took his place beside me as my best man and I took Sam's hand. The minister began his sermon and I squeezed Sam's hand gently.

"You look beautiful" I whispered to her out of the corner of my mouth. She smiled shyly.

"You don't look so bad yourself, nub" she whispered back. "You clean up pretty good"

We said our vows and exchanged our rings and signed the register. I walked back up the aisle with my wife on my arm (how I loved thinking that!), both of us unable to stop smiling. We posed for endless pictures, and although my cheeks began to ache from smiling, I couldn't stop.