A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Fanficers live off of reviews, munching on the words of good will like a mouse on scraps of cheese⦠er, that is, keep reviewing please! XD If I get at least 3 more reviews by tonight I'll do a double upload! In fact, we can keep that rule: every day that I get at least 3 reviews will be a two chapter day. . Thanks, and keep reading!
Chapter Seven: Eight Hours
Gwen opened her eyes, groaning past her headache. The pink flash had been violent this time, and since she seemed to be waking up in bed she could only assume it had knocked her unconscious.
"Ugh... Julie?" She tried, looking around with rapid blinking.
She wasn't in her room.
But... there were some familiar things in it. Her favorite painting she had bought at a rummage sale, her spell books, her dresser...
The room was clearly one she had never been in before, though, and was at least twice as big as her bedroom. The bed was a queen, decorated in a shade of purple Gwen found to be very tasteful. The whole room, in fact, seemed to be very much her style.
The only problem was that it was definitely not her room.
"What the hell-" She muttered, sitting up.
"Gwen! Hurry it up, will ya?"
And that wasn't her mother's voice. Or her father's. But it was a voice she knew well...
"Kevin!" She yelled as the boy walked into the room casually, brushing at the sleeve of his... very nice looking blazer, actually. In fact, he was dressed very sharp, the semi-formal suit hugging his body in just the right way. The jacket was tailored, fitting over his broad shoulders, creating a very sauve image.
Gwen blinked, shaking her head. Not the time. "You can't be here! My parents are going to kill me!"
His eye's narrowed, and a small frown appeared on his face. "Haha. This is really not the time for joking, Gwen. We're going to be late, and- wait! You're still not dressed? Aw, man... why does it take girls forever to get ready!?"
"G... get ready for what?" Realization was slowly seeping into Gwen's mind, and she knew that this was another strange vision. It felt... very different from the first. Still incredibly real, but there was no heart-pounding danger involved. Just... confusion.
Her mind raced, trying to come up with some sort of explanation. What was this vision about? Was she supposed to be understanding something from these, or were they really just random?
Kevin rolled his eyes. "Duh. Only the event I haven't stopped hearing about for more than ten minutes the past three months. And I thought you were supposed to be there early, anyways?"
Gwen gave him a strange look, her head cocked to the side as she tried to figure out what the well-dressed boy was talking about.
"Don't give me that look! I listen! You can't tell me I don't listen- you're supposed to be there by two. That gives us like a half hour for you to get dressed, get out the door, and get to the church."
"Church?"
Kevin paused in the middle of fumbling with a cufflink, slowly looking up at Gwen with concern beginning to show in his eyes. "Yeah... Gwen, you feeling ok?"
What should she do? Play through the story as if she knew what was going on? Or should she assume this other Kevin knew what was happening with these visions, and demand some answers?
No. Looking up at him with his eyebrows drawn, his face set in a worried frown, she couldn't believe he was some mastermind to a plot against her. In fact, for whatever reason, she knew this was really Kevin. This was the same boy she had kissed only a week ago, the same boy she had fought beside time and time again.
Only it wasn't.
Just like the room, the same but different.
"I'm fine. Just a little overwhelmed. About the... wedding?" She figured she had a 50/50 chance on that one. Either a wedding or a funeral. Wedding was a better guess, since she had apparently been talking about it for a while...
Kevin visibly relaxed, and she knew she had guessed right. "Ha. You had me going for a minute there. Yeah, I guess you would be overwhelmed, I mean... this is Ben getting married, right? Nothing quite so terrifying as that." He snickered, reaching for the top drawer of Gwen's dresser.
Ben. Her cousin, Ben? That Ben? Ben Ben? Getting married? Ok, now she knew she wasn't in Kansas anymore. And just what did Kevin think he was doing opening that drawer!?
"Hey-" Gwen started, raising a hand to grab Kevin's wrist. Vision or not, she wasn't comfortable with letting Kevin peek around in her underwear drawer.
"What?" Kevin asked, looking at her expectantly, one hand still on the knob of the drawer.
"Uh... um..." Gwen could feel her face going red. If everything else was different, maybe this wasn't her dresser at all. "Nevermind, I guess..."
"You know, you really are acting strange. Are you sick or something?" He reached up without warning, placing a large hand gently on Gwen's forehead. "You do feel warm..."
Gwen shook her head, displacing the hand. Her face was probably even redder, now, but she just couldn't help it.
"I said I'm fine. Are you looking for something?" She tried, eying the hand on the knob.
"Oh, yeah, I can't find this stupid cufflink's mate." He said, indicating the small golden object on his sleeve. "I didn't want to tell you... I know they were a gift from your dad and all, so don't freak out. I'm sure I'll find it lying around somewhere." He pulled open the drawer, and to Gwen's horror it was indeed still full of her underwear. Without even blinking, Kevin unceremoniously shoved aside the delicate lacey things, pulling a box from the back. "I figured I'd check your jewelry stash- I know you put stuff in there if you find it around the house..."
"Uh, huh." Gwen said, trying not to sound mortified. This was weird. Very, very weird. "I, um, don't remember seeing it..."
"Ah, ha!" Kevin announced, finding the cufflink nestled in among a small pile of earrings and necklaces, some of which Gwen recognized. He grinned triumphantly, holding it up. "Wanna help me out here?"
"Sure..." Gwen agreed, putting the thing on his right sleeve while her mind spun.
Clearly, Kevin was used to being here. Was this his house? She hadn't seen every room in his house before... but then why was so much of her stuff here?
"Isn't Ben a little young to be getting married?" She asked, trying to dig for more information.
Kevin snorted. "So you've said before. It's not like everyone and their mom hasn't tried to tell him this, but he's stubborn as ever. I thought you'd come to terms with this thing a while ago? You know, after Julie made you a bridesmaid? Besides- you were only eighteen when we got married. I know Ben's a little immature for his age... but it's kinda hypocritical to freak out about it, right?"
Ok. Now Gwen felt dizzy. She took a step backwards, her knee hitting the bed and causing her to plop down on it as she continued to blink up at Kevin in a daze.
Married!? First a vision about his horrible gruesome death and now one where they're married!? Kevin didn't look that much older... This couldn't be more than five, maybe six years in the future.
No way. This wasn't the future- if the visions showed the future, than they would directly contradict each other! Besides- there was no way she would get married so young. And marrying Kevin... well, they had only just gotten together. Sorta. Actually, she couldn't pinpoint exactly when they become a couple, but it didn't really matter. The point was that it was too weird for her to think of herself as married to Kevin already.
This world was too different from her own. And yet... so very similar.
"Gwen? Seriously- you need to hurry up and get into that hideous dress Julie picked out- she's turned into bride-zilla, and if we're late I'm actually worried she'll sick Ship on us."
Gwen complied, grabbing the dress that had obviously been laid out on a chair for her (by her?) for the occasion. Kevin was right on one front- it was pretty ugly. The blue ballgown had a giant bow stuck to the butt, and the square neck and oddly placed waist-height did nothing for her thin, beanpole figure. It was the kind of dress that would make anyone look bad, and Gwen had to cluck her tongue at the fashion choice.
She got dressed in a bathroom attached to the bedroom, but was hyper-aware of the fact that Kevin was nearby, separated from her by only one door without a lock. It was nerve-wrecking to think that he might just waltz right in at any moment. That's what married people do, right? They don't worry so much about nakedness and boundaries?
Ugh. She hoped this vision would end soon. It was certainly longer than the first one, and by the time she jumped into Kevin's same green car a half-hour had passed.
"Oh, man, we are late." Kevin muttered, driving just a little too far over the speed limit for Gwen's taste.
"Relax- when does the ceremony start?"
"Not for two more hours, but you're supposed to do some... I don't know, bridesmaid stuff. Wait for the flower delivery or something. I'm not the one who's supposed to remember this stuff! That's your job!"
Gwen knew that even if this wasn't real, she'd hate to let Julie down. The whole wedding happened in a blur, and she was left feeling extremely confused as people yelled at her to sign for the flowers, direct the decorations, etc. She thought she did a pretty good job on-the-fly, and secretly hoped that one day, far far in the future, she could play bridesmaid at Ben's actual wedding. Far far far far in the future.
She grinned at the thought, imagining what she would tell Ben when she woke up back in her reality. The look on vision-Ben's face as he stood at the altar, uncomfortable in a stiff suit, was really very funny. Cute, but funny.
Ok, this vision was actually pretty fun. Certainly a step up from the last one.
"Can we go home yet? I feel like we've been here forever..." Kevin muttered at the reception, taking a big bite of cake. Ben and Julie were being swarmed by relatives, and Gwen hadn't even managed to talk to him much yet. His parents were demanding most of his time, talking and laughing with Julie and her own parents. The couple had had their first dance, and now the party was fully underway.
"Go home? This early? Kevin, that's so rude! Don't you ever think of other people's feelings?"
Kevin sighed heavily. "This was bad enough when we did it..."
Gwen glared.
Then she wondered why the hell she was glaring, since this whole situation couldn't possibly be real, and was left feeling very confused.
"Uh, not that it wasn't the best day of my life and... stuff... haha. Let's just pretend I didn't say that, ok?" Even other-world Kevin didn't like formal situations. Everyone was acting exactly as they would in reality... it was too weird.
When they did leave, after much groaning from Kevin, it was only around seven. Still, Gwen was feeling extremely tired... which further proved her theory that this wasn't a dream. But what was it?
"Look, don't be mad at me ok? It's just... being around your family and dancing and sitting around is really not my idea of a good time."
"Huh?"
"You're mad, right? You always get quiet when you're mad."
Truthfully, she had just been lost in thought. "I'm tired is all."
"Yeah, you really don't seem like yourself today. I told you you overdid it last week fighting that Emodian Faze- using that much power has to be enough to get you sick."
So, they still fought aliens, then? This world was exactly like her own... except a few years later. Oh, and early marriages were a common disease, apparently.
"That must be it." She muttered, staring out the window of the passenger seat.
When they got back to the house she took the time to get a good long look at it. Nope. It was none she had ever seen before. Kevin and her must have bought it... It was a nice place, though. Bigger than she would have thought people her age could afford, but then again Kevin always seemed to find ways to make money. She just hoped that he wasn't still some kind of underground alien weapons dealer in this vision-world.
"I'm going to go to sleep." She said as they walked into the house, kicking off her painful heels at the door.
"Alright... you need anything? Advil?"
His tone was soft, worried, and she couldn't help but pause and look back at him in wonder. It wasn't his usual tone. There was something intimate in the way his dark eyes studied her, in the slight downturn at the corners of his mouth. He was looking at her as if there was nothing more important in the world, and she was sure she could have asked him for anything and he would have given it to her.
She forced herself to break that gaze- it was just too much. This was a much more mature Kevin, despite his usual impatience and attitude. This was a man who very clearly loved her, no matter what... but it wasn't her Kevin. This was someone else, and she hated that she was deceiving him by pretending to be his Gwen. She was a different Gwen.
Maybe that was the key to all of this? A different Gwen...
The world once again flashed pink, abruptly cutting off her chain of thought.
