"You look so happy," She pointed to the photograph the hung on the wall. He had been meaning to take it down, but he just couldn't bring himself to.

"Ready?" Julie turned to Marissa, surveying her daughter. She looked stunning. Truly stunning. Her hair was left hanging down her back, her make-up, which would soon be covered by the veil, had been done perfectly by Summer. Marissa nodded slowly, swallowed and began gathering her train. "Well, I better give you this then," Julie reached into her bag, revealing a beautiful silver necklace, with one small blue jewel hanging off the chain. "Something blue and something old," Julie smiled and Marissa turned around and held up her hair, allowing Julie to fasten the chain around her neck.

"It's beautiful," Marissa said, hugging her mother tightly, beginning to cry.

"It was your great-grandmothers. It was the most valuable thing our family ever owned until I met your Dad."

"Something blue, something old and something borrowed. And the dress is new, so I guess that counts,"

"What's borrowed?"

"The necklace..."

"No, that's for you to keep. My Mom gave it to me and her Mother gave it to her. Although, if you ever remarry don't be expecting more jewellery,"

"I won't remarry," Marissa said confidently.

"I know," Julie smiled proudly at her daughter. "Now let's go or the poor boy will think you've run off," There was a knock at the door. "That will be Jimmy," Sure enough Marissa's Dad came in, dressed in a black tux with a white rose in his lapel.

"You look beautiful, kiddo," He hugged her.

"Thank you,"

"Are you ready?"

"Give me a sec," Marissa said, wiping away tears that had formed.

"Sure,"

"I need to redo your make-up, it's smudged," Summer said, trying her hardest not to cry too. Marissa had her had been in floods of tears when she had married Seth, expecting for everything to change, thinking that somehow it meant they'd spend less time together. It didn't. But still Summer got the same feeling she had before, that she was handing over someone she truly loved to somebody else. It was the oddest mix of happy and sad she had ever felt. She couldn't imagine how bad it felt being Julie.

************

"She's not coming, is she?"

"Of course she is," Seth tried to reassure Ryan, but doubt showed in his voice. "She'll be doing her make-up or something. Making sure she looks extra beautiful,"

"She's not coming."

"Don't say that. I'm sure she's just...she'll be talking to Summer, yeah...you know how those two get. Apparently they could have stopped the entire drought in Africa if they had been thoughtful and collected their tears...but they didn't because we have plenty of water here and their selfish minds didn't even bother to think about the poor little African children. I mean, even if they didn't give them to Africa, they could have at least thought about somewhere closer to home...Las Vegas would have been very grateful if..."

"Seth, shut up," Sandy had joined the two boys at the altar, dressed in a suit and tie that he had reluctantly put on. "She'll be here."

"Yes, she will," Seth asserted. Ryan pinched his temples, trying not to panic. Atwoods don't panic, he told himself. Julie came and placed a hand on Sandy's shoulder.

"She's coming," She announced to the small group.

"Is that...no it can't be...is that...a tear? Is Julie Cooper crying?" Sandy teased as they took their seats. "I never thought I'd see the day,"

************

"Coop...wait I can't call her Coop anymore!" Everyone laughed at the first line of Summer's speech. "Marissa has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. We played Barbie's together, went on holidays, went to our first concert together, got in trouble together-maybe that should be get in trouble together." More laughter. "But whatever happens I'll always know Marissa will be there to help me out, always. That comforts me in a way nothing else can. I also take comfort from the fact that Chino is exactly the same for Marissa. He has always been there for her, I'm certain that he always will be. She'll always be there for him too, despite his lack of social skills and girly fear of heights." Summer raised her glass and everyone copied. "To Chino and Coop,"

"I'm Seth Cohen, resident funny man of this family. Because of that I spent 10 weeks, 4 days and approximately 6 hours trying to make this speech as funny as possible, trying to live up to expectations. I wrote it all down. It was long, because I like to talk a lot. Especially about myself, which I'm managing to do now, even though I'm meant to be toasting the happy couple. All the stuff I wrote down I ripped up this morning. It could have been a comedy gem, a speech passed down the generations because of its amazing wittiness and well structured punch lines. I guess we'll never know now." He paused for a breath. "Ryan is my brother. That's not up for debate, it's a fact. He's also my best friend, my saviour and my confidant-although sometimes I'm not sure if he's listening. He lets me babble on about comics and video games and Summer...well just about anything really. He's constantly clearing up my mess. Whether I've annoyed my wife-which I do frequently- or whether I've just generally opened my big mouth and put my foot in it. Just this morning I told Julie that she looked a very young 50. She's 44." Everybody laughed. "True to form Ryan came in and calmed her down. What I'm trying to say is similar to Summer. He's always there for me. He's always there for everyone. He deserves the happiness he gets from Marissa." He paused again. "Today...for today I'm Ryan's best man. But for the other 364 days he is mine."

"Yeah," Ryan flashed back into the present.

"It's a shame," Ryan nodded in agreement with the estate agent.

"I...I don't think I'll be selling anymore,"

"Really?"

"Yeah." Too many memories, he thought to himself. Too many memories that he couldn't let go of yet.

"Well, of course, that's fine,"

"Thank you."

"Goodbye,"

"Bye," Ryan showed her to the door and then went back to the picture. He stared at it for a second, before taking it down slowly and taking it upstairs, placing it the bedside drawer. He proceeded to do the same with every picture in the house until the walls were bare.

A picture is worth a thousand words-Napoleon Bonaparte