!JAKE'S POV!
I was standing at the front of the church in apprehension. This has been the longest day of my life. I've never had to wait so much before. I wish I could just fast forward through all of this so Alyssa and I could be married already. I'd be happy then. Now all I feel is sick to my stomach. All of the bridesmaids and the flower girl (my cousin, Sophie) were almost to the end of the aisle and when they got to the end, the organ started up and Alyssa started walking down the aisle. She was so beautiful. She kept her eyes fixed on me and when she reached me she gave her cousin Robert, who was giving her away, a kiss on the cheek and stood across from me. She mouthed "I love you" and I mouthed it back to her. This all felt so surreal, though. Like it was a dream. It didn't seem possible that a girl like Alyssa could even consider marrying me. But all the years we had spent together ultimately lead to this. All the drama we had endured in 7th grade just to get together was just the first step to this marriage we're having right now. The preacher did the whole "we are gathered here today" thing but I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. I was just standing there looking at Alyssa and thinking about what our life was going to be like. I finally snapped back to it when the preacher turned to me "Do you, Jacob Zachary Baker take Alyssa Nicole McCool to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?" "I do." "And do you, Alyssa Nicole McCool take Jacob Zachary Baker to be your lawfully wedded husband to have and to hold in sickness and in health for as long as you both shall live?" "I do." It's a done deal now. No more stressing and no more planning. This was the beginning to Alyssa and my new life. The preacher pronounced us husband and wife and then we shared our first kiss. Everyone clapped and we walked down the aisle as everyone smiled at us. This is the perfect beginning to our new life. We did the normal activities at the reception afterwards. Toasts, cake, champagne, and dance. Kevin, Kyle, my parents, and Sarah all made toasts. Sarah started to tear up during hers but it was out of happiness... I think. Alyssa's mom stayed at the back the entire time, she didn't even tell us congratulations. I know Alyssa and I'll have to reach out to her one day. But now's not the time. I don't want to spoil the good time everyone was having. Finally, the reception ended and Alyssa and I got to escape.
!KEVIN'S POV!
After the reception, all of us (except Alyssa and Jake of course) went back to Sarah and Audrey's dorm. We were kind of silent after a while. "It's weird just being us four," I said. "Yeah, do you realize that Alyssa and Jake were the first ones to do everything? They were the first of us to start going out, the first of us to get pregnant, and the first of us to get married." Sarah said. Audrey sighed. "It feels like Alyssa's gone forever now. She belongs to someone else." "What do we do now?" Kyle asked. We all sort of shrugged and looked at one another. What happened to us? We used to have the most fun of anyone and now that two of us are married, we're boring? That doesn't seem quite right. We sat there a while longer and finally I spoke up. "Come on guys. This is sad. We're acting like Jake and Alyssa were the only reason we have fun, which isn't true. We can have fun of our own." Kyle sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess we just need to get used to them not being here." Audrey and Sarah looked totally bummed out, though. I guess I can understand why, since it was their brother and sister they were letting go. "You want to go to the cafe'?" I ask. "And do what?" Sarah asked in a monotone voice. "Um. Drink coffee?" I said. She shrugged. We all went to the cafe and sat down with our coffee and just sort of stared at each other with nothing to talk about. Sarah let a few tears flow down her cheek. "It's so hard. I've spent practically every day since 7th grade with Jake and Alyssa and now I'll never see them." Kyle put his arm around Sarah and said "It's not like they're moving far away or… dying or anything. They're just married and moving out of the dorms." I put my arm around Audrey and said "Eh, who are we kidding? She's right. We'll hardly ever see them anymore." Audrey's shoulders started to shake. "Audrey, are you crying?" I asked. "No!" Audrey said as tears started to fall down her face. "Don't cry. You still have me." Audrey started to cry harder. "I hate change!" Sarah moved in closer to Audrey and they hugged. "Me too!" Sarah wailed. Kyle and I just looked at each other. Audrey and Sarah just hugged each other and talked/wailed to each other. How they understood what the other one was saying, I have no clue. I looked at them "Guys, it'll be fine. Trust me." "No it won't!" cried Audrey. "I just lost my only sister to her brother!" she said as she pointed to Sarah. "You didn't lose her, honey; you just have to share her now." "I don't like sharing!" Audrey wailed again. Now she was starting to sound whiney. Everyone in the cafe' was looking at us now. This was embarrassing. "Why did your brother have to come along and fall in love with my sister?" Audrey wailed at Sarah. "Why did your sister have to make my brother fall in love with her?" Sarah wailed back at her. This was getting ridiculous. "Guys, this is so stupid. Alyssa and Jake fell in love on their own accord you can't get mad at each other because of it. Just be happy for them." Sarah looked at me "I wouldn't be talking Kevin. You're the one who refused to be happy for them in 7th grade." Audrey started crying even harder then "I had forgotten about that." she wailed. Sarah stood up and stormed out of the door. Kyle yelled after her, "You don't have a car to get home, babe." "I don't care, I'll walk," she snapped. Audrey turned and looked at me. "How could you!" She pushed my shoulders. "How could I what?" I asked, backing away, trying to avoid a fight. "7th grade! You did so many awful things to me! How could I even forgive you?" She yelled at me, jabbing her finger at me. "You're not seriously getting in a fight with me about 7th grade?" I asked her. Audrey was going crazy. "Let me just take you back to your dorm. You need to cool off." I said, approaching her cautiously. "I can get there on my own!"
!AUDREY'S POV!
Things are falling apart now. Sarah has stormed out of the cafe' with Kyle trailing behind her. Now I'm standing here, yelling at Kevin about something that happened in 7th grade. I'm not sure what had overcome me, but I couldn't stop yelling at him. He had become a victim of my rage and right then I didn't care. "I can get there on my own!" was the last thing I said before storming out of the cafe' just as Sarah had done a few moments before. I ran down the sidewalk and onto the road. I could hear Kevin behind and unfortunately he was faster than me too. He grabbed hold of my wrist. "Stop it! You're acting like a brat! I've never seen this side of you before!" he yelled at me. "Well maybe we shouldn't get married then!" I yelled back at him. "Who said we were getting married?" he asked. "You're the worst boyfriend ever!" I yelled at him. "Fine! You're the worst girlfriend ever!" "You wish I were the worst girlfriend ever!" "Shut up!" Kevin bent down and wrapped his arms around my knees and picked me up. I started to kick my legs and arms as hard as I could, hoping I was hurting him. "What are you doing?" I yelled. "I'm not letting you walk home by yourself. You know there are rapists all over this campus." "There is not!" "What would you know about it?" "What would YOU know about it!" "I know plenty more about it than you do." "How would you know? You think I'm stupid, don't you? Just because you're majoring in teaching and I'm majoring in drama, doesn't mean anything!" "Did I say it did?" "You implied it!" He opened the door to the passenger's seat of his car and put me into the seat and slammed the door. He got into the driver's seat and put on his seatbelt. "Put on your seatbelt," he said as he turned the key and started the car. "I was going to anyway." He backed out of his parking spot and for the rest of the ride, it was silent. He parked in front of my dorm 5 minutes later. We both just sat, silent. "What are we even fighting about?" Kevin finally asked. "We should talk about it tomorrow," I said before I opened the door, got out of the car and slammed the door behind me.
!SARAH'S POV!
Ugh. Alyssa and Jake ruined everything. I walked the whole way back to the dorm with Kyle trailing a few steps behind me trying to talk to me. I got back to the dorm and saw that Audrey was slamming around the dorm. I ignored her. The more I thought about it, the more rage I had. I finally got up enough rage and I called Alyssa and Jake's house. Jake answered. "Hello?" "I hate you! You and your wife ruined everything! How could you abandon me like that?" I said bawling. "Sarah! Calm down. What's going on?" Jake said calmly into the receiver. I slammed the phone down. I was so mad; I couldn't even talk to him. Audrey came into my room now. "I hate your brother!" Audrey yelled. She looked awful. Mascara was flowing down her cheeks and her eyes were puffy. "I hate your sister!" Audrey let out an annoyed shriek and stormed into her room and slammed the door. The phone rang. I checked the caller ID. It was Jake. I answered it. "What do you want?" I snapped. "Sarah, calm down and tell me what's wrong." Jake has always been a calm person. "You ruined everything, Jake. You just went off and got married and abandoned me. How could you? I thought we were best friends. I thought you loved me." "Sarah, I didn't abandon you," he said still calmly. "You got married, didn't you?" "Yes. But—" he started. I cut him off "Well, it's the same thing!" I said still crying. Jake was silent, letting me cry it out, then he spoke again. "Sarah, I'm always going to be here for you. Just like when we were younger. We're still best friends. I can have a wife and a best friend. You'll be fine without me. You have Kyle. You two will get married and you will be happy. But through all that stuff, I'm still going to be here. You should know that." I didn't know how to respond. "No Jake! I'm not going to be fine without you! Don't you see? And besides I am not the only one who is having a hard time. Everybody is fighting! Audrey hates you and is fighting with Kevin about what happened in the 7th grade!" Jake was starting to get a little aggravated. "Well what do you want me to do about it? Get a divorce?" he said raising his voice a tad. "Well, that would be nice! Things would be back to normal." "No they wouldn't Sarah!" I couldn't stand it. I slammed the phone down again and cried myself to sleep.
!ALYSSA'S POV!
The phone rang while Jake and I were in bed. Jake answered it. "Hello?" That's all I heard him say and he hung up and picked the phone right back up. I didn't really listen to anything except "What do you want me to do about it? Get a divorce?" I jerked my head up and looked at him with scrunched eyebrows. It's the first night we're married and he's already thinking about divorce? He shook his head at me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He finally hung up and I looked at him. "What was that all about?" "Nothing." I raised my eyebrows. He sighed. "Ok, well Kyle, Kevin, Sarah, and Audrey are all fighting because we got married. Audrey and Kevin are fighting about what happened in 7th grade and Sarah and Audrey are fighting because Audrey says she hates me for taking you away from her and Sarah says she hates you for taking me away from her." I just stared at him. "Are you serious?" "Yep" I lay back down. "They said that?" "Yes, but honey, they didn't mean it, they're just upset." I felt so bad. Everybody was fighting and it was actually my fault? Jake acted so nonchalant but I don't know. I was really bothered by it. I stood up, got dressed and headed for the driveway when Jake got up and came running after me. "Honey, relax its ok." "No, Jake, it's not okay. This is my entire fault and I've got to fix it." I drove to Audrey and Sarah's dorms and knocked on their door. Sarah answered. "What do you want?" she snapped. Audrey came out and came running towards me. "Alyssa! Oh my gosh! I miss you so much," she said giving me a hug. I spent the whole night trying to resolve the problems.
!KYLE'S POV!
Things were a mess. I don't understand girls. I spent most of the night after Jake and Alyssa's wedding, following Sarah down the road, trying to talk some sense into her. It's like she's gone crazy because of this whole wedding. She's never acted like this before. She was crying hysterically the entire time and I wanted to just to catch up to her and comfort her but I wanted to give her space because she was so emotional. We finally reached the dorms and I went to mine after making sure she got safely in her dorm room. I could hear doors slamming and yelling for a good two hours before things finally quieted down. I decided not to intervene because I know Sarah hates that more than anything. I finally asleep and was glad that next day when I woke up that we could start over. The next day, everything was still stressful but better than last night. I just couldn't believe that all of this had sprouted from a marriage. Marriages are supposed to be happy but this one made us all miserable.