Lynn tosses and turns in bed. It is currently three in the morning, and like most nights, she can't sleep. After coming home from the game, she and Francisco had a small impromptu celebration of milk and cookies before calling it a night. Predictably, he fell asleep, but now Lynn is stuck with her thoughts as she tries to process what happened hours ago.
'We're getting married, he wants to marry me, but when do we do it? We could wait until around Christmas, if we tell the family now, then they can free up their weekend. Wait, are courthouses open on weekends? Probably not…and probably not on holidays either. We could do it the Friday before or the Monday after, but what's so special about the day after Christmas or two days before? Although, that would mean four days of celebrating – his family's Christmas, my family's, an anniversary, and then his birthday. Wait a minute…what are we doing for Christmas this year? I could go for some tamales, but it looks like a lot of work unless we invite his family. Ugh…that bastard, well, it isn't like we have to invite him, and Chuy can help make tamales. Or maybe I can do something else like the gingerbread house or better yet–'
Francisco can feel Lynn shuffling around and he mumbles, "What's wrong?" he asks, interrupting her thoughts.
"Do you think that I could make a gingerbread hockey rink?"
"Maybe…but if you're doing sugar work, try not to pour the burnt parts into a plastic bag again–"
"One time!"
"-or let it cool on a ceramic plate."
"Again, one time!"
"You melted the bag…"
"Are you done?"
His eyelids feel heavy, and he closes his eyes, but he smiles at her, "Yes, now what's really bothering you?"
Lynn tries to think of how she got to the gingerbread hockey rink. When Francisco begins to snore, "Now I remember," she says, waking him up. "What do you say about getting married on the twenty-sixth?"
"I think that that's a Saturday…"
"Not in November, December."
"Okay…"
"Or do you think that we should wait until after the baby is born."
"Either one is fine," he says as he buries his head under the covers.
She smacks him in the ribs, forcing him awake, "I'm serious! When do you want to do this?"
Francisco groans, "Lynn, you have got to stop hitting me like it's nothing."
She points to the mark on her neck, "When this stops happening, then we'll talk."
He chuckles, "Well that's revenge for all the childhood bruises, but that's not important right now," he informs her, "Lynn, what sort of wedding could we plan in such a short amount of time."
"Nothing special, I just want a courthouse wedding. Oh, and one more thing, but that's more of a surprise for you."
He isn't sure what sort of surprise she would be planning for him, but he's too tired to worry about that at the moment. However, he is surprised that she wants a courthouse wedding. He knows that Lynn isn't the type to go for the classic wedding ideas, but he didn't think that she would want something as minimal or impersonal.
"Are you sure that you want a courthouse wedding?"
"Yeah, I'm sure, when have you ever seen me dazzled by those fancy-shmancy weddings?"
Francisco nods his head. They've only been to three together and at none of them has he seen her excited except past the initial shock. He can't deny that the Louds know how to throw a good party, but he can't say that Lynn would want to mimic Lucy's gothic wedding, Lana's wedding on the racetrack, or Lola's overly-extravagant wedding that made fairy tales look plain.
"Okay, if that's what you want. Just give me a heads-up on the date so that I can get a nice suit."
"Can you make it a blue one?"
He smiles and gives her a brief kiss on the cheek, "Sure. Goodnight," he says before making another attempt at sleeping.
"Great! But you know what? I changed my mind, get it before the seventh and we'll be good."
"December?"
"November," she clarifies. "You think that we could get Elena out of school for the day?"
He opens an eye, "You want to get married on a Monday? Who's going to able to be here for it?"
"Well, I figured, why wait it out? Besides I know that my parents, Lori, Luan, Lincoln, Lucy, Lola and Lana can make it."
Francisco takes a mental note of who Lynn is neglecting to mention. He knows that Leni may struggle to make it to a wedding on such short notice due to her job, but he can't imagine that the others can't make it, especially when two of them live in the same city.
Lynn pulls out her phone.
"What are you doing?" asks Francisco.
"Letting my family know about the wedding."
He looks over at the glowing red lights of the clock, "At this hour? Who's gonna be awake to read it?"
"They can read it in the morning," says Lynn, as she types away. "Then they can tell us if they're coming and we'll go to get something to eat at Jean Juan's after the ceremony."
He can't complain about Lynn's frugality with the wedding; they have a baby to get ready for. At the moment, he hasn't gotten around to painting the room, or getting anything that the baby is going to need, so planning a large wedding isn't going to be smart financially. Though he can't help but wonder if she really does want that sort of wedding.
When Lynn stops texting, he looks up at her and asks, "What did you tell them?"
"Just the wedding date, nothing else."
Francisco is a little surprised that Lynn didn't want to tell her family that she is expecting, "That's it? No baby, nothing."
"Right."
"But aren't they going to know in a few months anyway?"
Lynn looks over at him, as if reminding him of what has already happened twice. This is the first time that the pregnancy has progressed by months and despite putting on a brave face, she is worried about history repeating itself.
She is silent, but eventually answers, "Just in case."
Francisco takes her hand. Ever since he heard the news from her, he realized that Lynn has gone through the hassle of repeating her day, convinced that this will be the key to preventing another miscarriage. He doesn't believe that her superstition is right, but he wants to have some hope for both of them.
Lynn sets her phone down. With her mind at ease, she wraps her arms around him so that she can finally fall asleep.
Buzzing from Lynn's phone draws Francisco's attention. He can't imagine that any one of her siblings is awake at this hour to respond to her message. When the buzzing continues, he turns to her, "Lynn, your phone is going off."
She mumbles and in her groggy state, grabs her phone and tosses it out of the room, "Goodnight."
Francisco doesn't care, he can still hear the buzzing, but the carpet is muffling out the noise, "Goodnight."
The next morning, Francisco wakes up. He notices Lynn sleeping away and rather than disturb her he quietly gets out of bed. He drags his feet across the floor until he is out of the room. He closes the door behind him, and as he walks towards the kitchen, he spots her phone on the floor. Hours ago, it was buzzing with excitement and now it is quiet. Curiosity begins to get to Francisco, so he picks it up and looks at the screen.
"Holy crap…" he says to himself as he notices how many messages the siblings left Lynn. "Dang, you guys said a lot."
He takes the phone to the kitchen and sets it down on the counter as he gets a pot of coffee brewing and breakfast started. With every notification, her phone buzzes.
Francisco glances over to see what it could be, "Dang, they can type fast," he says as he catches brief glimpses of the messages before they are replaced by new ones on the screen.
Rather than continue his attempts, Francisco sets the phone down to finish making breakfast; not noticing when Lynn began to sneak up behind him.
Lynn slowly tiptoes towards him and she quietly gets close to his ear, "Morning," she says, spooking him.
He looks over at her as she laughs, "Good morning to you too."
She notices her phone next to him, "What were you doing with my phone?" she asks before taking back her phone and a slice of bacon off of his plate.
"I was looking to see if you took candid photos of me in secret," he teases.
"I did, but you'll never find them," she teases back. "Now what were you really doing?"
"Since your phone was going off last night, I figured that your family was probably curious about the wedding. By the way, your sisters sent a crazy amount of messages last night. Did you tell them that we were planning a simple ceremony at city hall?"
"Hold on," she says as she scrolls through all the messages, "Nope, but give me a second to tell them. Did it."
Lynn's phone begins buzzing again.
She looks at her phone and sees that Lori is calling for a group video chat. When Lynn answers, the phone erupts as the siblings start talking over one another trying to get answers.
Lynn keeps her eyes on the phone, but mutes the phone to ask him, "Did you make any coffee?"
"It's brewing as we speak."
Everyone grows quiet as they wait for Lynn's answer. She unmutes the phone, "We're getting married Monday the seventh at the Royal Woods courthouse. Francisco asked me at World Series, did you guys hear about it? We were down for most of the game, but when–"
"Lynn!" the siblings call out to her, before she gets too distracted.
They are surprised by both the date and location.
"What? Why spend all that money?"
Lori answers, "But this is your big day, you should do it right."
That doesn't matter much to Lynn.
Lynn thinks back to her sisters' big day. Most were traditional weddings with a theme, they were intimate with enough, but she knows that they were referring to doing something bigger. Clearly not Lola levels, no one can beat that, however, Lynn never gave it too much thought before.
"Well, we don't see any reason to wait, so we'd rather do it next week. Are we really going to have time to do something huge?"
"But that's so sudden," says Lynn Sr. "Are you sure that you guys don't want to wait a little longer?"
"We've dating for years, now it's weird that we're rushing a wedding?"
"Both things are weird. I mean nearly ten years together–"
"It hasn't been that long!"
"Still a long time," Lana chimes in.
"Anyway," Lynn stresses, "it'd be nice if you can make it," she looks over at Francisco, "what time are you thinking?"
He shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know."
"You two are clearly not in the right state of mind. Your wedding should be a magical and public display of your love as peers watch you, wishing that they had what you had," declares Lola.
Lynn pretends to heave, "No, thanks."
"Are you sure, sweetie? Your father and I would hate to see you miss out on such a special occasion," says Rita.
Lynn knows why she's saying that. Her parents didn't have the magical wedding that they've given their children. She knows that they both wanted it, but they didn't have a lot of money, and they decided to put it towards a home for their future family.
Lynn looks at her parents, then at Francisco, who silently tells her that it's up to her, "Fine…but I still want it to be on the seventh."
Lynn looks at the signs for prom. All over the hall, there are signs reminding the school of the last dance of the school year, as if the constant chatter and cheesy prom-posals weren't enough. She doesn't have a thing against the dance or all this romance-junk, but she's sick of nearly everyone's conversations being about the dance.
Francisco notices Lynn staring at the signs. He never pegged Lynn to be the type of girl to care about prom, but as everyone around her goes about their day, she doesn't move. He slowly steps towards her in an attempt to take her by surprise.
She takes a deep breath and quickly turns around, noticing Francisco attempting to sneak up on her, "When has sneaking up on me ever worked?"
"It never hurts to try," he says as stumbles towards the wall, relieving the pressure off of his back. Francisco looks over at the poster and then back at Lynn, "Are you going to prom?"
She scoffs, "No! It's just some dumb dance, no different than all the other ones."
"But it's the last one before we graduate," says Margo.
The two friends look over at her, wondering when she appeared.
"How about if we go as friends?" she offers.
"You have a boyfriend," says Lynn. "Isn't he gonna want to go with you?"
"I meant as a group date," Margo clarifies.
"Again?" ask the two.
Margo shrugs her shoulders; it isn't the first time that she's tried to bring her two friends together in a more romantic setting. Though, prom will definitely be more romantic than a date night at Gus' Games and Grub.
Francisco shakes his head, "No thanks, besides I don't even have a suit."
"Yeah, and I'm not into that romance crud," complains Lynn.
Margo sighs. She can't force her friends to come, but she at least decides to offer, "Well, if you guys are interested you can call me. Paula and Alice said that they are gonna go as friends, you know, in case you want to join them."
Lynn and Francisco mutter, neither one wanting to make any sort of commitment.
She should have known.
They've done it before, but it still took her by surprise.
Lynn may have agreed to go along with the somewhat more traditional ceremony, but she didn't expect her siblings to have arrived in Royal Woods hours after letting them know the news. Of course, with such a small window of time, they have to hustle to get the wedding planned.
After Lola arrived, she called the couple to the house on Franklin Avenue, and sat them down in front of her wedding vision board, presented them with all of her ideas, from doves to carriage rides. Luckily, Lori put a stop to it, since it was clearly a slightly watered-down version of her own wedding, and she insists that the couple should have more of a say in how their special day should go.
When Leni arrives, she comes armed with measuring tape and all of her sewing materials to begin measuring the two to get a gown and suit ready. It's a tight deadline, but Leni is sure that she can get it done. She quickly whisks Francisco into the dining room and begins to measure him.
"Do you have anything in mind?"
Francisco shakes his head.
"Make it a blue suit!" Lynn yells from the living room, ignoring Lori, who is asking her questions.
Leni takes notes, "Okay, your turn, Lynn," she says as she walks towards her younger sister.
Lynn sighs. She was hoping that Leni would have taken longer so that she could have snuck away, but years of making clothes clearly made Leni quick with a measuring tape.
Leni forces Lynn onto her feet and begins to measure her. Lori walks over with a clipboard and begins asking Lynn questions, not noticing that the soon-to-be bride is staring off into space.
'This isn't what I wanted…' thinks Lynn, as Lori asks her questions. 'I just wanted something simple, instead Lori keeps asking all of these questions about food, and venues, and other stuff…'
Lola angrily yells into the phone, "Listen, bub! Do you know who I am?! I am the wife of James Smith-Newhook…yeah, those Newhooks. Now if you don't want the strong arm of the most powerful family in the state to come down on you, you better get me those flowers!"
Lisa looks over at Lola, "I see you have no issue using your husband's name to attain what you please."
"We only have a few days to make this wedding happen, so I'm not going to be above using whatever we can to make this day perfect."
"Why? It isn't as though our fifth eldest sister cares much for what you and some of our other sisters insist she will need on her 'big day'," says Lisa, as she points to an annoyed Lynn, getting measured by Leni while having Lori ask various questions.
"She doesn't appreciate it now, but she will, we all do. Besides, we're giving this to her, it isn't as though we're charging her."
"I believe that she would have preferred the money," she says, as she looks over at Leni, who is measuring Lynn's waist again.
Lori looks down at her clipboard, and asks, "What sort of cake do you want?"
"I don't know," says Lynn as she tries to step away from her sisters.
"What about music?"
Lynn takes a step towards the stairs and Leni follows her, "I don't know."
"How about the flowers?" Lori notices her two sisters moving away from her and she sighs before moving them back to the center of the living room, "Lynn, how do you want us to help you if you can't answer these questions?"
"I didn't want this! We were only planning a wedding at city hall, maybe an early dinner at Jean Juan's, and then we go home."
"That's literally sad." Lori looks down at younger sister, "Leni, what is taking you so long?"
Leni wraps the measuring tape around Lynn's waist again, "I'm trying, but I wanna be sure that I have it right," She looks up at her younger sister, and whispers, "Have you been stress-eating?"
Lynn begins to get nervous. This is another reason why she didn't want a flashy wedding, her sisters would get involved and with Leni measuring her so that she can make a dress, Lynn knows that it's a matter of time before she asks something.
"Or are you pregnant?" she whispers.
The whole house gets quiet. Suddenly, everyone stops what they are doing and looks over at Lynn, who is blushing, afraid of answering them. No one is moving and Lynn is afraid of all the new questions that are going to arise from answering Leni's question. She could easily lie and worry about the questions next year, or get it out of the way now.
Lynn looks over at Francisco, and he is frozen too, unsure of whether or not to say anything. Neither one wants to get the family's hopes up about another little baby, but they can't say no either. Lynn slowly nods her head, and everyone is delighted.
The family begins to congratulate them. They are excited to know that there will soon be another little addition to the family, however, in all the commotion, Lori gets pushed to the side.
With the family focused on Lynn, and her sister's unwillingness to answer her questions, Lori decides to go to Francisco to get some answers, "Francisco, can I ask you some questions?"
"Umm I'm a little busy, your dad wants to go over cake samples with me in a bit."
"It'll literally take a sec, how many people are coming? Where do you guys want to have the reception? What time do you want to hold the ceremony?"
"I-I don't know. I guess, maybe," he stops to count the people he plans on inviting in his head, "four people on my side."
"Really?" Lori asks, surprised by the small number of guests.
"It's only Elena, my mom, brother and neighbor. Lynn and I wanted something small, so preferably immediate family."
"Okay, thank you!" Lori says, relieved to finally have some sort of answer.
Hours later, after the family gets their fill of information from the couple, Francisco looks over at his bored fiancée, who is sitting on the couch, mentally drained from all the action that went on today. He is thankful that the family is putting in some much work for them, but he needs time away from everyone, and it appears that Lynn does too.
"Can you imagine how crazy this whole thing would have been if all my siblings were here?"
He shudders at the thought, "Are you ready to go home?"
Lynn shakes her head, "Nope, I gotta do something."
"What?"
"It's a secret."
"I can wait."
"Go!" she says, as she tries to force him off the couch. "Besides, you'll find out soon enough, just wait."
"This coming from you?" Francisco jokingly asks before he pulls her towards him to give her a kiss on her cheek.
A flash of light surprises the two, and Leni looks at the photo that she took, "Aww, this is such a cute photo. I'm putting it on the collage that Lily and I are making."
"No!" the two say.
"Are you sure? I think you both look nice," she says, as she shows them the photo.
Neither one answers, embarrassed at the sight of the photo.
Lily looks over at the photo, "We can send them the collage, since they're so afraid of showing people their love," she teases.
Lynn tosses a pillow towards her sister, but she is able to dodge it in time, forcing Leni to take the hit.
"Sorry, Leni."
Hours later, when the house is dark and everyone in the house is asleep, Lynn gets out of bed and begins to rummage through her closet. She knows exactly what she is looking for, but she doesn't know where or if it's still in the house.
"C'mon with all the crap I kept, it has to be here."
She digs through boxes, under piles of clothes, and anything that looks as though it could be hiding something. She doesn't care about the mess that she's making in her room, just so long as she finds it.
"Yes! Found it!"
Lynn bites down on some popcorn as she watches stares at the tv to watch a video. Today is prom, and while she didn't flat-out tell her friends that she isn't going to go, she isn't planning on going either. Her phone has been buzzing for hours as her friends text each other back and forth, but Lynn can't seem to set the chat on ignore either.
Lola passes by and notices her older sister snacking away, "Aren't you gonna get ready? Prom is gonna start soon."
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "I don't wanna go."
"Why would you not want to go?!" asks Lola. "It's a night all about dressing up and primping and looking your best all combined with the chance to win Prom Queen."
Television shows and watching her four oldest sisters getting ready for prom has filled Lola's head with an idea of what the night is all about. However, to Lynn, it's not that special. She's seen and heard the way her sisters described prom and she knows that it isn't for her.
"Do you want to go in my place?" Lynn asks.
Lola scoffs, "Let the girls graduating have a chance at winning Prom Queen." Lynn rolls her eyes, "You should go!" says the younger sister, "You should get to enjoy a magical night with twinkling lights, romance in the air, and–"
She stops when she notices Lynn pretending to throw up.
Knowing that she won't win her sister over with thoughts of romance, she decides to go with a different approach, "How about your friends? I bet they're going to be having fun and you're being left out because you're more interested in watching injury collection thingy again."
"Injury compilation DVD," she corrects.
"Whatever."
"Besides, I'm fine."
Not wanting to take no for an answer, Lola calls out to Leni, in hopes that the two of them can gang up on Lynn to convince that she's missing out. However, as soon as Lola yells out to their older sister, she begins to run for it. Lynn doesn't know what sort of tricks they'll try to pull, but she isn't interested in hearing what either sister has to say.
As she runs up the stairs, Lynn runs into Leni. The jock looks back down to the bottom of the stairs and Lola is waiting for her. She's trapped, but she sees an opening and decides to jump over the railing. Lynn runs, avoiding Lola, before she is stopped by Lily.
The youngest sister puts on her best puppy-dog eyes, asking, "Lynn, are you sure you don't want to go to the dance? I bet you'll have fun."
Lynn slowly steps away from her little sister. She can't figure out why they would care so much about her going to prom, and she doesn't want to stick around to find out. She makes another run for it, but with three sisters on her tail, she's outnumbered and they can probably outmaneuver her; Lily can crawl around the vents, Lola has no issue using whatever is at her disposal, and Leni has such dumb luck, she'll probably find Lynn without even trying.
Lola asks, "You should go to prom, it's a night of wonder and romance."
"Dance," says Lily.
"See all your friends."
Her sisters' reasons aren't really convincing her. She quickly runs and goes to the room of someone who can help her lose her sisters – Lincoln.
"Lynn! What the heck?!" he asks, surprised by his sister bursting into his room.
"I need to hide from them," she says.
The siblings can hear the pounding on the door, by they are currently being kept away as Lynn holds the door back.
"What's going on?"
"They want me to go to prom."
Over the years, he and his sisters have watched their four oldest sisters go to prom, and at some point Lincoln knew that someone wouldn't want to go, luckily, he devised a simple plan for such an occasion. At first, it was for him, but in the event that he does go to the dance in the future, he would hate to see all that planning go to waste.
"I think you should go."
"You too?! Why do you care if I go?"
"I don't, but if you play along, they'll eventually leave you alone. Think about it," he says as he leads her away from the door and he whispers, "Lola doesn't stop, but if you let her think that she won, she'll keep quiet. And it's not like you can't drive yourself somewhere else. I mean, are all your friends going to prom?"
Lynn shakes her head.
"Then pretend for a minute, and go to that friend's house."
"Dressed like some girly prom girl?"
"Well it's either that or they'll keep chasing you. Even if Leni dresses you up, she'll still make sure that you're comfortable, just play along."
She sighs, "Dang it…I'm gonna trust you," she tells her brother before opening the door. Lynn looks over at her sisters and through a forced smile, tells them, "Let's…do this…"
Lola takes her hand, "I knew that you'd come around! Now let's go, we only have a short amount of time to make you look like royalty."
Lynn looks over at her brother, who assures her that she's going to be fine.
The three sisters take Lynn to her room and begin looking around for anything that can work as an appropriate outfit.
Lynn sits down on her bed as she stares at the wall in front of her, she can feel her face turning red from embarrassment. She feels uncomfortable at the thought of dressing up and she can imagine that everyone that sees her is going to make a big deal of how dressed up she is for the dance.
Leni grabs hold of her hair, "Do you want an up do or a down?"
"Umm…I don't know, how about something that I can dance with."
Lola answers for her, "Down," she gestures.
"Wait! I don't want my hair getting in my way."
"Okay, up it is. Lily, hand me the hairspray."
"But nothing too crazy that I can't fix."
"So you want a ponytail?" asks Lola, "Lynn, this is prom, a once-in-a-lifetime dance. You're supposed to be beautiful, and beauty is pain," she says as she pulls Lynn's hair up.
Leni reassures Lynn, "But we can do it while still maintaining that Lynn charm. By the end of the night we're going to make you look like–"
"A beauty queen!" Lily excitedly tells her sisters.
"Well, I don't want that."
The day of the wedding, Francisco wakes up and is met with no one beside him. Two nights ago, the sisters 'kidnapped' Lynn and took her to their parents' place. They didn't tell him why, though he assumed that they were throwing Lynn a last-minute bachelorette party, especially since Chuy, Lincoln and some of Lynn's brothers-in-law swung by the house last night to watch hockey with him after Elena went home.
He tries to close his eyes, but he can't fall asleep. The ceremony is later that evening, after school is out, and when the rest of the family is available to drive to Royal Woods. Mr. Loud plans on closing the restaurant early so that the family can set up for the ceremony, and he insisted that the groom take the day off. He also wanted the couple to take more time off for a honeymoon, but Francisco wouldn't hear it. He's thankful that the family cared enough to put together everything, especially since Lynn gave them such a short deadline; he's not going to take advantage of their kindness, besides, they didn't have the budget for a honeymoon anywhere else but home.
'You're going to be family.'
That's what they all said.
It sort of felt weird. He and Lynn have been together long enough, and after proposing, it should have been real, but hearing the words made him feel a little warm inside.
Francisco gets out of bed and tries to go through his morning routine and some last-minute preparations for the wedding, but without work or anyone around, he's at a loss. Years ago, he was able to make the best of staying in this empty house alone until Elena showed up for her weekly visits. Of course, at the time, Francisco had work, but still, he was fine, now, without Lynn around or anything to do, he feels bored and lonely.
"I wonder if this is what the Louds feel when they're alone?" he jokingly asks himself.
He looks over at the clock, between breakfast, cleaning up the house, getting a haircut and getting ready for the wedding, he was only able to kill a few hours.
Rather than stay cooped up inside, he steps out into the backyard for some fresh air to clear his head. The fallen leaves crunch beneath his feet as he walks towards around the backyard. Francisco paces back and forth. He doesn't know why he's nervous, he asked her to marry him and she agreed. They've been living together for years, so it isn't as though much is going to change, but regardless, taking that big step in front of all their friends and family, has his nerves on edge.
'If there was ever a time for some fatherly advice,' he thinks as he looks up at the sky.
"Well, don't you look spiffy in your blue suit, did you also get a haircut?" asks Jackson, snapping Francisco from his thoughts.
The younger man looks over at his neighbor and nods his head.
"Where's your blushing bride? I'd love to congratulate her as well."
"With how superstitious Lynn is, do you honestly think that she would stick around here on her wedding day? Besides, her sisters took her to their parents' place, though she was giving them hell when they did."
"How come?"
Francisco shrugs his shoulders, "I have no idea. I thought that she would have been sick of all this wedding planning, especially since I think the stress was getting to her. She kept looking all over the house for something, but she wouldn't tell me what it was." He takes a seat and looks over at Jackson, "All we wanted was a simple ceremony, but her family talked her into having something a little bigger. I get it. Heck, my mom thought the same thing, even though she and my dad had a courthouse wedding too, apparently, we were being too simple."
"Well, Francisco, I believe that they want to share this beautiful moment with you two. You and Lynn are about to take the first step on a journey that will last a lifetime, and I'm assuming that they want you realize how much your friends and family care about you two."
Francisco looks over at his neighbor. He gets that everyone wants to join in make the day great, but that isn't who he and Lynn are as a couple. They were happy keeping things to themselves and having something small, especially with how they're finances are. Yes, the family is cutting expenses wherever they can by having Rita officiate, holding the ceremony at the restaurant, and getting Leni and Lola to cover the clothes and decorations, but it wasn't what they wanted, and it isn't the only thing on his mind.
"I don't know why I'm nervous, Jackson. We've spent years as a couple, now because of a piece of paper and a pair of rings, I keep thinking about all these bad things happening. Like what if we figure out that we aren't right for each other? At some point I thought that Caroline was my end game, but that didn't work out. What if us being married ruins what we have? What's it going to mean for Elena and little Francisco Jr. or Lynn Jr. Jr.?"
Jackson smiles, "Well first off, congratulations on your soon-to-be bundle of joy."
"Thanks, but don't tell Lynn I told you. I think she wanted to tell everyone when she's a few more months along."
Jackson pretends to seal his lips, "Trust me, I'm a master of hiding intelligence. Now Francisco, it's okay to be nervous. I was nervous when I got married and there are plenty of others who will also walk in your shoes. However, you have to remember that you aren't going alone. There are going to be tough times, but so long as you and Lynn are willing to put in the effort to overcome those challenging times, there will be no reason that you won't have plenty of cherished memories to make."
Hearing that made Francisco smile. He needed to hear that, because what his neighbor said was right. He and Lynn have been through a lot that would have broken up other couples, and while it wasn't easy, they made it out together each time.
"Thanks Jackson, I appreciate that."
"You're welcome, neighbor."
Lola, Leni and Lily put the finishing touches before taking a step back and taking in everything. It took some work, but the three are proud of how their work turned out. They walk Lynn towards the mirror to have her look at herself.
"It was a challenge, ladies," starts Lola, "but I think we did good work."
Lynn looks at her reflection. Despite the light amount of makeup, she can still tell that she's wearing it. Her red dress is nice, but she feels as though it isn't right for her, and she feels awkward wearing the heels that her sisters picked out for her.
Without taking her eyes away from the mirror, she says, "This isn't me."
Leni looks over at her younger sister, "No, it's a reflection of you."
Lily assures her sister, "I think you look pretty."
Lynn sighs, unaware that there is a small smile on her face as she keeps her eyes fixated on her reflection.
Lola looks up at her sister. While she isn't saying anything, she knows that she likes the work that the three did, which Lola takes as a sign that her older sister is ready to go downstairs.
The two younger sisters head out of the room and Leni looks over at Lynn, "I know that you're going to have fun, Lynn," she reassures her sister.
At the bottom of the stairs, Lily blows on a fanfare trumpet as Lola calls out to the family, "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, Royal Woods High Class of 2021's Prom Queen – Lynn Loud." The family gathers around to see what all the commotion is about. However, when Lola notices that Lynn has still not stepped out of her room, she calls out again, "I said," she enunciates, "May I present to you–"
"I heard you!" screams Lynn from her room. "I'm not coming down if you're gonna present me like some royal court person."
"I believe the word that you are looking for is–"
Lola covers Lisa's mouth, "No one cares, sweetie." Lola takes a few steps, turns towards her family, "We're having a brief issue with future Prom Queen. While you wait, please help yourself to some light refreshments, courtesy of Lily."
The youngest sister runs into the kitchen and returns to the family, pulling a wagon with a plate of cookies and large pitcher of milk.
Meanwhile, Lola goes upstairs and knocks on Lynn's door, "Lynn," she sings, "are you okay?"
When she is met with silence, Lola pulls out a trick that she knows will force her sister out, "You know, it's okay if you think that you aren't going to win. I mean, you are the type to give up when you know you can't win, especially a competition. At least you know to stay put instead of going out there and humiliating yourself."
Lynn is confused. She opens the door, "What are you talking about?"
Lola takes her older sister's arm, "Gotcha! Now let's try this again," she says as she pulls Lynn out of her room, forcing her out of her room.
Lynn tries to pull away, but can't escape her sister's grasp, "How are you this strong?"
"I'm not strong, you're just clumsy in heels and following me. Now, hurry, your friends are on their way."
Lynn quietly steps down the stairs. She feels uncomfortable dressing up, especially since she doesn't do it often, and no matter how much her sisters assured her that everyone was going to be dressed up too, it didn't make her feel better.
Her parents notice her, Rita with a smile on her face, and Lynn Sr. with tears in his eyes, as another daughter goes through one of the last passages of high school.
Lynn Sr. takes his camera and begins to take photos, surprising his daughter, who wasn't expecting the flash. Lynn tightly grips on the handrail as she descends the stairs.
"Dang that camera is bright!"
"I'll say," starts Margo, "I had to wait a few minutes until I could drive after my parents took photos."
Lynn looks over at her friends, who are waiting alongside her family, "Margo? Paula? Francisco? What are you guys doing here?"
Margo pulls out her phone, "You sent us a text and told us to pick you up."
Lynn looks at the message and then she looks over at Lola, who innocently responds, "You need a ride. You can't go to prom in Vanzilla."
"We came in Francisco's truck and Margo's mom's station wagon."
"Well at least they're a car from this century."
Lynn looks over at Francisco, "I thought that you weren't going to the dance?"
Francisco silently shrugs his shoulders.
There goes Lynn's plan to skip out on the dance by going to his house. She tries to think of a new plan, but with everyone complimenting her on her appearance, she can't stop to think long enough.
Margo notices Francisco's gaze and she leans over to ask him, "She looks nice, don't you think?"
He doesn't say anything as he looks over at Lynn. Francisco doesn't see her dressed up too often, and at the moment, he is at a loss for words, which he considers a blessing, since Lynn will probably punch him for saying anything. However, he can't help but stare – the dress that flatters her figure, the light scent of perfume, her hair that reminds him of her sporty attitude, while flattering her face – it made her look perfect.
Lynn notices Francisco's staring, "What?"
He shakes his head.
As Lynn walks towards the door, Rita stops her daughter, "Wait! We wanted more photos," she says with her phone in her hand.
Lynn sighs. She doesn't want to immortalize herself dressed up the way she is, but after looking at her family and friends, who are smiling, she decides to go along with it.
"But only a couple!" she demands.
As the group of teens leave, Lynn Sr. calls out from the door, "Have fun! But not too much fun! Don't accept things from strangers or creeps! Be home by nine!"
"Lynn!" chastises Rita. She calls out to her daughter, "Be home by midnight! Have fun, sweetie!"
Lynn looks at herself in the mirror. As a little girl, she didn't have a vision for her wedding day; in fact, she thought that her sisters were silly for planning the day long before they had boyfriends. Lynn remembers how some of her sisters would fawn whenever their dad pulled out the tape from their wedding day; Lori and Leni would compliment mom's dress, Luna would playfully dance along to the music with Luan, meanwhile, she would sit there wondering what they were seeing that she missed. It seemed like a regular party to her at aunt Ruth's backyard, except everyone was all dressed up, but then she would look up at her dad and he would have tears in his eyes as he reminisced with his then small family.
'I wish I could have given you more.'
That's what he said to mom.
'It's okay, I loved it either way.'
After Lola finishes applying the makeup, she looks at her handiwork, "I told you, Ruby Red is your color."
"I guess," says Lynn, as she looks at herself in the mirror.
Despite the lack of enthusiasm, Lola takes the words as a compliment. She understands the stresses going on in her sister's mind, so she is willing to let the short comment slide until she walks down aisle.
"Well I think you look gorgeous."
Lola begins to circle Lynn as she looks for anything else to improve. It's bad enough that she wanted an ugly, old jersey wrapped around her waist, that she won't let her sisters dress her up more elegantly, and that she won't wear heels, but Lola knows that there's something to improve.
"Luan, bring me the perfume!"
"I can't, I'm recording the making of this wedding, and it's unprofessional to interfere."
"Why are you bothering to videotape the wedding? We have a videographer for that."
Throughout the hustle of the Loud sisters, Francisco hasn't had much of an opportunity to see Lynn. He can hear them from outside of his office. When he peers his head into his office, he spots Lynn, who is currently being fussed over. None of the sisters seem to notice him and he knows that now is his chance. Francisco grabs the piece of jewelry that is by the door and he walks away hiding a little gift along the way.
As he steps towards the crowd, he begins to mingle with the guests as he waits for the ceremony to start.
When her sisters step away, Lynn begins to go over the list of trinkets, "Alright, I got something new – the dress, something old – my sash that Leni made from one of my old jerseys."
"You should have let us wash it," comments Lola. "It's not like you play sports anymore and–" Lola glares at her older sister, "If you're going to mock me, at the very least be smart enough to not do it in front of a mirror."
Lynn stops making faces.
Luan places the camera near Lola's face and she immediately puts on her best smile, "Well, we should go. Let's give the bride a few minutes while we finish making this the most magical day of her life."
The sisters begin to follow suit, but one stays behind.
Lisa walks over to her sister, "I can tell that this day is stressful–"
"It is."
"Have you been taking the medication?"
"Yeah, but just 'cause I don't feel a headache, doesn't mean that I'm not stressed."
"Fair point." Lisa takes out a coin and hands it to Lynn. "I'm not sure how familiar you are with the rest of the superstition, but, considering your superstitious nature, I assume that you might want this sixpence for your shoe."
Lynn isn't sure what Lisa is talking about, but she takes the coin from her regardless.
"In the mean time, Luna and I have to finish setting up the DJ station. I advise you to take advantage of the silence so that you may calm your thoughts," she suggests before stepping out of the room.
Lynn takes a deep breath. She doesn't know what has her so nervous, though she assumes it has to do with going out in front of everyone. On any other occasion, she wouldn't mind, but out there, everyone is expecting some sort of romantic declaration and she doesn't know if she has it in her to be that open about such feelings. Then again, it could be something else, she thinks as she looks down on the floor. She begins to tap her foot, fiddle with her fingers, and take rapid breaths as she hears the second hand ticking away on the clock.
Rita knocks on the door. She looks inside and notices how stressed her daughter is as she sits there alone in the room. She notices a bottle of champagne sitting on the desk and it has Rita worried. She grabs a chair to hide the bottle behind her.
"How are you doing?" she asks, surprising her daughter.
Lynn notices what her mom is doing. She knows that there is a bottle of champagne hidden behind her. It has been over a year since she told her parents about her alcoholism, but like Francisco when he first found out, they're still overly-cautious when she's around alcohol, "I'm fine…"
She takes Lynn's hand and looks her in the eye, giving her a soft smile, "Are you sure?"
Lynn nods her head, "Yeah…"
Rita isn't sure if she believes her daughter. She looks around at the room, all the makeup and hair products and she thinks that she might know what is on her daughter's mind.
"You know, it's okay if you're scared. The day I was going to marry your dad, I thought about how my life was going to change. I was worried that maybe, I was making a mistake, that some of the bumps when we were dating were a sign, but then I started thinking about everything that I would gain – the love of a man who I saw as my friend, who I shared this intimacy with, someone who made me feel like I could do whatever I set my mind to."
She looks at Lynn hoping for some sort of reaction but is met with the familiar stare that her daughter has always shown when people talk too much.
"Is there something else on your mind?"
Lynn shakes her head.
Rita brushes away a strand of hair from her daughter's face, "I'm so happy for you and I know that you and Francisco are going to be great together."
"Thanks…can I have a few minutes to myself?"
Rita nods her head and leaves the room.
When her mother closes the door, Lynn pats the red jersey around her waist, "Good, still there."
To Lynn, it doesn't look any different from any other dance that she has attended – there's decorations, a photographer taking souvenir photos, lots of balloons, girls gushing over each other's dresses and a crappy snack table that she is currently using as a way to ignore everyone who is making a huge deal out of the night.
She has had her fill of dancing and is ready to go home, but as she looks up at the huge clock on the wall, she realizes how little time has passed. Lynn and her friends left the house over two hours ago, but aside from dancing, eating and talking with friends, she is out of things to do.
'How does anyone kill four hours here?' she thinks before taking a bite of a mushy cupcake.
Francisco looks around at the dancing teens from his table. He feels awkward as he sits alone at the table watching them, but he doesn't feel like dancing. Heck, he doesn't even know why he bothered coming to the dance anyway.
'Deberías ir a divertirte.'
That's what his mom told him – get out of the house and have fun. However, dancing isn't his style and with his bad back, he knows that he's going to move around stiffly. Rather than risk looking ridiculous in front of everyone, he'd rather sit by himself.
Margo walks over to him, "Are you going to spend all night sitting there?"
He looks over at her, "No, I can also eat from my chair."
She chuckles, "Are you sure that you don't want to go and find someone to dance with?"
Francisco looks around. Most of their classmates are already paired off, except for a small group of guys in the corner and the group of girls talking amongst themselves. He isn't sure that the girls would want to dance with him and he isn't planning on asking the guys, so he decides to stay put.
Margo, who is feeling a little bad for him, figures that there is someone in the room who will dance with him, so she asks, "Have you seen Lynn?"
Francisco silently shakes his head, though he has an idea of where she could be. While she also came to prom dateless, he knows that she can make the best of the situation and have fun dancing like a maniac to the music.
Margo looks around, "Oh, I see her! She's at the snack table."
That would have been Francisco's second guess.
He looks over at Lynn, who is currently eating some chips, likely to refuel after a couple of fast dance songs played.
A slow song begins to play and Margo heads back to her date. Francisco looks around as the lights begin to dim. He can sense the romance in the air as his classmates dance with their dates.
Rather than sit around by himself, Francisco decides to walk over to the snack table.
As he steps around the crowd of students, Francisco looks over at Lynn and smiles. He's had some time to get used to her all dressed up, but it's still is taking him by surprise and while he won't admit it out loud, she looks nice.
Lynn notices him walking towards her. For most of the night, she hasn't spent too much time with him, and now with dimmed lights and slow music, Lynn is afraid of what he's coming over to do. A lot of her classmates are coupling up and she's sure that he might be be coming over to ask her to dance.
She can feel her heart racing and before he is able to say anything, Lynn blurts out, "I don't know how people can like all this mushy stuff."
"Are you talking about the food or that?" he asks, pointing towards the lovesick teens, slowly dancing back and forth.
Lynn laughs, "Both!"
Francisco joins her, happy to know that he isn't the only one unfazed by what this night is supposed to mean. Everyone is acting as though this will be the best night of their lives, but he's sure that there will be plenty of nights that will mean more to them in the future.
As song continues to play, both teens look out onto the dance floor; everyone looks like they're in love. It feels as though time is slowing down as the song continues to play. Both teens feel awkward, unsure of what to do.
Francisco awkwardly glances over at her, figuring that short dance wouldn't be the end of the world, but when he notices her glancing over at him, he loses his nerve. He reasons that the song will soon be over and another head-bopper will play immediately, but it may not. He takes a deep breath deciding that asking won't hurt more than punch to the arm, however he is interrupted before he can say a word to Lynn.
"Are you having fun?"
"Nope," he says. "You?" he asks.
She shakes her head.
Realizing that he has a way to leave and that enough time has passed since they arrived, he asks, "Do you want to get out of here?"
Lola notices Luna and Lisa setting up the DJ station. She entrusted the two pick out the music, but as a precaution, she wants to see what they picked out. It isn't that she doesn't trust her sisters, but with Lynn being as uncooperative as she has been, the younger sister doesn't want to take any chances that the ceremony may be ruined.
Lola opens the laptop, "Do you mind if I look at the playlist for tonight's soirée?" she asks before getting an answer. She looks at the music and presses play on a random song. Lola is taken surprise by the dance music, "This is what you picked out? For a wedding?"
Luna groans, "I asked Francisco what he wanted and he said this."
"How is the bride supposed to walk down the aisle to EDM?"
"We have real instruments for that part. This is just for when they have their first dance."
"Seriously? That's not the right song."
"Well we didn't ask you, we asked them, and they said that they wanted this."
"Technically, neither one said much using words, though their subtle body language did let us know that they liked this song."
"But it should be slow and romantic," argues Lola.
Luna rolls her eyes, "Just because that's what you had at your wedding doesn't mean that that's what everyone else should have at their wedding. Besides what makes you think that you'd pick out a better song?"
"Because I know everything about that couple – the night the first danced together, Francisco told me about it. It was late at night, they had dinner, found a beautiful place to dance under the moonlight, holding each other in their arms feeling as though the whole world stopped, so yeah, I know what would be the perfect song."
Both sisters looked at each other wondering how she would know all that, though a quick glance at her husband reminded them of what he can do.
As guests talk, Francisco stands by the altar, when Alicia notices her son, who is missing his jacket, "¿Dónde está tu chaqueta?"
Francisco shrugs his shoulders, "Lo perdi."
"¿Como que lo perdiste?"
He shrugs his shoulders.
Elena walks over towards the altar and notices what her abuela noticed, "Dad, where's you jacket?"
"I lost it?"
"What do you mean you lost it?"
"I set it down and I haven't seen it since."
Rita looks over at the groom, "Where's your jacket?"
"Why is everyone worried about my jacket?"
"The ceremony is about to start," states Rita.
"And you sort of look like you're going into an office on a casual Friday."
"It's not a big deal," he reasons, "besides Lynn will understand."
Leni and Lori walk into the room to get the bride, however, when they open the door, they are greeted to a messy room and an annoyed Lynn, who is angrily pouting with her arms crossed.
"Lynn, what's going on, everyone is waiting for you," says Leni.
"I'm not going out there," answers Lynn.
Lori walks over to her sister. She's sure that Lynn has cold feet and needs some reassuring words before going out in front of everyone.
"Are you nervous? I get it Remember when Bobby and I were going to get married and how nervous I got? I could feel my heart pounding, my teeth were chattering, and I was afraid of taking that first step.
Lynn and Leni know that Lori is downplaying her anxiety. All the sisters remember that day, Lori was twitching like a crazy person, saying that Bobby could do better, or how she was almost ready to run out of the church before she convinced herself that was making the right decision. Clearly, being the first Loud to get married wasn't doing Lori any favors, and neither were the light-spirited teasing that the siblings partook of the night before. Now, if anyone looks at Lori and Bobby, no one will ever think that there was any doubt in her mind in marrying her husband.
Lynn sighs, "I can't find the something borrowed and something blue thing that you guys left me."
Lori looks towards the door, where she left her earrings and realizes that they are not there, "Where are my earrings?!"
"If I knew, then I wouldn't be sitting here not going out."
Lori looks through the mess, "I put them right by the door so that you wouldn't lose them and you still manage to–" Lori takes a deep breath and whispers to herself, "it's fine, it's fine. She has a lot on her plate and didn't do it on purpose." She takes another deep breath and turns to her sister, "That's okay," she says through her teeth, "you can still go up without them."
Lynn shakes her head, "No way. I need to have something borrowed and something blue, if not, I'm not going out there."
"Are you serious?"
Leni goes over to Lynn and places a reassuring hand on her younger sister's shoulder, "Okay, we'll go find you something. C'mon Lori," she says before the two elder sisters leave the room.
When Lynn is left alone, she gets out of her seat and looks around the room, hoping to find the pair of earrings underneath the mess. However, like before, the earrings are nowhere to be found. Lynn opens the door in hopes of seeing if her sisters were coming back with something, but she can only see the guests, who are waiting for the ceremony to start. Lynn can feel her heart racing. This isn't how she wanted to her wedding to go, but at the same time, she didn't want to let them down.
She sighs, "One more time, I guess," she says.
Leni calls out to her sister, and Lynn turns around hoping to see something blue in her sister's arms, but she doesn't see anything.
"I'm sorry, we couldn't find anything."
Lynn sighs, "That's fine. I'll figure something out. Tell everyone that I'm ready."
The two sisters walk towards Luna and Lola. With each step that they take, Lynn can feel her anxiety growing, but she shakes it off. She can do it. She's Lynnsanity for goodness sake and she isn't going to let down the other half of her team.
As she steps out of the room, Lynn spots a familiar blue coat sleeve hidden underneath some hanging aprons. She looks over at Francisco, who is smiling at her, and she smiles back. She removes the aprons and places the coat on her shoulders.
Lynn Sr. walks over to her, "I can't believe that you're getting married."
"I know, me neither. Are you ready?"
He nods his head.
"Let's do this," she confidently tells herself.
Music begins to play. The crowd gets to their feet and the twins run down the aisle, Catherine tosses flower petals and Arthur nervous walks he holds onto the rings. When the twins pass, everyone looks over to the father and daughter as they walk down the short aisle. With each step, Lynn Sr. begins to whimper, like he has for every one of his children's wedding.
"I'm not ready to give you away," he quietly tells her.
"Dad, you say that to everyone–"
"But I mean it."
"Nothing's gonna change. After tomorrow, it'll be like last week. I'm still gonna be living with him, I'm still gonna work here, the only thing is gonna be different is that by May–"
"I'm gonna be a grandpa."
"You already are," she says as they walk behind Lucy's twins.
When they reach the altar, Lynn Sr. looks over at Francisco and then at Lynn before giving her a hug and taking his seat.
Rita looks over at her daughter and smiles, noticing where Francisco's jacket disappeared to, she clears her throat, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today…"
Francisco looks over at Lynn, and she looks up at him. He can tell that she's nervous, heck, he is too, but as she occasionally glances over at the crowd and then at him, he can see how anxious she is. He knows that this isn't what she wanted – she didn't want the cameras or the dozens of staring eyes; she wanted something smaller. Lynn didn't tell him why, though he can make assumptions.
"…the couple has written their own vows."
Francisco and Lynn look at each other; neither one saying a thing. He notices the look in her eyes as she begins to stare out at the audience, who are in turn staring at them waiting to hear their declarations of love. He knows that she's shy about admitting such things in front of people and he's not fond of it either.
Rather than go through the whole spectacle, he whispers to Rita, "We forgot to write them…"
"What?"
Francisco shrugs his shoulders.
Rita turns to Lynn, who nods her head. She didn't expect to hear that, "You can speak from the heart," she suggests, but neither one looks interested in doing so in front of everyone. "Okay, well, we can move forward with the ceremony. Do you, Francisco, take Lynn to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and woe, for richer or poorer, keeping yourself solely unto her for as long as you both shall live?"
"I do."
As her mom is about to ask her the same thing, Lynn interrupts, "I do."
"Okay…" Rita says, surprised by her daughter's rush, "well, by the power vested in me by the state of Michigan, I now pronounce you husband and wife," she turns to Francisco, "you may kiss the bride."
Lynn messes around with the radio buttons as she looks for a station with music that she likes. After having to endure the music at prom, she is looking for something more her speed, but all the radio stations seem to be playing slow songs due to the late hour.
She turns off the radio, upset that she couldn't find a song. Francisco looks over at her, "Are you calling it a night already?"
"No! The night's still young, we can find something to do."
He isn't sure what she's talking about, there aren't a lot of places that are open at such a late hour, and unless he wants to drive into the city, they aren't going to find much.
"Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know. We could go to Burpin' Burger," she suggests. "I bet they're open."
He briefly looks at her and then back at the road, "Weren't you at the snack table before we left?"
"Yeah, which is how I knew that the food could have been better, 'most magical night of the year' and they couldn't spring a little more on warmer food?"
He can't argue with that, the food could have been much better. Francisco turns towards Burpin' Burger, "What are we going to do after that?"
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know, you pick next."
After getting their bags of food, Francisco drives around until they end up at Tall Timbers Park.
He parks his truck under a light and Lynn quickly jumps out with her bag of food. He grabs his bag and follows her, as she sets down the tailgate for them to sit down. The bright light shines down on them as they take a seat.
Lynn kicks off her heels, "Finally! I was so sick of wearing those."
"Why did you bother wearing them if you don't like them?"
In a mocking Lola tone, she says, "Because Prom Queens don't wear flats."
Francisco laughs, "I didn't know you cared so much about being Prom Queen."
She punches him, "I don't. I just wanted to get my sister off my back. I mean look at me. When have you ever seen me all dressed up?"
He looks over at her, and all the thoughts that he had at the beginning of the night come flooding back. He will admit that she looks great, perfect really, though he's not sure if he would ever admit that out loud to her.
"Not often, but I think it looks nice on you," he shyly admits.
Lynn blushes and turns her face away. She didn't expect him to say that, and she doesn't know how to respond. It's nice knowing that her friend isn't making fun of her, but him admitting that she looks nice – nope, she doesn't want to think about him, no, it!
Francisco watches her, expecting some sort of response, but instead, she bites down on her fries.
He doesn't know where that sudden surge of courage came from, but it's out there and he can't take it back.
"Thanks," is all she can say, in the lowest voice that she can muster.
The two teens can feel an awkward silence. Neither one knows what to say or do and instead they eat in silence.
When Lynn finishes her burger, she pulls out her phone and begins to play electronic music. She hops off the tailgate and begins to dance around barefoot on the grass.
She takes his hand, "C'mon! You know that this is a lot better than boring, old prom."
Francisco hops off the tailgate and he begins to move around a little to the music. He can't match her energy, but he does his best with only his arms.
Lynn looks over at him, "What the heck are you doing?"
"What? I don't want to hurt myself."
She scoffs, "You aren't gonna hurt yourself by moving your feet! C'mon," she says as she gets closer to him. Lynn takes him arms and moves him back and forth. "Don't be afraid of letting loose."
He feels his face getting warm as she gets close to him.
The two move back and forth to the music. Francisco briefly makes eye contact with her and begins to slow his steps, unaware that Lynn is also slowing to a standstill.
The music continues to play.
Lynn begins to feel her heart racing as she looks up him. She wants to turn away from his eyes, but she can't help but feel drawn to them. For years, she told herself that their friendship means the world to them, but right now she is tempted to throw that away to make up for years of yearning; years of being by his side, years of baseball practices, years of looking over at him as they grew up.
She looks over at him. She feels her face getting warm and her body trembling as she tries to reason with herself.
'This is stupid! There's no reason to get together, we're only going to be together for the summer before we go off to different schools. Besides…what if he doesn't like me?'
Lynn is ready to throw caution to the wind when a cold gust hits the two and she begins to shiver. She tries her best to suppress it, but Francisco knows what she's doing and as he watches her fight back against the cold. He takes off his jacket and offers it to her.
"No way! I'm fine," she claims, not wanting to admit weakness.
Francisco insists, "Take it."
Lynn looks at the ground and mumbles a simple thanks before she takes his jacket and wraps it around her shoulders.
Francisco looks at his watch, "It's almost midnight. Do you want to head back?"
She doesn't. She likes being alone with him; dancing, talking, doing the stuff that they liked.
However, she didn't want her parents to worry about her, especially since no one saw her leave with Francisco. She can already imagine her dad waiting by the window, staring at every car that passed by her house.
"Nah! What's the rush?"
He doesn't fight her, "Alright. Do you want to keep dancing?"
She smiles and nods her head, as the two let the music take them.
An hour later, the two call it a night, and head towards Lynn's house. It wasn't the night that either one envisioned, but both of them can say that they were happy that they went out tonight.
Francisco pulls up in front of Lynn's house. He isn't sure what to do now, especially since Lynn doesn't appear to be moving either. She didn't want to call it a night, but there isn't much they can do now.
She looks over at her house and then turns towards him. The house is dark except for the porch light.
Before she could say a thing, Francisco gets out of the truck and walks over to her side and opens the door.
Lynn knows what he's doing, "I can handle myself. You don't have to worry about me," she says as she walks towards the door.
Francisco follows after her, "I know."
Lola looks out the window and watches as her sister and Francisco walk towards the house. Lynn is blushing and she seems to be averting her gaze away from the boy. She doesn't know what happened that night, but if the blush is anything to go off of, Lola can tell that the teens were struck by the romance of the prom.
She tries to look at them, but the two are standing so close to the door and she can't see them anymore.
When Lynn opens the door, Lola immediately hides behind the couch. She watches her older sister turn to Francisco and hand him his jacket, "Thanks. Tonight was fun."
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," he says, "See you tomorrow at the park?"
"Yeah, see you then," she tells him, before he walks out of the house.
As Francisco walks towards his truck, Lynn keeps an eye on him from the living room; watching as he drives home.
As the guests dance and mingle, Lynn takes Francisco's hand and sneaks him to his office. Everyone got the show that they wanted – the first kiss as a married couple, the first dance, a meal, and now that everyone is properly distracted they can go and spend the rest of ceremony the way they wanted to.
She takes a seat on his desk, "I can't believe you told my mom that lie."
"You're the one who agreed with me. Did you actually write vows?"
"Yes! Sort of…"
He chuckles, "What do you mean 'sort of'? Did you start and then get swept away because your sisters kept asking you for questions."
"Yes. Every ding-dang minute was another question! Is it a boy or a girl? How far along are you? What sort of table runners do you want? Can I test this translator device on Francisco's mother?"
"Wait, what?"
"Don't worry, I told Lisa no."
"Okay…" he says as he takes a seat on his chair, "so what did you write?"
"Well, I don't exactly remember. It was a really long time ago."
He's confused.
Lynn takes a seat on Francisco's lap, she looks him in the eye and pulls out an old yellowing envelope from the sash around her waist. He notices a few hearts surrounding his name, a style which looks familiar to him.
She is nervous. She can already imagine what cringey thing she might have written at thirteen, but it was how she felt about him and she wants to finally send him her second secret admirer letter, "I can't believe I didn't do this sooner."
"What is it?"
"My secret admirer letter."
"A secret admirer? And I'm just finding out about this," he says, feigning hurt.
Lynn smacks the envelope against his cheek, "It's for you."
Francisco takes the letter from her and he notices the familiar handwriting from the secret admirer letter he received back when he was thirteen. He didn't remember everything that was on the original letter, but does remember being flattered at the thought of being the object of someone's affection.
He opens the letter and an old baseball card falls out. "A Michael Fulmer rookie card?"
"You used to collect baseball cards and I thought that you might want it."
He looks at the card. He doesn't want to tell her that he already owns such a card, and instead opts to tell her, "Thank you."
Francisco looks down at the letter. He can see that Lynn is wincing as he reads it, probably embarrassed at the little note that she wrote all those years ago. On the paper there are plenty of scratched out drafts and faded letters that she erased after switching to a pencil, but the final draft ended up being a little poem.
"Dear F. De Los Reyes, you're a beast on the diamond, dressed in cleats and hat, the best player on team 'cause I know you're all that."
He begins to chuckle, and Lynn, who is blushing in embarrassment, shoves him, "Shut up!"
"What? I think it's sweet, you've liked me for all that time," he teases as he gives her a kiss.
As she pulls away, she reminds him, "You already knew that."
"I know," he says as he takes her hand, "Do you know what I would have said?"
"What? Out there or when we were kids?"
"Out there. I would have told you that you are the most patient woman to put up with me–"
"I wouldn't say that."
"we've been though a lot and you still stood by me. I'm glad that I have this beautiful woman, who is not afraid of putting me in my place, so that I can be the man that you deserve – a man who loves you, will be loyal, and not afraid of standing by your side, no matter what life throws our way."
Lynn doesn't know how to react. She loves the words that he said, but she can't think of a way to respond. She thought that it would have been easier if it was just the two of them in his room, but after what he said, she's at a loss.
"Umm…I…am the luckiest woman to have you in my life. You…came into my life, when I was down, and you've helped me, no wait, you've helped lift me up whenever I was down…"
Francisco can tell that she's just as nervous to admit her feelings to him as she was out to crowd, "Do you want me to put you out of your misery?"
"No! I can figure it out. There is no one else I know that puts up with me like you do, probably because there's no one else who knows me as well as you do, and I know that I am going to be an idiot if I let you go. I know that I don't always say it, but I'm glad that I found someone who loves me as much as I love you."
He smiles, "I love you too, Lynn," he says before pulling her into a kiss.
"One more thing," starts Lynn, "I have another surprise for you."
He tries to catch his breath, "What?"
She opens one of the drawers and pulls out another letter, "It's one less thing for you to worry about, I paid off your mortgage."
"What?"
"What? It's not the proper start of a life together if we haven't bought a house together. You found it and fixed it, I finished making the payments. Now you own the house you live in!"
"Wait, how?"
"I think you know," she says before loosening up his tie and pulling him by his collar.
I wanted this released on the wedding date, but I missed it by a couple of hours, though I guess that depends where you live.
To answer the review question, I don't remember the commenter, I just remember that I was before I started writing in the summer of 2019, they were having a conversation with someone about No Such Luck which eventually mentioned a brother who acted like Lynn and how they thought she would grow up to be one as well.
Anyway, I can't believe that there's only one chapter left after this one. A part of me wonders if this was the best version of the story that I could have put out or if there were things that could have been clearer that weren't addressed, but regardless thank you to everyone who has stuck around this long. I appreciate the reads, the reviews, and support that you guys have offered
