I woke up a few hours later to the dark of night. The tall oak tree outside my window seat shook in the night air. It was 2 am or so the red lights on my clock read. I shut my eyes tightly but could not fall back asleep from the rustling of the trees. The cool breeze of the open window brushed across my pale white skin in the moonlight. I pulled the covers up over my shoulders in an effort to keep warm. Lying in the heated embrace of my heavy comforter, my eyes flickered open. I blinked a couple of times to let my eyes focus, there was a thick paste gluing them shut from all the crying I'd been doing. Finally letting out the breath I'd been holding, my eyes lay on the source of my discomfort. I felt my heart sink in my chest. The window I'd spent so many nights watching, hoping and praying he'd come through it, sat open in the dead of night. I'd heard my Mother come in before to tuck me in like she used to when I was younger. She evidently had thought I felt warm and opened the window to let in some air. I sat up from the soft linens and brushed a hand against my face to wake myself up. Moving from the folds of the sheets, I stood to walk towards the window. The hard wood floor no longer had a carpet on it and a shiver ran through my body at the feeling of icicles running along my skin. I picked up my only sweater that remained in the room and wrapped it tightly around myself with ease. The shadows of the large oak tree just outside the window, moved with each new snowflake that landed on it, causing the reflection to dance on the white ceiling with a dark form. I finally reached the window to pull back the thin red curtains, when I was met with a face I didn't intend on seeing for a long time.
"What are you doing here?" My voice sounded stern but inside it shook with nervousness.
"What are you doing here?" His softly scratched voice whispered. His face expressed a puzzled look.
"Fulton, go home..." I mumbled moving my hands to shut the window. He blocked me, placing his stronger grip against the bottom of the frame.
"There's no home without you."
"Fulton, I was serious before, I can't marry you..." The words fell from my mouth but my mind still couldn't wrap around it.
"Don't give me that crap!" His voice was cold and angry at my announcement.
"I know you love me, don't pretend you don't." He tried to move the window up but my hands held it firm.
"I never said I didn't love you... just that I can't marry you." I justified, giving the window another tug downward.
"You make no sense, Tammy Duncan." He claimed, moving to get a better grip on the window.
"I make no sense... who's kissing their ex girlfriend in the hall of our own house." I yelled back through the glass.
"You know, I wouldn't do that! She kissed me..." He tried to reason, pulling back on the window and tightening his grip.
"You're full of it!" I spat back, finally letting go of the glass pane between us. The force of me letting go and the pressure of him pulling up caused the window to pop open to its fullest height, causing Fulton to fall backwards. I turned my sight back to the window just in time to see him fall backwards towards the ledge of the roof.
"Fulton!" My voice constricted in my throat as the panic rose in my voice. I reached out the snow covered windowsill and grasped his ankle with all my might.
"Fulton!" My body was half in the window and half lying across the snow covered roof.
"Don't let go..." He mumbled, his face turning a bright shade of red against the white flakes. All the blood was rushing to his head.
"I won't. Fulton, help me." I mumbled, trying to pull his body up. It was no use, I wasn't strong enough.
"Tammy, tell me you love me." He asked, trying to look up at me.
"I love you, Fulton. Please grab my hand..." I whined, trying again to pull his body towards mine.
"Tell me you'll marry me tomorrow." He said with a small smile forming on his face.
"What'd you think; this is a way to get me to marry you?" I asked, almost stunned enough to let go of his leg.
"Well, it's not like I planned this situation but..."
"Fulton Reed! I should just let you fall!" I screamed at him, my blood boiling with angry.
"Marry me, Tammy Duncan!" His face was stern as our eyes met.
"Okay...okay... just take my hand." I agreed. He finally reached up and our hands met. I pulled on his arm hard, causing him to be jolted up towards me, knocking us both in the window to the previously stated hard wood floor.
The cold draft drifted into the window as our bodies lay tangled together on the floor. I looked up into his eyes, pushing the hair back from his face.
"I can't breathe..." I finally whispered towards his caring expression. He moved off of me and sat up, brushing the snow from his jacket. I lay there for a moment before sitting up where I lay.
"Fulton, I..." I started; he looked up at me, a look of realization crossing his face.
"Oh, so you're not going to marry me anyway?" He asked, a hard expression appearing on his vague face.
"Fulton, I can't..."
"My mother didn't ruin your dress. I talked to her... She told me everything that's been going on between you two." My face paled slightly in the darkened room.
"And you're still here?" I asked a look of distain on my face.
"Yes, she admitted she was wrong and she's sorry." My face dropped. Eve had admitted she was wrong? Was it even possible?
"Wait, what did she say to you?" I asked in disbelief.
"She told me about the hair dye and the things she did to you when she was sick... she's really sorry..." So she didn't tell him the complete truth but a fraction of it. I nodded slightly,
"It's not even that. You do realize no one wants this wedding to happen. My mother, your mother..." I began to rant, standing from my spot on the floor.
"That's not true." He mumbled, getting up to follow me.
"Oh, who do you know that actually wants this wedding to happen?" I asked just as the palms of his rough hands grasped my upper arm in his firm grip.
"I do, Tammy..." He whispered, leaning his forehead against mine in a silent moment of contemplation. I let the air escape my lungs into the cold atmosphere around us.
"I know you do... I do too..." I mumbled, closing my eyes to his embrace. "It just can't happen..." A single tear escaped my eye, running down my cold cheek.
"It can happen if you let it." He words drifted towards me.
"Then what?" I asked pulling back from the embrace. "We get married; we continue to try to justify our relationship to everyone else. We maybe have some kids that my mother and your mother will detest. We make everybody's lives miserable, including our own, just because we wanted to be together?" I asked, looking back at him.
"No, we will not be miserable, we'll be happy, no matter what anyone else thinks!" He gripped my shoulders in his hand again to bring our faces together before crashing his lips to mine. The chilled feeling of his lips, warmed with each passing moment we spent in the embrace. I felt myself melting to him. I finally found the strength to pull away,
"But, what about..." His finger was against my pale lips before I could think of what I was about to say.
"You talk too much." He mumbled, kissing me again, a small smile beginning to form on his lips as he did so. He wrapped his arms tightly around me so I couldn't pull away and continued his assault on my more than welcoming lips.
"Tammy...marry me." He mumbled, still kissing me. I shook my head as much as I could,
"No..." He kissed my lips again, this time backing us up towards the bed.
"Marry me..." He asked again, against my lips.
"Fulton, I..." I breathed the words as his lips left mine to trail a line of wet kissing down the increasingly warming skin of my neck.
"Marry me." He mumbled against the pulse point of my neck.
"Yes." The word escaped my mouth in a whisper but it was loud enough for him to hear it and move us down to my small childhood bed. Once he was lying on top of me, his face looked down upon mine again,
"Marry me tonight." He asked; my face flushed with color.
"What? Tonight? How?" I asked, now completely confused.
"Now. Right now. I don't want to wait any longer for you to be my wife. I've waited long enough. Jesse's father's a minister." My face still showed surprise at his request. "No family, no friends, just you and me."
"Okay." I smiled up at him.
"Okay... let's go now." He said quickly before standing up and pulling me by the hand with him.
"Fulton?" I asked, his hand reaching the door handle of my room and spotting Madison and Portman sleeping against the wall just outside my bedroom.
"Should we wake them?" I whispered, a slight giggle in my voice at us sneaking around my parents house for the first time in years.
"I suppose, we will need witnesses..." He mumbled, moving towards the sleeping Portman.
"No, Mom. I don't want to go to school today, I don't feel good." His deep voice mumbled at the jolt of Fulton's hand connecting with his shoulder. He curled up in a ball, hugging his stomach. Madison's eyes fluttered open at the sound and she looked up at us, dazed.
"What are you doing here?" She wondered out loud, looking at Fulton.
"You know, sneaking in the window, asking Tammy to marry me..." He mumbled with a shrug. Madison nodded slightly,
"So, will there be a wedding tomorrow?" She asked. My eyes looked down,
"I don't know..." Fulton cut me off,
"But there will be a wedding tonight and we need you two to come with us."
"What?" Madison practically yelled in shock.
"Shhh." Fulton and I both whispered at the same time.
"Sorry." She whispered, placing a hand on her stomach to get up before noticing the sleeping father of her child. She rolled her eyes slightly,
"Dean..." She nudged him with her shoulder.
"Not now, Mom." He mumbled again, trying to curl up tighter into a ball.
"Dean..." She tried again a little louder this time.
"Really, Mom. My stomach hurts." He whined, turning away from her as she shook her head. Fulton was trying to contain his laughter.
"Portman!" Madison finally snapped. His eyes shot open,
"What? What's wrong, is the baby okay?" He asked, instantly shooting up to grip Madison's stomach with his hands.
"Yes, she's just fine." She said motioning to us standing a few feet away. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand before looking in our direction.
"Oh, dude, you guys got back together." He commented, leaning back against the wall again.
"Portman, we need your help, both of you." Fulton whispered, taking a step closer, "We're going to get married tonight."
"What?" Dean's voice shot up an octave before Madison clamped a hand over his mouth.
"You want to wake the entire house?" She asked with a hint of underlying annoyance in her voice. Dean shook his head no before she released him. I took a quick glance in both directions of the hall and there was no one in sight.
"Come on, we're leaving now," Fulton mumbled, pulling down the drafty stairwell towards the front door.
The front door sat in sight just a few feet away when a creak in the floor boards from the kitchen caused us all to turn in that direction. My mother's solemn face appeared in the moonlight. Her face was stern for a moment before she let out the breath she'd been holding. She didn't say a word but smiled slightly and waved her hand for us to go. I smiled, gripping Fulton's upper arm in my outstretched hand.
The night air was cool to my face and the fact that I had forgotten a jacket in my feverous rush to get out of the house earlier, didn't help the matter. I wrapped my arms tightly around myself as we walked towards the driveway.
"Let's take your car." Fulton said when we'd reached the blue mustang sitting at the end of the driveway, parked half in the road half not. I guessed I didn't really care when I had parked in earlier. My dad's car and Fulton's truck sat along the road out front and mom's van was parked in the drive, closest to the garage. I nodded, slightly embarrassed on how I'd parked and tossed the keys to Fulton across the car. Madison and Dean climbed in the back seat and I sat in the front as Fulton backed out.
"So where are we going?" Madison finally asked, breaking the silence of the car.
"We're going to Jesse's." Fulton answered. She nodded, sitting back against the cold leather seat.
"So why are we doing this now?" Dean asked, slightly confused.
"Because we want to get married right now. Tonight." Fulton answered again.
"Yeah, but dude, you're getting married in like 10 hours, what's the rush?"
"It's not soon enough." I whispered into the conversation. Dean nodded, still very confused.
"Wait, should like, your parents be there or something?" Dean questioned a normal look of puzzlement on this face.
"No!" Everyone else said at once.
"Just checking!" He got defensive suddenly.
"Dean, if you tell Eve or anyone else…I will kill you." Madison threatened.
"But…" He started before she cut him off,
"I will kill you." Her words were stern. He was quiet for the rest of the ride to Jesse's house.
The house was dark against the steady stream of light from the street lamp just outside. Jesse's bedroom light remained on, igniting a glimmer of hope in my chest. I looked over at Fulton with a questioning look in my eyes. His eyes met mine and he smiled taking my hand in his own,
"It's now or never." He said quietly. I felt a smile form on my lips and I tightened my grip of his hand.
"Let's do it." I whispered before looking back at our guests in the back the seat. They nodded slightly and we all got out of the car. Fulton took my hand again as the creak of the old metal gate announced our presence. Fulton cast his gaze up to Jesse's window to see if he'd look out, as he used to when we were young. He didn't disappoint, his face appeared in the window moments later. The window creaked with age as he opened it up to lean out in the cold night air.
"What are you guys doing here? Its 2:30 in the morning." He asked, rubbing his own eyes with the back of his hand.
"Jesse, is your dad home?" Fulton whispered into the night air.
"Yeah, where else would he be?" the question seemed to be rather obvious but Fulton continued without a missed beat.
"Jesse, can you get your dad? We want to get married tonight." He said looking back at me. Jesse looked at him as if he was nuts for a moment before a smile appeared on his face.
"So you two just couldn't wait could you?" He asked with a shake of his head. "I'll be right down." He said before closing his bedroom window again with a loud bang. I faintly heard a dog in the neighborhood, bark at the disturbance. We silently made our way up the front steps and to the door just as Jesse was opening it to let us inside.
"Wait here." He said after closing the door to retreat back up the stairs to get his father. The house was silent for a long minute beside the chime of a clock in the dining room. I felt my mind begin to wonder over the past few months. Everything Fulton and I had been through. Every point leading up to this one. This was it; no one could stop us from now on, no more constant worry about if this was right, if I was making the right decisions. Finally I felt my mind slow down and just feel all the emotion that I felt for the man standing next to me. I loved Fulton Reed; I had since a cold winter's day when I was 13. He was everything I had ever wanted and he loved me with the same passion and devotion. His eyes met mine and I leaned forward in a hasty kiss,
"I love you." I whispered against his lips. He smiled, knowing that I had finally let everything go, the parents, and the entire world didn't matter as long as I had him and he had me.
"I love you, too, Tammy. Never leave me again, okay?" He asked softly.
"I promise this time." I said before he pulled me into a tight hug. The stairs creaked as we separated and Clarence Hall made his way down the stairs followed closely by the rest of his small family. He clutched his copy of the bible in his right hand and his reading glasses were perched on his nose. I felt my blood heat up in my veins. He cleared his throat when he finally made it to the bottom of the stairs.
"So, you couldn't wait another few hours?" He joked, knowing full well why we were there that night. We smiled together at him and looked around.
"Well, do you want to do this out here or in the study?" He asked, looking at the entrance hall in which we stood.
"Right here, is perfect." I said with all the confidence in my small frame. Clarence smiled at us,
"Okay, here we go." He said adjust his glasses on his nose and opening his bible. His slipped shifted on the hardwood floor as Madison and Portman took their respected positions on either side of us and the Hall Family took a seat on the stairs.
"Dearly beloved we are gathered here today in the sight of God and... these few witnesses, to join together the lives and souls of these two individuals, Tamara Lynn Duncan and Fulton Alexander Reed. The union of husband and wife is a sacred bond not to be entered into lightly or with ill intentions of the heart. It is a bond that can not be broken with any less than death. Therefore, Tamara Duncan, do you take Fulton Reed as your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, forsaking all other as long as you both shall live?" My eyes met Fulton's in the pale light of the hall and I felt the tears threatening to cry. I held them back and took a deep breath,
"I do."
"And do you Fulton Reed take Tamara Duncan as your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold from this day forward for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, forsaking all others as long as you both shall live?" There wasn't even a silence before he spoke,
"I do." His voice was filled with confidence.
"Do you have the rings?" Clarence asked. I looked up at Fulton as a look of disbelief that he would forget them came over his face.
"Here..." Portman said from behind him, a look of surprise crossed my face.
"Dean, you actually remembered something?" I asked out of shock. He smiled,
"I didn't want to lose them and I knew I needed them for tomorrow, so I put them in my pocket and forgot they were then until now." He said, slightly proud of himself. I smiled; I would never again make fun of Dean Portman.
"Well, in any event, Tammy? Did you have your own vows written?" Clarence asked, I looked at him for a moment,
"I didn't bring it with me, so I'm just going to say what's in my heart." I said before I began. "Fulton, you are my best friend, from the first moment I met you, you inspired me in ways I never thought possible. Your strength when I thought I had none, you wisdom, when I was blind to everything but myself, and most of all your love for me before I even realized, I loved you. I know longer fear my parents, or myself, I no longer fear at all because I know anything we face, we'll face together. I know that although we were often apart you were always with me, and you were my soul mate. You gave me purpose when I felt I have none. Without you a piece of me was missing. I thank god everyday that you were brought into my life, and I thank you for continuing to love and believe in me."
"And Fulton, do you have your vows?"
"I didn't bring them either but I know what I want to say. Tammy, you were there for me in the hardest time of my life. You were my strength and my hope that someday you'd marry me. I've loved you for as long as I can remember, way before we even became friends. You are my soul mate, you are my partner in life and I never want to spend a day without in. You saved me so many times when you didn't even know it and I'll always love you. The years that we were apart were the hardest years of my life but I survived knowing that someday, you'd come back to me. I will love you until the day I die and even after that."
"Tamara, please place the wedding band on Fulton left hand and repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed." I took the ring from Fulton's hand and with trembling fingers slid it up his finger,
"With this ring, I thee wed." I spoke softly.
"And Fulton please place the wedding band on Tamara's left hand and repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed." I felt the cool band slid onto my finger and clink with my engagement ring but my eyes never left his.
"With this ring, I thee wed."
"Well, if there is anyone here who knows just cause why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace." The room was silent for a long moment, I smiled up at Fulton as our fingers laced together.
"Okay, well, then by the power invested in me by the great state of Minnesota and God himself, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Those whom God has joined together let no man put asunder. Fulton, you may now kiss your bride." Fulton didn't need the invitation as I was scooped up in his arms and crushed against his chest. My lips met his and I couldn't help but let a few stray tears fall from my eyes.
"Well, my friends and family," Clarence interrupted, "May, I present, Mr. and Mrs. Fulton Reed..." I could hear everyone in the room clap loudly but all that mattered to me was my husband. I smiled against his lips.