I've had part of this chapter written for awhile so I hope it flows well with the rest of the story :) Hope you enjoy, and please review!

XIX

When my mom told me that she was finally going to be marrying Jerry in only a few weeks, I think I was a little more surprised than I expected. Of course I knew they were going to be getting married eventually; they were engaged and all, but it was still a bit of a shock to my system. I guess I always viewed my mom's relationship as a way to annoy my dad, or just a way to do her best to pretend that their marriage had never even happened. Now, there was an actual follow through of what I thought was going to derail before the consideration of marriage was brought into question. I don't think I was shocked in a bad way in the least; Jerry was certainly a lot nicer to me than my dad ever was, and he also provided a buffer between my mom and I when we weren't getting along, even though that wasn't much of a problem anymore.

Thankfully, my mom had agreed that I was allowed to be more of a honourary bridesmaid than anything at the wedding. As much as we were positively moving forward in our relationship, I was not willing to spend hours upon hours with her and her friends picking out the colour of napkins and all that nonsense. The actual wedding was going to last all of fifteen minutes; why did there have to be approximately one billion other factors weighing in? I did, however, have a say in the bridesmaid dresses, because I was not letting someone else decide what I had to wear for almost an entire day with other people seeing me.

After discussing it at great lengths with my mom, she had eventually agreed to me changing my last name. It had annoyed me, having to convince her and all, because it had been my decision all along; even if I didn't like it after the fact, it would be me who was stuck with it, not her. Well, she was changing her last name, too, but that was different. I had known that I wanted to change my name, despite what she had implied. Really, I had felt as though I had never been surer of anything in my entire life. Not that sixteen years made it that much of a dramatic statement, but my sentiments were definitely there.

I've never regretted taking Jerry's last name, and every time it comes up, I remind my mother of that. I think there's still a part of her that wishes I hadn't changed it. Probably to make things less uncomfortable between her and my father, but that hadn't mattered to me at the time. And it's not like they talk frequently now; my kidnapping was their only reason for speaking in the past few years, and before that, it was the helicopter incident. I'm glad all my near death experiences have brought them together.

"Morgan, pick up a phone!" my mom called from downstairs. Ugh. This was it. As part of our many conversations, we had (reluctantly) agreed on informing my dad of my decision. Thankfully, I had convinced my mom to tell him, but she had told me I would probably have to talk to him afterwards. It had been a compromise, I guess, but it was still not that beneficial for me.

"I can't…?" I tried, hoping that would work. She had been in a good mood because of the wedding being so close, so I thought I had a chance. But, sure enough, the sound of feet travelling up the steps began, and I knew I couldn't get out of it.

"Morg, come on, please?" she said in a hushed voice, trying to cover the phone a bit. I sighed, but tried not to look so devastated, because at least she was being nice about it. She had used the nickname that she never used unless she felt bad for me or something of the like, so I felt obligated to comply.

"Fine," I sighed again as she handed me the phone. I stared at it like it was the devil's spawn, but brought it to my ear nonetheless.

"Hello?" I said, trying to sound just somewhat pleasant. My mom looked at me, mouthing what looked like 'be nice' to me, and I glared back at her. Sure, she didn't know the main reason why I felt no desire to be nice, but still, come on. I had always kind of tried to do my best.

"Hey, M," he said, sounding… annoyed? I had never had any real idea of what his reaction would be, so I had been hoping for the best. It wasn't that big of a deal, right? And, let's be honest, Morgan Brody has always sounded better than Morgan Ecklie anyway.

"What's up?" I offered, sounding far from casual even though I was trying. Even after a couple months, when I was in a completely different town, there was still that same uncomfortable feeling that had occupied the space around us when I had seen him last.

"So… Morgan Brody now, is it?" It was going well already, I had told myself sarcastically. I closed my eyes and thought of something to say. Anything… Just something.

"Um, yeah…" I replied. What was I supposed to say? My mother had conveniently left my doorway, probably wanting to avoid any part of this at all costs. She had probably already dealt with most of it. That basically made her my hero.

"When did you decide that?" he asked. Okay, I could handle this question, right? It was simple enough.

"I don't know," I said, stalling. "Awhile, I guess. A few months?" That was a nice, neutral answer, right?

"A few months? And you never brought it up? You never wanted to ask?" Oh, for god's sake.

"When was I supposed to ask, dad?" I snapped back. This never-ending cycle of arguing was just way too tiresome.

"There's been plenty of opportunity," he said quickly, knowing that both of us knew that wasn't true.

"Yeah, whatever. Why do you think I'm doing this?" At that moment, I had heard my mother's exasperated sigh from downstairs. She was just as fed up as me, but she only ever heard one side.

"I'm going now, M. Talk to you later." Thank god. At least one of us had been sensible enough to get out of the situation.

"Bye," I said quickly before hanging up. Knowing that I was going to be forced downstairs at some point, anyway, I wandered down the steps and sat across from my mother on the couch. I had offered her a weak smile, but I didn't think it was going to be much use.

"Well, at least that's over with," she smiled back, but it was more of a pity smile instead of a 'please don't be mad at me' smile like I had.

"No kidding," I said breathlessly.

"You're a bit antagonizing when you're on the phone with your father, you know that, right?" she asked, but she still had a happy tone in her voice. I smiled again, sheepishly this time.

"I don't try to be," I explained, shrugging a tad.

"I know. It's hard not to be, I guess." I nodded in major agreement.

"It doesn't matter anyway. There's not much of a difference, anyway," I said, shrugging yet again.

"If it's not that big of a deal, why are you making the change?" A beat of silence passed. "Exactly."

"Yeah, well…" I trailed off. I didn't have much to say to that.

"Okay, let's put this behind us for now. Only a week until the big day!" she said excitedly, and I pretended to be excited, too. "Alright, Morgan Brody?"

"Alright," I said, a huge grin spreading across my face. That was the first time she had said it out loud. It seemed so much more real.

The day of the wedding could have also been called the day where I wanted to disappear into a hole and never leave. Not only was there the ultimate stress of helping my mother with almost everything right up until the last second, but there was all the stuff that was happening after that said last second to worry about. I had to actually walk down an aisle in front of what seemed like hundreds of people (the anxiety of it all was making fifty people seem like so many more), but I had to stand at the front of the whole thing, pretend I was interested, and then go to have approximately five hundred pictures taken of me. And then there was a reception after that. What even was the point? This was not how I wanted to be spending my Saturday. Also, this was not one of those times when the 'I have a math test on Monday' excuse worked. Apparently, take two of my mom's wedding reception (even though the first time had been with a different person, this was still considered to be take two, I believe.), was not something I could merely get out of.

I fiddled with the thin straps of my dress, making sure there was no chance of some potential wardrobe malfunction or something. I had to overthink everything beforehand, you know. Even though I was not enjoying the day so far, I really liked the dress I had picked out; it was the only perk so far. The lighter coloured green had looked nice when I had gone for a brief walk-around outside, and the skirt of it made me feel much more girly than I was used to. As much as I wasn't going to admit that, I still liked that aspect of it.

Suddenly, stuff was happening, and I was being ushered by basically the entire group of people behind the scenes to where I was supposed to be waiting. I gave them all a half glare, but I was too nervous to say anything. I didn't want to ruin this for my mom, either. This was so important to her.

Right before it was my time to step out onto the aisle, I had resisted the urge to play with my hair, even though I was dying too. It would give me something to focus on, besides the fact that I would probably inevitably trip or do something stupid. My hair had been swept up into a classy looking up-do that I had thought looked out of place on me. A few pieces of blonde hair had blown past my face in the breeze, distracting me from what I was supposed to be doing.

Was I walking too slow? Or was I way too fast? Willing myself to stop being so self-conscious, I focused more on not looking like I was in pain, or dying, or both. I had reached the end of the aisle before I had even been fully aware of it, and thankfully, the rest of it went by quickly.

Even though I was never and definitely never will be some sort of sap, I had found myself getting a little teary as I watched my mom marry the man that she actually loved. It was nice to see her happy. I hadn't even had to focus on smiling after a while; it had just come naturally, which was a relief. The whole ceremony also meant that I essentially had my new last name now, even though it wasn't quite official, yet. It might as well have been, though, because both of my parents (in LA… I wasn't counting the Vegas side of things) were finally referring to me as Morgan Brody. Catherine was right; it did sound cute.

Thankfully, the pictures went by quickly, and as much as I didn't want to admit it, it had been pretty fun. Everything was finally stress free for a bit, and it made me relax and live in the moment. If I had known that after all the build-up of the wedding that it was going to be this relaxed and easy, I wouldn't have dreaded it so much. It wasn't that bad, after all, even though I still hadn't wanted to go to the reception. That would be full of nosy or annoying family members, and dealing with family members was obviously not my area of expertise.

After the traumatizing experience of sitting at the front of the entire room with everyone, listening to speeches and engaging in meaningless conversation with the wedding congregation members beside me, I had to be social and engage in even more small talk until my aunt finally said that we could go home. I was going to be staying with her for a few days while my mom and new step-dad went on their honeymoon. At least I wasn't being shipped off to Vegas.

Most of both my mom's side of the family and my step-dad's side of the family were on the dance floor, which I wanted no part of. I had vetoed the whole dancing aspect in the planning, so I was unofficially boycotting it, I guess. My veto power was really quite limited in the wedding plans; I really should have known that.

"Hey!" a tall boy with short blonde hair said as he sauntered over to me.

"Hi," I said, sounding a little confused. A boy was actually noticing me? I know it had happened before, and I hadn't wanted to be reminded of that, really, but still. It was a rare occurrence after those brief few months.

"Um… Do you want to dance?" he asked, somewhat shyly. I ducked my head a little, trying to hide both the unintentional blush and the almost as unintentional smile.

"Yeah, I'd like that," I said, letting myself smile a little more. "As long as we're not somehow related now, because that would be weird," I added. He laughed.

"We're not. What's your name?" he said, as we walked towards where everyone else was dancing. I guess my boycotting was ending early.

"Morgan Brody," I replied, loving the sound of my new name even more.

"Well, Morgan Brody, you look beautiful," he said sincerely. I cursed myself for blushing even more as I felt my cheeks heat up. I smiled back at him. Look at me, getting hit on at my own mother's wedding. This was very out of character.

I promise that last little bit is not going to go anywhere, just wanted to have a happy Morgan scene :) haha. After her last romantic endeavor I wrote I don't want to try any other ones for awhile;) Hope you liked!