I was surprised that River’s mother didn’t stop her husband from telling us to get married. If I was her, I definitely would have. If I hated the girl that my son was going to marry, I would have forbid it right away. But she just went along with whatever her husband had to say…

It was so weird to see River’s father sober. He looked like any other normal businessman, and it was a lot better for him. The last time I had seen him his face was red, his hair messy, and he looked like he had a two-year-old dress him. He always walked like a two-year-old…

But now it was almost shocking at how different he looked. He almost looked like a normal father-in-law, which was definitely something I wasn’t expecting.

He really had stopped drinking.

And that meant that he was going to stop hitting River, which was a good thing, of course. That was just one thing that he didn’t need to worry about.

The thought of River worrying reminded me of how I was still keeping secrets from him, which caused me to frown. You weren’t supposed to keep secrets from your husband…

I promised myself right then that after River and I were married, I would tell him everything. If I was still getting notes, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t, we’d deal with it then. Jay wouldn’t be a problem after we got married, so that didn’t really matter…

The whole thing with Jay didn’t even matter in the first place. It wasn’t like I was actually doing anything with him, so River didn’t even have to worry about it in the first place, if he even knew. But River was always so easily jealous… So I knew that if he did know about Jay, he’d get jealous and angry. Not at me, but at him… And he already beat Gabe to a pulp with Seth and Rex when he barely did anything at all.

Well, I wouldn’t say what Gabe did was nothing, but… I still didn’t think River, Rex, and Seth should have beaten him up. No wonder it was kind of awkward whenever they were all around each other… I’d be awkward around the three guys that beat the crap out of me, too. Though they were friends, I didn’t really think any of them had forgotten about what had happened…

But it was all Arianna’s doing. Gabe was just a pawn that she used for her bidding. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time…

I had to smirk at the thought of Arianna. Was she angry that not only was I the most popular girl in school, but I had Jay Harris attending my school as well? Maybe after I was married to River and he knew about Jay, I’d tell her about how Jay came onto me… Hah, that would sure teach her a lesson. It would get her furious, too. Maybe she would have even turned as red as her hair…

Ben and Jay Harris? She’d hate me for sure!

And that was exactly what I wanted.

But right then I had to focus on the fact that I was going to have to marry River the week after we graduated high school.

I hadn’t even known River for a year yet, and we were already going to get married so soon. Sure, it was going to be a year in about a week, but…

Weren’t people supposed to wait a few years before they got married? I’d happily marry River at that moment if I had to, it was just such a shock… Did he want to marry me so soon? I would have understood if he didn’t… I wouldn’t be surprised if he still wanted his freedom, like most guys wanted. After attending a school with only guys, I had come to learn that they didn’t like feeling trapped.

“Wow… a week after graduation?” I blinked, looking over at River, as if to see if he was still alive. He hadn’t really said anything after his parents had left us alone in his room. “That seems so soon, doesn’t it? A lot sooner than we had originally planned…”

River didn’t even say anything, but that didn’t surprise me very much. He only continued to stare into space, looking absolutely shocked. I guess I should have been acting the same way, but I was actually really excited. I wanted to marry him as soon as possible.

I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel about this type of reaction from him… Was that good or bad? Oh, who am I kidding? How could that be good?

“River?” I asked, poking his side lightly. “River, you there? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she sighed, shaking his head a little. “Just kind of shocked, that’s all. I mean, I’m so used to saying that we’re going to get married in a few years after college. Now we’re going to get married in only a few months… That’s a huge change.”

“I know,” I agreed, nodding as I did so, as if that would make everything make sense. “It’s so soon… We’re going to plan a lot of things quickly. Usually it takes years to plan out these kinds of things… And then there’s something that we haven’t even thought about yet…”

River turned his head toward me, obviously having no idea what I was talking about as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What haven’t we thought about?”

“The honeymoon,” I answered, placing my hands on my hips. “We haven’t even discussed where we want to go yet. It didn’t really matter before since we were supposed to get married in a few years, but if we’re getting married in the next couple months, we’ve got to pick a place to go…”

“Paris,” he answered with a shrug, as if it took no thought at all. “I know the language, you… kind of know the language, it’s the city of love, so why not?”

The way he said it made it sound like he had been to Paris a thousand times, as if he had grown up there. And, knowing River and his family, that was certainly possible. He did know the language…

It was every girls dream to go to Paris, and I’d actually be able to go in only a few months… That was almost as exciting as the wedding.

“Okay,” I nodded with a smile. “Paris it is.”

River smiled at me, snaking an arm around my waist and pulling me to him. “Well, future Mrs. Daniels,” he addressed, causing me my smile to become even broader. “Shall we go to dinner?”

“One sec,” I smirked, leaning forward and pressing my lips to his, wrapping my arms around his neck as I did so. I couldn’t wait to be able to do this every day as his wife… It was just so exciting thinking that in only a few months, I’d actually be able to call him my husband.

“You guys are seriously late,” a new voice now said, almost causing me to jump away from him. I turned to glare at Julie and Tanner, who always seemed to have to interrupt. “All the food’s going to be gone if you don’t stop making out and get down here!”

Before I could move away from River, he pulled me close enough so that his lips were now touching my ear.

“You tell Julie, I’ll tell Tanner,” he whispered to me, tickling my ear ever so slightly.

I giggled, nodding in agreement. “Gotcha.”

I giggled as I grabbed onto Julie’s wrist and yanked her away from her boyfriend and down the stairs toward the food. She looked confused, but didn’t stop as I continued to drag her toward the delicious smell that came from things I was luckily able to eat.

“Why are you so giggly and excited?” Julie asked me once we had gotten to the table with the turkey on it. “I haven’t seen you like this in, well, forever.”

I turned and grinned widely at her. I sure wondered how she’d take it… River and I were excited, but Julie was my best friend… She was fully supportive with the idea of River and I getting married, but I didn’t know how she’d take the news that we’d be getting married right after we got out of high school. I wondered how Tanner was going to take it, too…

“We have to get married a week after graduation.”

Julie stared at me, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. I knew that it sounded crazy, but that was what River’s father wanted us to do. So what if we were skipping the next five or six years of relationship building or whatever? Oh, that sounded a lot worse than I thought it would…

“How are you parents going to react?” Julie asked me, and then gasped as if she had thought of something. “How’s Jake going to react?”

I never even thought of that. I wasn’t exactly sure how my mom or dad would react, but Jake would definitely not be happy. And I didn’t know how Nick, since he was only my step-dad, would react either. Maybe telling them wouldn’t be such a good idea.

But I had to tell them. They were my family, and they were going to go to the wedding. I couldn’t just send them a postcard or something telling them that we had gotten married or something! Ugh, why did everything have to be so complicated?

“I don’t know when I’ll tell them, but I’ll tell them eventually,” I sighed, shrugging as we made our way to the table. They were so many people that the children and young adults had to eat outside. There wasn’t even enough room at the table outside, so some people had to eat on the grass.

“I feel like a child,” Julie informed me as she sat cross-legged in the grass. Since we had gotten our food late, all the kids had gotten the spots on the table. “The grass is really itchy.”

I continued to stand, only looking down at her as I continued to clutch the paper plate filled with food in my hand. Where was River and Tanner? We had separated from them to get our food. Were they going to be able to find us in this gigantic backyard of theirs?

I had really regretted wearing a short dress as I stared at the too-green grass that most of the young adults were residing in. It looked so uncomfortable…

Julie stared up at me, looking confused at why I wasn’t sitting down.

“Don’t you remember that one time in freshman year when we got bored so we started rolling down hills?” I asked, bending over and placing the paper plate in the grass. Julie nodded at me as she remembered, still looking utterly confused. “And then do you remember how my arms and legs got all red and itchy and got a bunch of rashes all over them?”

“Oh, yeah!” Julie nodded, remembering now. She then looked down at the grass and frowned. “You’re allergic to grass. So does that mean you can’t sit?”

“Unless you want me to sit on you, no,” I laughed, letting out a sigh after I did. It wasn’t like it was a deathly allergy or something, it was just really annoying and itchy…

“Why aren’t you sitting?” a new voice now asked, and I felt myself breathe a sigh of relief when I saw it was River, Tanner not too far behind him. “It sucks that the kids got the table and we have to sit in the grass.”

“She’s allergic to grass,” Julie informed before I even got the chance to.

River’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Allergic?” he questioned. “How bad?”

“I wouldn’t die or anything,” I assured him, waving a hand in front of my face. “I’d just get a bunch of rashes and I’d be all itchy. Nothing to really worry about…”

“Except you’d complain about it,” Julie giggled, covering her mouth to stop herself from full out laughing. “When you got it that one time in freshman year, all you did was complain about it.”

“It hurt, you know,” I snapped, not even meaning to. I bit the inside of my cheek, hoping she wouldn’t take any offense to that.

She definitely didn’t. All she did was giggle some more and go back to her food.

“Here,” River sighed, sitting down on the grass across from Julie, patting his lap. “Come on, come to papa.”

“That sounded so wrong,” Tanner smirked, plopping down next to Julie while I made myself comfortable in River’s lap. “Maybe it’s a good thing you two are getting married sooner than later. You guys would probably run off and elope…”

“Shut it,” was all I said as a reply, sticking my tongue out at him and chucking a piece of bread in his direction. It missed him by a long shot though, not that I was surprised, and it hit Julie square in the forehead while she continued to eat.

Even though it obviously didn’t hurt, I felt bad for hitting her and not her boyfriend. But that didn’t stop me from laughing so hard that I almost fell off River’s lap. But he almost fell over for laughing along with me, so I knew he didn’t even notice.

Tanner wasn’t laughing as hard as River and I were, but he sure was chuckle. Julie only rolled her eyes at us, forgetting about it and going back to her food.

I then realized something that I should have realized right when I saw her.

“Julie, where are your glasses?”

“You finally realized,” she chuckled, shaking her head at me as she rubbed one of her eyes lightly. “I got contacts because my glasses were starting to bug me.”

In all my years of knowing her, I hadn’t even seen Julie without glasses. Except for nighttime during sleepovers, but that didn’t really count because she didn’t have any makeup on and her hair wasn’t done. She had always had glasses.

People would have described her as a nerd only because of her glasses, and now that they were gone, you definitely wouldn’t call her that. I already thought she was beautiful before, but this was definitely an improvement. I wasn’t going to tell her that though, because I didn’t know if she’d take that as a compliment or an insult. Even though it was totally supposed to be a compliment…

“Well, you look great,” was all I said, sticking a piece of turkey in my mouth and chewing before I could say anything more. After I swallowed, I continued. “You can’t even tell that you’re wearing contacts.”

Julie only shrugged and shoveled more of her food into her mouth. “Yeah, I guess.”

After everyone had finished eating, River’s parents told everyone to go out into the backyard. The backyard was huge, but I didn’t know if it would fit hundreds of people… I sure hoped it did.

After everyone had gotten outside, I was glad to see that I had enough room to move around. I was afraid that I was going to be like a packed sardine. I was just happy that I could move my arms around…

I turned to my right to say something to River, but I found myself face-to-shoulder to someone I had never seen before. Turning away from him, I looked around to see where River was. He wasn’t anywhere in sight, and I couldn’t help but worry a little.

“Where’s River?” I asked as Tanner and Julie came up to me. “Did he get lost in the crowd somewhere?”

Tanner laughed. “Nah, Mom and Dad just needed him for something. I’m not sure what it is, though.”

Before either of us could say anymore, I heard a clinking of a fork against glass. I looked over, along with everyone else, to see River’s mother and father standing on the patio that almost seemed like a stage as the rest of the family stood in the grass. I smiled slightly when I saw that River was behind them.

“We have an announcement that we would like to make,” River’s father announced, even though his mother looked like she would have liked to just go back inside and have another glass of wine. I could tell she wasn’t happy about whatever announcement River’s father was making. Her arms stayed crossed over her chest the entire time, her face scrunched as she waited for him to go on.

“River here,” his father started once again, pushing River a little to get him to move forward, “is getting married.”

My eyes widened when I realized what he had said. River’s family cheered, but I stayed silent as I waited for someone to go on. If they were introducing the groom, that meant they’d have to be introducing the bride…

“And the lucky gal, believe it or not, is actually somewhere amongst you right now…” his father continued, peering into the crowd to try and find me. I found myself staring at my feet, not wanting to be seen. I just wanted to be invisible… I just wanted to be invisible… Just make me invisible!

“Delilah! There you are!”

Damn it!

I let out a sigh of annoyance, making my way toward the patio to stand next to my future in-laws. This was definitely not something that I was going to be looking forward to…

“This is Delilah Shafer,” River’s father introduced, and I felt my cheeks reddening. “You might have heard of her on the news.”

I felt like I was being auctioned off.

And that is not a good feeling.

I felt my stomach drop slightly when he mentioned the news part. Because I had only been on the news for one thing… And I didn’t want to be reminded of that.

I heard a murmur ripple through the crowd, people telling each other that they did recognize me or telling someone else about my story. It freaked me out a little how someone knew so much about what had happened with Mr. Higginson.

“Anyway, they’re going to be getting married after they graduate,” River’s father continued on. “And the wedding will be held here.”

Wait, when did I agree to that? What if I wanted to get married in a church or something? I didn’t really care, but I could have been informed on this…

When I was finally let off the patio, I rushed to River’s room without a second thought. I knew the first thing I had to do was call my mother before she somehow got this news from someone else. I would have been dead if that happened…

Before I could find my cell phone and call my mother, River’s bedroom door opened, revealing him. He let out a long, loud sigh as he collapsed onto his bed. He unbuttoned a few buttons of his dress shirt, and I couldn’t help but watch him as I bit my lip.

“They’re like animals out there,” he groaned, shaking his dark hair out of his face. “I’m not going back down there tonight. I’ll get mauled.”

“Ditto,” I agreed, collapsing next to him.

“So, I was wondering,” River started after a few moments of silence, “how did you meet Julie?”

I shrugged, staring up at the white ceiling. “Freshman year. Our lockers were right next to each other. Even though we were all new, I was going to a school where I didn’t have any friends because we had moved. I was so terrified that I wasn’t going to make any friends, and Julie was scared because she was afraid of the same thing. We met, became best friends almost instantly, and then we met Arianna Devon…”

River wrinkled his nose at the mention of her. “That girl’s pure evil.”

I sighed. “Tell me about it.”

I sat up, spotting my phone and snatching it from his nightstand. I quickly dialed my mother’s number, pressing it to my ear without a second thought.

“Who are you calling?” River asked, sitting up next to me.

“My mom,” I answered, not even glancing at him.

It rang only twice before I heard my mother’s chipper voice call out, “Delilah!”

“Hi,” was all I said, staring down at my lap as I tried to think of the right way to break the news to her. She might have been okay with me marrying River, but it did take her a while after a little convincing…

“How’s River’s house?” she now asked, and I could just tell she was smiling brightly. “Is it as big as I imagine it to be? Is that going to be your future house?”

I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, but I guess it didn’t really matter very much. “It’s good, it’s big, and I don’t know,” I answered her in order, letting out a breath. “And happy Thanksgiving.”

“You, too!” she now told me. “Is this all you were calling me for?”

“Well…” I started, stretching out the word. She knew that when I did that, I had something I was hiding from her. And even though I was trying to tell her right now, I was still hiding it.

“What are you hiding?” she asked me.

“Well…” I started once again, not knowing what to say.

“Delilah.”

“River and I are going to get married a week after graduation!” I blurted, biting down on my tongue after I had done so. I tasted blood, but I didn’t really care that much at that point.

Way to be subtle, Delilah… Way to be subtle…

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I lost track of the days. >.< I was supposed to upload yesterday...

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