I'm not really sure what we were thinking our parents would say in response to our marriage but I am sure that we were not expecting what they would say. Nora and I had about a week in wedded bliss before we both realized that it was probably a good thing to call them.

Nora was a little nervous because she, like me, was an only child and her mom would probably be upset that she didn't get to be at the wedding. But I think I remember her also deciding that her parents would be happy she was happy so she was almost excited to tell them. She dialed the number and already had promises on the tip of her tongue about a proper reception and a nice dinner with family and friends to make it official.

Unfortunately, her parents became so angry when they heard the news that they disowned her on the spot, told her that if she was going to be so reckless she could do that by herself, and hung up. Neither of us knew what to do with ourselves for hours afterwards. I was supposed to call my parents right after she called hers, so we could each fully soak in the experience or something, but there was no way I was going to do that now.

But Nora wasn't going to have to deal with this alone and forced me to call them. She reminded me that getting married had been my original idea and if she was going to be disowned by her parents we had to at least know what my parents thought about it. I don't want to bother you with the details so let's just say that it didn't go much better. There was less yelling, probably because my parents knew that the parents of the groom didn't have much to do with the wedding anyway, but they definitely weren't happy about it. My father decided that Nora must have some kind of angle, not that there was any money she could get from me, and my mother just sounded resigned. They also hung up before I could explain or apologize.

I really think that if our parents had reacted better we wouldn't have doubted our decision at all. We were happy and had no reason to be unhappy other than the normal things. We would have fought but it would have been normal. But this cold reaction had cast this shadow of doubt over our entire lives. Neither of us had a clue what we should do.

 "What do you want me to say? That it was a mistake?"

"Well it was your idea."

"That you agreed to!"

"I was caught up in the moment!"

"This isn't even about who came up with the idea or even the idea. It's about the fact that your parents are unhappy and you can't stand to disappoint them."

"So what if it is? I'm allowed to be upset when my parents disown me."

"My parents disowned me too! We're stuck now so we might as well try to make it work."

"That makes no sense!"

"And just giving up now does? It's been a week, Nora. We haven't been married long enough for it to be considered a mistake."

"But what if it was a mistake from the beginning?"

"So that's your decision?"

"I was just asking a question."

"A question that suggests that you're done."

"..."

"Are you done?"

"I don't know."

"If you think that this was a mistake then you can just leave. Leave me if you want, I don't want to make you stay."

"..."

"Well? What's it going to be? Are you staying or going?"

"I don't know."

"Neither do I."

~~~

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that if you're not currently following me, you should. If you aren't you'll miss updates like when I post JTH bonus chapters (they go in "Below the Surface") and post new stories!