Wedding day, Pt I

Today was yet to be the hardest day of my life. It's one thing having to watch the person you care about the most make what seemed to be the biggest mistake of his life and what hurt the most was that there was absolutely nothing we could do about it because he had made up his mind. This was what Tristan wanted, nothing or anyone was going to stop him from fulfilling his long time dream of making Mellisa his wife.

After the conflict that happened at the resort, on the way back Tristan didn't say or do much. He was quiet, so quiet it had me wondering what actually happened between him and Mellisa in his room to make him turn out like this. He was no longer the fun Tristan to be around, the one that's always making jokes and laughing all the time.

This one looked different, like somehow all the life was sucked out of him in just a matter of minutes. What he didn't realize was that his eyes could tell so much about his mood. I could tell every thing about him just by simply reading his eyes, and they certainly told a story, a story I wasn't sure I was ever going to hear yet because he simply wasn't going to tell.

The wedding was going to be held at one of the lavish, ornamental botanical gardens in the city for both the ceremony and the reception. They went for an outdoor, nature-inspired garden wedding. It was also a beautiful day today, the sun was out, the birds were chipping, and it was a great day to get married.

Jess and I were getting our hair done, in the adjoining room where Mellisa and her bridesmaids were in. Even though I was one of the boys and wearing a suit, I still had to accommodate the feminine side by wearing high heels and getting my hair styled so that I could wear the head piece that accommodated the whole wedding theme. My hair was styled in a curly whimsical high up high down hairstyle with a flowery head piece pinned on the top of my hair.

“Oh my God, look at you. You're really beautiful Jess”, I exclaimed when she walked back into the room I was in, dressed in the off-white one shoulder sleeve, lacy mermaid dress, looking absolutely breathtaking.

“Thanks Liv, as much as I hate to admit it but these bridesmaids dresses are really nice, better than I expected them to be”, she shrugged as she helped me tie the cream bow tie around my neck before standing behind me, and we locked at our reflections on the mirror

“You look beautifully handsome in this suit you have on”, she brushed off invisible dust on my shoulders and I laughed a little as I admired how good I looked in this light grey paint suit

“Why thank you, kind miss”, I put on this weird accent, and she couldn't help but laugh at me

“You know Liv, I always thought that you'ld be the one walking down the aisle to Tristan one day”, she rested her chin on my shoulder. “The both of you would have been so good together”

........a while ago, I thought the same thing too

“The universe seemed to have other plans for us, I guess”, I gave her a faint smile. “I think I should go check on the guys”

“I also probably need to get back in there with the other bridesmaids for the pre-wedding shots”, she rolled her eyes a little and I chuckled, thanking the hair and make-up technicians on my way out

Knocking twice on the room the guys were getting ready in, Kevin pulled it open while tugging in his shirt

“Hey Liv, come on in”, he smiled while gesturing with his head that I step inside

“You look nice today”, he complimented, walking past me to continue getting ready, and I thanked him

“Are the rest of y'all decent in here?”, I covered my eyes, slowly strolling towards the direction I could hear Tristan's and Nathan's voice in

“We're decent, relax”, Tristan laughed, and I uncovered my eyes to see Nathan walking up to me, already giving that look at was surely going to hype me up

“Oh God Dayuumm”, he exclaimed biting his index finger, his eyes travelling up and down my body in awe before taking my hand in his to twirl me around so that he could a clear look at me

“You're absolutely beautiful”, he pulled me closer to him and pecked me on the lips. “I don't think I'll be able to concentrate the whole day today”

“That's a good thing right?”

“I don't know, you tell me”, he chuckled while leaning for yet another kiss, and we got a little carried away until we heard both Kevin and Tristan clearing their throat awkwardly, and we broke away from each other, giggling like little school kids

“In case you haven't noticed, we're still here guys”, Kevin deadpanned, turning his lips into a frown and Tristan shook his head, making that tsk tsk tsk sound

“Do you two have to be so cute together though? It's honestly sickening”, he further added jokingly as he slipped on his grey tuxedo suit jacket.

“It's honestly repulsing”, Kevin faked a gag as he put some shoes on and Nathan and I laughed

“So are you ready, Stan?”, I asked him while pinning a boutonniere on the lapel of his suit jacket, fixing his cream tie knot for him, and he took a deep breath

“As ready as I've ever been in my life”

When we were all lined up near the flowery arch, the pianist started playing the here-come-the bride melody and Mellisa walked down the aisle accompanied by her father. Looking at her walking towards me in her ball gown wedding dress, she looked like an angel and so beautiful.

When her father handed her over to me, we shook hands, and he went on his way to sit in one of the front seats reserved for family members. Mellisa's face was beaming with excitement, she was smiling widely at me and I couldn't help but to smile back at her.

“You're so beautiful”, I took one of her hands in mine and kissed it, she blushed while thanking me and we both looked at the priest as he began with his sermon. My eyes couldn't peel themselves off my wife to be, it was just so hard to look away. I was almost trying to capture everything in this moment, the glow on her face and how happy and content she looked in that moment for the rest of my entire life.

“Does anyone here have any objections to as why these two cannot be joined together in holly matrimony?”, the priest asked and my eyes met Jessica's resting bitch face. She noticed I was looking at her, and she quirked up an eyebrow at me, not saying anything. I silently prayed that Kevin or anyone didn't speak up behind me. It fell quiet for a few seconds more, no one daring to say anything and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Very well since no seems to have any objections, we shall continue”, the priest continued with his sermon before the part where we had to say our vows came up followed by the blessing and exchanging of our rings

A lump started growing in my throat as she took both my hands in hers

“I'd like to say something”, she seeked confirmation from the priest, to which he gave a short nod, motioning her to continue

“Tristan, I can't stop thinking about just how lucky I am to have found you and spend the rest of eternity alongside you from now on end. You mean so much to me, I don't know where I would have been without you. It's because of you I'm the woman I am today. You've always been there for me, uplifted me, supported me and but most importantly, you showed me the greatest love of all. I promise to love you, respect you and cherish you forever”, her voice started breaking, overwhelmed by emotion and I pulled her close to hug her.

“Are you okay?", I took her face in my hands, and she nodded her head, pursing her lips together to stop herself from crying

“I'm fine”, she sobbed before her lips spread into a smile again. “I'm just so happy”

She half sobbed, half chucked and there were cooing sounds from our guests as I kissed her cheek

“Okay so, back to what I was saying”, she said, humor clearly detectable in her voice as she neatly dried her eyes with the heel of her hand

“You're the love of my life. My everything and I want you to know that no matter what happens, I'd always choose you because I'm undeniably, truthfully, completely in love with you, Tristan Johnson, and I'm proud to be your wife”, she finished while wiping the fresh tears that were streaming down her face.

“I love you so much”, she smiled, still fighting the urge to cry, and I smiled at her before leaning to kiss her on the cheek again to show appreciation for her beautiful words

“I, Mellisa McCarthy take you, Tristan Johnson to be my wedded husband. I give you this ring as a token of my love. I offer you everything that I have, I am and all that I will be”, she slipped the wedding band onto my finger, covering my hand with hers.

“I'd also like to say something”, I asked and the priest gave me the go ahead. I took both Mellisa's hands in mine, looking at her lovingly in the eyes.

“Mellisa, from the moment I met you, I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. All it took for me to fall in love with you was just one look. And I remember just how nervous I was when I walked up to you to ask you out on a date because I didn't think a girl like you would even consider talking to a boy like me, but you certainly proved me wrong when you made me the happiest guy in the world by agreeing to be my girlfriend. I know we've had our fair share of tough times during the years but that had never stopped us from making the best out of our relationship hence we're standing in front of all these people today”, I paused for a little while, looking deep in her eyes and I could see she grew worried by the second.

“I know it's taken us a long time to get here and there were sometimes we thought we would never make it”

“And yet here we are”, she smiled

“And yet here we are”, I chuckled a little, while dropping my eyes to the ground, pausing for another minute before looking at her again, her eyes were already searching for mine as her eyebrows ceased up in confusion

“Are you okay?”, she mouthed worriedly, and I nodded my head

“What I'm about to say isn't going to be easy”, I nervously laughed before clearing my throat, and she joined in the nervous laughter, not sure what to say or do

“Ever since we've been together, you've been my source of happiness from the word go. I'd do anything you wanted me to do because your happiness was the rooted center of mine, making me feel like I was at the top of the world and invisible”

“I feel the same way”

“These last few months however, I realized that you're not the same girl I feel in love with anymore. You changed and grew into this other person”, the was commotion amongst the guests and the excitement on her face slowly faded away.

“What are you doing?”, she asked quietly, her eyes looking over the guests before they found mine again

“In spite of everything, I still desperately wanted to get back the girl I feel in love with in the beginning, but I couldn't because she was gone forever. I would be lying through my teeth if I told you right now that I recognize this person standing in front of me because I don't”

Her eyes were frozen wide open, stunned in an expression of surprise as she started squeezing on my hands, like she was begging me to stop talking

“Always, I tried to seal your wounds, not realizing that I was the one bleeding from our relationship, I was actually the one that was falling apart instead”

She started shaking her head in disbelief, denying everything that was coming from my mouth. Her unblinking stare dissolving as tears fell from her eyes at each flutter

“For someone who claimed to love me as much as you do, you really had a weird way of showing it because you always made me feel weak, stupid, unappreciated and unhappy. You're plain abusive and controlling. I'm not sure I can deal with your bullshit any longer than I already have”

“Tristan-”

“I thought I could go through with this but standing here in front of you and all these people made everything a lot clearer. The life I'm going to live the second we walk out down this aisle as husband and wife, is the kind of life I'd never wish upon anyone, not even my greatest enemy",

“Y-you don't mean t-that”, she sobbed wholeheartedly with tears continuing to stream down her face as she grabbed my face in her hands and I withdrew from her hold

“I don't want to spend the rest of my life regretting what should have been one of the best days of my life”, I took off my wedding band and placed it in the palm of her hand and she grasped, seeing her fingers starting to visibly tremble

“Truth be told, our love isn't worth fighting for anymore”, I closed her hand around the ring in a fist, looking at her again to see that she was already crying. This time, I didn't feel anything, seeing her like this hurt me, but it didn't affect me anymore, I wasn't going to feel sorry for her because I'm done.

“Tristan please”, she begged, desperately clutching on my arm the second I was about to back away. “We can still fix things”

“Things will never be the same anymore. I'm tired of forcing things”, I peeled her hand off of me and stood in front of her, looking into her eyes.

“I'm sorry, but I can't do this”