Not up to Me, Not up to You

Kelly took a deep breath, holding on tightly to Jimmy’s arm as she watched her bridesmaids walk down in front of her.

“You ok? We can still do a runner.” Jimmy whispered into her ear. She looked up at him and smiled.

“I’m ok, I’m ready to do this.” She replied as he nodded and began to step forward into the room. Kelly smiled broadly as she walked slowly down the aisle towards Matt who was stood next to Zack, his best man. Matt beamed with pride as he watched his soon to be wife walk towards him.

“You look fucking awesome” Matt whispered as he leant across to kiss her as she finally reached him.

Kelly blushed as her smile widened to an impossible size. The following five minutes became kind of a blur for Kelly as she zoned out. Her mind wandered back to the corridor and that kiss with Brian. It had felt so good. So right. Yet here she was not twenty minutes later marrying the man that she’d been with since grade school. She loved Matt she knew that. So why was she so drawn to Brian? A man she barely knew yet she thought about almost every day.

She was drawn out of her thoughts as she heard Matt say “I do.”

“Kelly Louise Stone, do you take Matthew Sanders to be your husband.”
Kelly opened her mouth to reply but stopped at the sound of the door opening at the back of the room. Everyone else turned to see who was interrupting them. There in the doorway stood a nervous looking Brian, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Brian?” Kelly whispered.

“Who the fuck is he?” Matt growled as Brian stepped forward. Kelly’s heart began to pound quickly as she took a step towards Brian. She felt every eye in the room glance between her and Brian as they slowly walked towards each other.

“Kelly? What the fuck’s going on? Who is he?” she heard Matt ask again but ignored him. There was some unknown force drawing her towards Brian.

They quickly met each other half way down the aisle, where Brian wrapped his arms around her waist as her arms fell around his shoulders and they pulled each other closer and allowed their lips to meet.

There was a loud unified gasp from the guests before Kelly felt a hand on her arm pulling her away.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Matt growled spinning Kelly back around to face him.
Kelly suddenly remembered where she was. “Matt. I’m sorry.” She gasped not sure what else to say.

“Sorry? Who the fuck is he? How long has this been going on?” Matt yelled.

“I met him briefly over four years ago but –“ Kelly began but she didn’t know how to continue.

“Four years?” Matt replied in disbelief.

“Matt, I’m sorry. I can’t marry you. I love you but I can’t. I’m sorry. Please believe me.” she whispered as she stepped back away from him and grabbed hold of Brian’s hand.

“I’m sorry.” She muttered quietly once again before she began to run back towards the door holding on to Brian’s hand for dear life.

She didn’t stop running until she got out of the building and she spotted her wedding car still waiting for her and Matt to take them to the reception.

“Come on.” She said breathlessly to Brian as she pulled him towards the car.

“Take me back to the house.” Kelly ordered the driver as he looked back at them in confusion as they jumped into the back of the car.

“Kelly; are you sure about this?” Brian asked as they drove off. She didn’t reply she just crashed her lips onto his, opening his mouth with hers and forcing her tongue into his mouth. Their hands roamed the others body, itching to rip the other person’s clothes off as the kiss intensified rapidly, until Kelly abruptly pulled away breathless.

“I’ve wanted this since the day I met you.” She whispered as the car turned a corner into her street.

“Me too. I want you to come with me. To live with me.” he said as the car pulled up outside her and Matt’s house.

“I will, I just need to pack some things up first.” She replied getting out of the car.
Brian followed her into the house and watched as she ran up the stairs. She opened up the suitcase on the bed that was ready packed for their honeymoon and pulled out all of Matt’s things and began to pack some more of her things into it. She also picked up a few of her personal belongings and stuffed them into another suitcase as Brian paced up and down the corridor outside the room, talking to his mom on the phone as he tried to explain why he wasn’t there for his sister’s wedding. Once she’d finished packing she took the cases downstairs and looked for pen and paper. She needed to write a letter to Matt, so that she could explain what had happened. To tell him the truth.

Just as she was reading through the letter she heard a car pull up outside and two doors slamming shut, followed by hushed voices. She immediately knew it was Jimmy and Leana.
The front door burst open with the two of them still yelling quietly at each other.

“Kelly?” Leana said, sounding kind of shocked to see her there.

“I told you she’d come here.” Jimmy said walking over towards her.

“Kelly, what’s going on? Who is he?” he asked pointing at Brian before pulling her into a hug.

“Jimmy I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt Matt. I didn’t know that I was going to see Brian again.” She began as tears pricked at her eyes.

“Brian?” Jimmy questioned and Kelly nodded against his chest.

“Everything is in this letter. If you want to read it before Matt that’s fine. If you never want to talk to me again then that’s something I’ll have to deal with. But you’ve got to understand that this is something I’ve got to do. I met Brian over four years ago and knew then that there was something about him, but we couldn’t be together. I’ve thought about him almost every day in those four years; dreamt about him; and now he’s been brought back in my life and I know that this is my chance to be with him again.” Kelly spoke quickly as her best friend nodded silently.

“Honey I love you and I’ll always be your friend. I know you make choices in your life that you feel strongly about so if you want to leave Matt for this guy then all I can do is support you and be there for you.” Jimmy said before kissing her forehead.

“Thank you Jimmy. I’ll call you in a few days when things have calmed down. Make sure Matt read’s the letter and take care of him. Make sure he doesn’t do anything he may end up regretting. I still love him.” she replied leaving his embrace and walking over to Brian.

“Take care of her. She’s like my baby sister.” Jimmy warned Brian as they walked passed him on their way out of the house.

“I will man. I love her.” Brian replied, tightening his hold on Kelly. Brian picked up the two cases as Kelly picked up her car keys off the hallway table and walked out of the house without looking back.

“How do you fancy two weeks in Fiji?” Kelly said absentmindedly as she allowed Brian to drive them to his house.

“Fiji?” Brian questioned as he pulled up outside a small beachside house.

“Yeah, someone’s gotta use our honeymoon. I can’t see Matt wanting to go on his own.” She said holding up a pair of plane tickets.

“Yeah why not.” He said as they got out of the car.

“When do we fly?”

“Not until Monday.” Kelly replied looking at the house.

“Cool, we’ve got plenty of time then. Cos right now all I can think about is getting you out of that dress.” Brian replied smiling as he picked her up bridal style and carried her towards the house.