With Every Strike Of Lightning.

“Are you sure my bump doesn’t look too big?” Jordan said turning to the side again.

“Jordan, it is supposed to be big; you are almost four months pregnant. Besides the whole will know next week so who cares.” I had given up telling her she looked normal, because that only made her panic that she was starving the baby. I knew pregnant woman are emotional but I didn’t realize how emotional until now.

We were waiting for Lauren and her dad to arrive. The Jonas families were already in the church along with most of Lauren’s family. Lauren was helped out of the car by her dad, who looked tearful.
Once Lauren’s sisters had walked down the isle, Jordan gave Lauren a hug before following the girls slowly. I was busy puffing out Lauren’s dress, sorting her veil out for her and making sure she had her bouquet of flowers.

“Claire, you have to walk down now.” Lauren said laughing.

I straightened out my dress and hair, before walking down the isle. I always hated people staring at me, so walking down the isle by myself was torture. I could feel my cheeks burning up, but concentrated on not tripping. I could see Jordan standing next to Nick,

I walked over to Kevin, poking my tongue out at him, to get him to smile. He looked really nervous. Then went to stand next to Joe, who automatically held my hand. I decided not to make a fuss, after all he was my boyfriend.

When Lauren started walking down the isle, I saw Kevin go wide eyed. His face then broke out into a massive grin.

I could hear Jordan crying through the speeches, she wasn’t the only one though. Lauren’s mum and Kevin’s mum were also in tears. After the speeches Kevin and Lauren were pronounced husband and wife. We went outside in the summer breeze to take photos.

Everyone was rushing round, making arrangements to get to the venue of the after party. Joe hadn’t left my side all day, yet I hadn’t spoken a word to him all day, lead me into a car with Nick and Jordan.

“What lovely vows, which one of you two helped Kevin with his then?” Jordan said looking at Nick then at Joe.

“I never.” Joe put his arms up in defense.

“He wrote them himself babe. I know it shocked us at first as well, He is defiantly going to be writing more lyrics for the band in future.” Nick laughed.

“I couldn’t hear them properly, because I had SOMEONE sobbing in my ear.” I said glaring at Jordan playfully. Nick and Joe laughed.

We arrived at the venue, I was looking forward to seeing all Lauren’s family. The room was practically empty as people were still making their way from the church. There were tables with name cards on them. This was so that all the guests could mingle instead of going off into groups, during the meal.

I knew Lauren had placed all her bridesmaids and the best men on one table near the “top table” where she, Kevin and both their parents would be sitting. I walked over to it falling into my seat, before removing my shoes.

“Claire, can we talk?” I knew he would ask me sooner or later.

I turned to Joe to tell him, we will talk later when Lauren’s little sisters came running in.

“Claire, Lauren’s going to throw her bouquet now. You need to come with us.” Chloe said tugging at my arm.
I laughed as I got dragged out of the room, Joe following behind us. When Lauren saw my arrival, she smiled.

“Ready, good luck everyone.” She laughed before turning round.

The bouquet went flying into the air and everybody lunged for it, I however just stood still laughing at everyone bashing into each other. Finally Kieran’s girlfriend shouted excitedly that she had caught it and everyone cheered.

Everyone flooded into the room, trying to find their seats. Lauren, Kevin, Nick, Jordan, Joe and I waited outside for people to find their seat.

“I can’t believe how many people flew over to La for this.” I said after spotting some of our old friends.

“I know. I bet most of them will still be in town for a few days after. So you can meet up with them and catch up.” Lauren said snuggling closer to Kevin to keep warm.

I managed to keep myself talking to Lauren’s sisters through dinner. Nick was talking to Leanne about school; Jordan was trying to explain to Frankie and Mickie how babies grow inside the stomach. I laughed as I saw she didn’t actually no herself.

After the speeches, the lights got turned off and the music started. Kevin and Lauren went around thanking their guests, whilst the younger bridesmaids and Frankie took to the dance floor.

“I have some people I want you to meet.” Joe said taking my arm.

“Okay, after can we talk?” Our roles had switched, I wanted to clear the air between us, before the wedding ended.

“That was the plan.” Joe smiled leading me over to the table where his parents were talking to an elderly couple.

Denise pulled me into a hug, before her and Paul went to join Lauren’s parents. Once they had left, Joe pulled the chair out for me to sit.

“Claire, these are my grandparents, Mema, Pop this is Claire.” Joe said sitting down in the chair next to me.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you.” I smiled slightly nervous. I soon realized I had nothing to be nervous about Joe’s grandparents were lovely people. We got talking for the best part of an hour.

“It was lovely to finally meet you Claire, Joseph has been talking about you non stop for the past few months.” Joe’s grandfather smile warmly when Joe suggested we should go and mingle with the other guests.

“Papa, don’t embarrass me!” Joe chuckled.

“Nonsense Joseph, a girl likes it when she knows her man is talking about her all the time isn’t that right Claire?” Joe’s grandmother smiled.

I nodded my head in agreement whilst smiling, before we both said our goodbyes. Just has we were heading to the door to talk, the DJ announced that the bride and groom would share their first dance as “ I want to grow old with you” began to play.

“Claire, where are you running off to, you can’t go without having a dance.” Lauren’s mum said has her and Lauren’s dad walked to the dance floor.

I looked at Joe, who sighed running his hands through his hair. “Why the heck not, we seem to do most of our talking on the dance floor anyway.” Joe was referring to Nick and Jordan’s wedding.

We joined all the couples on the dance floor, Lauren was oblivious to the fact that everyone had joined them on the dance floor. Nick and Jordan kept looking down at the growing bump in Jordan’s belly and smiling.

“I’m sorr-,”
“I’m so sor-,” Joe and I spoke at once as we began dancing.

“You first.” Joe smiled.

Suddenly I realized, Lauren was right. Marriage isn’t everything; people don’t just suddenly fall deeper into love when they get married. If that was the case, there wouldn’t be anybody getting divorced. You can live without someone because you realize you have to. I loved Joe, and even though I have and probably could live without him, I didn’t want to.

“Joe.” I began taking a deep breath.