Afraid of Forever

I walk out into the room containing my mother. Two best friends: Taylor and Kaylyn and my soon to be sister in law. I grab my heels and slide them on. I stand up, still not making any eye contact with anyone, then I look up at all of them. "How do I look?"

My mother starts to cry. Which sadly makes Kaylyn cry. The chain reaction, thankfully, stops there because I can not have my make-up smearing again.

"Stop, its okay, you two." I tell them as I engulf them in a hug. Although it is difficult because of my dress.

"Baby, you are beautiful." My mother says tearfully as she looks at me. "Your father is going to have a meltdown as he walks you down the isle." I smile at the thought of walking down the isle. Even though I'm afraid.

My mother is still crying. Kaylyn is attempting to keep my mother from crying so obviously it isn't working. "My little baby is getting married. My only baby! At twenty-one. Gia, are you sure?" My mother would ask that question.

Taylor walks over to my mother and takes her by the hand. "Gee, Me and your mother are going to wait outside the door for you. We need to be downstairs in five minutes, okay?"

"Okay Tay. Be right there." I take another deep breath.

"Gia, you look so beautiful! I know you are marrying Nate today. I'm not trying to stop you. But I need to know: why are you guys getting married so young?" Anna looks from Kaylyn to me. Her seventeen year old mind, I know is wanting to find a boy to love just like I love her brother.

"Well..." I begin but before I get anywhere Kaylyn's eyes get wide.

"Wait. You're pregnant aren't you?" She has this enormous smile on her face. I freeze for a minute unable to compute what she just said. To which I answer, once I process her question I grab one of the mini bottles of whatever alcohol that Taylor brought up and opening it and drinking a little bit of it. "No, I'm not."

Both Anna and Kaylyn's eyes go back to their normal sizes. "I've never... I'm a...I'm still a virgin." I tell them.

Kaylyn looks as if she can't believe it. "But you two have been together since high school. You would have 'sleepovers'. You've never...?"

"No. Never. The sleepovers were just that, sleep overs. So to answer your question to why now, well, I guess because I need him. But also I know that we are in love. It isn't puppy love. I think we found the real thing and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I want to be a part of him. So tonight I will be." I look at Anna and Kaylyn, who still can't believe what I just told them.

"My, brother... Oh my God I can't believe I just listened to you talking about sleeping with my brother. But I didn't know you guys believed in waiting." Anna smiles at me.

"Yeah, we believe in it. We believe that we will be able to stay together forever and we didn't want to be having our intimate moments with people that we didn't want to spend forever with. I can't wait to begin my forever with him." I breathe and close my eyes. "I'm ready. Let's go."

Kaylyn grabs my veil. She places the veil perfectly on my head between the curls and up-do. "There. Now you are truly ready to marry the love of your life."