The Time Capsule

Amber

I look at the reflection in the mirror. A woman wearing a short cream colored dress was staring back. Her hair was down, curled in medium-sized ringlets, with small flowers placed here and there. The sun shined in through the window, telling her that it was near time for the evening to begin.
“I might just have to use that dress for my wedding.” Selena jokes, slipping into the view. “You look gorgeous, Amber.”

I smile at her, well, more like grin. “Thank you Selena, for everything.”

“None of this was my doing, hun.”

I shake my head, disagreeing with her. Because the truth was that it was all her doing. If she hadn’t forced us to keep a promise that was sixteen years old, Greg and I wouldn’t be where we are today. Hell, I’d most like still be dating some engaged guy and Greg would still be scared to let anyone into his life. Yet here we are, July 6th, exactly one year since we made it official.

“It was all you. If you hadn’t pushed us to do this random adventure, none of us would be together again. We’d have continued living our separate lives, wondering ‘what if’ every day.”

“I highly doubt that’s true. I mean, we would have come together at some point. There would have been a wedding or funeral or something.”

“you mean like your wedding or James’ mom’s funeral?”

I nudge her a little, trying to lighten the mood, “okay. So maybe I am the only reason we’re all happy. I’m not going to go around saying that though.”

There was a knock on the door and then my dad peeked in, “you two ready?”

I look over to Selena for an answer and she just laughs, “it’s your wedding, Amber, not mine. The question was directed to you.”

“just five more minutes,” I tell my dad and he closes the door.

“you’re not getting cold feet, are you? Cause even if he doesn’t love you, he’s not going to let you go.”

“No I’m not getting cold feet in that sense. Not at all. Just trying to catch up with time I guess. It seems just like yesterday that we were forcing James and Greg to have pretend weddings with us.” Memories of the four of us running around in dress-up pop in my head. Music from the 90’s and 2000’s would play as Selena and I walked down the aisle, one of us holding the dress for the other since it usually never fit correctly.

“I know that look. That look means you forgot something.” Selena says, “and this isn’t the time to have forgotten something.”

I shake my head, “I didn’t forget anything. There’s just something I wish I had down differently. The music, I wish I had thought of us dressing up before now.”

A grin crosses Selena’s face, “music I can change, what you want?”

I tell her the song and she hurries outside to tell the band. I’m sure it’s something they will know just because it’s a classic. My dad enters the room then, playfully glaring at me. “You’ve got that boy sweating buckets dear.”

“he knows I’m not going anywhere. Mind you there’s nowhere to go. This place is covered with security. It’s almost like a forced marriage.” I joke, turning to look at my dad instead of our reflection. “You and mom doing okay?”

“of course honey. You’re getting married to Greg. Why wouldn’t we be okay?”

“well, your one and only daughter is getting married today.”

“yes, but to Greg, so there’s no problem. Plus, you’re 31. And I’ve seen you more in the past year than in the 10 years before that. So there’s no complaining on my end.”

“Remember all the days of me fantasizing about this moment?” I ask out of the blue, waiting for Selena to come back with the cue to go.

“of course,” my dad answers, smiling and turning me to face the mirror once again, “and now look at you, that dream is coming true in every way possible. You look beyond beautiful, Amber.”

A light blush tickles my cheeks, “thank you.” Just then the door opens and Selena steps in, slightly out of breath, “what? Did you run?”

“I swear that guy is going to barge in here if you’re not there in like a minute.” Selena says, a mix between humor and fear in her voice.

I just laugh and grab our bouquets, handing Selena hers, “well then, let’s get this show on the road.”

The music starts to play as Selena and James make their way down the aisle. I can hear the gasps of chuckles from everyone with the change of the tune. Greg was standing there, a grin on his face. His eyes locked with mine and he gave a knowing shake of the head, ‘I love you’ he mouthed.

I must admit that it was tough walking down the aisle to such an upbeat song, especially with no practice. But I finally managed to get to the end in perfect step, right when the lyric “crazy little thing called love” finishes. Perfect timing? I think so.

“you’re the only person I know who would change the music at last minute,” Greg says when I step up by his side. “And the only one I know who’d choose that to walk down the aisle to.”

“well, we practiced this so many times as kids, might as well do it right for the final one.” He laughs again and shakes his head, along with James. It’s obvious they don’t understand what’s going through my head. I’m even wondering how sane I really am at the moment.

The minister goes through all the basic everyday wedding things that my mom forced me to keep in the wedding. She was the traditional type and didn’t want it as laid back as I did. The only reason I let her have some control is because, well, honestly, I just want to be married to Greg, I don’t’ care about the rest.

“The bride and groom have written their own vows to share.” The Minister says and then motions for us to continue. I turn to the crowd for a moment, along with Greg, since we had some explaining to do before we continued.

“Seventeen years ago Greg and I wrote these letters to our future selves.” I start out as Selena hands me my letter.

“But the rules that these two girls stupidly made up had it so that the letters were read by another person in the group.”

I roll my eyes at his comment about us being stupid, we were fourteen for goodness sakes. “Stupid or not, Greg and I got the chance to read each other’s letters. There was another rule though, and that was the owner of the letter couldn’t read it without the first persons permission.”

“Along with this, the letter is not allowed to be read aloud or quoted.” Greg smiles down at me, “Which is the rule we will be breaking this evening. We all know that rules were made to be broken.”

Greg and I trade letters, “Keep in mind that this will be the first time we will be reading our own letters. Hopefully they are actually as romantic as we’ve come to believe, or this will end up in complete failure.” I remind the crowd before unfolding my letter. We had flipped a coin to see who would first and to my dismay, I lost.

I take a deep breath before reciting the words on the wrinkled piece of paper.

Dear Future Amber,

It seems almost cliché, doesn’t it? The blonde cheerleader falling for the king of the nerds. Of course, we’re also best friends. Which just adds to the cliché-ness of it all. I keep telling myself that these feelings are only popping up because of James and Selena. I mean, I can, date any guy I want…why choose the one most likely to get beat up in high school?
There’s just something beyond his goofy glasses and bad taste of clothing. He’s always there to make me smile even if he doesn’t mean to do so. Whenever I’m down, he’s the one to brighten my day and remind me that I’m still young and that the future holds a whole world of possibilities. A world of possibilities that I’m pretty sure I want to spend with him and only him.
Selena was right, there’s no turning back when falling for a best friend. Lucky for me, I don’t want to turn back. Of course, there’s no reason for you to need this as a reminder. I’m sure by the time you open this you and Greg will be happily married with kids and a house and everything you’ve both dreamed of. If not, then something needs to be fixed.
Because there’s honestly no other person on the planet I can imagine spending the rest of my life with.

Love always,
-Amber