The Good Ones Go

Knock, knock: Adam listens to the consistent pounding at his door. His blue eyes peek open to take a look at the digital clock on the nightstand that reads 6:48 AM in bright red numbers. He sighs. Today is his wedding day, and he really wants to get all the rest he can, but it seems that someone thought he best get up. He hears the thumping of the knuckles against the door again and heaves himself up off the bed yelling, "okay, okay!"

His bare feet pitter-patter against the hardwood as he walks to his living room. Readjusting his boxers with one hand, he reaches for the doorknob with the other. When he swings open the door, his wedding planner stands in front of him with her arms crossed and a wide grin.

"Beth, hey, come in," he says while rubbing his eyes to wake himself up. He's going to need a lot of coffee, especially after last night.

"Rise and shine, hon. I've got a surprise for you," she tells him as she walks in and closes the door behind herself. Adam raises an eyebrow as he watches her walk to his couch and make herself comfortable. She pats the seat next to her with a wink, and Adam gave her a grin as he walks over to join her on his cool leather couch.



It's 7 in the morning, and Travis is tossing and turning on his king sized bed. His stomach aches, and he's incredibly restless. He's genuinely surprised that the girl next to him hasn't woken by now. He enjoyed her company last night when he came home from Adam's bachelor party, but now he just wishes she would leave so he could be alone. She really wasn't obligated to, in fact, he would leave, but he doesn't trust these kind of girls alone in his house one bit. He sighs and stretches out his leg 'accidentally' kicking hers.

"Ouch," she groans as she turns to face him. Her green eyes stare at him adoringly as her wavy brown hair wildly surrounds her small face on the pillow. For a split second he imagines Chelsea.

"Sorry, I was stretching out," he says flippantly with his hands under his head as he brings himself out of that daydream.

"It's alright, baby," she smiles and places her soft hand on his tattooed chest.

He closes his eyes, and she's under the impression that he's enjoying her touch, but really he's mentally cringing and wishing she would get up and do her overdue walk-of-shame. She closes her eyes and snuggles up to him; she's content and ready to go back to sleep.

"You gotta get up. I've got somewhere to be," Travis says when he realizes she has no intention of doing that.

"This early? We've barely slept?" the beauty complains.

"I'm the best man at a wedding. I gotta go. Get dressed," he tells her. He gets up without another word and walks to the bathroom.

He is going to see Adam this morning to figure out what was going on before the ceremony. If he's cheating on Chelsea, then he has no business going through with this wedding. Yea Adam is his best friend, but he was pretty good friends with Colson, and look how that turned out.

He flushed the toilet and splashed some water on his face before stepping back out. By then the girl had her hot pink mini-dress back on. She turned around to look at him and threw her thong on his pillow. "You can keep that," she told him before letting herself out. He rolled his eyes and threw some clothes on before grabbing his keys and walking out as well.

By 7:30 he's at Adam's building waiting for the elevator. He wonders if there's a better way to approach this instead of just bluntly accusing him of cheating. Maybe there's an explanation for all of this. Maybe he's being paranoid. He just doesn’t want Chelsea to get hurt again because he doesn't know how long he can keep picking up the pieces for her from the sidelines.

Travis fewls the blood rushing through his body as his hands begin to shake in the pockets of his light Adidas zip-up. His suddenly cold fingers reach out to press the button for the 7th floor. The ride is too quick ,and as the elevator doors open Travis slowly steps out and makes his way around the corner to 7G. He feels lightheaded and nauseous as he stands in front of the cherry stained doors. He raises his hand to begin a series of knocks but pauses to listen upon hearing a female's voice behind the door.

"Oh, wow, Beth," he hears Adam sigh. Travis can’t believe it. He puts his ear closer to the door and listens to his best friend say, "your incredible," to his wedding planner.

Travis squeezes his eyes shut. Should he be a dick and walk right in or just let it go? He lets his hand fall to his side and backs up. He came here to confront Adam, but he wasn’t expecting to catch him in the act on his wedding day. Maybe he should just stay out of this one.



Chelsea sits patiently in her foldable chair as Travis' cousin carefully does her hair. She's getting married in 2 hours, and she's determined to have a perfect wedding. She can't reconcile putting up with all the stress an bullshit any other way than it resulting in a perfect day. Chelsea watches Olivia's skinny fingers grab her natural waves and wrap them around the scorching hot curling iron she's holding. Strand-by-strand she feels the warm curls cascade down her shoulders and heat her skin. She's getting so warm she feels as if she has a fever, and she knows it's not from the hair.

After a long hour the hair ordeal is finally done. Chelsea takes a glimpse in the mirror and smiles to herself; her make up is nice, and her hair looks beautiful. She was so worried about getting married today, but is getting married to a man like Adam such a bad thing? Maybe she's settling, but he isn't a guy to settle for, he is a guy to die for.

Chelsea sighs and fakes another smile in the mirror, "it's really great, Liv. Thanks so much."

The door opens and in walks Carrie, the nurse that works with and is a good friend of Chelsea. She had her heels in one hand and her bouquet of flowers in the other. "You ready to put this dress on?" she asks as she sets down the items in her hands and shuts the door.

Chelsea nods and slips her robe off as Carrie unzips the gown and allows Chelsea to step into it. She easily zips it back up and watches as Chelsea turns around to look at herself.

"You look beautiful, Chels," she tells her, and Olivia places a cold but comforting hand on her shoulder. Chelsea smiles at them in the mirror before reaching for her white shoes.

"How long til showtime?" Chelsea asks anxiously.

"About twenty minutes or so," Carrie tells her. "You want some time to yourself?"

Chelsea nods in response, "yea that would be nice."

The girls tell her they'll send her father when it's time, and she thanks them as they leave.

Chelsea stands tall before the mirror and stares at herself. If she ever had to let go of Colson it was now, or else her marriage would suffer, and she knows it. How many times had she told herself this? Why should today be any different? She shuts her eyes and flops down on her chair as the wedding dress bunches up in front of her.

Today she starts a new life. She would live with Adam and eventually they're going to buy that house down the street that she had her eye on for the past two years. They would have children and a dog, and they would be happy. Best of all, Colson and his daughter would just disappear to dust, and she would forget their existence. She inhaled deeply and lets a smile grow on her face. A very light knock on the door interrupts her thoughts of the fairytales she's trying to force together.

"Come in," she says quietly before letting out a sigh.

Chelsea watches the door open wide enough to let Travis' thin body in. She smiles upon seeing him in his light grey Caraceni suit with a deep fuchsia tie.

"You clean up nice," she tells him. She's not thinking about stripping him naked right now, but she's contemplating asking him to run away with her.

"You look beautiful, Chelsea," he returns her complement with one of his own.

She smiles, and her pearly white teeth sparkle against the fuchsia lipstick she's wearing.

"Listen, I wanted to - " Travis begins but he's interrupted by her father, George.

"Honey, it's time," his deep booming voice transcends the door.

Travis looks desperate. He so badly wants to tell her about Adam, but now he's having second thoughts again. He doesn't utter another word, so Chelsea walks over to him thinking he's said what he had to say. She places a hand on his arm and tells him, "I love you, Travie. Thanks for everything." With a smile she's out the door and on her father's arm.

Travis squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head. He runs out and all the way to his post next to Adam. Adam quickly gives him thumbs up, and Travis simply forces a smile. There's no way he's talking to this guy after this wedding is over. How fake could he be?

The two groomsmen stand next to Adam in their light grey suits and fuchsia ties. Adam stands strong and proud in his all black Armani tux with his own sparkling white tie. On the opposite end, the two bridesmaids wear strapless fuchsia gowns and hold a tiny bouquet of peonies in different shades of pink. When the music plays, Chelsea descends down the isle on her father's arm with a large bouquet of all white peonies tied with a beautiful silk fuchsia bow. She smiles as she approaches her fiancé, and though he thinks she's looking at him, she's looking right past him at her best friend for courage.

Chelsea stands there nervously, and even though no one could tell, her legs are shaking a little. She zones out for a moment and only returns when Adam takes a hold of her hands.

"Into this holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined. If any man can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace," the minster's words loom over Travis' head as he watches his two best friends stare lovingly at one another. It's all a lie, isn't it? Love is a lie.

"I require and charge you both, as you will answer at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment, why you may not be lawfully joined together in Matrimony, you do now confess it," the minister addd, and Chelsea feels her heart squeeze as if it has something to say.

The audience is quiet for a moment until the familiar sound of hasty footsteps resonates down the hall of the ballroom. Several of the guests contort their bodies to get a glimpse of the intruder. Chelsea turns to look with them and holds her breath as she watches Colson run toward them in an expensive looking tuxedo, perhaps trumping even Adam's.

"Chels, don't marry him," he blurts. He's out of breath and exhausted, and the pained look on his face tells her that he is serious. Chelsea keeps her hazel eyes on Colson; she's scared to turn and look at Adam because she doesn't want him to know that she's actually contemplating leaving him at the altar.

Cole watches her expressionless face for a few moments before looking around at the people gathered there today. "I'm sorry, everyone," he begins, "I didn't mean to interrupt, but I just had to stop her. I mean, come on, I know most of you here, and you know even though she loves this man, she doesn't love him like she loves me." Chelsea huff at his words; even when he comes to beg her not to give her life to someone else he still manages to be an asshole.

Chelsea squeezes her eyes shut before glancing past Adam to Travis. She can't tell what he's thinking, but she can't tell what she's thinking either! Colson is right, isn't he, though? She doesn't love Adam like she loves him, but running back to Colson on her wedding day might not be the smartest idea.

"Can we get security?" Adam yells out when Chelsea says nothing.

That sure causes a reaction out of her because she pulls her hands out of his grasp and shouts, "NO!"

The audience lets out a loud gasp as Adam squints his eyes. "You can't seriously be considering this right now, Chelsea?" he asks. He's as surprised as anyone.

"Chelsea, please!" Colson begs. He is now on his knees pleading with her.

"Chelsea!" Adam yells from her side.

Could she be anymore confused?

She glances over at her fiancé. His eyed look as if they would fall out of his head. What is she doing? Glancing past him, she locks eyes with Travis. She searches for some kind of clue about what to do, but she can’t find it. Travis is closing himself off, and he refuses to help her make a decision that her entire future depends upon.

Travis may have said something, but he doesn't know either. She's in love with Colson, but he completely destroyed her. How could he tell her to be with someone she isn't in love with? Then again, how could he tell her to be with someone that caused her so much pain? The decision is hers.

Chelsea understands. She nods her head before turning to face her guests. Letting out a heavy sigh she begins with, "I'm sorry, everyone…"