Time Warped

Wedding Plans

"Sage, Jack and Lux are here," Mark pops his head in the door way and says. I nod and finish putting my shirt on. When I fold down the collar of the plaid shirt, I turn to see Mark leaning against the doorway with a cute smirk.

"What?" He smiles and shrugs.

"Just thinking, babe." I shrug and follow him out of the room.

"Ey! It's Sagiplier!" I smile and drag a hand down my face.

"Please God let that be a donkey and not Sean," I fake agony. Mark appears by my side.

"Don't worry, it's just a regular old Jackass." I laugh and Mark wraps his arms around me from behind.

"Hey, he's my Jackass," Lux says from the couch. I make a shmucky face and she returns the favor with her middle fingers.

"Ooh, now give me tiger face!" Jack shouts. I sit on the coffee table across from Lux.

"What... Is this?" I ask grabbing a large binder from Lux's lap. She grabs back for it, but I'm already flipping through hundreds of pages of hotel images, fabric samples, wedding dresses, and flower bouquet snapshots. "Jeezus Cristo, you freak!" She bites at her thumb nail and smiles sheepishly. "Have you been planning this since you were born or what?!" She shrugs and looks down.

"Since sixth grade..." I shit the book and stifle a laugh. "What? All I've ever wanted is to be married and happy and write stories and... I don't know... I just did it all with this." She takes back the book and hugs it to her chest. I shake my head.

"I can't believe you guys are just now starting to plan. You've been engaged for, like... Eight months." Jack shrugs.

"We agreed on waiting until Lix moved in, and she just got moved in."

"So as soon as you move in you crash with us," Mark says. He laughs and goes to the fridge and pulls out a red bull and a bottle of water. He tosses the can in my direction and I catch it, barely.

For the next few hours, Lux and Jack argue playfully over flowers, colors, dates, food, reception halls. Just everything imaginable. Suddenly I can't watch it anymore.

"I-" they all three snap up and look at me in surprise. I haven't said anything in over an hour. "Sorry... I... I need to go lay down, I really don't feel so good. At all," I stand up slowly and my head spins. My face feels flushed and clammy and the back of my neck is prickling.

"You ok?" Mark stands with me and I nod lightly.

"I just think I'm tired. We stood up till 5 am last night, bro." He nods and follows me into the bedroom. I sit on the bed a slowly, half-consciously unbutton my shirt and kick off my pants. I pull a large t-shirt over my head and climb into bed. Mark presses his palm in my forehead.

"Jeez, Sage. You're burning up, are you sure you're just tired?" I nod.

"And dizzy. And hot. And tired."

"You already said that, babe," he says sweetly. I smile lightly. "Do you want some aspirin?" I nod.

"There's some in my jacket over there. The one I wore yesterday." He silently walks over and picks up my jacket. The pills rattle and I hear a small pat on the floor. I peel an eye open. Mark stares down at the carpet with a bewildered look. "Mark?" He doesn't move. Finally he squats, picks something up and turns to me with a blank look.

"Sage?" He holds up a small white carton with a camel on it.

Shit.

I sit up slowly, trying to focus and not get dizzy.