Bring It On, Valdez (Leo Valdez x Reader)

Chapter 53 (SURPRISE!)

Behind you, you heard the door to the main hall creak open. You turned around, being careful not to get tangled in your lacy, transparent veil, which draped many feet behind you. The door opened wider to reveal none other than Piper McLean, clad in her pre-chosen dress; a simple wrapped gown that faded from a soft sunset orange to a deep rose red, almost like a soft flame. Her grin was broad, her hair pinned into a bun with a yellow feather sticking out from the mass of hair. You couldn't help but match her smile, despite the growing pool of anxiety in your stomach.

"Hey, there," she entered the room quickly, being sure to shut the doors behind her. "Well, don't you look stunning? Man, I wish I were the groom right now,"

You let out a sweet laugh, walking over to wrap your arms around her. She curled her arms around your midsection, being careful not to mess up your dress or makeup.

"Thanks, Pipes," you take in the lovely scent of her perfume and give her a quick squeeze.

"Now, I didn't just come in here fawn over your incredible beauty," she grinned as she straightened your headband, which was the base of your veil. "I came to tell you that the reception starts in three minutes. Are you ready?"

The question momentarily stunned you. Were you ready? Did really think that you were prepared to open a completely new, more dangerous chapter of your life? This was more risky than any monster you've ever encountered. This was more treacherous than any quest you've ever endured. The pools of commitment were deep enough to drown you in this situation.

But the more you thought about it, the more the fear drained out of your system. You didn't regret anything about your life. You especially didn't regret falling in love.

If there was one thing in your life that you did more than anything else, it was feeling. You have felt fear. You have felt grief. You have felt excruciating pain, mind-numbing sorrow, and incomprehensible emptiness. You have given up on the world before. But along with these soul-ripping feelings come ones that drown out the constant static of agony.

You have felt pure, unadulterated happiness in the darkest, most desperate of times. You have felt hope that was so strong, it was intoxicating. The muscles in your face have been in such pain from smiling year after year after difficult year. Most of all, you have felt the love of friendship and romance, both of which are emotions that roll off of a person in spine-tingling waves. Love in its purest form is almost tangible. Its warm and soft to the touch. It smells like your favorite scents and sounds like the most beautiful music you could fathom. It's funny that you found that exhilarating music in an instrument so crudely named the Valdezinator.

Your thoughts of doubt trailed off in a pool of sweet nothings and loving embraces shared over the years of a laborious life, successfully drowning them in a feeling of unshaken confidence.

"Yeah," you finally respond, your thoughts untangling themselves from that previous knot. "Definitely ready."

Piper gave you a sweet smile and spared you a kiss on the cheek. "Get ready," she advised you, walking backwards towards the door. "Percy's gonna walk you down the aisle. We're waiting, pretty lady!"

With that, she slipped out of the room and closed the door, the only sound being the distant classical music in the ballroom.

The three minutes that stood in between you and the waters you were about to tread in felt like an eternity. The world had paused just for you. But you had made up your mind.

When Percy opened the door with that happy, brotherly smile, you brightened tenfold. He opened the doors of the side room in which you stood, holding out his arm in a gentlemanly manner.