Chapter Thirty Four.
"Happy New Year."
New Year’s Eve couldn’t be celebrated any better than with all of our close friends and family. By close friends I mean Ben, Carina, Ryan and Chaz. Carina and Ben had both flown out for the wedding and it wasn’t shocking at all to me that they were back together. I’m not sure why Carina broke up with him in the first place, but it was amazing to see them happy together again.
“Who the hell is your friend?” Chaz poked me on the shoulder as I was dipping my chip into salsa. We were throwing a small get together but I’m not even sure why we’re staying up this late since the wedding was tomorrow. My stomach was in knots just thinking about it.
“Um, her name’s Carina.” I said with a mouthful of food. “Why?”
“Because she’s sexy as shit.”
I gave him a glare out of the corner of my eye and pinched him gently on the elbow. He better not even think for a second about doing anything to try and get with Carina because finally my two best friends were happy again. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of that.
“Don’t even think about it Chaz. She’s in a relationship.”
“Yeah and Soccer has goalies.” He chuckled. “Doesn’t mean you can’t score.”
My mouth dropped open at his analogy and he grabbed a chip before sending me a wink and heading back into the living room where everyone else was. This was so not what I had intended tonight to go like. I didn’t think I was going to have to worry about Justin’s friend trying to get with my friend.
Loading my plate up with more food, I grinned to myself at how good it looked and walked back into the living room like Chaz had just done. I couldn’t help it, being pregnant made me so hungry. I was eating for two now.
“Soph you look good for being three months pregnant.” Carina noted as she scanned me up and down.
Giving her a confused stare, my mouth was full of chips and I tried not to laugh at the comment she just made. I could literally feel each pound come onto my body with each bite I took. She was utterly insane.
“Yeah right.” I giggled. “I look like a whale.”
“Hey.” Justin said in a harsh tone. “Don’t talk about yourself like that. You’re beautiful.”
I sent him a small smile and shyly looked back to the plate of food in my hand. It was nice of Carina to make that remark about me but I had started to show a little. Not a lot, but it was enough for someone to notice if they looked closely. I just hoped that tomorrow in my wedding dress it wouldn’t be that noticeable.
“So are you guys nervous?” Carina asked.
I immediately nodded my head as I tried to swallow more chips and felt my stomach once again go into knots. Thinking about tomorrow made my head hurt and my stomach drop and my heart want to fall out of my chest. Tomorrow was going to be the biggest day of my life practically.
“It’s going to be great.” Justin smiled. “I can’t wait.”
“Me either.” I replied.
While I was thinking of tomorrow, a thought had come into mind that I had meant to do awhile ago but had completely forgotten about. I held up a finger to signal to Justin that I’d be right back and headed down the hallway to Pattie and Jeremy’s room. They had decided to watch the ball drop in their own room to give us more privacy with our friends even though I told them that it was fine.
I knocked twice on their door and opened it once they told me to come in. My feet pattered on the white carpeting and I stood in front of them with tears in my eyes. I had been thinking a lot about my parents lately and knowing that tomorrow was the big day just made me even more upset. I needed to talk to them about something though.
“Honey are you alright? You aren’t getting cold feet about tomorrow are you?”
“No.” I laughed and grabbed onto the bedpost beside me. “I just have something to ask you Jeremy.”
His eyes popped up from his phone that he was currently infatuated with and he placed it beside him on the bedspread so his attention was focused on me. I didn’t know how to ask this but I was hoping that he would say yes.
“As you guys know, my parents obviously won’t be there tomorrow and it’s just going to be so hard for me to get through it. I’m nervous about the ceremony and everything but more importantly, I wanted to know if you’d walk me down the aisle Jeremy. My dad meant the entire world to me and I feel like a part of myself is missing because he won’t be there but I can’t think of anyone better than you to do his job. You’re like a second father to me and Pattie you’re like a second mom. I don’t know what I’d do without the-“
I couldn’t help but begin to cry as I was talking about it. Tomorrow I was going to get married and my parents weren’t going to be there to witness it. My heart felt broken. I felt like I was incomplete and I wasn’t even at the church yet.
“Come here sweetheart.” Pattie moved to the side so I could crawl in-between them and I buried my face into her chest to let the sobs out. “Your parents may not be there physically but they will be there looking down on you. They would be so proud of the young woman you’ve become. I couldn’t think of anyone better for our son to marry.”
Jeremy wrapped his arm around my shoulder and nodded his head in agreement as I tried to wipe away the tears from my cheeks.
“I completely agree.” He said. “You have changed Justin for the better in so many ways. For a while there I thought I’d never get the chance to start over with my son but you were able to fix that and I can’t ever thank you enough. I would be more than honored to walk you down the aisle kiddo.”
A knock on the door interrupted us and without permission, Justin opened the door to see me cuddled up with his parents. As soon as he saw the tears on my cheeks it looked like the wind had just been knocked out of him.
“Sophia? What’s wrong?”
Quickly crawling on top the covers, he grabbed my face in his hands and wiped the tears from underneath my eyes. “Do you not want to get married anymore? Did I do something?”
Shaking my head no, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my nose into his shirt. I just wish my parents could have met him.
“I-It’s just my parents.” I said between breaths. “It’s just going to be hard tomorrow.”
“Oh.” He replied quietly.
Pulling me into his lap, he stayed there with me in his arms until my sobs turned into whimpers and my whimpers turned into stinging eyes. I don’t know what I did to deserve a guy like Justin but it started to get awkward when I wasn’t crying anymore and Pattie and Jeremy were just staring at us.
“I’m sorry.” I said sadly and looked between them both. “I didn’t mean to bring this on you so late at night.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Jeremy said. “It’s almost time for the ball to drop so I suggest you get back out there with your friends but Justin, we couldn’t be happier with the woman you chose to marry.”
Sending him a grateful smile, I leaned forward so I could wrap them each in a warm embrace and slid off the comforter.
“I couldn’t be happier either.” He admitted. “I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
“Goodnight you two.” Pattie leaned back into the pillows and grabbed Jeremy’s hand. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow’s a big day.”
“Night.” We both replied.
Closing the door behind me, I started to head back to the living room but Justin grabbed me by the wrist and whirled me around to face him. The look in his eyes was more than sad and I know it was because he just saw me upset.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I nodded my head and sent him another smile. Because of him, I was feeling one thousand times better. I don’t know how he did that but I was so grateful for him.
“I’m serious.” He grasped the side of my cheek and ran his fingertips over it. “I want you to be happy tomorrow and I know a part of you will be upset because your parent’s won’t be there but I promise that I will do whatever it takes to make it the best day of your entire life. I mean that.”
The most important thing right now is that I know he’s telling the truth. I know he loves me unconditionally and I have no doubt in my mind that tomorrow is going to be the best day ever.
“Thank you baby, I love you.”
The sound of cheering from the other room echoed into our ears and that’s when I realized that we must have missed the ball drop. To be honest I would rather be right in this moment with him then out there counting down the seconds until the New Year.
Pressing his lips against mine, he smiled and I let him do whatever he wanted with me. He lifted me up so that my legs were wrapped around his waist and pushed me gently up against the wall so we could make out a little. It seemed so secretive with our friends being here but that just made it ten times hotter.
I let my tongue collide with his and moaned when he squeezed my ass. It was like the memories from the hotel room were flooding back all over again.
As soon as the thought popped into my head, yelling started to occur from the other room, making Justin set me down so he could see what the commotion was. We both rounded the corner to see Ben pushing Chaz up against the wall, his fist inches away from punching him.
“What the hell is going on?” Justin hurled Ben off of Chaz and looked at Ben for an answer. I had a feeling I knew what happened but I wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions.
“This prick tried to hit on my girl.” He sneered. “Emphasis on my girl.”
Letting out a sigh of frustration, Justin gave a dirty look to Chaz and rubbed his hands over his face. I know that he’s sexually frustrated right now after our make out session a couple of minutes ago. Nobody should interrupt Justin when we were romantic in any kind of way because he got so grumpy it was ridiculous.
“Look Ben, Chaz is just that way with every girl. He tried to hit on Sophia as soon as he saw her too. It gets annoying and yeah, it makes you get angry, but can we please not get into a fight when Sophia and I are getting married tomorrow? I want everything to run smoothly and I don’t need the two of my groomsman battling it out. Okay?”
“Fine.” Ben scoffed after about a minute. “But I swear to god if you make so much as one comment towards her again I’ll beat the shit out of you.”
“So!” Ryan laughed, which made me smile at him trying to change the conversation. “Ready for your bachelor party Justin?”
“His what?” The words came out of my mouth like ice at Ryan, causing him to give me a sympathetic look.
“Sophia every guy has to have a bachelor party. We won’t be gone long but I wanted to take him out and do something. Carina said she wanted to stay here and watch a movie with you.”
“What are you guys going to be doing?” My heart rate started to pick up speed at the endless amounts of possibilities circling my head. I didn’t want anything to happen that would ruin tomorrow. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Baby don’t worry.” Justin soothed. “I’m not going to do anything stupid, alright?”
“Justin please promise me.” I pleaded. “Please don’t do something to ruin tomorrow.”
“Sophia I’m not going to. Trust me.”
Placing his lips one last time to mine, he grabbed the keys off of the hook and motioned for the guys to follow him out. Once the door closed behind them all, I instantly felt sick to my stomach. The thought of strippers being all over him made me almost want to gag. What if he got drunk? What if he had a hangover for the wedding tomorrow? I couldn’t even think about it.
“I know you’re going crazy.” Carina laughed and popped in the DVD to bridesmaids. “But can we just take a minute and discuss how sexy Ben looked when he got jealous? I might just have to fuck him in the car when he gets back I swear.”
“What if Justin gets drunk?” I plopped down onto the couch and put my face into my hands. “Carina I will be devastated.”
Sitting down next to me, she pressed play to start the movie and grabbed onto my hands.
“You just have to trust that she won’t do anything stupid.” She soothed. “Let’s just watch this movie and try to forget about it, alright?”
“Okay.” I agreed.
As hard as it was going to be to try and get my mind off of everything, I just had to focus on getting sleep for tomorrow in all honesty. If I didn’t go to bed now, I was going to be miserable.
------
Hearing the front door close, my eyes popped open into the darkness of the living room and I immediately heard the stumbling of feet, making my heart fall into my stomach. Why the hell did he drink? Does our wedding mean anything to him?
Pushing the blanket off, I covered Carina up more, who was passed out next to me, and angrily walked over to Justin but was surprised when he had Ben slung over his shoulder.
“Hey baby, can you help me?”
I silently nodded my head, feeling like shit for even accusing him in the first place, and wrapped Ben’s other arm around my shoulder as we walked him to the guest room that was previously Pattie’s.
“You look pretty Sophiiiiiaaaa.” He dragged out the end of the word and sent me a cheesy grin.
“Hey.” Justin warned. “Watch it.”
Lying him down onto the bed, Justin shut the light off and closed the door behind him. Ben was going to be so hung over tomorrow it wasn’t even funny.
“I thought you were drunk.” I said quietly once we were alone in the hallway. “I thought that you got drunk.”
“Now why in the hell would I do that?” Chuckling to himself, he pushed me gently up against the wall again and let his breath run over my face. It smelled nothing like alcohol.
“We went to a bar but the only thing I ordered was chicken wings.” He said. “Not an ounce of alcohol went in me.”
I pressed my lips against his once he finished and nodded my head to let him know I understood. I am so relieved that he behaved himself tonight and that he cared enough about me to not ruin anything tomorrow. I’m glad this wedding was as important to him as it was to me.
“Let’s go to bed and get some sleep before we get married tomorrow.” He sent me the cheesiest grin and I couldn’t help but giggle in anticipation.
Tomorrow was going to be the best day of my life. Tomorrow I was going to be the happiest I ever will be and tomorrow I’m going to get married to not only the love of my life, but also to my best friend.
A/N: I NEEDED TO DOUBLE UPDATE BECAUSE NEXT CHAPTER IS............. THE FRIKKEN WEDDING! OH MY GOD EVERYTHING I'VE WRITTEN SINCE I FIRST STARTED THE FIFTY SHADES SERIES SEPTEMBER 10TH (ON MY BIRTHDAY) LAST YEAR HAS LED UP TO THIS MOMENT. I AM PEEING MYSELF I AM SO EXCITED.
EVERYONE GET YOUR TISSUES READY FOR TUESDAY.
TWITTER: @ BELIEVEEEXOXO
INSTA: @ DRXWSDEANNA