After talking to Hoagie, Abby goes to find clothes. She goes through her bags and pulls out a white two slits dress and white heels. Putting on the dress, she does her hair and her makeup. She digs through her jewellery box, she finds a dark silver rose earrings, a winged necklace and a ring with an infinity symbol on it. All three of them are things that were gifted to her by Jerry when they were younger. The earrings she got for her 15th birthday, the necklace on their 8th anniversary and the ring when she was 14 when he promised to only love her.
(the silver one. Jerry has the other one)
She meets Anna, Rebecca and the boys outside.
"Let's do this!"
When they arrive at the wedding, they see a woman wearing a wedding dress, celebrating and drinking.
Unimpressed by the whole thing, they walk towards her. She sees them and comes over to greet them excitedly, telling them how happy she is they made it.
Her eyes go over Abby and she smiles widely at her.
"Omg, it's so nice to meet you! I'm Susan, the soon to be married!"
Susan goes to hug Abby, but Abby takes a step backwards.
"Abby. The pleasure is all yours." She replies dryly, making the boys snicker.
Susan narrows her eyes and takes a sip from her drink.
"Is that champagne?" Anna asks.
Susan nods.
"I was never pregnant!"
The boys repeat what she said, shocked.
Susan explains how the fake miscarriage was her idea and then tries to excuse it by saying it's their own fault for playing a children's game. Hoagie starts going on about how she slaughtered his inner child and it was at this point Abby stopped listening.
Abby follows Susan's movements as she leaves, going back to celebrate with her friends.
"Fucking bitch!" She mutters to Anna and Rebecca, who both agree.
"You're way better than her! And you look way better!" Anna tells her.
"That cow got nothing on you." Rebecca inflicts.
"I bet when we walk in, Jerry's gonna forget all about little miss miscarriage."
Abby smiles.
"Let's go show him what he's missing!"
They enter and immediately Abby catches Jerry's eye. He shifts uncomfortably as his eyes go down her body and she smiles and waves at him. She shows her necklace and he takes out his half from under the suit. As they sit down in the back and Abby notices how Jerry never stops looking at her.
"Jerry seems to like the outfit!" Anna whispers in her ear, making Abby laugh.
The doors open again and Susan comes in, but Jerry doesn't even look at her. He keeps staring straight into Abby's eyes, both of them wishing it was her up there with him. When Susan is at the alter, Jerry finally looks at his soon to be wife. Whilst the priest speaks Jerry keeps looking between Abby and Susan.
"Do you, Susan, take Jerry to be your husband? Do you promise to love, honour, cherish and protect him, forsaking all others, holding only to him, forevermore?"
"I do!"
Hoagie mumbles something to Anna, drowning out the priest.
"...holding only to her, forevermore?"
There's a silence as Jerry looks into her eyes and it seems a realisation dawns on him. He turns to Susan and speaks clearly.
"No! This wedding is cancelled!"
Many things follow this. Jerry starts explaining to Susan why the wedding is cancelled. The crowd is shocked, upset and is mumbling to themselves and to each other. Hoagie is running towards Jerry at full speed. A few people on the bench in front of them turns to Abby and scowls at her. Abby doesn't notice any of this. She's shocked, happy and confused.
There's a sudden crash and that snaps her back to reality. Hoagie had jumped at Jerry, missing him as Jerry moved out of the way and crash-landed on the floor, knocking himself unconscious. Abby runs up to Jerry, hugging him tightly before focusing on Hoagie. She checks his pulse and his breathing. Both seem normal, but he doesn't wake up.
Behind her, Susan is arguing with the boys.
"I can't believe you did this!"
"At least we didn't fake a god damn mis..."
"MISUNDERSTANDING!"
Chilli is quickly interrupted by Bob.
"In her vagina," Sable adds.
"Call a doctor!" Anna says, a tear in her eye and worry evident on her face.
"He's gone full loss of consciousness!" Susan laughs, trying to get Jerry to laugh too, but he keeps looking at Hoagie, worry just as evident on his face as on Anna's. Abby's blood starts boiling of rage from hearing her.
"It's impressive. Even better than my performance!" She adds.
Jerry opens her mouth to say something but is interrupted by Abby.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!!? A man is unconscious and you're laughing!"
"With me!? What's wrong with you? You've been after my man ever since you got to this church! You haven't even spoken to him! Do you even know him? No! You just strolled in here acting like he's a piece of meat! He belongs to me! Back off, bitch!"
"You don't get who I am, do you?" Abby asks with a little smirk on her lips. "I'm Abby Castleview, his first love. Ages 9-18. He might have mentioned me. If it helps, I'm the Abby you didn't let him invite to this wedding! And for your information, Jerry and I met earlier today. Brunswick Church. I was in the lunchroom with him!"
Susan's face pales with every word.
"Is this true?"
Jerry nods and looks at the women in front of him.
"Susan, I'm ending this relationship. You're not for me. You're too controlling and you don't care about me or my feelings. You stopped me from contacting and inviting my best friends. Just now, you tried to make fun of a man that's unconscious. The warning bells were ringing long before you suggested to have a fucking miscarriage. The very last straw was now when you insulted the woman I love more than anything!"
Susan gasps and turns to Abby, ready to strike her.
"YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!!!" Susan screams and lifts her hand to slap Abby.
Abby quickly blocks her slap and punches her in the eye. Susan staggers backwards but recovers quickly and charges at Abby, who quickly does a wheel kick aimed at Susan's ribs instead of her head.
"Don't ever try to attack me again!" Abby threatens.
Susan whimpers and runs away, her bridesmaids following her.
"Hoagie!" Jerry says.
They quickly run out of the church, hand in hand. Using Jerry's car, they quickly get to the hospital.
After getting the room number from the receptionist, they hide behind the corner and face time Hoagie.
Hoagie tells them about his liver cancer.
"I've known for 3 weeks. I have a tumour the size of my right nut stuck to my liver."
"3 weeks, right nut. Too specific. I call bullshit. You're lying!"
Hoagie shakes his head.
"I'm not lying. Although, I lied about one thing. Jerry's not quitting."
"Why the fuck would I quit?"
"I just said that to get everyone together one last time."
They joke about how slow Hoagie's gonna be next season before Hoagie tells them he loves them all.
"I love you guys. I love this game, you know? It brings out the best in us. Except for today. Today, I don't know. I really fucked up your wedding, Jerry, and I'm super sorry!"
Jerry hangs up and walks into the room, still holding Abby's hand.
"You didn't fuck it up, Hoagie. I screw it up. You boys should've been up there with me. As should've you. Instead of Susan. It's my fault, I know. I'm really sorry. It's just, you all seemed closer to each other than to me and after the breakup, we didn't really talk."
"If we seemed closer it's because we're physically closer because you always ran away, successfully." Bob answers. "You know, you could actually be the very best person at this game. Apart from Abby, of course!"
"Yeah but you've kinda missed the point. It's not about running away from each other. It's actually about having a reason to be around each other, you know?" Hoagie says.
Jerry nods and Hoagie continues.
"Ben Franklin said it best. We don't stop playing because we grow old."
"We grow old because we stop playing!" The whole tag-team says together.
Sable comments how it's not Benjamin Franklin's quote, but actually Karl Groos. They bicker between themselves before Hoagie comments it's 11.45.
"So Jerry. Get in here and let me tag you!"
Jerry starts talking about his perfect record and Abby rolls her eyes at him. He tries to talk his way out of it, but can't. Abby gets more and more done with his excuses.
"If you think about it, Jerry is a tag virgin."
"Or champion!" He inflicts, making Abby roll her eyes again.
Anna and Hoagie continue to make sex jokes whilst Jerry hesitates.
At this point, Abby is done with his theatrics and pushes Jerry close enough for Hoagie to tag.
"You're it!"
"You're so it, it stinks!"
"Loser! Loser! Loser!"
"Thank you, Abs!" Jerry says whilst hugging Jerry.
"I remembered our deal. Now get out of that bed. We both know you're not dying!"
"Yeah, yeah," Hoagie says and gets up, removing the capsules from his finger.
"Wait, what?" Jerry looks confused. "You're not dying?"
"No. Abby, Anna and I made a plan. Right before the wedding."
Jerry looks between them and starts laughing.
"Alright, that was smart. Really dark, but I did deserve it. We're even now."
"Rule suggestion. No pretending you or someone else is dying! And no fake pregnancies or miscarriages!" Abby says and they all agree.
Jerry laughs and looks at the clock.
"I love you guys, especially you, Abby. But I'm not gonna be the last it! BITCHES!"
Jerry yells, tags Sable and runs out of the room, Abby following him.
Everyone runs out in the corridors and Hoagie quickly puts on his own clothes before joining them. Jerry is it again and puts his hand on Anna.
"Verbal amendment! Women should be playing!"
"Hell yeah!" Abby answers from behind some couches.
"Yeah!" Chilli answers as well from behind Anna.
Anna quickly goes to tag Chilli, screaming "suck my tiny ginger balls!"
"Anna that's disgusting!" Abby yells at her, laughing.
Hearing her voice, Jerry runs up to Abby.
"Hello there!" He says as he approaches her.
"General Kenobi!" Abby laughs.
"I know it's a little sudden, but be my girlfriend?"
"Of course. Always running high, right?"
"High and far!" He says and kisses her.
They stay like that for a moment until something dawns on Jerry.
"You've never been tagged! Ooooh, you're so gonna get it now, Abs!"
He grabs her wrist and starts shouting.
"Who's it? I think it's only fair I get to tag her!"
Hoagie comes running as Abby bites Jerry's hand, making him let go. She takes off running and everyone following her. They run through the corridors and out on the streets, playing through the night.
~~~~
The fic is finished. I'm gonna write an epilogue, but please let me know if you want me to publish it. I make no promises of when the epilogue is finished, but I'll try to do it as fast as possible.
Please let me know what you thought of this fic and if anyone wants me to write something, please tell me.