Time Is Nothing (John Frusciante)

Chapter 41

"Stand still, I can't put it in place if you're circling around your chair like this," Cecilia instructed with a frustrated demeanor as she was trying to secure Jessica's veil properly into her hair.

It was the morning of Jessica's wedding and already for two hours, Cecilia had been proudly doing her duty as maid of honor and helping her best friend get ready for her big day.

"Sorry," Jessica giggled, "It tickles."

"Alright, there we go," Cecilia smiled as she finally managed to get it in place, "You look so beautiful, I can't believe this day is here."

"I know," Jessica nodded as she took a sip from her champagne glass, "I'm so nervous, I think I got barely two hours of sleep."

"Nervous? Why?" Cecilia questioned and then laughed, "Having cold feet?"

"What? No, definitely not," Jessica then suddenly turned in a fidgety manner, not looking even one bit confident in her response.

What was supposed to be an innocent joke didn't seem like that at all anymore. Jessica fell silent and stared at her white shoes while Cecilia observed her and knew that something was wrong. She was almost never fidgety and awkward like that, at least definitely not when things were in order and seeing her like that on her wedding day was definitely the last thing Cecilia expected to witness.

"Jessie, is something wrong?" she then quietly asked as she pulled a nearby chair and placed herself opposite of Jessica, "Did something happen?"

"No," she shook her head.

"Well, what is it then? I know when you're lying."

"It's just.. " Jessica took a deep breath, "Did you ever have any doubts when you married John?"

"Uhm," Cecilia let out a mumble and then answered after a pause, "No."

Again, a question she wasn't really expecting.

Silence then fell between the two until Cecilia broke it with a question of her own, "Are you having doubts?"

"No, I'm not having any doubts about Brad," Jessica shook her head again and nervously picked on the tiny pearls and beads that were beautifully decorating her wedding dress, "I want to be with him and I love him and all, but just.. This wedding.. It's making me nervous. I don't know how else to explain it."

"Well.. Okay, but..," Cecilia tried to find some comforting words, but didn't really know what to say. They were supposed to start heading to the church in an hour, so this definitely wasn't the moment to cancel a wedding people had already spent thousands of dollars on and God knows how much time. And for reasons Cecilia couldn't really understand and Jessica couldn't even explain.

"I'm sure these are just some jitters, that's all," she then faked a smile and tried her best to lighten the mood, "You've been waiting for this for months, remember? This is your day and it is going to be amazing."

"You're right," Jessica smiled, "Just some stupid jitters. Today is the most important day of my life."

"Exactly. Now, let's get you into these shoes and then I'll have to go and get into my dress as well."

"Right," Jessica only nodded in agreement and allowed Cecilia to help her get into her bridal shoes.

This whole conversation was something that definitely didn't sit well with Cecilia and even as she was changing into her dress, she couldn't help but to think about how odd and weird it was. This came so out of the blue that Cecilia really had no idea what the real reason for Jessica's jitters might have been. Even yesterday at the rehearsal dinner, Jessica did confess to being tired, but she still seemed happy and excited. She always seemed happy whenever she was with Brad and Cecilia knew for a fact that Brad absolutely adored her. Did something happen betweent the two after the dinner? Cecilia didn't know and after some minutes, she decided to give up the guessing. The only important thing was that the wedding was happening and everything was running smoothly.