Roses || durm

.drei.

.drei.

"Your papa and I got married at a church carnival." Arabella explained to the children the next night after they got into their beds for the night. Erik had a football game that night and would be returning home later. Her eyes fell upon the wedding ring on around her finger with a smile. 

Things didn't go quite as she had dreamed them to be when she was younger, but in that moment, she didn't care. Having Erik with her to spend the rest of her life with was better than any big party and white dress. 

-

"Where are you taking me tonight, liebe?" She asked, her eyes looked out the window with excitement. Erik and Arabella had been together for a year and a half now despite the fact that her father wasn't too happy. But they were happy, and it was all that mattered to them.

The only clues he had given her were that they had to drive there and that it was twenty minutes away. As much as Arabella wanted to get information out of it, he just wouldn't speak of it. 

Arabella enjoyed the scenery, but there wasn't much to see.

They drove mostly down one avenue until they went into the residential areas. They eventually passed a park and finally an empty field. Her hands smoothed out the creases in her dress, he had asked her to wear her best one, but nothing overly fancy. Her auburn hair was neatly brushed out and she pushed the left side back, holding it in place with a pin. The rest of her hair fell a couple of inches past her shoulders, she had let her bob cut grow out since she started seeing Erik again.

As they passed the field, Arabella saw a lot illuminated by neon lights. There were many people there, it was a church carnival. And there were amusement park rides, as well as booths to play games in. Arabella's mouth fell open in awe. Everything looked so magical to her. 

Erik parked in a different lot, across the street from the church. It was the middle school parking lot.

The two got out of the car and she beamed with excitement. "When did you find out about this place?" She asked him as they stood on the sidewalk across the street.

"I've been coming to this church since I was a child." He told her with a smile. "Its like my second home."

Taking her hand, they crossed the street and entered the carnival. He led her right to one of the booths that sold special tickets to spend on games or food. The woman there recognized him and asked, "Erik! You brought your girlfriend. And look at her, she's so pretty!" She gushed.

Erik nodded shyly. "Ja. Her name is Arabella."

"Nice to meet you." Arabella said with a friendly wave of her hand.

"That's Mrs. Braun. She's the spiritual coordinator for the adult prayer group." Erik explained.

"Here are your tickets, enjoy the carnival. And don't forget you promised to help the youth group at the icecream booth." Mrs. Braun said as she handed them their tickets and they moved on before they could hold up the line. 

"So you're part of a youth group?" Arabella raised an eyebrow at him in curiousity.

He nodded, "Yeah. When you join the church, they invite you to join their prayer groups every Friday so that you can become more involved in the community. I started coming here when I was five years old and I was put into the children's group. We didn't do a whole lot of praying." He admitted, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "When you turn thirteen, they send you over to the young people's group, which is the one I am in now. And once you turn thirty, you move onto the adult group. The youth group puts up an icecream booth every year to raise money for our yearly spiritual retreat. I can never go because of football, and since they never want to accept my money, I offer to help at the icecream booth."

"I bet its a very popular icecream booth then." Arabella winked at him. 

Erik chuckled. "I don't know about that."

"You're so modest." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Embrace your popularity. Own it. Work it, girl."

-

He took her to the icecream booth where he introduced her to all of his church friends. For one reason or another, she expected they would treat him differently because of his status in the football world. But they treated him just like they would treat any normal person. If anything, they treated her with special treatment because she was Erik's girlfriend.

Erik worked at the icecream booth for an hour before someone else came by to take over. As Arabella suspected, it was a popular booth.

Most members of the church community stopped by to saw hello, and there was the ocassional first time visitor who recognized him and freaked out. 

The two had the rest of the night to themselves. 

Erik had purchased so many tickets that they went to every game booth and spent them like crazy. By the time their tickets began to run out, they had taken at least two trips back to the car so that they could leave their prizes and they had gone on all the rides. 

Arabella tugged on Erik's arm when she saw a booth that caught her attention. 'Marriage Booth' were the words above it. "Let's get married right now!" She told him.

"That's for a real marriage, liebe." He pointed out. Marrying her was all he wanted. But he wanted it to be something much more special than a marriage booth at the church carnival. Surely they would get the same blessing from God, but he wanted their families to be there and he wanted her father to accept him first.

"I know." She nodded.

"Are you sure?" He asked her.

Her smile dropped in that moment, "Aren't you?"

"I am." He said, "But I know you. And I know you want something grand, and I want to give you a grand celebration."

"We can do that later." She assured him with a smile. And taking his hand in hers, she took him to the booth where there was a priest.

He smiled at them. "Hello Erik, who is this beautiful young lady?"

"My girlfriend." Erik said rather proudly.

"We want to get married, father." She informed him.

"But the two of you are still children." He said, making the two frown. He knew how old Erik was, and he could tell from looking at her that Arabella was a couple of years younger.

"We love each other." Erik assured the priest.

"Maybe you should talk about it with your parents first." He suggested. "And then you can come back during the week and we can plan everything more calmly." That was the one thing both hated about being together. Everyone saw them as children who needed to be told what to do. For Erik, it happened a lot at his football club. With Arabella, it happened with her parents. But it seemed to happen even more when they were together.

Arabella brought her hands together as she begged, "Please, father."

After a couple of minutes, the priest finally agreed. Both were certain they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. The priest promised he would officially get them married right there at the carnival. But he asked them to return with their parents in a month's time and they would plan a big wedding ceremony for them. Erik and Arabella agreed.

And by the end of the night, Arabella became Erik's wife.

-

"I'd say the problems began after that day." Arabella sighed sadly. "Your papa and I were happy. But there were others who wanted to ruin it for us."

-

update.

i hope you all like it. thank you so much for reading and supporting me. it means so much.

-clary xx