Up In Flames

1

Calliope

I groan as my mother Ariadne shakes me awake."Come, you have to get ready for your big day!" She exclaims with delight. It's disgusting. Today is the day I have been dreading since before I can remember, my wedding day.

Okay, if I'm being honest, it won't be too bad. I am to marry Aias, who is apart of one of the wealthiest families in all of Italy. One of the reasons his family is so well known for reasons other than their riches is their kindness. My father had the marriage arranged before he died. I get he was trying to look out for me, but I don't want to marry for money. I want to marry someone who will love me, and someone whose passion I can match.

"Fine," I sigh as I stumble out of bed. It's just me and my mother in our small two bedroom house. I make my way over to my wardrobe and slip on a light cotton dress in a pale shade of green. I love the what the sage color does to me, complimenting my green eyes, and making the different shades of brown in my hair really stand out.

"Hurry!" my mother says, bouncing off of the walls.

"You seem more excited about this than I do," I chuckle.

"Oh, you know how much I love weddings! Now let's hurry and go get your dress, you don't want to be late, do you?" she asks as she practically leaps out the front door.

"Okay, coming!" I laugh as I race after her.

On our way to pick up my wedding dress, Marceli joined us. She is my best friend, and is going to be my maid of honor.

"I can't believe you almost left without me," Marceli complained for the umpteenth time since she tagged along.

"I thought you were going to meet us in the bridal tent!" I defended.

"Yeah right, and let you have all the fun picking out your dress? It's bad enough that you procrastinated until the evening you needed it!"

"Hey! It's not completely my fault," I said shooting my mother a hard glare and sending the group of us into a fit of laughter.

We continued chatting about the event of the day as we entered the shop. I followed Marceli and my mother deeper into the rows of white garments, listening to a lot of Oooh! This one's prettys and what do you think about this one?s, nodding my head absentmindedly whenever they looked at me for my opinion.

I fall back a little bit, and accidentally bump into someone behind me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I say as I grab onto their arm to balance them.

"It's no problem," the speaker (who turns out to be a quite handsome man) says with a genuine grin.

"What brings you here today?" the charming man asks.

"Shopping for a wedding dress," I say with a shrug, "what about yourself?"

"I too have some wedding business to tend to," he says in a matter of factly tone. I stifle a giggle, but before I can ask more, my mother comes and pulls my away.

"There you are! Marceli and I thought we lost you!" I turn around and wave at the man I was talking to, and hope he has a more enjoyable wedding than I will. When I return to where Marceli is waiting, she presents me with a beautiful ivory gown.  It had long silk sleeves that fell off of the shoulder, and had beautiful lace all over where waist is, but it lessened and became flowy at the hips.

"Ariadne and I think this dress might be the one. Thoughts?" Marceli asks.

"It's perfect," I whisper, barely audible.