Impractical Jokers, Practically

Chapter Twenty

I glance at the boys and then narrow my eyes at Q. "What? What do you mean the court won't annul our marriage?"

Q shifts on his feet, "I called them this morning. Explained the whole situation--the tv show, how it was a joke--but they don't care. They said that it's not one of the conditions that warrants an annulment. Underage, blood relations, force: those would be acceptable to get the marriage annulled. But they said that with both parties consenting, well it's all legal. Nothing they can do about it. Nothing we can do." He looks down. "They said a prank show involving a prank marriage...and now that we're stuck...that we deserve it."

"They obviously must not be fans of the show." Joe tries to make the situation humorous, but no one hardly cracks a smile. 

Sal pipes up, "There's nothing we can do? Come on, Q, really?" He clenches his fists, "You fucking married her and didn't check to make sure that you could un-marry her?!"

"Well, there is something we could do." Q pauses, then continues, "We could get a divorce."

"A divorce?" I slowly sink down on the couch, biting my nails. "But doesn't that take a long time? We would have to get lawyers and...No, I don't want to do the divorce option. Too messy. Too long. Too expensive. And then it would be stay with us. You would always have it on your record," I say, pointing to Q, "And it would be on mine. How would we explain ourselves to your future wife and my future husband? Oh yeah, I was once married and it was legal, but it wasn't real." 

Sal blinks, "You wouldn't have to explain it to your 'future husband' because your 'future husband' already would know the whole story." When I look at him questionably, he mumbles, "I already know."

I stare at Sal, feeling a little flustered. My heart flutters in my chest, beating fast, but my mind is thinking things like "whoa, too soon, slow down there."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Sal, you don't know for sure that you and Alexa will get married. That's ridiculous. You can't predict that." Murr offers his two sense. 

Sal glares at Murr, then whispers, "I will marry her." 

"Okay, let's focus on what's going on at the moment." I try to get back on track; I'm too full of emotions right now to even process what Sal is saying. "I don't want to get a divorce. I wanted the one and only time that I got married to be it. And if Q and I get a divorce, it would be known forever that I was once married previously. It will bother me. And, like I said, it will cost a lot of money and it will take up a lot of our time. That's why I would rather do the annulment. We're basically just canceling the marriage, like it never happened. Wait, I have an idea." I spring up off the couch, ready to share my thoughts. "What if we just tell the courts that I was forced to marry Q? That I didn't have a choice? I mean, contractually, I didn't really have a choice, otherwise I'd be off the show." I giggle to myself. "But, anyways, we could tell the court that I was forced to get married, I didn't have a choice, and it wasn't fair. Like I was drunk or something. This should work, right? Don't people get married by accident in Vegas all the time?"

"You have a point there." Q offers. "But if you show the court the footage from the wedding, we were obviously aware of what we were doing. Plus, I already told them about Impractical Jokers and how it was all for a joke. They won't buy this new story. I don't know what to do. This is a mess. I'm so sorry, Alexa. And Sal." Q looks at us, giving us the puppy dog eyes.

"You know, Q, this really isn't your fault. I mean, I don't blame you. This was all done for the show, we were all in on it, how were you supposed to know that the court wouldn't understand? It's a stupid situation, but this isn't all on you." I shrug.