ALONE #Wattys2015 COMPLETED

CHAPTER 17//ZOE

It's the day of the wedding, and let's just say these past 3 months have been stressful. I wake up at around 8am and make myself some coffee, Zack isn't home; he went and stayed with Scott, since the bride and groom aren't supposed to see each other until the church.
There's a knock at my door so I go to see who it is, of course it's Grace and Lucy, my bridesmaids.
"How do you feel!" Lucy says.
"Well good morning to you to," I say as they walk in.
"We need to get you ready!" Grace says.
"Okay, okay," I say and we rush off to my room.
We spend 3 hours getting ready and finally I'm in my wedding dress, my hair is half up, half down the bottom bits are curled.
"Zoe, you look gorgeous," they both say.
"Thank you," I say. "You both look gorgeous as well," Grace's hair is put up into a bun, her fringe out and it's curled a little. Lucy's hair is also up in a bun but we couldn't really curl her fringe so we just left it. Their dresses are ruby red and go straight down to their toes.
My dress is snow white, it has frilly bits on the shoulders and goes straight down with little flowers at the bottom.
We make our way to the limo that is parked outside, this will take us to the church.
Once we get there, Lucy goes first, Grace then follows. 'Here comes the bride' is played on the piano and I slowly start to walk down the aisle. Everyone is standing up and looking at me smiling, there aren't much people but there is enough for the wedding. I scan my eyes over the crowd, I see Scott standing up the front of the alter, he is smiling his face off. I then look to his left and see Jonny, he is smiling at me, but it isn't his usual smile, there is something else in it. Zack's back is facing the priest and I go up and stand next to him. He turns and grabs the veil off my head, and kisses me. The priest begins the ceremony.

I keep doing glances at Jonny and then he starts crying. Nobody else other than Scott and I seem to notice him crying since everybody is focused on the mass. Scott leads him out of the church and comes back in 5 minutes later without him. The priest turns to Zack and I and smiles.
"Do you, Zachary Lidge take Zoe Parker to be your wife?" the priest asks.
"I do," he says and smiles.
"Do you, Zoe Parker, take Zachary Lidge to be your husband?" the priest asks. All eyes are now focused on me, I turn my head towards to Zack he is smiling. I look at Scott, and he's looking down.
"I.." I begin to say and then it hits me. The memories just start flooding back. Running into him in the park, going to lunch with him, having the first fight, him saving my life, living with him, leaving him, seeing him again, him saving my lie yet again and again and again. This is when I realise, I don't love Zack the way I love Jonny. It's been Jonny this whole time, always Jonny. I've loved him since day 1, I just didn't realise until now, my heart has been pushing those thoughts away for so long that I just got so lost in this fantasy world of mine.
"I don't," I say and the whole church goes silent.
"You what?" Zack says and his eyes go watery.
"I'm sorry Zack, but I love you, just not in the way you want. My relationship with you has been fantastic, but it wasn't what I needed. I know whenever things like this happen, people always say you deserve better because it's true Zack, you do deserve better. You'll find your true love and you'll fall in love with her. But that true love is not me, I'm so sorry," I say and before anybody can reply, I walk down the aisle alone. I chuck the veil off my head and run out of the church, I turn left and keep running. I run down the street and keep running, one of the heels on my shoes break off but I don't care, I just keep running and running. People look at me weirdly, but I don't care, I keep running.
Until finally I am out of breath, I slow down and realise I ran a long way from the church but I don't care. I feel a bubble of guilt in my stomach, for just leaving Zack at the alter, but he'll be okay...right?
I turn to my left and see a bar, so I decide to walk in, there aren't many people but I am really thirsty so I go sit and get a drink.

I've had probably around 10 drinks, I actually can't tell. I'm pretty tired and really drunk. I hear some sobs coming from my right, I turn and see a boy crying.
"What's wrong?" I ask him, a little tipsy.
"Don't worry," he says and turns away.
"No tell me please, you look upset and besides I might forget it in the morning," I say.
"Okay," he says and turns towards me. "There's this girl I loved ever since I met her, but I just didn't have the guts to tell her, even though she was my best friend. And today she's getting married, she probably already got married! I'm sitting him sulking because my best friend is away living her happy lie with her happy husband and I'm left alone,"
"Your problem sounds similar to mine," I say. "Except, mine is a guy. He too, was my best friend and I did love him I just didn't realise it until I had to say 'I do' at the alter. So now, my so called husband, well not husband now because I ran out is left and probably crying but he will realise I wasn't his true love and he did deserve someone better, because the one I love is named Jonny Quent, but he doesn't know that and he can't because he's my friend," I say. The boy looks at me and starts laughing.
"You said Jonny Quent," he said.
"Yeah so?" I ask confused.
"That's my name!" I look at him deep in the eyes and then I grab his face. I grab his hand and I hold it in mine.
"JONNY!" I say.
"Yes it's me! And I do love you Zoe, I do," he says.
"I love you to Jonny, so much. I love you so much, please don't leave me," I say and put my arms around his neck. He places his hands on my waist and smiles.
"I won't leave you Zoe. Because, I love you to," and we kiss. There is a feeling to it, something I never ever got when I kissed Zack. It's sort of like a zing, you can't ignore it, because it's what makes the kiss feel right.
We spend the rest of the night talking and laughing at his apartment, in the end I end up falling asleep on his chest.

*

In the morning I wake up and check the time, it's 10am. I look down and see I'm still in my wedding dress. I walk out of the room I'm in, I think it's Jonny's and I try find the kitchen. Once I find it, I see Jonny making breakfast, he's on the phone with someone.
"Yes, she came to me last night,"
pause.
"Yes, I know what happened,"
pause.
"I do love her Uncle Scott, and she loves me, this whole time we have loved each other we just didn't say anything,"
pause.
"I know Zack will be upset,"
pause.
"But he does have to realise it's probably best for Zoe if she's with the one she loves,"
pause.
"okay Uncle Scott, you to, have a great day,"
Jonny ends the call and continues cooking breakfast. I walk up behind him and place my arms around him.
"Good morning beautiful," he says and kisses me on the forehead.
"Good morning handsome," I say.
I sit down and watch him cook.
"That was Uncle Scott on the phone, he said Zack was a mess but is alright now. Apparently he said he saw this coming and he was surprised you made it that far into the ceremony," Jonny puts the breakfast on two plates, it's pancakes and they look delicious. I place two on my plate and put lemon juice and sugar on it, Jonny puts Nutella on his.
"Should I talk to him?" I ask.
"It's up to you, maybe you should leave it for a while and then see," he says while eating his pancakes.

 We spend the rest of the day enjoying each other's company, and that's how it went for the next 15 years, we ended up getting married 3 years later, had 2 beautiful children and are now living happily together in Perth. As for Zack, he went on a holiday to France and met this beautiful lady called Gloria, they ended up getting married and now are expecting a child. Scott and his girlfriend got married too; they have 3 kids and are expecting another.

I know in stories they tend to end it with 'and we lived happily ever after', but that's how it was for Jonny and I. Yeah we had our rocky days but we never went to bed without making up and saying I love you as this was one of our vows.

So yeah, we did live happily ever after.

THE END

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A/N: SO THAT'S THE END! Hope you guys liked this story, I might think about making a sequel to it, but i don't know it depends. For now though, good bye and feel free to recommened it to other people to!

Remember to vote, comment and have a great day/night/afternoon/whatever guys!

xx Gabby (: