Nick Jonas

Wedding

"Harper, come on!" Sophie shouts excitedly, basically throwing me into the shower located in my small bathroom at the wedding venue.

"Jeez, Sophie, I just woke up," I grumble, and she rolls her eyes at me.

"But this is your special day! You should be excited!" she says.

"I am excited. But I'm also tired," I say, throwing myself face down on my bed again.

"Absolutely not. Let's go!" she says, and this time I listen to her, knowing she won't let me get away with anything.

In the shower, I shampoo my hair twice and let the conditioner soak into it as I scrub my body. I shave quickly, wanting everything to be perfect for today. Finally, I rinse off one last time and step out of the shower, drying off and stepping into a robe before allowing Sophie back in the bathroom.

"Okay. I'll dry your hair first, have you put the dress on, and then I can help you do your hair. You said you wanted it done like it was for Nick's wedding, correct?" she says.

"Yeah, if you can, please," I tell her, and she nods.

It takes her about thirty minutes to fully dry my hair, and then it takes me another ten in order to get my dress on. Once I do, it finally sinks in that I'm getting married today. In like an hour and a half.

"You look so gorgeous already!" Sophie says, and I smile.

"Thanks, Soph. I'm really glad you're here to help me, though. I have zero clue what I'm doing," I laugh.

"I got you, girl," she says with a grin.

She braids my hair into a crown that looks exactly like the one she did for me in India, and then starts applying makeup right after spraying my hair profusely with hairspray. Foundation, mascara, blush, lip gloss, all of it is considered a necessity for a wedding, apparently.

"There. Does that look good?" she asks, allowing me to see into the mirror.

"It looks awesome. Thank you so much," I tell her.

"Of course! Here, just put this necklace on, I don't think you need much other jewelry since your dress has sleeves," she says, handing me a pretty, silver necklace that looks oddly familiar.

"Is that-" I ask, feeling tears in my eyes.

"It's your mom's. Joe wanted me to give it to you, he said Denise held onto it for this occasion," she explains.

"That is the sweetest thing ever," I say as she fastens it onto my neck.

"Yeah, I was glad they remembered," Sophie says.

"Me too. Can I see anyone before the actual wedding?" I ask, checking the time and noticing we still have a half hour before it starts.

"Let me see who's ready," she says, tapping quickly on her phone for a few moments. "Danielle and Priyanka can come up, if you want. And Frankie," she says.

"Okay. I want to see them," I tell her, and she nods, texting them to come to the room.

Within moments they've arrived, both girls nearly in tears at the sight of me.

"Oh, Harper! You look so good!" Priyanka squeals, and Danielle nods, too overcome with emotion to say anything. Frankie strides right across the room and hugs me tight, careful not to mess up my dress or makeup.

"You look great," he says, and I laugh.

"Thanks, Tank," I tell him, and he rolls his eyes at the childish nickname.

"Laine's going to love that dress," he says.

"I sure hope he does," I giggle.

The five of us talk for a while longer, cracking jokes and being goofy. We all have so much energy that it's nearly impossible not to. At some point Frankie and I start a nice conversation about which relatives we think will cry as I walk down the aisle.

"My mom will, for sure. And Joe's pretty emotional as well," he says.

"I don't know. Aunt Denise probably will, but I'm not sure about Joe. What about Nick? He has to walk me down the aisle!" I say.

"He probably will," Frankie laughs.

Then, they all try to guess which song I've picked to walk down the aisle to. Though I've told my family a lot about the wedding and our plans for it already, I'm the only one who knows the answer to this question. Not even Laine knows what song will play.

"Come on, why can't you tell us? It's not as if we won't find out soon anyway!" Frankie says.

"Franklin, not even Laine knows," I say, and he huffs.

"So then I don't get to know, do I?" he asks, sounding jokingly defeated.

"Nope. Not for another couple of minutes, anyway," I say, and he shakes his head with a grin on his face.

"Laine just arrived. Nick will be here in five minutes to get you, Harper. We've got to go line up," Sophie says, and I nod, smiling at them all as they head out of my room and downstairs to get ready.

I wait by myself for a few minutes, getting increasingly more excited as I do so. My husband is here, somewhere downstairs, waiting to see me. My entire family and all my friends are ready to celebrate the biggest moment of my life so far with me. And then I hear the door to my room slowly open as I turn around to face it.

"Wow, Harper, you look-" Nick says, his jaw dropping at the sight of me.

"Good, I hope?" I say, and he smiles.

"Stunning," he says, hugging me quickly as we exit the room and head downstairs.

"So has everyone else walked down the aisle already?" I ask.

"Nearly. I think they're just finishing up now, yeah-" he says as we come around the corner just as the double doors shut.

We walk up to the backside of the doors, out of view of the windows so no one can see the two of us yet. Any moment now, they will open and all eyes will be on Nick and I. Any moment.

"You ready?" Nick asks, turning to me with tears in his eyes.

"Yeah," I say, and he takes my arm gently. The double doors open once again and Look Me In The Eyes begins to play. I can see Laine up front, bright smile on his face as his eyes sparkle with love seen from across the room. Everyone inside the venue stands, and I can see Joe bawling, while Kevin beams like a proud dad, next to Kyle and Laine. I can feel the emotions in the place run high as everyone watches my forever best friend hand me over to my forever life partner. As Nick delivers me to the bottom of the altar, he slowly releases my arm and I look at him, a soft smile on my face. He swipes a tear away from his eyes quickly as he smiles back at me.

"I love you, Nicky," I whisper, and his smile widens.

"I love you too, Harper."

With that, the guy who has protected me through the hard times, supported me through the good ones, taught me how to love, and loved me unconditionally takes his place next to his brothers and my soon to be husband as I ascend the steps to take mine.

The next chapter of my life begins now.