Right Through Me

T W E N T Y E I G H T

"How is this happening exactly?" I asked, standing before my three best friends and Diane in the twenty-seventh wedding dress today. "I can't do this, I can't."

Diane knew about the situation me and Donovan were in and she was completely supportive of it. All my plans, however, to end it all sooner rather than later went to the trash and nearly four months of faking it went by and now we're getting married, for real, so Donovan can properly ask his grandfather.

Married. He asked me to get married and definitely not the way I was hoping. Not to mention the past months have been nothing but hell. Patients at work ask about the ring all the time and I kept going out to dinner and brunches with Owen and Donovan. Not only that but I even attended parties Owen threw or Diane threw and everyone announced our proposal so it was all over Donovan's family.

I was so deep in shit there was no way for me to get out of this and possibly survive. I don't even know how I let Donovan convince me to do this but Owen's sob stories probably paid a huge part to all of this.

"I can't! I can't do this anymore, seriously, this is going too far!" I said, sitting down, defeated. "I've already tired on a thousand dresses and none of them are good so it's a sign to not go on with a fake wedding."

"I know you don't like this situation and I honestly don't know anyone who would but you're already doing this much for Donovan, why even try to stop now? Besides, if you stopped now Owen will surely find you," Diane said, sighing heavily.

"This is not how I wanted to get married," I admitted, wiping my tears with a tissue. 

"It's the same man in your fantasies so, why not?" Mia joked but I thought it was all but funny. "All you have to do is get married, get Owen's approval and then get a divorce."

"Everything will be okay, Lina, if it isn't we will always be here for you," Leslie said, actually cheering me up.

"Ms. Olsen, we have some more dresses for you," said the worker who had been helping me for three hours now. 

"Thank you."

Slowly, I stood up and headed back to the dressing room and tried on the next dress. Before leaving I looked at myself in the mirror and was completely astonished. The dress had a corset top and the bottom cascaded down with beautiful silk, decorated at the bottom in intricate beading and lace and it was big, almost like a princess' dress. The sleeves were ties that hung off my shoulders and the corset was decorated in the same beading and lace. I was lost for words.

I slowly walked out, my face still holding the same astonishment I had in the dressing room and all four of the girls stood up with jaws dropped when I stood atop the platform, twirling it around.

"Oh, my God," they said.

"It's so beautiful," Diane said, choking back tears. "You look so amazing."

"This is the dress," Amanda said, the three standing and walking around me as Diane struggled to wipe all her tears away. "This is the dress. This is the one."

"Oh, God!" I said, on the brink of tears again. "This is so hard. a fake marriage that is suppose to have no strings attached yet I already have several strings attached."

"Why did you volunteer for this, Lina?" Leslie asked. "You love Donovan yet this is all going to end in the way you don't want it too. It's only going to hurt you."

"You love him?" Diane choked out, standing up and rushing over to me, grabbing my hands in hers. "You love Donovan?"

"Unfortunately," I said, swallowing back a ball of tears but I still ended up crying.