Back To The Start (One Tree Hill)

Chapter 42

Brooke's POV

Haley's house

Three months later

Although I had thought that we would have endless time, the wedding day had come faster than expected. This time everyone would be there to celebrate this special day with Julian and me. Haley and Peyton had helped me with the fitting of my wedding dress, had put make-up on me and had done my hair. Now I stood in front of the large mirror in Haley's bedroom and looked at my reflection. I hadn't been showing at my first fitting, but now one could clearly see that I was pregnant. Fortunately, the wedding dress wasn't close-fitting and it was cut wider under my breasts which concealed my visible baby bump. I turned to one side and placed my hands over the soft curve. We still didn't know what it was this time, and I couldn't wait for the next ultrasound session, hoping that our baby would reveal its gender. At least we already knew that it was only one baby this time.

"Are you ready?"

Haley had stepped behind me unnoticed and smiled at my reflection. "Oh Brooke, you look so beautiful!" She said, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Hey, if you start crying, then I'm also going to cry," I said reproachfully. "Then I'll ruin my make-up, and we have to do everything again."

"But it's true. You have never looked more beautiful. Julian will instantly fall in love with you again," she said, grinning.

I put a hand on my chest and took a deep breath. "I don't know why I'm nervous. I mean, we're already married. Nothing can go wrong."

"What should go wrong?" Haley asked, frowning.

"Well, isn't it that at every wedding something unexpected is happening?" I said.

"That's bullshit!" She grimaced. "You watch too many movies."

"That's Julian's fault," I said, sighing. "Just recently, I watched a movie with him, where the bride went into labor right in front of the altar. And then she had to deliver the baby in the church."

Haley rolled her eyes. "You're 5 months pregnant, Brooke. Very unlikely that the baby is coming now."

"Yes, I think so, too. But in another movie I've seen the groom..."

"Stop it!" Haley said resolutely. "From now on you are banned from watching movies. This pessimism is nerve-racking!"

"I'm just nervous, Hales," I confessed, taking a deep breath. "And I was so looking forward to this moment. But when I'm walking to the altar and all eyes are on me, I can't afford to make a mistake."

"Fine, enough of it. We have to go now anyway. Otherwise you'll miss your own wedding, and that would be really embarrassing."

I was just looking at myself in the mirror one last time when Peyton entered the room.

"Hey, you forgot the most important thing," she said, grinning, holding a blue garter up in the air. "You know the custom, right?"

"Something new, something old, something borrowed and something blue," I mumbled.

"Exactly." She nodded eagerly. "And here is a garter in blue. Your wedding dress is new, and the earrings are from your mother, right?"

I nodded. "I didn't know you were so traditional, Peyton," I said with a smile and lifted my dress up to my thigh so she could slip on the garter.

"Just as traditional as I named my daughter after me," she replied with a chuckle. "Right, Hales? It's just part of the tradition of getting married in Tree Hill."