𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 -𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚘𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚎 '𝙻𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚎' 𝙻𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎

Chapter 32

INT. AUNT MARCH'S HOUSE. 1869.

      Laurie notices his fiancé dancing with another man and he narrows his eyes. He trusts her, wholeheartedly, but still doesn't like that he's not the man swinging her around. He mutters a quick apology to Jo, who watches him walk off.
     He struts over there through the couples dancing. He taps the man on the shoulder, causing Mary and the man to look over at him. Mary's smile drops as she sees him.
"Mind if I cut in?" Laurie questions.
Daniel looks over at Mary, "It's her choice. Not mine."
Mary purses her lips, "I will keep dancing with Danny, but thanks for the offer, Laurie."
Laurie clenches his jaw. He glared at Mary as she dances away. He thinks of a plan. He goes up to the orchestra and asks them to play a specific song.
The song is related to a type of dance where you have to switch partners while dancing. When the song starts playing, the girls giggle and some boys groan. Men and Women stand in a line facing each other. Mary is facing her partner, Danny.
Laurie stands next to Daniel and across from a random woman. The woman marvels at the man, who is her partner. Why would anyone as pretty as him dance with her? She then looks beside her, where Laurie was looking and nods her head.
"That makes sense." The woman mutters as she sees the beautiful girl laughing beside her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't catch that." Mary questions and then moves towards Daniel as the woman stays in the same place.
Daniel's hand brushes against hers as they hold them up and walk around each other, "Theodore really wants to to talk to you."
Mary rolls her eyes, "No, thank you."
Thier hands pull away from each other as she ends up on the side that Daniel was on. Laurie is next to her. He smirks. She turns her face away from him.
Laurie dances away from her with a now grumpy woman. The woman ends up next to Mary. Mary goes across, like she's supposed to do. She ends up with Laurie, annoyingly enough.
"What's wrong?" He asks her.
Mary shrugs, "You told Jo you loved her."
They both go back to their sides that they started on. Daniel smiles at Mary as she dances with him again. The dance goes on with Mary switching partners every now and again.
    Finally, the dance ends and she excused herself to get a drink, but really, to get away from Laurie. Danny nods as he asks Laurie's partner to dance. Laurie follows after the Mary.
    "That was years ago, Lyn." He argues as he follows her.
       "Yeah, but you also told me you loved me years ago." She responds, still walking away from him.
      Laurie smiles, "Why are you always so jealous?"
        "Because if you're mine, I don't wanna share with my sisters." Mary shakes her head.
     She starts to walk faster and he follows her. He catches up to her and grabs her arm. With a tug, he pulls her to the corner of the room.
       Laurie sighs, "I did tell Jo I loved her, but it's different."
     "How so, Laurie? I have been second to her my whole life. I told you that I'm not going to do it again. I won't!"
       A few people look over at them, due to Marilyn's yelling. Laurie grabs her hands, expecting her to pull them away. She doesn't to his surprise. She loves him, but she can't deal with being the back up. She can't deal with all the fighting.
       "When I told her I loved her, it was because everyone was telling me too. I didn't even know what love was and we were both too young to understand it." He explains.
      Mary looks up at him, "So you don't love her and you never did?"
       He rubs her hands with his thumbs and smiles, sincerely, at her, "No, I don't love her the way I love you. It was just because I was a bit older than you and Jo was closer to my age, everyone felt me and she would've been the better match."
      "Do you feel that way now?"
       "Of course not. I love you with every breath. You know that." He reassures her.
          "Laurie, I don't want to get into a fight every time one of my sisters tells me something like that. I think that-" Mary chooses her next words, very carefully, "I love you Laurie, but no one is as important as my sisters. I think us falling in love was a mistake."
       Mary looks at him and then, looks down. She stands, awkwardly. She takes her hands away from his hands. She starts to walk away, as Laurie stands there with a shocked face. She only makes it a few feet until Laurie stops her.
       "No." He says to her and shrugs.
       She raises an eyebrow, "No?"
       "I am not the same man I was years ago. I'm not letting you walk away again. I don't care how many fights we get into. I don't care how many break ups you do. I don't care how many times I will have to smell your morning breath. Nothing can change my feeling for you." Laurie admits. 
      Mary wipes the tears that flooded her face, "I can't promise you that I won't be insecure about my sisters. I mean, they're beautiful and I get it if you like them more."
        Laurie laughs, "If I were to choose any of you, well, Meg would be my first choice, but you're a close second."
       Mary hits his shoulder with a weak laugh, "Sometimes I hate how much I love you."
      Jo and Meg look over to the corner, suspiciously. Meg is trying to investigate the couple and all of the looks they have given each other. Jo is angry at her sister.
     Laurie and Mary look close and flirty. While they're watching, Mary leads Laurie upstairs. Jo goes after them, but Meg grabs her arm. With a shake of her head, Jo sighs and returns to watching Beth dance with men, who are holding her up.
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      She giggles as he pushes her down the hall  She has never been as happy as to how she is with Laurie. Mary hopes that she provides just as much comfort to him as he does for her 
      She notices the little things with other women, but he never seems to care about the other men. He used to be jealous of James all the time, or at least, what she perceived as his jealousy.
     "How come you're never jealous?" Mary asks.  
      He sighs, " I always am, but I trust you and I know you're mine. I mean that guy you were dancing with downstairs was attractive, but I have spent too many years trying to get you to let you go over the suspicion of another man. Besides when I wanted you to leave James you said no, 'cause you're too nice to hurt him, so I assume you're too nice to hurt me."
     He goes in for a kiss and Mary stops him. She looks around, making sure no one is around. With a roll of her eye, she shakes her head 
        "Laurie, nobody knows about us still." She reminds him.
      " I was thinking about that. We should ask your dad for permission tonight  He is in a great mood and he loves me." Laurie brags.
      "Was that love I was seeing in his eyes while he was glaring at you?" Mary jokes 
      "Oh, Miss March, how you injure my pride!" He exclaims.
        "Soon it will be Mrs. Laurence." She reminds him 
      Just the thought of her being his wife makes him smirk, "Soon you'll be screaming that."
       Mary laughs, "Why would I be screaming my name?"
     "You know what I mean!" He yells, playfully annoyed.
        That sparks another laugh from her.
       Laurie wraps his arms around the love of his life. She lets him hug her. As much as she wants to keep the engagement a secret from her crazy family, she misses his touch.
     "Leave your window open later. I'm gonna come over." She whispers to him, still hugging him.
      Just the smell of him makes her excited. She doesn't think that there will ever be a day where she will regret saying yes to him. There will never be a day where he doesn't put a smile on her face. There will never be a day where either of them will stop loving the other.
       "Aren't I supposed to climb up your window to be with you?" He asks her.
       "Well, you could, but I'm sharing a room with Jo and I'm ninety-nine percent sure that she will push me out of the room if you showed up at our window." Mary warns. "Besides, who said that a woman couldn't do it?"
       With that, Laurie watches her walk away. He could never believe he loves a woman ten times smarter than him, but honestly, that just might be his type. He had never wanted to break the rules more.
      What she had just said is precisely the reason he loves her. She speaks her mind, no matter what. She believes that she can do so much more than what people expect of her. Most importantly, she still cares for Laurie and is making him more mature, but he still has his childish side, as does she. The perfect balance you could say.
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