When I opened my eyes that morning, I looked to my left to see that Blake was still asleep. I then looked over at the clock to my right to see that it was ten fifteen in the morning. I turned back around to go back to sleep, but then realized what I was supposed to be doing right then.

I jumped up from the bed, shaking Blake awake as quickly as he could. He sat up, looking at me as if I was insane, and he didn't seem to understand why I was freaking out until I nearly shouted, "If we don't get up right now, we're going to be late to my sister's wedding!"

This made him jump out of bed as well, and we spent the next fifteen minutes getting ready as quickly as we could. It was easy for Blake, since he didn't have to do his hair or put makeup on. Putting my dress on was the easiest part for me, but then I had to make sure I didn't look like a total mess everywhere else.

"I can't believe I forgot to set an alarm," I gulped as I quickly curled my hair as fast as the curling iron would let me. My makeup wasn't that hard to do, even though I did have to restart once after I accidentally smeared the mascara almost all over my face.

Everyone was probably already had the church, but I highly doubt anyone really noticed that we weren't there yet. I just hoped we'd get there before the ceremony actually started at eleven. If we didn't, not only was I going to be killed by my parents, but I also was never going to forgive myself.

Once I was finally finished, I unplugged the curling iron and dashed to the door. I picked up my heels and didn't even put them on as Blake and I rushed out of the apartment and down the stairs to his car.

"I'm so glad you have a car now so we didn't have to call for a taxi," I sighed as Blake and I both got into his car. "At this rate, we're both going to make it with time to spare. We were supposed to be there at ten thirty, but we'll get there by ten forty-five. It won't be that big of a deal... We'll just tell them we got stuck in traffic or something."

Blake drove as fast as he could without getting pulled over all the way to the church, and we were able to get there fifteen minutes before the ceremony started. We had to park blocks away from the church though, so we had to run all the way there while I was in heels, holding up my dress.

"They better be together forever," I huffed as we made our way into the church. "Because if I did this for nothing, I'm going to kill both of them."

Blake didn't even seem out of breath in the slightest, and I couldn't help but feel jealous over that. I just hoped I wasn't sweating off all my makeup that I had to speed through...

"How nice of you to finally join us, Leah," my mother snapped at me as she suddenly came out from Morgan's dressing room, and I was way too out of breath from running to say anything back to her. "Could you please try not to make today about you? It's your sister's wedding day, for God's sake."

This made me feel really horrible. It was her wedding day, and I had no right taking any of the attention off of her. A lot of things had been about me lately, and Morgan had always stood by my side for them. It was about time that I stood by her side now.

"And I see you brought your... friend," my mother observed now, looking Blake up and down only once. "How... nice. You know, Sean and Cassie are around here somewhere, and so are Derrick and Leslie. Maybe you should go and find them."

She turned around then, her nose in the air as she walked off. All I could do was stand there and watch her go, not believing she was being so rude in front of Blake.

"Your mom really does hate me," Blake sighed, crossing his arms over his chest now as he turned fully toward me.

I couldn't even deny it, because even I knew that it was true. I wanted to say that she didn't hate him, she was just in a bad mood, but I really did think my mother hated Blake all because he wasn't Sean. Oh, not to mention his schizophrenia as well...

"I just wished that she'd call you my boyfriend," I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest as I looked in the direction my mother had left in. "She won't call you my boyfriend at all; she always just calls you my friend. It drives me completely nuts. It's like she thinks you're not good enough for me or something! No, I know for a fact that she doesn't think you're good enough for me. It's so ridiculous."

Blake shrugged, wrapping his arm around my waist now. "Well, what she thinks doesn't matter."

I couldn't help but smiled. "Agreed."

"Leah, Blake!" a new voice now cried out, and I turned to see Derrick with Leslie right behind him. "I thought you guys weren't going to show up!"

Derrick hugged me, and it took me by surprise for only a moment. It was different from any other kind of hug he had ever given me before. Before, they had been long and he obviously did it to feel my up. But now, they were short and friendly like they always should have been.

"We just got... caught in traffic," I excused as I hugged Leslie. "But at least we were able to get here before the ceremony started, right?"

Leslie smiled at me once we pulled away. "Right."

"I'm going to go see Morgan and let her know that we're here," I informed Blake as I turned back toward him. "Just hang out with Derrick and Leslie until I come back out, okay? I won't take too long."

Blake smiled at me. "Alright."

I leaned forward, pecking him on the lips quickly before turning toward my sister's dressing room. I hurried my way toward it and inside, not wanting to waste any more time.

"Leah!" Morgan smiled when she saw me, and she looked like I had just lifted a thousand pounds off her shoulders by just being there. "I thought you were hurt or something! I was so worried!"

"I'm fine," I assured as she rushed over to hug me. "Blake and I just got caught in traffic, that's all."

She nodded when she pulled away from me. She looked so nervous, but I could tell she was really excited that she was going to get married. I was excited, and even a little nervous, for her. I knew that my parents still weren't Kyle's biggest fan, so they weren't exactly excited for today. That sure made Morgan even more nervous...

About five minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start, she pushed me out of her dressing room so she could continue getting ready. I laughed at how she was acting, and I knew she couldn't wait until after the ceremony was over and it was the reception...

When I stepped outside of her dressing room, I noticed that the room that I was now in was empty. When I had gone inside, there were a few people there, but now there was absolutely no one. And for some reason, it made me feel really uneasy.

I started toward the door to the room that everyone else was in, but was stopped short when someone slid in front of me. I almost let out a shout of surprise, but I then saw that it was only Sean, and it wasn't someone to get scared over.

"Sean," I greeted sourly, trying to act like I wasn't bothered with the fact that he was here. "I haven't really talked to you in a while."

The look on his face was hard. "Yeah, I wonder why."

I sighed, not believing he was actually going to start with this here, of all places. Right then was not the time to bring something like this up.

"I really don't want to talk about this right now, Sean," I told him now, trying to side step away from him so he'd see that he was the last person I wanted to talk to at that moment. "Can we just deal with this sometime later?"

Sean's eyebrows furrowed at me. "Well, I'd like to talk about it now."

"You're here with Cassie, Sean," I reminded him, in case he had somehow forgotten. "Cassie's your date, not me. Cassie's your girlfriend, not me. So go act like a good boyfriend and leave your girlfriend's best friend alone."

Sean's eyebrow twitched. "You know I'm in love with you."

That almost made me cringed. I didn't want to think about Sean being in love with me while I was in love with someone else. It made me feel bad for him, no matter how nasty he could have been to me or Blake.

"Okay, can we not make today about you or me?" I asked, glancing around to make sure that no one else was anywhere near us. "It's my sister's wedding. It's not about us."

Sean took a step back away from me, holding his hands up in surrender. I only continued to stare at him, then realizing that he had stopped talking about it because people were now starting to sit down so the wedding could start.

I hurried away from him and rushed right by Cassie, ramming my elbow into hers by accident without even meaning to. I know she scowled at me, but I didn't even bother to stop and apologize. It wouldn't have made her hate me any less.

I met with Blake in the front and we took our seats. We sat beside Derrick and Leslie, and I had no idea where Sean and Cassie were sitting. Honestly, I didn't even care where they were. They could have left for all I cared. It would have made everything easier for me.

When the music started playing, everyone in the church turned around to see Morgan and Kyle's friends walking down the aisle with each other. While I was looking back to see, my eyes locked with Sean's before I quickly looked away from him.

I knew he was going to ruin my sister's wedding for me. Cassie hadn't even spoken to me yet and she was ruining it for me as well. Was there ever going to be a time where Cassie and Sean didn't ruin something for me?

Morgan looked absolutely beautiful coming down the aisle. It made me hope that I'd be that beautiful someday, walking down the aisle to see Blake waiting for me at the end. I hoped that my dad would walk me down like he was walking Morgan right then, and I really hoped my mother wouldn't try to stop him like she tried to stop him from walking Morgan down the aisle.

But I couldn't believe that my sister was actually getting married. She was up there with the lover of her life while I was in the crowd with the love of mine. I just couldn't wait to have this with Blake in the future.

The priest spoke, even though I didn't really know what he was saying. I got the gist of it thought, and that was really all that mattered.

"Kyle," the priest began now as he looked over at my future brother-in-law, "do you take Morgan Justine Burkley to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love her, comfort her, and keep her in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?"

Kyle smiled at my sister. "I do."

"Morgan," the priest now said, "do you take Kyle Anthony Smith to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love him, comfort him, and keep him in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?"

Morgan smiled at Kyle now. "I do."

The priest now looked out to the people sitting in the pews. "Does anyone here have any reason that these two should not be wed?"

I looked down the pew at my mother, who crossed her arms over her chest and sat there very unhappily. Even though she didn't like Kyle, I knew she wasn't going to do anything to ruin this day for Morgan. Especially after all the money they spent on all of this.

The priest now smiled. "Then you may now kiss the bride."

And they did. When I felt something warm on my cheek, I was surprised to see that I was crying. I looked over to see if anyone else was, and I was glad when I saw that I wasn't the only one. My mother looked like she was nowhere near tears, so I wasn't expecting anything from her. But I just couldn't believe that this had actually happened. Morgan and Kyle were now married.

For once, something was going right.

At the reception afterwards, all I really wanted to do was eat cake and dance. I wasn't looking forward to seeing any of my relatives, since I knew they were just going to tease me about Blake. Unless they had already heard about him from my mom. If they had, then they'd probably pull me away from him and tell me to blink if he's hitting me or something.

"Aw, Leah, look at you!" my aunt Claudia gushed when she saw me, even though I just wanted to turn away and not look back at her. She wasn't even my real aunt; she married my deceased paternal aunt's husband, who wasn't related to me at all. My cousin would tell me that she was a huge bitch anyway, so I saw through her façade. Her daughter, my step-cousin, was probably around here somewhere looking for cute boys to hit on... "And you got yourself a boyfriend, too! How... wonderful!"

I could tell that she had talked to my mother about him. Even though they weren't related in the slightest, they got along well because they were so much alike.

I made sure to get away from Claudia as quickly as possible, looking for someone else to talk to as I nearly dragged Blake around the room. There were too many people on the dance floor to dance, and I had eaten so much cake that I thought I was going to explode.

"My family drives me nuts," I informed Blake as I continued to bob and weave us through the room.

He snorted. "Yeah, I can tell."

I playfully punched him in the side, which caused him to take my by the hand and pull me closer to him. I smiled, leaning into him now. There were too many people in the room and I just wanted to be closer to him.

"I heard that boy is mentally ill," I heard a few of my older relatives on my mother's side suddenly comment, and Blake either didn't hear them or decided not to react. "Tiffany's actually letting her daughter parade around with that boy as if it's okay. She already let Morgan marry one failure, and now she's going to let her other daughter throw her life down the toilet, too?"

I wanted to snap at them and tell them that they were wrong, that I wasn't throwing my life away by being with Blake. He made me happier than anyone else ever could, and that was something that made me love him even more. I didn't care about what my family thought. They didn't have to be in my life once I got older.

"Excuse me..." I couldn't help say to the two older women now, Blake's arm still wrapped around my waist as I spoke. Both of them looked at the two of us as if we were insane, but I didn't back down. "Didn't both of your marriages end? If I remembered correctly, one of your husbands ran away with another woman and the other committed suicide."

Both of them looked at me in complete outrage, but I simply shrugged before turning away with Blake, who was laughing just as much as I wanted to. That would teach them for judging my love when theirs had been complete and utter failures.

"Leah!" a new voice now called out now, and I turned to see my cousin Ivy, her arm around a guy's arm. I'd never seen him before, so I didn't know who he was. Ivy immediately detached herself from him and nearly pounced on me in a hug.

"Hey!" I grinned at her once she pulled away from me. "I didn't think that you were here! I didn't see you."

She waved me away. "I guess it's just easy for me to sneak into weddings."

Her boyfriend snorted behind her. "You got that right."

"Oh, yeah, this is my boyfriend," Ivy informed me on what I already knew as she gestured to the boy behind me. Before she could tell me his name, the boy beside me caught her eye. "And who is this?"

"Um, this is my boyfriend," I introduced, a little embarrassed that the attention was now on me instead of her. "His name's Blake."

Ivy's eyes lit up. "Oh! He's the guy you called me about earlier on in the school year because you were confused about your feelings for him after you kissed him."

When Blake smirked at me, I felt my cheeks heat up as I sent a glare to Ivy. She laughed at me, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's before turning around and dragging him away, knowing that I'd probably kill her if she stayed.

"So..." Blake started as I quickly headed back toward our table. "I guess you've liked me a lot longer than I thought you did."

"Shut up," I hissed, not wanting to talk about it. This reminded me of all the times I had teased him about things, and I knew he wasn't about to let me off the hook for this. There were rarely ever times that he actually got to tease me for things like this...

I pulled him onto the dance floor, not wanting to talk about this any longer. I now understood how he must have felt all the times that I decided to make fun of him for something. It was definitely not a good feeling.

"If you started liking me after you first kissed me..." Blake started now, as if he was calculating the times in his head. It made me roll my eyes, because I thought that we were done talking about this now that we were dancing. "That means that, just like I thought, I've liked you longer than you've liked me."

I blinked, almost stopping right in the middle of the dance floor. "When did you start liking me?"

Blake's face now turned red, and it was now my turn to embarrass and tease him. I now poked him in the side as we continued dancing, and he hid his eyes underneath his hair. I didn't really understand what was so embarrassing about this since we were dating now, but I didn't really have much room to talk. I was embarrassed when the subject had been on me liking him before we got together...

"I started liking you when I first said your name, in your car after seeing Derrick at the diner," Blake informed me bashfully, still not looking up to meet my gaze. "Obviously I said your name before anything else because I liked you. At first, I thought it was because you were the first girl to show interest in me since... a while ago, but I realized that I wanted you and only you when I realized how jealous I was every time you talked to another guy."

I smiled at him. "Aw, how possessive yet sweet."

He rolled his eyes at me and pulled me closer so my chin was no resting on his shoulder. He held me tighter, and I never wanted him to let go.

"What about you?" he asked me now, burying his face in my hair. "When did you realize you were in love with me?"

I smiled, remembering when I admitted to myself that I was in love with him. It was before I knew what his secret was, and before anything really bad had happened to either of us. Things were really different now.

"When you took care of me, that night that I was drunk," I whispered, my grip on him tightening. "When I woke up that morning, I thought that we had sex, but I didn't mind. You took care of me when you could have taken advantage of me, and it made me realize that you're different from every other guy. It made me realize that you really cared about me, and I really loved you."

I felt Blake smile into my hair, and I couldn't help but smile back at him. We continued dancing, not caring what my family thought of us being together. They didn't matter to me, and I knew they didn't matter to Blake either.

"I can't wait until it's our turn to sit up there," I whispered to him now, glancing over in the direction of the main table where Kyle and Morgan were sitting. "That day will be the best day of my life."

"And it'll be mine as well," Blake agreed, holding me closer in his arms.

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The gif attached for this chapter is so cute I can't even

Oh! And a question for you guys! So, the other day my friend and I were fighting with each other about what the theme of this story is. He couldn't think of anything, and I suck at theme, so I didn't know either. So what do you guys think the theme is?

This story is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! Don't forget to NOMINATE Blake as well! <3