"Come over here and stand right next to each other," said the man in the tweed suit. Principal O’Doherty was next to him, smirking.
When did he get there? I really thought he was in the other room. Why did it seem that all these people have that trademark horror film smirk on their faces?
Nick took my left hand in his right hand pretty tightly, our knuckles sealing our hands together, nothing was going to break them apart. It was as if he knew the current situation was freaking me out. That or he didn't like the looks of the room either. I held on unyieldingly, praying that everything was going to be alright and that this would end, like a nightmare eventually does. Nick's hand was keeping me grounded from my spinning mind. Mentally slapping myself in the hope that this was one of those nightmares I could wake up from. If I could just make up something ridiculous to walk past me like a lamb in pajamas reading A Tale of Two Cities just so that I knew that I was in fact dreaming and the scene before me wasn't real. I was happy though knowing that I wasn't the only one being struck to the core at the moment.
"We are gathered here today to unite this woman and this man in holy matrimony," the man in the ridged suit said, facing Nick and I since the other people from our table were standing outside the door.
"Do you…" The man paused and was staring at Nick as the room fell silent.
The stranger couldn't have been bothered to learn our names before we walked into the room.
"Nick," Nick finally spoke up after a few seconds, figuring out what they wanted him to do.
"Take thee…" The man paused again and gawked at me and I wasn't even sure if a voice would come out. It didn't, I opened my mouth and nothing came out.
"Rachel," Nick said for me and gave my hand a squeeze, the gesture seemed to highlight the only feeling I had in my body.
"To be your wife?" continued the man, finally getting out the question in his monotone voice; it wasn't like we were forcing him to be there. We didn't want to be doing this project either.
"I do," Nick answered after getting the most frightening death glare on the face of the earth from Principal O'Doherty.
"Do you Rachel take thee Nicholas to be your husband?"
The room grew quiet as it felt like the weight of the world was now thrust upon me. It was just an assignment I kept repeating through my head, but the strength of that voice was being hushed by the eeriness in the air. Please let this voice be right, I prayed as Principal O'Doherty glowered.
"I do," I responded no louder than a whisper.
"Repeat after me Nicholas." Nick cringed when the man said his full name that not even the teachers called him by. "I, Nicholas, take thee Rachel to be my wedded wife."
"I, Nick, take thee Rachel to be my wedded wife."
"To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part," The man read with Nick repeating after him.
"Now, Rachel, repeat after me. I Rachel, take thee Nicholas to be my wedded husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part."
I repeated after the man quietly all the while Nick's thumb ran over mine soothingly as sweet as any words he could have, but couldn't at the time.
"Now leave so the next group can go," Principal O'Doherty ordered with a wave of his hand.
As we left neither Nick nor I talked at first.
"That was bizarre," I said, in a hushed tone as my focus was glued to the floor, as my breathing seemed to have returned to normal.
"It was," he said, letting go of my hand; by the look on his face and how quickly he let go I could tell he just realized he was still holding my hand.
As we made our way by the tables it felt like the walk of shame. I couldn't explain it, but it was like we were on the ride to the guillotine after we had done a crime. We got to our table and Nick started to talk to someone else from another table real quickly as if it was just a regular day. That nothing had just happened. Words escaped me and Bridget was gone so that I couldn't talk to her on her thoughts, leaving me alone to mine.
The waiters started to serve us lunch; Nick needed food in his stomach to fully pay attention. I was noticing it was as if food was the source to recharge his mental batteries. Meanwhile they had the groups getting up and going into that room. I saw my friend Holly and her partner go towards the room. Holly didn't really seem that pleased to be there either, her brown eyes appeared nervously wet with unshed tears while she played with the ends of her chin length reddish hair. I watched her and she was standing next to this guy named Micah. We personally find him very annoying and she makes plans on how to hurt him. Of course we would never hurt him, but it was fun to think of after all his obnoxious comments that no one found funny other than himself. Also I knew that she liked him whether she was able to admit it or not. Part of being friends was that you could read each other.
"How do you think they picked the pairs?" I inquired, watching Holly
