Only eleven weeks until I get married thought Jenny to herself as she perused the multitude of family albums. She had them spread all over her bedroom floor and it looked a terrible mess!

Jenny's mother had thought that she would never see the day when her youngest daughter would get married. For Jenny had vowed and declared that she was never getting married and that she intended to remain single. So it was of great surprise and joy when Jenny turned up at the last family Christmas party with Nathan her newly found beau. Everyone liked Nathan as he seemed to be very polite and was extremely good looking. He also came from a very "rich family" as her parents had put it.

It wasn't long before the supposedly happy couple announced their engagement. Jenny also told her parents that they would be getting married at the end of that very year as Nathan didn't believe in long engagements. Jenny had turned twenty five earlier that year and Nathan had proposed to her on her birthday.

Jenny's mother and sisters Kate and Belinda had prepared the biggest engagement party that anyone in their family had ever witnessed. Besides being completely extravagant and flamboyant it was the best party that anyone had ever been to in a long while or so they said. Jenny's parents had sent out one hundred and ten engagement invitations and they had all been accepted so that had set the family immediately into a frantic whirlwind of preparation for the event. Now with that all over they immediately started preparations for the big wedding day.

Kate was the eldest girl in the family and was turning thirty five soon. She had been married to Michael for twelve years. They had beautiful identical twin girls, Chloe and Caitlin whom everyone absolutely adored. The twins even had their own bedroom when they slept over at Grandpa and Grandmas house. They were about to turn ten in two weeks time and their mother was in the midst of planning a surprise birthday party for them with a few of their school friends.

Belinda, Jenny's other sister was thirty one and had met her husband Peter at the local Church dance and they had fallen in love with each other instantly. They had been inseparable ever since that night. They drove to work and back home together and even worked in the same city office. It seemed to be a match made in heaven or so it seemed. Belinda had just given her parents the wonderful news that she was at last going to have a baby. Of course her parents and all the family were ecstatic upon hearing this wonderful news.

All of a sudden Jenny felt a little daunted at this news of yet another sister who was now pregnant and the fact that she also would be married very soon. So much had happened over the last five years that she wondered what was going to happen next. I guess this is what family life is all about Jenny thought to herself. Things are always changing and nothing ever stayed the same for long or so it seemed to Jenny.

For some unknown reason she didn't feel completely satisfied with her life at present. Shouldn't she feel on top of the world as she had found Nathan and they were about to be married very soon? There still seemed to be something missing from her life and she didn't know what it was. Whatever the reason she could not put a finger on it and told herself that it was just pre-wedding nerves.

Now where was that dark blue School photo album Jenny wondered as she came to the last album? Suddenly Jenny remembered that she had put it up in her cupboard for safe keeping. She scrambled up off the floor from where she was sitting and started fumbling through her cupboard in search of her treasured album. There it was Jenny could see it at the back of the cupboard tucked away beneath some old hats. She reached in and pulled it out from beneath all the clutter. Excitedly Jenny carefully untied the blue ribbon that she had tied around it with and eagerly opened the album to the first page.

Jenny glanced at her Primary School photos with fond memories and then flicked over to the High School ones. There were some class photos and a few single portrait photos of Jenny and her friends. Those were the days she thought to herself, no worries or not many at least. It used to annoy her when her mother used to say "School days are the best days of your life young lady". Most of the teachers were great and she got along with them really well. Jenny worked hard at School and always tried her best. Occasionally she would get into trouble for talking too much but that was about all.

Once she had left High School and started work she hadn't seen many of her friends except for Trish and Kristy, as they had been her very best friends. They all still made a point of meeting each other once a month to go on an outing or just to have coffee and a chat. Hopefully they would remain friends forever thought Jenny; she would make sure of it.

Unexpectedly Jenny came across some portrait photos of Trevor one of the boys from High School. Her first true love as Jenny used to think. They had managed the odd kiss or two when they thought that no-one was looking and would hold hands at school in the playground at lunch-times. She thought how cute and boyish he looked in the photo and it bought back a lot of good memories. It had been about four years since she had seen Trevor. Although Jenny did see him at a friends twenty first birthday party and then it was only to say a few fleeting words to each other. Jenny had come with a rather beautiful looking girl and they only seemed to have eyes for one another so Jenny decided to avoid them at all cost.

When Jenny and Trevor were going together at High School they would sometimes meet at the local Shopping Mall on a Saturday. Jenny used to tell her parents that she was going over to visit one her girlfriends for the day. In actual fact it was to meet up with Trevor, as this was the only way they could escape from her parents and sisters and go out on a proper date. They would go to the local movies sometimes or just sit at the cafe' to have something to eat. There they usually order a caramel milkshake each and an iced doughnut each as these were their favourite things.

Jenny couldn't imagine her sister's ever doing that sort of thing they would have thought that it was totally outrageous and rebellious. She therefore never told them what she did as they would have gone straight to their parents and told them what Jenny was up to. She would have been grounded for a few days at least. Worst of all she would not have been be able to see Trevor again and they would have completely banned him coming to the house at all.

Jenny's parents had tried to put a stop to their relationship on many an occasion. They didn't like Trevor coming around too much as they thought that he was not "good enough" for their daughter. They thought that he was a nice boy but they hardly ever invited him to any of the family functions let alone ask him to come to Christmas dinner. He came from a "poor family" as her parents had put it

Also they thought that Jenny and Trevor were far too young to be so serious about each other. Their other excuse was that they did not want the relationship interfering with their daughter's studies in her final year of School. Jenny was going to University as far as her parents were concerned to do something "worthwhile". They refused to discuss the subject any further when Jenny objected to their intentions and wanted to sit down and talk to them about what she wanted.

They made sure that Jenny was kept busy most of her spare time hoping that she would forget about Trevor. Jenny had taken no notice of what her parents had thought as she couldn't help feeling this way about Trevor. How could you stop someone loving another person? They had both really liked each other and had made a vow to get married one day even if meant that they had to elope to do so. As it would save all the hassles with her parents and she wouldn't have to answer to them or anyone else for that matter.

It was her life and it was up to her how she lived it or so Jenny had thought in those days. Eventually after three years of non-stop pressure from Jenny's parents they had reluctantly parted and decided to go out with other people to see if it was just a school-yard crush after all! That's what her parents and some of her relatives kept telling her, maybe they were right as they had been through it all.

Why on earth was she thinking of Trevor now anyway as it was a little late to be doing that now. Anyway Trevor would have forgotten about her by now surely. Besides, she was almost a married woman she told herself. Jenny tried to put him out of her mind but found that very difficult indeed. She thought that she had better start thinking about Nathan instead.

Jenny looked up at the clock and was surprised to find that it was almost mid-night and wondered where the last hour had gone. Jenny had felt that she had been carried off to another world for a little while at least. It would be Saturday morning in exactly ten minutes and bed sounded very inviting, as she needed to get some sleep.

Kate and Belinda said that they would be coming over around eleven o'clock to help them check over the quest list for the wedding. It was almost time to be mailing them out to their relatives and friends. There were still so many little things to do Jenny couldn't believe it and she suddenly felt tired just thinking about it.

Ever since the announcement of their wedding day Jenny's mum had not stopped running around ordering or buying items for the occasion, it seemed an endless task. The worst part of all was trying to choose a wedding dress. They had visited so many wedding boutiques that Jenny became totally confused and would end up buying nothing at all. There were just too many lovely wedding dresses to choose from. Was it all worth it, she wondered as it was all very exhausting and frustrating?

Jenny had almost given up looking for a wedding dress and had even contemplated making it herself. There was even a possibility of her wearing her mother's wedding dress as it was still in excellent condition and was a perfect fit. Jenny changed her mind in the end as it wasn't exactly the style she had wanted although it was very pretty.

One day when visiting their Grandparents house Chloe and Caitlin were browsing through some recent magazines that they had found downstairs. Suddenly there had been an outburst of exclamations and giggles coming from the lounge-room. The girls had come running upstairs to show their Aunt a picture of a "beautiful wedding dress" that they had found in one of the magazines. The dress was also available in one of the local wedding boutiques which was even better for Jenny and her mother, as they were both getting rather tired of all the running around so much. Jenny could hardly believe her luck! It was indeed beautiful and Jenny liked it straight away.

She had then immediately hugged and kissed the girls and thanked them profusely for about the next half hour. The following day was spent purchasing the wedding dress and the long veil much to twins delight. They had insisted on coming with Jenny to buy the wedding dress. How could she refuse to take them with her after all they had found it for her? Kate had told Jenny that she was game taking the twins with her and wished her lots of luck.

Kate had already made the girls pink dresses for the wedding as they were going to be the flower girls. They were both very excited about all the fuss and attention to say the least. The twins would pester their mother nearly every afternoon to see if they could try their dresses on. They said that they wanted to see if the dresses still fitted them. They had been most indignant when Kate told them that they were not allowed to. She had told the disappointed girls that they might get them dirty and ruin them. Also that if they didn't behave themselves that they might not be little flower girls after all. When they heard this threat coming from their mother they instantly changed into two angelic children. Kate had wished that they would behave like that all the time.

Jenny stretched and yawned loudly and thought that she had better get some sleep and started packing up all the albums. She put them near the door ready to take downstairs the next morning. Picking up the school photo album Jenny placed it on her bed so that she could look at it just one more time when she got into bed

After a quick shower Jenny climbed into her warm comfortable bed and propped two pillows behind her back and head it felt quite comfortable. Taking the photo of Trevor out of the album she studied it more intently. Suddenly she saw the silver ring on his index finger on his left hand. It was the ring that she had given Trevor on his seventeenth birthday! Jenny remembered that she had saved up all her pocket money for two whole months to buy it. Trevor had probably thrown it away by now and the thought made her feel a little bit sad.

Jenny could imagine him being married by now and even having a couple of children not that she'd heard anything indicating this. He had been quite a handsome young man and well sort after by a lot of the infatuated girls at High School. Even though they all knew that Jenny was going out with Trevor they still tried to attract his attention one way or another.

Bradley was Trevor's younger brother; he had been about thirteen and in year eight at High School. He quite often got into trouble at school for "clowning around" and spent quite a few lunch-times sitting outside the Principal's office. He did attend a drama class at the school so that might have been half his trouble. Brad was not a bad kid he just liked to make people laugh he loved being a comedian.

Whenever Jenny went around to Trevor's house she was always made feel very welcome there. His mother would usually have some home-made cookies or pancakes waiting for them when they arrived home from school. Winter was the nicest time of all as they had an open fireplace in the lounge-room and the whole family would sit around it sipping mugs of hot chocolate and playing board games. It always felt so warm and cosy that Jenny had always found it hard to leave when it was time to go home.

Jenny hadn't seen Trevor's parents for quite some time now and she wondered how they were. They had always remained good friends and used to keep in touch with each other quite regularly. The last thing that Jenny had heard was that Trevor was studying to be a Dentist and that he was training in England somewhere.

Trevor had never written to her while he'd been away so Jenny took it that he didn't want to have anything more to do with her. Probably due to the way her parents treated him. She did not blame him at all for that and would have to apologise to him if she ever saw him. Jenny regretted the fact that she may never see Trevor again.

Jenny found it quite hard to get to sleep at first as she had a lot to think about. She closed the album and placed the photograph of Trevor on top of the album, she would put it away in the morning. Finally closing her eyes she felt quite fatigued all of a sudden; she'd had an exhausting day to say the least. It wasn't long before she fell into a deep slumber.

The noise of the vacuum cleaner woke Jenny up and she wasn't at all happy about being woken up like that. It was most inconsiderate of her mother to make such a terrible racket so early in the morning. What was the time anyway she wondered as she glanced at the clock? Jenny could hardly believe her eyes, it was almost ten o'clock. That was almost half the day gone and there were so many things she had to do. Apart from the fact that Kate and Belinda were coming over before lunch. Jenny told herself that she had better get out of bed immediately.

Jenny looked in her cupboard to see what clothes she was going to wear for the day. She had such an array of clothes to choose from that she found it to be a bit of a nuisance. Jenny decided that she would have to give some of them away when she was married to Nathan. There would not be enough room for all her belongings in the new house that they had bought as it was half the size of her parent's house. Nathan had told her that she could not bring everything and that she should throw a lot of it out. Jenny loved everything that she owned and it was going to be a big problem choosing what to take with her when the time came.

Nathan was away on a business trip in the country for two weeks. He was a rep for a big printing company in the city. Nathan was supposed to have rung the night before but had not done so and Jenny was a little disappointed. She had wanted to talk to him about a few things and get his permission to buy the gifts for the bridal party. Maybe she should just go and buy them anyway even if he did get cross, which was more than likely to happen.

Just the last six months Nathan had managed eight business trips away. Jenny didn't cherish the thought of that happening after they were married as she didn't like being alone and especially at night. Once Jenny had asked Nathan if she could go on one of his business trips. Nathan had seemed a little bit shocked at this suggestion and had abruptly told her that the Company would never allow it.

That was the trouble, she had to ask Nathan for permission to do anything these days and he even told her what clothes to wear. He had become a little bit too bossy for Jenny's liking. Things had certainly changed since the time that they were engaged she had noticed. They hardly went out anymore because it was "wasting money" as he put it! Jenny felt like an old married woman already and she wasn't even married. It hadn't taken Jenny long to realize that Nathan was a very selfish person and only wanted things his way which was most of the time. Thinking like this only made Jenny feel cross and she tried to think of something else instead.

Jenny pulled on a pair of her old favourite jeans and a pretty blue floral top. She brushed her hair quickly, slipped on her blue fluffy slippers and went downstairs to have her breakfast. Although she had had a late night Jenny felt exhilarated and ready to take on any task given her that day. She hadn't felt so good in a long while and she didn't know why.

With breakfast over Jenny was just about to make a cup of tea and the front door bell rang. It was Kate and Belinda; they had decided to arrive at ten thirty instead of eleven o'clock. They kissed and hugged each other and Jenny led them through to the kitchen and made a cup of tea for everyone including their mother.

They all conversed for about an hour and then they decided to start preparing lunch as they all seemed to be quite hungry. Especially Belinda who seemed to be eating for two people these days! She looked especially well and looked quite radiant, pregnancy certainly suited her, thought Jenny. Peter and Belinda could hardly wait for their baby to be born and to be able to see the baby and to hold it. They were going to make excellent parents Jenny thought as she looked at her sister in great admiration.

After lunch and the washing up done their mother bought out the wedding invitations and the guest list and they all sat down at the kitchen table. Kate said that she would check the names on the wedding list to make sure they had been spelt correctly. Belinda decided to check that the addresses were all right as they had some pretty snobby relatives and they would be mortified if they got the wrong invitation. Jenny and their mother started writing out the invitations once they had been checked and placed them into their appropriate envelopes. As far as Jenny was aware of the invitations had to go out approximately eight weeks before the actual wedding day. That meant that they wouldn't really didn't need to go out for a couple of weeks. What a job thought Jenny and how time consuming it all was.

With all that finished and out of the way there didn't seem to be much else to do so Kate decided to go back home to check on her family. Michael had taken Chloe and Phoebe shopping to buy their Grandma a birthday present. They were quite excited about the prospect of being allowed to choose the present this time all by themselves! The girls had a bit of help from their father of course.

Their mother had a bit of shopping to do and soon she had disappeared as well leaving Belinda alone to talk and they did plenty of that. Especially about the photo of Trevor and the unexplainable uneasy feelings she was having about the impending marriage to Nathan. In fact the closer the wedding day became the more uneasy Jenny felt and she didn't know why.

In the end Belinda told her to be true to herself and Nathan and to try to get in touch with Trevor. As Belinda had put it "you really never got over Trevor, you only split up because of Dad and Mum, after all." It was then that Belinda told Jenny that she used to see them together at the Shopping Mall. Belinda had also heard that Trevor had come home from England about six months earlier and had his own Dental Surgery in the city somewhere. Belinda then told Jenny that maybe she should go and see Trevor's parents to find out where Trevor lived as well. Mainly to see if they still loved each other before it was too late to do anything about it.

Jenny was shocked at hearing this information coming from Belinda and didn't know what to think for the moment. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea after all to start looking at the albums she thought to herself. Jenny had thought that she was over Trevor but apparently Belinda didn't seem to think so at all. What would her parents and Nathan think about this situation?

Jenny couldn't believe that Trevor had come home from England maybe that explained the unsettling feeling that she had been experiencing over the last six months as well. Jenny felt a little apprehensive at the thought of facing Trevor now and maybe he would not even want to talk to her.

After saying goodbye to Belinda Jenny sat down in the lounge-room and started reading a book and tried to relax a little. She waited all afternoon for Nathan to ring and he still hadn't rung by four o'clock.

Jenny really wondered whether Nathan truly loved her at all. It always seemed to be her putting herself out for Nathan and she was getting rather tired of it. Love meant sharing not taking all the time she was thinking to herself. The other annoying thing was that Jenny could not have her own opinion and he would never listen to anything she had to say.

As soon as Nathan returned from his trip Jenny was going to have a big long talk to him. If things didn't change then they would not be getting married as far as she was concerned. For some strange reason she did not think that Nathan would care one way or the other. They had become sort of immune to each other and they both knew it although they had never discussed it openly. Not a good way to start off a marriage she thought and it was better to find out now.

Jenny was a little afraid of what her parents would do and say when she told them of the doubts and fears that she had. Anyway this was her life and Jenny wasn't going to have her parents or anyone else telling her who she should love. She had had enough and was going to do something about it finally. Jenny suddenly realised that she was still in love with Trevor and not with Nathan after all. Would it all be too late she thought?

Jenny decided that she wasn't going to wait around all afternoon for Nathan to ring so she decided to go for a drive just to get out the house.

On impulse Jenny drove passed Trevor's parent’s old house which was only three blocks away, she turned around and drove slowly passed the house again and stopped the car just past it. Jenny could hear her heart pounding rapidly now and tried to catch her breath properly. She backed the car up level with Trevor's parent's house and gathered her thoughts for a moment. “What on earth am I doing?” Jenny whispered.

Jenny stepped out of the car and walked nervously up the path. She hesitated for a few seconds and took a deep breath before knocking at the door. Nothing happened so she rang the bell this time. How familiar it all seemed this lovely old house it hadn't changed at all. Nobody is home she thought so Jenny turned and was almost to the bottom of the steps and the door opened abruptly. "Jenny my love, you have come back to me I have missed you so much. Please don't go away again; I couldn't bear it if you did." A manly voice said.

Slowly Jenny turned around and came face to face with the most handsome man she'd seen in a long while. Jenny almost gasped with astonishment as they both stood still in absolute silence just staring at one another in awe and amazement. Her instincts were telling her to run straight into his arms but she didn't want to frighten him off so she waited to see what Trevor would do. The absolute silence was electrifying to say the least. It would be a moment of time that they both would remember for the rest of their married life.

Before Jenny knew what had happened she was in the arms of Trevor and was being held most lovingly. Trevor held her face very gently and kissed her passionately. Jenny had never felt like this before and knew that she would not feel like this with anyone else. At last Jenny knew that this was real love and that she wanted to be with Trevor for the rest of her life.

All feelings of anxiety miraculously left her and Jenny felt wonderful and truly in love again. Belinda was right after all, it was not just a School yard crush.

By
Sandy