speaknow

He knocked on the door.

There, he�d done it. He was officially, one hundred percent, certifiably insane.

He didn�t really know what had possessed him to do this. He wasn�t generally this spontaneous or�random.

He rarely even thought about her anymore these days. He�d trained himself not to think about her. But recently, she been on his mind a lot. A whole lot.

He�d loved her once, his Jenny. Well�she wasn�t his anymore. She hadn�t been for nearly four years. It made him so incredibly angry that he couldn�t call her his�that he had let her drift away.

And that�s why he was standing here, knocking on her door, out of the blue. After a year, forty-two weeks, and six days without even a word passing between them. Not that he was counting or anything.

This was so completely out of character for him that he was sure he�d lost his mind. Justin was the romantic of the group; Chris was the spontaneous one. He was the quiet, business-minded one. This wasn�t something he would do. Not him. Not Lance.

Sure that was all a stereotype. But it wasn�t far from the truth, at least where he was concerned.

Just then, he realized that�

No one was answering the door.

He had been standing there pondering the whole thing for so long that he�d forgotten exactly where he�d been standing.

So�he tried ringing the doorbell, figuring that maybe the knock had gone unheard.

Still no answer.

He hadn�t considered that maybe she wouldn�t be home. That kind of thing wasn�t supposed to happen in this situation.

He scratched his head, as if puzzled by this phenomenon, and finally turned to leave. Maybe reunitings like the one he�d imagined really did only happen in movies. He sighed as he reached his brand new VW Jetta, opening the door. He was about to get in, when he heard someone calling.

�Young man! You, over there! With the blonde hair!�

He blinked several times and finally turned to see an elderly woman waving wildly at him from the other side of the fence. He figured she couldn�t be talking to him, but no one else was around.

"You! Over there by the silver car!�

He shut the door and walked towards her slowly.

�Me?� he asked meekly.

�Yes you. You seemed to be looking for someone. Can I help you with something?�

�Oh�uh�Do you know where everyone is? Jenny is�she�s a good friend of mine. I haven�t seen her for�awhile, so I thought I�d come by for a visit. But�no one answered the door��

�I�m terribly sorry, but no one�s here. They�re all at the wedding.�

That one stunned him a bit. Wedding? There was a wedding? She wasn�t getting married, was she? That just�it wasn�t possible.

He finally mustered a weak, �Wedding?�

�Yes, Jenny is marrying that handsome young man of hers today.� She paused and looked questioningly at him. �If she�s a close friend of yours, why weren�t you invited to the wedding?�

He could hardly formulate a solid thought, let alone actually string a sentence together. This was unbelievable. Marriage?

�Oh�um, well�we kind of drifted apart��

�That�s a damn shame�� She was still talking, but he wasn�t listening; he was far too absorbed in his thoughts.

She wasn�t supposed to get married! He loved her. He loved her. Marriage was pretty final. He needed to tell her how he felt before she was committed to another man�for the rest of her life! He was determined to find her before the wedding, to tell her what he had to say�

The rest would be up to her.

�Where�where�s the wedding being held?� He tried to sound calm, but the not taking a breath between words was kind of a give-away.

She raised an eyebrow. �Well�I�I don�t suppose Jenny would mind one more wedding guest. Especially if it�s one of her�good friends. The ceremony is being held at St. Paul�s. Down on Sycamore Street.�

He began backing away from her, down the driveway towards his car. Towards Jenny.

�Thanks�uh��

�The name�s Millie! Hurry, you don�t want to miss the ceremony!�

�Thanks Millie!� he called over his shoulder as he ran to his car and jumped inside.

�That boy better hurry if he�s hoping to stop the wedding�thinks Millie doesn�t see what his real motives are�I may be old, but I�m not stupid.�

Sitting on the porch, her husband shook his head. �You shouldn�t go interfering like that, Millie. You�re causing all sorts of trouble.�

She turned to face him, hands on her hips. �Oh shush, Henry. That Jack fellow doesn�t love her half so much as that young man. You didn�t see the way his eyes twinkled when he spoke of her��

Lance lurched forward as he slammed on the brakes, stopping within mere inches of the car in front of him.

He screamed at the cars all around him. They were doing nothing wrong, but it was a way to distract himself from the insanity of what he was about to do.

�Hurry up! You can go faster than that!"

Those damn law abiding citizens, obeying the traffic laws and all, were standing between him and Jenny. Between him and his future happiness.

This was no time for caution. He sped up, well past the legal speed limit and prayed that no cops were nearby. He swerved around cars and completely sped past the church in his haste.

He made a highly illegal U-turn and double-parked his car in front of the church steps. He took the stairs two at a time and dashed inside, but remained frozen for a moment outside the doors to the actual sanctuary. He couldn�t believe what he was about to do.

�Here goes nothing��

He opened the doors softly, but then, realizing that he was about to cause havoc beyond reason, threw tact to the wind and flung the door open the rest of the way. He dashed up the aisle, just as the minister uttered the simple phrase that was his last hope.

�Speak now�or forever hold your peace.�

He stood frozen in aisle, just three feet from her, as the words echoed through the spacious room.

Their eyes locked, and he almost cried upon seeing her. She was so beautiful. But what nearly reduced him to tears wasn�t so much her beauty as the fact that he had all but forgotten just how beautiful she was. It has been far too long since he�d last seen her.

He wondered what she was thinking.

She looking shocked, to say the least, but somehow not at all angry. That was a good sign as far as he was concerned.

He heard her whisper his name softly, her gaze never faltering from his own.

He couldn�t move, couldn�t speak�but he didn�t need to. She knew why he was there. And he knew�he could tell from the look in her eyes that...that she...

She still loved him.

Both stood motionless, as every set of eyes in the church glanced from him to her to the startled groom. Some eyes were angry, some were curious, and some were even willing her to go with the handsome man who had, seemingly, appeared from nowhere.

The priest cleared his throat, breaking the trance. Jenny glanced back at the man holding her hand who, only moments before, she had been certain she loved. She stepped backwards, looking back and forth between the two several times.

Lance saw it coming, but the poor man at the altar was oblivious. Jenny hiked up the full skirt of her dress and ran as fast as she could from the church.

Her husband-to-be stood there in shock, as Lance streaked off down the aisle after her. He wasn�t about to let her get away now, and even if he wasn�t able to catch her, he didn�t want to stick around to face angry wedding guests.

He dashed from the church, looking all around for a glimpse of her, but he didn�t have to look far.

She was waiting for him.