Chapter One

"Hey! Cinderella! Are you almost ready in there?!"

I heave a heavy sigh and stretch my arms as far behind me as I possibly can. My fingertips are just barely able to grasp ahold of the tiny zipper that now sat in the middle of my back, but I can't get enough force behind it to pull it up.

"Just... a... few... more..." I grunt through clenched teeth before sighing as my the zipper slips out of my hands again. "Hours."

"Seriously, let me in!"

Unable to see any other option, I reach out and open the bathroom door to reveal my best friend, her mouth set into an annoyed frown. She pushes through and takes me in, the frown never once leaving her face as she does so.

"Can't you get the zipper up?" she asks.

"Don't ask," I grumble, "Just help."

Sophia rolls her eyes, before moving behind me and yanking the zipper up. I turn around to finally take her in completely. We're wearing the same dress, only unlike me, it doesn't look horrible on her. The bright blue serves to bring out the highlights in her black hair and makes her golden brown eyes pop. But, that's to be expected. Everything looks good on my best friend, part of being as effortlessly beautiful as she. I, on the other hand, wouldn't be able to be described as "beautiful" by a blind man, what with my insanely red hair and hazel eyes. Everything just looks gaudy on me.

Her eyes scan up me, her lips finally curling up into the tiniest hints of a smile. "Sexy." she purrs, placing a hand on her hip. "You do realize that you're not the bride right?"

"The bride isn't supposed to look sexy," I smirk, "She's supposed to look like a princess."

"Yeah, well, that princess is about to murder you in your sleep if you don't let her in here right now." another voice hisses as a girl in a bright pink fluffy robe comes barging in. "We have less than two hours before the ceremony starts and I'm not gonna be late to my own wedding because my maid of honor doesn't fit into her dress!"

I shoot a harsh glare over at Sophia as Valerie puts her hands on my shoulders and pushes me down onto the toilet. "And who's idea was it to not hire proffessionals?"

"Yours," Sophia shoots back with a smirk. "You were the one who convinced her to be frugal."

"Shut up," I hiss and shake my head.

"Stop talking!" Sophia shouts, placing her hand under my chin and forcing it up into the light. "I'm not going to have my maid of honor looking like the Joker because she can't keep her mouth shut for fifteen seconds!"

I jut my lower lip out into a pout but abide. If there's one thing even I know, it's that you don't piss off the bride on her wedding day.

I know, I know. It takes a special kind of person to get married right out of high school. Like, right out of. The three of us were running to fittings during the last weeks before graduation. But that's just how Valerie is. She doesn't like waiting. When Eric proposed over winter break she made it abundantly clear that they wouldn't have a long engagement.

Maybe this is a stupid idea. After all, statistically speaking, this marriage is doomed to fail, but I can't help but find it a bit romantic in a sort of way. Maybe it's easy, seeing as I'm not the one who's getting married.

"You should give me a scar running across my eye," I gasp, a wide smile crossing my face as I clap my hands excitedly.

Sophia shoots an "are-you-fucking-stupid?" look my way as Valerie's eyes harden even more. I imediately know that I've said the wrong thing.

"What?" my voice grows more and more defensive with each word that comes out of my mouth. "We talked about this-"

"No," Valerie cut me off, her green eyes narrowing dangerously. "We joked about it. When it wasn't my wedding day. No scar. That's final."

"Fun hater," I mutter under my breath, averting my gaze as best I can seeing as I'm apparently not allowed to turn my head.

"Call me what you will, my photo shoots will not be ruined because my maid of honor decided she needed to look like she's a knife-mugging survivor." Valerie began rubbing some pale white-well, to be honest, I have no idea. Makeup's never really been my thing, hence why the bride is the one in charge of making everyone gorgeous, but I'm going to call it foundation because that's about as far as my vocabulary goes in that department-all over my face.

"Besides," Sophia jests, elbowing the air near my shoulder. "You won't be able to pick up any groomsmen with a giant marr in your face and we need to get you laid tonight no matter what."

This causes a smile to finally cross Valerie's face, "Oh right. We can't have little Tatum being the only virgin of our trio for a moment longer."

I roll my eyes and clench my teeth against the urge to yell at the two of them. "It's not a bad thing to still be a virgin."

"It is when you're just a few short months away from being nineteen!" Valerie pulls away before yanking me off the toilet and twirling me around so that I'm gazing at my reflection in the mirror. "Look at yourself, Tater Tots. You're smart and hot and do you have any fucking idea just how incredibly amazing it would be if we could tell our kids that you met your husband at my wedding?"

"Maybe," I shrug, glancing away from my image. "But don't get your hopes up. You know I'm probably going to split the second I get a chance-"

"Absolutely not." Valerie cuts me off. "You will find someone tonight, no matter what. Even if I have to sacrifice some of my time to set you up. This is going to be a magical night for both of us, Tatum, I promise."