It was last minute because I changed my story draft during the last minute (specifically one and a half day before submitting) when the first story I wrote was kind of draggy. The total mark for my coursework was only grade B, and that was the total of marks of this essay plus my test plus a few other little tasks. But I was not sure how much I got for this particular essay as this essay was the real deal in the coursework. It was the main mark contributor in my coursework and I was dying to know how much I got for a last minute draft. And my friends too - they were all dying to know how much they got for their main essay. But they did not get to meet the lecturer as he was a very busy lecturer.
A (very good) = interesting story plus good English..
A- (good) = interesting story but English still have room for improvement..
B+ (quite good) = quite interesting, English is quite good..
B ( okay) = okay story, English is okay (Key word:JUST OKAY)
B- (slightly okay)= story is quite okay, but still can be better, English nearly okay...
C+ (not satisfying) = story is not satisfying, English is not that satisfying..
C- (speechless) = To be safe, you should drop this course! Immediately! And sell this piece to those who have problem sleeping!
Okay, so refer to those grades above upon evaluating this essay. Okay, one, two, three, READ:
The church bells clanged loudly but I was deafened by my own heartbeat. Today would be the most important day of my life.
I saw myself in the mirror and gasped, amazed at what make-up could do. Peter’s skillful hands had worked magic on me; my eye-bags were no longer visible, my pimples perfectly concealed, and my lips looked luscious and alluring. Everything was perfect, from my white dress to the white roses that had been ordered specially from Singapore. The Immaculate Conception church has turned into a wedding paradise.
“It’s time now,” Cousin Marie announced, urging us to hurry. I held my breath as we entered the church. With Uncle Morty in place of my father, we marched down the aisle led by Cousin Marie to the beat of “Here Comes the Bride”. I scanned the crowd for familiar faces and spotted Luke, seated in the middle row. I tensed.
‘What is he up to now?’
Suddenly, images of Luke trying to ruin my wedding ran through my mind. I quickly shook the thoughts off.
‘Keep your focus, girl,’ I scolded myself. Taking a deep breath, I continued to walk until we reached the altar.
“You look beautiful today, Lauren. I’m sure your parents must be very proud of you,” Uncle Morty whispered in my ear before handing me over to Bill. My parents – they had been long gone. I sucked back in the tears that were starting to form in my eyes for fear of ruining my make-up.
“Thanks, Uncle Morty,” I whispered back.
“We are gathered here today to witness the union of two souls…” the priest began.
I stole a glance at Bill at my side and he smiled, showing a set of perfect white teeth. Born of a mixed heritage, Bill is a younger version of George Clooney and every girl’s fantasy. I knew that I was lucky to have him but something was tugging at the back of my mind and Luke’s words kept ringing in my ears, “Have you really forgotten, Laurie?”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, shocked. What on earth --
“What do you think?” Luke asked me back. I rolled my eyes, trying to brush him off by closing the door but he was quick in holding back the door with his right hand. “That’s a rude way to treat your guest, considering you would marry a reputable person tomorrow,” he remarked at my action.
I stopped pushing the door, knowing that my attempt to brush him off was in vain. “Okay, I will only give you 10 minutes,” I finally let him in. “Just tell me anything that you want now cause I have to get back to my BEAUTY SLEEP,” I said impatiently. “I am going to be a BRIDE tomorrow, for your information.” I added, hoping that he get my sarcasm. And of course, I knew that he would.
“The sarcastic Laurie that I knew is back,” he said, with a forced laugh. I could smell his scent reeking of alcohol, and I knew that he was drunk.
“You only have 9 minutes left,” I said firmly and tried to distant myself from him. I was in no mood to become a good hostess or a good old friend to him. And in fact, we weren’t friends at all at the moment. He kept silent, and then his face turned serious.
“Laurie, what had gone wrong in our relationship?” he asked me after a long pause. For a moment, I couldn’t think of a smart retort for that. He looked at me questioningly.
“You,” I finally answered. “You’re the wrong person for a relationship,” I explained and added “In fact, a person like you should not be in a relationship at all.” I knew that my words sounded rather harsh, and I knew that it would hurt him, but I couldn’t care less.
He turned his face to look at the empty wall. “I know you wanted a wedding, Laurie. I realized that long ago,” he replied. “I really wanted to give you that, but the timing was not right.”
I snorted. “So when would the time be right then?” I asked, trying to challenge him and added, “You know what, ‘never’ would be the right answer.” I couldn’t understand why I could be bothered by this, and I thought this issue had no effect on me anymore, but I couldn’t hold back my tongue any longer and my dissatisfactions towards him during our relationship earlier kept pouring out. “You just don’t want commitment, and I’m just a girl you wanted to keep during your young age. You have wasted 5 years of my life; do you know that, Luke? I had waited for you to pop the question, to make our relationship official, but did you bother? Did you bother to ask me for marriage, Luke?” I was satisfied now he heard everything that I wanted to tell him before.
Luke was silent for a moment, but he finally voiced up.
“Yes, I did think about asking you for marriage,” he confessed, turning his gaze to me. I was quite surprised to hear this from him. “But I know that marriage isn’t really your ideal. I know it’s not all that you want. You wanted a wedding, a grand wedding, which I couldn’t give you,” he said, and added “but he could.”
I was speechless for a moment. Was I more interested in the wedding than the marriage itself, I wondered. Of course a grand wedding is every girl’s dream, especially mine, after I lost both of my parents. I felt contented looking back at their wedding photos, and I wanted my wedding to be grand like theirs too.
“You really did think of proposing me, Luke?” I was surprised at myself for asking him that question. Of course I had the right to know this, I thought after a moment.
“Yes,” he answered. “And actually I thought about it for so many times,” he continued, looking at me in the eyes. “I wanted to do it during our trip to Genting, I wanted to do it during Christmas 2006, I wanted to do it during your best friend’s wedding at Perak, but I never found the right words to say,” he elaborated, curving his lips into a smile. “I was such an idiot,” he added, snorting at himself.
“I will definitely agree on that,” I said, and I couldn’t help smiling too. Luke was the only person I know who could admit his fault without much ego.
“Laurie, you know what?”
“What?”
“That is why I love you.”
“What?”
“I love the way you make remarks about me honestly,” he started to say and continued “and the way you daydream in the middle of your work and still be able to cope with it. I love the way you know my weaknesses and strength and still tolerate it, the way you were faithful with me those five years we were together --”
“Stop it, Luke!” I ordered when I realized I could not take it any longer. He looked at me questioningly. “Why are you doing this to me? After all my wedding preparations and all my efforts to fit in with Bill’s family…” I blurted almost everything out.
“What? You must be joking Laurie, you have to put in efforts to fit in with anybody?” he asked incredulously, and quickly continued “Oh my bad. Bill’s family isn’t just anybody, they are somebody. Let me guess. They think you’re not good enough for Bill?”
I nodded reluctantly. “They used to think that way, but I couldn’t blame them. What else would they think when an employee and an employer is romantically involved?” I reasoned, trying to look at my relationship with Bill from their perspective. “But I finally impressed them with my determination,” I added, rather proudly.
“Do you think Bill can give you happiness?”
I was surprised he asked me that kind of question when Bill obviously could give happiness to whichever woman he was going to marry.
“Are you kidding me?” I replied, laughing as if he was joking. “He can give me a bright future. He can make all my wildest dreams come true. And most important of all, he was ready for commitment,” I shot a look at him.
“Okay, let me ask you one thing. Has he ever seen you without make up before?” He asked me. I started to think, but then I wondered why I should be bothered to even think about it.
“What does THAT has to do with a relationship?” I asked incredulously.
“Mind you, has he ever seen your faithful friends, pimple 1, 2, 3 and 4?”
“What the heck--”
“Has he ever heard you cursing?”
“You’re annoying--”
“Has he ever…”
He suddenly planted a passionate kiss on my lips. I was bewildered, but strange enough I responded. It has been a year since I felt his warm lips on mine, and it still tasted the same.
He pulled back after a moment and continued “…kiss you in the middle of a fight and make you forget about everything else in the world as if they do not matter?” His brown eyes were looking at me intensely as if looking into my soul, and then I noticed tears forming in them at the same time.
“Have you really forgotten, Laurie?” He choked out through his tears. “Because I can still remember every moment with you… And your kiss, your kiss still tastes the same.”
I stood there, staring back into his eyes. I had been staring at these brown eyes since I was a teenage girl; he was my first love, my first boyfriend, and I thought he was the one, but he had disappointed me. He had kept me waiting, tested my patience, till I could no longer wait. He may be my first, but he would remain a memory. It was too late. I had made my decision, and at this moment, I could not afford any scandals that might sabotage my wedding tomorrow.
“I have forgotten about you since the day we broke up, Luke,” I finally replied, staring back straight into his brown eyes to convince him. He looked at me with tears. I could see pain from his brown eyes.
“And Luke, it’s already late. I have a wedding early tomorrow,” I added icily, pointing towards the door. He shrugged his shoulder, turning his back on me, and started to make his way to the door.
“Good luck on your wedding,” he said, and continued “ah, and not to forget about the honeymoon, and ya, I almost forgot, good luck on your marriage too.” I quickly shut the door as soon as he stepped out of my apartment. I couldn’t believe I just responded to his kiss. I touched my lips, and the taste of his mouth lingered there.
I couldn’t sleep that night and was scolded by Peter the next day for not taking my beauty sleep, but I told him it was due to bride’s anxiety. And it was not far from the truth.
“And now it’s the bride’s turn,” I heard the priest announced as he turned his focus to me. I was confounded. I had missed most of the important parts during the wedding ceremony. How could I not pay attention during a Mass on MY OWN WEDDING? How could I DAYDREAM when my WILDEST DREAM was coming true right before my eyes?
The priest eyed me and said “Lauren Chia, do you take Bill Harold, for your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
I remembered how I wanted to immortalize this moment. I wanted to look at Bill’s face before answering “I do.” As I’d planned, I turned to look at Bill; he smiled at me but he suddenly stopped smiling. His facial expression changed abruptly, giving me a puzzled look.
“What’s wrong, Lauren?” I heard Bill asking me.
I was confused. Then, I just realized something, and I hoped Peter would not be disappointed in me for ruining his masterpiece.
My face was sodden with tears, the make-up was coming off and for the first time I had an intuition to forget about the wedding and give marriage a second chance.
=THE END=
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