Accidentally Married

Three // Let’s Buy a Cheap Wedding Ring

“Carson!” Sam obnoxiously yelled at the man who was just standing right beside her, their arms linked together. They were entering a closed jewellery shop but it seemed Sam was not bothered if the owner was asleep, alive or dead even. Sam almost staggered on her feet but Carson kept her upright if that was even possible because the both of them were drunk.

They decided to buy a cheap wedding ring.

“Let’s. Buy. A. Cheap. Wedding. Ring!” Sam slowly drawled, like Darla in Finding Nemo, shaking her arm that was linked on his arm. Her voice echoed in the quiet town she didn’t even know what name it was.

“Yes we will,” Carson said loudly. He sounded like Sheen from Jimmy Neutron. “We will buy us wedding rings!” He was clapping giddily and Sam laughed at his actions. Carson strongly knocked at the wooden door of the jewellery shop, an old frail man opening it, a creaking sound escaping from its hinges. He had a slightly annoyed look on his face but the duo ignored his expression.

“Take us to your wedding rings,” Sam demanded in a firm tone which made the old man grow stiff. He suddenly recognized the young lady for she was featured in national news, international even. He remembered she was the CEO of Wolfram Industries, a growing drug company.

He almost ran back to his study to bring a paper and a pen, and ask for her autograph but her demands of buying a wedding ring was more important than the autograph that he had been dreaming of. He had followed down her journey towards finding a drug that could even cure cancer and so far, there were no news about her company’s findings.

Even in his seventies, the old man—and the owner of the shop as well—moved like a twenty-five-year-old athlete. He was moving fast as he led Carson and Sam to the transparent glass desks that held rings, varying from different sizes and different occasions. Sam walked sloppily on her feet as she squinted her eyes when a pair of rings caught her attention.

It was sparkling like the stars and Sam started yapping like a dog who was delighted to see its master. She clapped like a five-year-old kid and the man was unsure if he found her amusing or if he found her childish.

“Look Carson!” she exclaimed in pure delight. “This old man brought the star from the night sky to us!”

The old man wasn’t sure if he should laugh at her drunken state or he should be worried of her drunken state. The man who was linking his arm beside Samantha Evers was also nodding with a large smile imprinted on his face. The old man thought he was sober but he was clearly very drunk as well. His posture wasn’t staggering so he wasn’t showing off much that he was not clearheaded.

“Even though the stars go crazy!” Sam started singing in an off key tune.

Carson clamped a hand on her lips to shut her up.

She was still singing in a muffled voice though, and she started licking Carson’s palm. Carson giggled like a little schoolgirl, letting out broken laughs from his throat. He liked the feeling of Sam’s tongue swirling on his palm like a wet elastic rubber band was skating along it.

The old man stared at the pair with shock written on his eyes, his vision darting from the left to right. He was suddenly growing impatient with the two drunkards, and even though he was a huge fan of Engr. Samantha Evers a lot, he couldn’t help but send them out of his store.

Growing impatient, he asked, “Are you going to buy a ring or not? I still have a store to open at eight in the morning.”

Carson and Samantha sobered their drunken selves up, their eyes focused towards the old man who had a grumpy look etched on his face. They gave him sheepish smiles in which the old man returned by simply widening his eyes.

Even in their drunken state, they were still polite. Probably they were raised in Canada. Maybe they were even born in that place.

“We want to buy this,” Sam commanded with a funny look on her face, her blue eyes crossed together with a sloppy smirk on her lips. Carson nodded vehemently as his black eyes stared longingly at the pair of wedding rings as if they were his one true love.

Sam pointed the cheapest wedding ring sold in the shop and even though the man wanted to offer a more expensive ring, he was growing tired because of the abrupt interruption of his sleep courtesy of Sam and her mysterious man.

“That’ll be two hundred dollars,” the old man said. “No bargains.”

Sam clapped her hands happily as the old man wrapped the wedding rings inside a nameless paper bag and with a forced smile on his lips, he handed it to them. Sam immediately pulled out a few bills from her dress and to the old man’s surprise, he received a thousand dollars.

Fangirling, he accepted the money but returned the eight hundred dollars as a change. Sam waved a hand to him, her eyes shrinking with a smile curving up in her lips. She let out a shrill laugh and grabbed Carson’s hand, slamming the door of his store shut, the jingling bell chiming at half-past twelve. The old man was only left dumbfounded.

He couldn’t sleep after that.

“Kids,” he muttered under his breath as he turned off the lights and lied down back on his bed, wondering and worrying if they were going to do more stupid things.

On the other hand, Carson and Samantha was walking on the sidewalk. Sam was loudly singing in an off key tune of Taylor Swift’s The Moment I Knew while Carson sang along with her but with a different song. He was singing the male part of Terrified.

“You set it again, my heart’s in motion,” Carson sang whilst Sam yelled, “What do you say when tears streaming down your face in front of everyone you know?”

They were singing like a very disastrous mash-up, medley even, until someone barged out of their houses and yelled, “Could you shut the f**k up?!” Sam shut her lips after hearing an angry resident complain about their singing and it hurt her ego slightly.

Sam pouted her lower lip. “I’m not a bad singer, am I?” Her head turned towards Carson as he suddenly stopped singing, his eyes darting towards Sam. He gave her a large smile, his thin lips getting thinner if that was even possible.

“Of course you sing well,” he slurred, linking his arm around hers and Sam felt a scorching heat exchange between their skins. Her eyes laid on the closed bridal shop and she squeaked. She couldn’t contain her excitement when she saw a lone white gown floating around a mannequin at the façade of the shop so her feet took her to it, Carson catching up at her fast pace.

“I want this!” she moaned as she tapped the glass of the shop loudly. Carson mimicked her actions as well, continuously tapping at the glass and all of a sudden, it slightly broke. Oops. They might have tapped it a little harder than intended.

Lights suddenly turned on and Sam’s eyes widened in panic, her grip on the wedding rings were tightly secured along her fingers. There were very loud footsteps accompanying the switching of the lights but their feet were rooted in place.

“Run!” Carson yelled, grabbing her hand and twining his fingers around hers, as their feet padded on the slightly muddy ground, the sound of their footsteps almost loud enough to echo around the neighbourhood. They were running as if fire was catching up on them but luckily, the store owner was not following them in the first place because Sam’s lungs almost clouded with fire, disabling her to breathe properly.

Carson seemed nonchalant about breathing though for he was standing calmly beside her, his hand still grasping her hand.

“That was close,” Sam breathed, placing her hands on her knees, removing her hand from Carson, while her body was bent.

Suddenly, sirens were heard in the background.

This time, Carson panicked and before Sam could catch her breath, they ran again, fear clouding on Carson’s eyes. The loud sirens blared and sweat ran cold for the both of them like they were foxes and the hunters were the cops.

A church illuminated from their visions and Carson immediately took Sam towards it, the loud sirens suddenly fading into a mere background. Sam, who was literally out of breath, sighed in intense relief, frowning when she realized she was not able to buy a gown for herself.

“Are you alright?” Carson asked her, his hand landing on her shoulder. She vehemently nodded even though deep down, she was frustrated by the fact she was not able to buy a gown.

“Come on, the priest may be still awake,” he said and she followed suit, until she could feel an awful bile reach through her throat.

“Carson,” she called and he turned his head. “I think I’m going to—“

An unpleasant stench of vomit went out of her mouth.

“Puke?” Carson asked dumbly but immediately rubbed her back, her vomit going down on the grasses of the church, near the abbey where a light was still lit.

Sam wondered when would the vomiting stop because the sticky liquid coming out from her throat was endless, as if she had a lot of supply from her stomach.

“Water,” she pleaded with her dry throat and she let out another barf that was reeking which almost made Carson puke, too, but this girl, in which he decided to call Aurora because of her beautiful dreaming tendencies, needed him more than he needed himself, his feet taking him to the abbey of the church.

He opened the door loudly, its hinges cracking while the nuns were playing mah-jong on the floor.

A series of shouts attacked Carson.

“I just need water,” he said tiredly until he barfed on the floor, his body bent. Horrified gasps escaped from the nun’s mouths.

“You, young man, need to repent to the Lord by praying Hail Mary’s fifty times every day,” the nun chastised.