To hold your hand in every storm,
and laugh with you in every grocery aisle.
You saved me, Tru.
And I’ll spend every day loving you like I never forgot that.”
There were gasps and sniffles from the rows behind us. His brother muttered, “Jesus,” under his breath. Mom was already crying.
Then it was my turn. My hands shook, but looking at Dare gave me strength.
“I used to draw you as a superhero,” I said, my voice catching.
“Because in every version of our story, you saved me.
I loved you when I was twelve. I never stopped.
You made me brave.
You made me whole.
You made me believe that I was enough just because you loved me back.
So I vow to never look away.
To never run.
To always find us, no matter how far we fall.
You’re my dare. The one I couldn’t walk away from, even when I tried.
My biggest risk, my bravest leap, and the only gamble I’ll ever take again. And I choose you. Always.
I told the officiant not to bother with “you may now kiss thegroom” because I didn’t need permission. I kissed him first. Right there in the middle of the field, with grass under our feet and our history all around us.
Our vows were promises wrapped around years of friendship, heartbreak, growing up and apart, and back together again.
The rings we slipped on each other’s fingers were engraved with the same promise:Dare to live your truth.
Dare called it “poetic justice”. I called it full-circle. Every time I glanced at Mom, she was wiping her eyes.
“She’s gonna flood the whole field if she keeps that up,” Dare whispered.
“She started crying three days ago when I showed her the cake topper.”
The cake topper was my favorite part—a small sculpture I made from an old sketch of us as kids, me kissing the scrape on his knee while he tried not to smile. It happened right here on this very field.
It sat atop three tiers of chocolate and raspberry. Dare tried to steal a swipe of icing before the cake cutting. I slapped his hand. He kissed me in retaliation.
His brother gave a speech that started with jokes and ended in tears. Mom cried through all of it. Again. She pressed her hand over her heart and whispered, “I always knew it would be you two.”
Jesus, if I had a dime for every time she said that, I’d have a lot of fucking dimes.
The biggest surprise was my husband. For someone who spent years pretending he was too cool to feel emotions, Dare surprised everyone with how much thought and planning heput into our wedding. The cake topper was his idea, along with the playlist, the color scheme, and, of course, the location. The wedding was perfect, elegant, and ridiculous, and painfullyus.
The tables were draped in white linen and candlelight, decorated with old photos of our story from start to now. Guests dressed like royalty, standing on the same patch of earth where Dare once got his tooth knocked out during a scrimmage.
Later, under the fairy lights strung from tree to tree, we slow-danced barefoot in the grass. My jacket hung somewhere on a chair. His hair was falling into his eyes.
