The Runaway Groom

~~I bit down hard on my soft lower lip in complete confusion and dilemma. All I could taste in my mouth was the salty blood from my now ravaged lip, the metallic taste of fear and the cloying sticky flavour of doubt.
My smart black tie was uncomfortably tight. It dug into my throat like a collar of oppression. Cool, wet little droplets of sweat started to bead on my forehead, which was furrowed in a menacing scowl. The sweat was pouring off my tense body in little streamlets. My drenched shirt was plastered tightly to my torso clearly showing the rapid rise and fall of my broad chest.
 It felt like there was a tight, iron fist of panic crushing down on my racing heart inside me. I was absolutely and utterly terrified. I whipped my head up, eyes darting around wildly. From the place where I stood, just in front of the delicately embellished white marble of the alter, all I could see was a sea of faces.  There were posh women in old fashioned floral dresses and fascinatingly huge hats.  There were some of my old college friends, who just rocked up in faded ripped blue jeans and shabby T-shirts. These were the ones that pulled outrageously ugly faces at me and then packed up laughing as if they were the funniest people in the world.  I saw my mom and dad, who had just recently divorced, animatedly chatting as if they were the best of friends.
The one thing this odd mismatched mixture of people had in common was their faith in the fact that I would soon marry ‘her’, their lovely friend, daughter and colleague. A few of ‘her’ relatives quietly and slowly shuffled past, murmuring their wishes for a long and fulfilling marriage for us. I just smiled tightly and forced my head to bob up and down in a nod, my teeth clenched and my jaw aching. My cute little nephew was sitting in the front row in a tiny baby sized tuxedo. He flashed me a cheeky grin and looked up at me with admiration and awe in his chocolate brown eyes, but this made me feel even sicker inside and I began to experience a full scale melt down. He wouldn’t look at me like that if he knew that I was having second thoughts about my future wife. He adores her, and would never forgive me if I walked out now. 
My eyes took in extravagant frothy garlands of white flowers and over the top decorations. Every mahogany pew in this massive, medieval cathedral was dripping with lacy ribbons and bows, and draped in millions of flowers. My already unsteady eyes shifted from left to right, like a caged and frightened animal, causing everything to blur into one big mess of colour and lights.
I quickly closed my eyes so I didn’t start to panic, took a deep breath of fresh air to calm my strung out nerves and slow my racing, galloping heart, but this was a huge mistake. I smelled sweet lily, fresh roses and a subtle hint of exotic Chinese jasmine. I choked on the cloying suffocating smells threatening to overwhelm me. Quickly, I turned my nose away but the reeking scent just followed me. I couldn’t get away from it! I couldn’t seem to suck in the vital life giving air that I so desperately needed. All I felt was the overwhelming panic, and that iron fist in my chest tightened even further.
Finally I glanced down at the small velveteen box I had been tightly clenching in my hand. As I unclenched my fingers, prying them off one by one, it revealed crushed velvet and dark sweat marks. I opened it slowly, cautiously; afraid of what I might see inside.  There they lay: two mesmerizingly shiny golden rings which were a symbol of the eternal commitment that I just couldn’t make. The realisation hit me like a sharp, painful slap in the face. I wasn’t ready for this. I couldn’t marry her. I couldn’t promise myself to her for eternity. In fact, the very thought of forever scared the living daylights out of me.
And that was when I bolted down the aisle running as fast as I could before anyone tried to stop me. I burst through the church doors into the freshness of clean air and freedom, and I never looked back.

- By Taryn Rodgers
I got the picture off a site called lyst... its a JCrew suit