6:00 am
RING! RING! RING!  Juliette’s alarm clock went off, jolting her awake.  Somewhere to her right, she heard a yawn and felt the bed dip as somebody sat up. 
“Are you ready, Julie?” She heard a sleepy voice ask her this insane and puzzling question.  Was she ready?  Was she sure that she wanted to do this?  Yes. Definitely.  This was going to be the best day of her life. 
So, she responded with a firm, “Yes.”  This elicited a smile from the petite girl sitting up next to her, who also happened to be her best friend since birth.
“It’s okay to be nervous,” Alina consoled her, “I’d think that you were crazy if you weren’t” Right then, a tall woman middle-aged with long brown hair entered the room.
“I can’t believe this!” the woman sighed, “My only daughter is getting married!”
“Oh, Ma!  You’re gonna make me cry!”  Juliette whined.
Wiping a tear from her eye, Juliette’s mom, Rosalie, quickly said, ”Chop, chop.  We’ve got to get you ready.”
“Ok, Ma,” Juliette replied.  For some reason, she was getting sad.  It felt as though her whole world was about to be flipped upside down.  ‘Get ahold of yourself’ she thought, ‘you are about to get married to the best man in the universe.’  This actually did cheer her up, because she realized that she would be seeing her handsome Ashton in just a couple of hours.
10:00 a.m.
“Well, it took a little while, but I think that we are pretty much ready,” exclaimed Juliette’s bridesmaid, Sofia, who had just Juliette’s, Alina’s, Rosalie’s, and her own makeup and hair.  Since Juliette only decided to have one bridesmaid, it didn’t take long for them to get ready.  Juliette’s hair was in a French braid that wrapped around her head, leaving just enough room for the veil to slip in.  Rosalie insisted on Juliette to wear the veil right now.  The other girl’s hair was simply down and had loose, flowing curls.
Seeing as how the wedding was still about three hours away, they all decided that they should wait to put on their dresses.  Because they didn’t want to walk around in their underwear, they each had a robe that was provided to them by the hotel that they were staying at.  They were extremely comfortable, to say the least
“Sweetie, come here,” Rosalie called from the other side of the room, “I want to talk to you.”
“Coming, Ma.”
“I want you to know that I love you.  Even though you are now going to have a family of your own, just know that I will always be with you.  Not in the literal sense, because I know that sometimes I can be a little intrusive.”  At this, Juliette shot her mom a stern look.  “Okay, Okay.  A lot intrusive but let me finish.  If you ever find yourself in a bad situation, in need of help, or simply lonely, just call me and I will get to you as quickly as possible.”  Tears were shimmering in both of their eyes by now and Juliette was looking extremely proud of her mom.  “Okay?”  Her mother finally asked her, breaking the thick silence.  Juliette gave an enthusiastic nod and hugged her mom joyfully.
“You are the best mom I could ever ask for,” Juliette sobbed into Rosalie’s shoulder.  As they started to pull back from each other, a loud RRIIIIIIIPPPPP!  Sounded through the room.  “What was that?” Juliette asked frantically.  Her mom was staring it shock at her wrist, where a long piece of shear white cloth dangled from a beaded bracelet.
Seeing this, Juliette started breathing really deeply.  As she was processing what had just happened, she started shaking.  Then, a pitiful wail sounded out of her mouth.
“What happened?” Sofia asked, rushing into the room from the adjoined bathroom.  “Oh my god!” she screamed, causing Alina to come scrambling into the room.
“Oh.  Sweetie.”  Juliette was still shaking, seemingly at war with herself in her head.  Rosalie was slightly rubbing her arms, saying “I’m so sorry,” repeatedly.  When Alina came up to them, Rosalie stopped and looked up at her.  “I’ve got it,” Alina said softly and Rosalie scooted out of her way.
“Juliette, it’s okay.  It’s not that big of a deal.  We could fix it.”  No response.  ‘I need to think of something!’ Alina scolded herself.  She needed to come up with a solution.  She just had to.  Suddenly, it came to her. “Hey, do you remember when we stayed up watching ‘Parks and Rec’ all night?”  Juliette nodded slightly.  “Well, do you remember when Amy was getting married, but her dress wasn’t finished yet?”  Another nod.  “Well, do you also remember how her best friend fixed it?”  At this, Juliette looked up.
“Yes, I remember,” she said weekly.
“Well. What did she do?”
Sniffling, Juliette responded with a smile, “She used newspapers as the bottom part of the dress.”
“Exactly.  And wasn’t that one of the best dresses ever?”  She already knew what her answer would be.
“Definitely,” Juliette said firmly.
“Well, just like Amy’s best friend fixed her dress, I am going to fix your veil.”
“But how?”  Juliette knew for a fact that the veil was beyond salvaging,  it was unevenly ripped from one side to another and long strands were hanging off.
“By doing this.  I will be right back.”  Alina snatched the veil from Juliette’s head and ran into the bedroom, shutting the door behind her.  She knew exactly what she was going to do.
11:30 a.m.
Juliette, Rosalie, and Sofia were all sitting on the couch, eating some sliced up fruit that they bought with room service.  Juliette didn’t blame her mom at all for what happened with the veil.  She knew that it was an accident.  That didn’t stop Rosalie from feeling extremely guilty, though.  She kept telling Juliette that she should be in the room with Alina helping to fix the veil, but Juliette wouldn’t let her go and claimed that her best place was right where she was.
Suddenly, the bedroom door opened and Alina stepped out with a beautiful veil in her hands.  It had the original torn white veil on top, but it looked somehow deliberately and artfully torn now.  Under that was one slightly longer piece of light pink silky cloth that was oddly beautifully frayed at the edges.  And finally under that was a solid sky blue piece of cotton fabric under that.  The edges were frayed on that one as well.  Individually, each of the fabrics would have looked wrong, but together it is beautiful.
Juliette slowly walked towards it, not saying a word.  When she finally got to her, she reached out for the veil and Alina handed it to her.  “It’s beautiful,” she said in awe. “How did you do it?”  Alina simply shrugged her shoulders.  She would keep that one fact a secret for the rest of her life.  It was best to just let her best friend revel in the magic of it.
Sofia, too, was speechless.  Well, at least until she saw faint black marks acting as a trim on each of the pieced together fabrics.  “What is that,” she asked curiously, pointing to what she meant.  When Juliette glanced at it, it looked like nothing mor e than thin black lace.  Up close, though, she noticed that there were little hearts drawn along the edge with a little ‘J’ in between each of them.
Speechless once again, Juliette started shaking her head and tears were falling down her cheeks.  “Thank you so much, Alina.  You have no idea how much this means to me,” she sobbed.  Juliette hadn’t cried tears of joy in a long while and it felt so good to do so now.  It relieved a lot of her stress.
Juliette felt the veil being removed from her hands and looked up to see her mom holding it, tears shimmering in her eyes yet again.  She slowly lifted the veil up to her daughter’s head, securing it in place with the French braids.  She looked absolutely stunning.
“Well,” Rosalie said with a slight clap of her hands.  “We’d better get our dresses on and make it to that wedding.  Wouldn’t want to be late now, would we?”  At this, she winked at her daughter who smiled at her in return.
“Come on ladies.  We have got one hell of a day ahead of us,” Alina stated, laughing.
Needless to say, the day went wonderfully well and Juliette and Ashton lived a happy life together.  Sofia and Alina both met their soulmates soon after the wedding and promptly got married.  Rosalie always stayed in touch with her daughter and they never went more than a couple of days without at least calling each other.  Juliette’s infamous veil is safely preserved in a case so that they can all remember that day.
THE END