30

                                        

                                              

-🥋-
chapter thirty


FIVE YEARS LATER
AXEL


With the single sheet of paper in my pocket, I stood in front a crowd of my family, and Maddie's. 
In front of an archway of flowers, my fingers play with the hems of my tuxedo, nerves filling me up more than they should. I spent hours getting ready for this, making sure it would be perfect for her. She's spent her entire life dreaming about this moment, and I'm just the lucky bastard that got to share it with her. 
My family sits on one side of the beach. My mum and dad are smiling up at me. If I had more than one friend, they'd also be sitting there. Other than my family, Zara sits in the back row, smiling up at me. On the other side of the beach, Maddie's family sit, followed by the hundreds of friend's she's made in her twenty-three years of life. It's weird to think I met her five years ago, but it was nice knowing she'd stuck around. 
Behind me, I don't have a best man. I have a Diaz. 
Maddie's weird guyfriend, who has become on of my only friends through her. Diaz and I started with trying to defeat each other on the mats, now, I would tell him about my life. But I never trusted anybody with the private details, unless it was the girl I devoted my life to. 
As I glance down at my shoes, and sighing gently, I hear him whisper from behind me. Peering over my shoulder, and having to look down, Diaz nods. "You're going to be okay, Kovacevic."
In his hands, he holds a small, white sack. My biggest fear of the day was loosing the sack, but I knew Diaz wouldn't. In the smallest way, I trusted him with it. I turn away from him, and back to the crowd of people sitting in front of me. My mums tearing up, and Maddie's aunt is dabbing her eyes with tissues. Her brother sits beside her, the biggest smile on his face. Sookie sits gently at his feet, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. She gazes around at the location we chose. 
The beach Maddie kissed me for the first time. 
The sky is dark, meaning the beach is completely for us. Candles litter the surrounding areas, hanging lights covered in ferns lighting up the pathway. 
A white drape is splitting our two families together, creating the perfect pathway for Maddie to walk through in the dress she refused to tell me anything about. All I know, is I haven't seen her all day, or even been allowed our bedroom or bathroom because her and her friends have been getting dolled up for hours. Nichols, LaRusso and Aisha Robinson would enter in front of her, and stand up the front with me. I turn towards the archway of flowers, making sure my back is turned and I'd only see her when she wanted me to see her. 
Before this moment, times have been rough, but my life has never been better. Last year, with the money that Maddie made from her karate tournaments, and the money I made from the dojo we opened up, we bought a house. It had everything she ever told me she wanted, and if it didn't have it, I built it for her. 
Maddie was a world champion and made six figures in a year. I ran the dojo I'd always wanted too, and made half as much. Still, I was proud of my dojo, because I ran it the way Iron Dragons should have been run. Whenever Maddie was away for tournaments, she took me with her. To all the places she wanted to go to, to all the places we'd talked about five years ago, we'd been there.