I must have watched this movie hundreds of times. I know the lines by heart, plus the songs on the soundtrack. Right now though, I’m writing about the first time I watched it.
I remember it like it was yesterday – I went to the theater with my cousin Z and church-friends, including my best friend. Little had I known that said cousin and friends were matchmaking hooligans trying to get me and my best friend together (yes, he’s a he).
Problem was, my best friend was in a relationship back then.
And to make matters worse, I was half-in love with him and preferred silently suffering to actually telling him how I felt. I mean I daydreamed about the day we would be together but at the time, I wasn’t completely gung-ho about baring my heart and soul to him – even if we were best friends. I’m not ashamed to admit that now, but you can be sure it was the last thing I wanted to talk about with him then.
See where this is going?
So there we were, watching art imitating life, except I wasn’t Julia Roberts who had this gorgeous head of red hair and wonderfully long legs and millions of bucks in the bank. And my best friend wasn’t getting married. Yet. At least, I hoped he wasn’t, not for a long time.
Every time Jules did something totally harebrained, I would cringe but silently cheer her on. Each victory in her favor, counted as mine – as I also felt my heart breaking to pieces as she realized she really has lost her best friend’s heart to someone else. By the time the movie ended, I was in tears. It didn’t help that I had no George a.k.a. Jane Bond to pick my chin off the floor and dance with me (not that I could dance).
My well-meaning, slightly love-crazed friends (who were convinced the feeling was mutual between us) had hoped the movie would spur us to action; it had the exact opposite effect. It toughened my resolve to never, ever, ever tell my best friend about my feelings, lest my heart be trampled on as he rode off into the dark in a Rolls Royce with his beloved.
And he? Didn’t say anything until about 4 years later – and there may or may not have been some harebrained schemes involved.
It took us 10 long years but in the end, I could say something that Jules couldn’t: “I was the bride at my best friend’s wedding.” 😉
Written as part of MamaKat’s Writer’s Workshop for the prompt: What was it about that movie? Describe a movie you once had memorized.
