5 Which Time

After Toph's aunt told us we should rethink divorce, she promptly escorted us out of the closet.

Not in the metaphorical sense, but I believe she was trying at that too. She kept giving us these knowing looks. Though, I'm not really sure what she knows or what she thinks she knows.

I've never been attracted to men before. I guess, I've never really thought about it either way.

If I had to be attracted to men, I wouldn't mind Topher. He's a good catch. Handsome, talented, thoughtful. There's nothing wrong with those qualities. I'd be lucky to find them in a woman I had feelings for.

Once we left Aunt Ruth, we walked upstairs to Sammi's loft. Apparently she didn't even make it to the bed. She was sprawled across her couch with one shoe on her foot and the other in her hand. It was quite a site.

"Should we wake her?" I ask my best friend trying to hide the fact that I think the situation is hilarious.

He shrugs his shoulders, but walks over to her anyway, "Sam, wake up." He touches her shoulder and nothing happens.

"Shake her," I suggest.

And he does, but the only thing that happens then is that she drops the shoe she was holding and lets out an ample snore.

Then I can't help but laugh. Good thing too, because it's my laughter that wakes her up.

"What time is it?" she yawns as she sits up from where she was draped across her furniture.

Toph pretends to look at his watch for a second before telling her, "It's time to get your lazy ass out of bed. We need answers."

"Answers for what?" she asks a little confused.

"As to why we're married," I interject before taking a seat in the reclining chair.

Topher decides to sit on the couch next to her, "And why we have no recollection of it at all."

Sammi's smile dances across her face as she realizes what we're referring to, "You guys were hammered last night."

"We realize that," I tell her. "What we don't know is what happened after the massive amounts of alcohol."

She takes the remaining shoe off her foot, "You made a bet."

I look accusingly at my best friend, "I'm going to say that was not my idea."

Everyone knows Topher is always in for a good wager and he always wins. To be honest, the only time I can remember him actually losing was twice; once to me and once to Tripp.

While we were on set, he constantly had some kind of pool or gamble set up. It was all in fun and he never took it too seriously, but for some reason he could never back out of anything he anteed.

They were all silly bets like, how long it would take Riel to say the word 'shit' or who could eat the most marshmallows in one sitting. This, however, is a new level.

"What was the bet?" he asks her curiously.

She scratches the side of her head for a second leaving matted hair sticking up in the wake of her fingers, "It was something about being able to handle something."

"You have got to be kidding me," my stern gaze settles on my 'husband' as he burst out laughing. "You had to take it to another level, yea? You couldn't just leave it be?"

"You shouldn't have challenged me!" he continues laughing as I sit astonished.

"It wasn't a challenge!" I defend myself, a little amused at this point. Only he would do something like this. I should have guessed. "I was bloody joking!" Turning back to Sammi; I see that she's watching us with a smirk, "Do you remember the exact bet?"

"Sorry no," but she doesn't look apologetic about it at all. She looks like she's enjoying this as much as my horrible best friend. "I'm sure one of the other four will though."

Like that's any consolation. What kind of friends do we have that would let us get married on a drunken whim? Not even a whim really; one of Topher's bets!

"I'm going to call Riel," I announce as I stand. Then I point to the still chuckling Toph, "If she's up, we're going over there."

He nods and smiles his crocked heart-breaking grin.

Shaking my head, I pull out my phone and walk around the corner to make the call. It only takes me a few moments to clarify that our friend is at home and she agrees to see us with humor in her voice.

What is with everyone thinking this is funny? Am I the only one that sees marriage as a big deal?

Before I can round the corner to walk back I hear the two cousins talking, "Are you going to let him divorce you?"

"What do you mean 'am I going to let him', it's not my choice. And what makes you think I want to be married to a guy?" Topher answers her.

"Oh come on." She laughs. "You weren't as drunk as he was. You knew what was going on."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sam."

"Do you want a divorce?"

"I'm not into dudes."

"Bullshit. Do you want a divorce?"

"I just told you. Why is this so hard for you to believe?"

"Chris," she sounds almost pleading. "You haven't been this happy since before Uncle Rick got sick. I just think you should think about it."

I hear him sigh and lower his voice slightly, "Will you stop? He'll be back soon."

"Chris, I just think-"

"Alright," I interrupt. It's more so me announcing my entrance. I'm not sure how I feel about the conversation they were having. Is what she says true? Could he remember last night? Does he really want to be married to me? I don't think he's into men; he dated Princess Becca for fuck sake. "Riel said we can come over now. You can come with us if you'd like, Sammi."

"I think I'm gonna sit this one out guys. I had an amazing night though and I hope you figure everything out," she shoots a look over to her cousin before standing and stretching out her limbs. "Now get out of my house. I need a shower."

The ride to Riel's was going to take about 45 minutes. As luck has it, I don't know what to say the entire time. The silence becomes uncomfortable after a while. We're never like this. Topher and I can talk about anything or nothing and still have a great conversation. Not today; today seems to want to be difficult.

"Are you freaking out now?" he asks me as we make our way into the city.

I shrug, but I know he doesn't see me because he's paying attention to the traffic, "No, I mean... I don't know. It's a big thing. Getting married is supposed to be special and happy. Are you happy?" I ask him legitimately wondering.

"I'm surprised," he answers.

But that's not much of an answer, is it? Of course he's surprised. It's not every day you wake up in a man's arms that you accidently married the night before.

"Of course," I say a little more deflated than I meant.

He shifts in his seat a bit, "Are you happy?"

"Surprisingly, I'm not unhappy," I admit; although if it was anyone else, I don't think they would have gotten the same answer.

I see him smile out of the corner of my eye, "So I'm not a bad husband?"

"I don't have anyone to compare you to," I chuckle. "I don't do this often."

"Mmm," he agrees.

I look over to study his expression. After a few seconds, I decide to just say what I'm thinking, "Do you remember anything of last night? I mean anything after the kiss?"

His cheeks turn a slight pink as he takes one had from the wheel to rub the back of his neck, "Not really."

"What does that mean?" I feel my eyebrows knit together in confusion.

He sighs as he puts his hand back to the steering wheel, "I don't remember anything, okay?"

"Yea," I say to appease him, but he didn't sound exactly convincing.

The rest of the drive is silent as we make our way to Riel's place.

-----

"Hey guys," Riel answers her door to us.

I smile, but don't say anything as I give her a hug.

"Hey doll," Toph takes his hug after mine.

We all walk silently into her lounge, the atmosphere a little thick. Sitting down on the couch, I run a hand down my face. It's kind of irritating to think that Topher might know more than he's letting on.

I feel the couch dip next to me and look up to see my new husband making himself comfortable. Riel takes the loveseat next to us and clears her throat awkwardly.

"So what can you tell us?" my best friend fires out his question without any more hesitation.

Our dark-skinned friend leans forward a bit to put her elbows on her knees and looks between the two of us, "What do you guys remember?"

Toph looks over at me, but I shrug, not wanting to 'accidently' tell him off.

He cleans his throat and leans back, "Uh, we remember right up until we kissed behind the bar."

"Which time?" she raises an eyebrow.

"What do you mean 'which time'?" I ask in a low fiery voice.

Her smile grows and she looks like she's holding a secret between her lips, "You guys went at it all night. There were a couple times that we had to break you apart before you got too frisky."

I'm pretty sure my face drains of all color as I collapse back into the couch and cover my expression with my hands.

Riel laughs again, but I don't move to see her, "Damon, you were completely out of it - balls to the wall drunk. But Toph, I thought you would remember. You didn't start really stumbling until after the ceremony."

My eyes narrow, but no one sees.

"No, I uh, don't remember anything. Just when we, uh, kissed," that's what he says.

At this point, I don't know what to believe.

"You okay, Day?" my female friend asks as I feel a hand on my shoulder.

Finally removing my hands, I look around to see Riel squatting in front of me and a nervous expression on Toph's face still sitting beside me.

"I'm fine," I tell them staring straight into my 'husband's' eyes. Then turning to our friend, I urge, "Please tell us what you remember."

"Well, I guess I'll start where you two left off," she stands in front of me before walking back to her seat. "Damon, you sat on top of the bar and told everyone how the reporter had asked you about the slash sites. You remember that, right?"

I nod, but don't speak.

"After that, Toph took you off the bar and you kissed," she explains.

"We know that part. The next part is where we go blank," my best states as he sits forward again to get into the conversation.

Riel hitches an eyebrow again and looks at him, "You're telling me that you two happen to black out at the exact same moment?"

Toph looks over at me for confirmation, but I just shrug. How am I supposed to know when he blacked out? I know what I remember and that's it.

She rolls her eyes, but continues anyway, "Somewhere in the middle of the kiss, Toph, you set Damon down on his feet and pinned him against the bar counter with your body. Sammi broke you guys apart at that point cause you started moaning and shit and we were all getting grossed out."

"Was it because we're both men?" he asks in a bit of an antagonizing voice.

She scrunches her brows together to look at him as if he were a small child getting disciplined, "Are you shitting me? No! It's because I, for one, didn't want to witness two of my best friends having sex. I don't care where you stick that thing," she points to his pants, "I just don't want to see it."

I can't help but chuckle.

"Anyway," she rolls her eyes and waves her hand in the air like she's shooing a fly, "everyone starts talking again and Damon faces toward us. Then next thing we know, we look back over and, Topher, your arms were wrapped around him and you were kissing and biting on Damon's neck. Oh don't look so shocked, Day, you liked it," she looks over at me and rolls her eyes yet again.

"Did this happen a lot," I have to ask.

It seems a bit crazy to me that we kept going at it. Maybe there is some kind of subliminal attraction between the two of us.

She sighs and nods at the same time, "Yea, we kept trying to pull the two of you apart. At one point Tripp even carried you, Damon, back over to the other side of the bar and sat you on a stool next to us. You would think that would have done the trick."

"It didn't?" I'm sure my expression shows as much hope as I feel inside. None.

She shakes her head with that knowing grin coming out again, "Not even close. Topher just kept leaning over the bar and sticking his tongue in your mouth. We eventually just let you climb back over because you were in the middle of everyone and kept blocking out conversations."

"This is so embarrassing," I mutter as I let my head fall into my hands.

Riel chuckles again, gaining my attention, "No need for you to be embarrassed, Day. It was Topher that kept trying to jump your bones." She stops talking for a second and looks up like she's thinking about something. "On second thought," she looks back into my eyes, "you were kind of encouraging it. And you definitely didn't try to stop it."

"Can we fast forward to the part where we decide to get married?" Toph asks from beside me. I look over to see his cheeks a little pink. He gives me a sheepish smile and a shrug before looking back to Riel.

Her smile brightens again, "Sure."