incapacity or deficiency, I don’t know what is.”
“Maybe,” he says. “But that’s not what it means legally.”
Dylan turns back to his phone and continues to read.
“Either spouse consented to the marriage as a result of force or duress of the other.”
“Again, I was drunk, I consented as a result of duress,” I say.
“Again, this doesn’t apply,” Dylan says. “Force in legal terms is a really high standard. It’s as if I held a gun to your head to get you to marry me.”
“Finally, either spouse’s consent was obtained by fraud,” Dylan reads. “The fraud must go to the essence of the marriage contract, and then only the injured spouse can obtain the annulment.”
“So, none of these will work?” I ask. He shakes his head.
“So, what do we do now?”
“We have to get a divorce,” Dylan says.
“What does that entail?” I ask. Dylan shrugs.
“I have no idea, but I’ll ask our family attorney.”
So, this is certain now. An annulment is not an option. We can’t just make this marriage go away and pretend that it never happened. We have to get a divorce. A divorce. Divorce. That word is so strange, I can barely comprehend its meaning. After we get a divorce, will I be a divorcee? Some sad, middle-aged woman who’s bitter about men? No, of course not. I’ll still be a nineteen-year-old girl who made a terrible mistake. It still doesn’t sound pleasant.
Dylan and I don’t say a word to each other for a while. He hasn’t talked about it with me yet, but I heard from Juliet that Peyton refuses to talk to him. He hasn’t seen her since Hudson told her, even though he went to her dorm on two separate occasions to try to explain. She flat out refuses to see him. Hudson and Dylan? They’re still roommates, but they’re also ships passing in the night. Hudson is barely home and when he is, he’s usually asleep. I’m not sure they’ve spoken since the fight either.
“We really fucked up, didn’t we?” I ask when I turn to Dylan and see that we were thinking about the same thing.
“Big time,” he says quietly.
“Do you think they’ll ever forgive us?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he whispers. The thought of that sends shivers up my spine.
The party for that Friday night had been planned a long time ago and we can’t cancel it now. It was Dylan’s idea, but we have all invited people and asked them to bring people, so there’s no way to let everyone know it’s off. The only thing is to go through with it and host it. Dylan gets the alcohol and the cups and Juliet and I get the food and the decorations. Juliet actually seems excited and gets a little carried away in the party favors section.
“Are you sure we need so many?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says, throwing more into the cart. “I’ve been living in the middle of a war zone for a couple of weeks now and I need to let loose. At first, it was fiery and exciting, so that was fun. For me. Now, the whole place has become some sort of Cold War zone. No one talks to anyone anymore. It’s boring and tense. This party is exactly what we need to move on with our lives.”
“Move on?” I ask.
“Listen, you and Dylan act like you’re the only people in the world getting a divorce, but you’re not. Lots of people do it and they don’t mope around like you two. So, you made a mistake? So what? Nothing too terrible has happened. It’s not like you killed someone.”
“You definitely have a way of putting everything in perspective,” I say sarcastically. “I mean, I guess I should be glad that instead of just ruining my life, I didn’t actually kill someone.”
The sarcasm is lost on her. She either doesn’t get it or chooses to actively ignore it. Instead, she goes to the next aisle over and drops a few more decorative banners into the cart.
25
Later that night, our dorm is flooded with people. Everyone is standing around, drinking, laughing, and having a good time. Two separate beer pong games form and Dylan is only too happy to organize and oversee both. He’s a beer pong king and is quite a stickler for rules and regulations. While he is taking advantage of the party as an excuse to get plastered, I decide to not drink at all tonight. Nothing good has come from my drinking this semester and