Sweet Valley University #20: Here Comes the Bride

Billie and Steven are broken up and he’s living with Mike. That basically means he’s running around to bars and pool halls a lot and trying to hook up with girls, but failing miserably. He decides to serenade her with a horn and she realizes that he’s still in love with her. They decide to get married after all and have it at the Wakefield house.

There’s really only a couple of storylines that take place here. One involves Jessica and Mike who are now dating again, but taking things slow. They go out a few times and Jess gets pissed off because Mike doesn’t respond to her short skirts and flirting. She tells him that she wants things back to normal, but then freaks out when he flirts with other girls. He says that if she wants the Mike she’s attracted to, she has to deal with him attracting other women and she can’t deal with that. Doesn’t he realize Jess is the only one allowed to whore around in her relationships?

Liz and Tom get assigned the job of meeting her mom’s aunt Sylvia at the airport, but when they arrive, Liz sees her getting in a car with some guy. I love this story because Liz doesn’t get everything she wants. She goes to the cops and they don’t believe her. Then she goes to the rental car place and can’t figure out why they won’t give her confidential and private information on their clients.

Steven decides that he doesn’t want to be one of those couples that breaks up and gives into everything Billie wants. He reads a bunch of relationship books, but then just decides to go along with what everyone says, which pisses off the whole group. Billie just keeps running off because no one will listen to her and she’s depressed because her parents are stuck in Mexico and can’t make it back for the wedding.

Liz finally finds Sylvia. She went off with Carl, who was her dead husband’s best friend. Her, Carl and their spouses used to vacation together and they got together to spread the ashes of their spouses. Sylvia agrees to come to the wedding.

Billie, Steven, Liz, Tom, Jessica and Mike go out for the rehearsal dinner and all hell breaks loose. Billie storms out because Steven acts difficult, he won’t even eat because he’s decided to follow a macrobiotic diet. Then Jess storms out because Mike ran into his ex-girlfriend. He comes to see her that night and they go for a long drive, where he tells her that it’s up to her to decide where they stand. By the way, Jessica is sleeping in a teddy, which seems really gross. Why the hell would you sleep in that by yourself and in your parents house?

Billie and Steven stay up all night talking and decide to call off the wedding…the night before. Alice freaks out, but then Sylvia shows up. She and Carl are running off to the courthouse to get married, but instead they get married at the house. Even though most of the people are college age, Sylvia keeps talking about how she loves her family.

Jess and Mike dance and she tells him she isn’t ready for a serious relationship because things are too intense. Um, won’t she start dating someone else exclusively in like three days? He tells her that he loves her and he’ll wait until she’s ready. I liked Mike up until this point.

Oh and there’s a short story with Bruce and Lila. Lila confronts her father about buying the doughnut shop and makes him give into all her demands. That sets her off on a bargaining thrill where she wants to make other demands. Bruce suggests they do a pre-prenup. They both hire lawyers, but then end up making out while the lawyers fight it out. They finally decide it’s better to just be in love and deal with everything else later.