"What kind of masochist invites the girl he used to love to his wedding?" I look over at Rachel, and her eyes widen. "Think about it? If I would get married, do you think I would send him an invitation?"
She’s about to answer me when I hear someone call my name and turn to see Jake and Frankie coming toward us, both of them in a suit. "Oh my God," Jake says, leaning down and kissing my cheek. "Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?"
"There is nothing wrong with your eyes." I point at him. "How are you?" I move toward Frankie and kiss his cheek while Jake says hello to Rachel.
"Not too bad," Jake replies. "Where are Lydia and Victoria?"
I stand here with my clutch in my hand in front of me, and I can feel my body start to fill with nerves again. "They should be here soon. What about Chris?"
"He arrives any minute, and he’s coming straight here," Frankie explains. "This is crazy," he says and then looks at me, and I feel so awkward being here now. I know in my head I was adamant about coming, but maybe, just maybe, I should have said no.
"We should get inside," Jake says and holds out his hand for us to walk up the steps toward the ceremony.
My heart beats so hard in my chest I don’t even know how I’m breathing, let alone functioning. "Here goes nothing," I mumble when the doors open, and I step in.
Chapter 4
Travis
"How do I look?" I turn around to look at my best friend, Bennett, who stands beside me. The collar of my shirt feels like it’s getting tighter and tighter. I put my finger between my collar and my neck. The tan linen suit was supposed to be light and airy, but it suddenly feels like a weighted blanket pushing my shoulders down.
"You look like you are being carted off to the middle of town where they are going to hang you." He tries not to laugh. "Almost like you have a noose around your neck." He wears the same suit as me, except his tie is in his jacket pocket for now. He promised he would put it on right before we walked down the aisle. Since kindergarten, the two of us have been best friends, and when we got into high school, we did everything together. We tried out for the same sports teams, were in almost the same classes. Even though we went to different colleges, I knew that I could count on him for everything. Now that we are back living in our hometown, it is just like before we left.
"You’re a dick." I shake my head and look around the ceremony space, standing to the side. My sisters really outdid themselves. Gold folding chairs fill what used to be a run-down barn that they restored and made into a church. The back of the barn has floor-to-ceiling windows letting in all the natural light. An arch in front of the chairs looks like vines wrapped together with white roses stuck into them. Soft candles float in vases all down the aisle with vines wrapped around them. "This shit is too tight." I take a second to look around the room and see my mother at the front of the ceremony space, greeting some of the guests she knows. The smile on her face looks fake and stressed, but that could just be because the fire department deemed the kitchen unusable two hours ago. She tries to look calm, cool, and collected, but the meltdown she had this morning was anything but cool. People are coming in, and some have even taken a seat to wait for the main event.
The doors open again, and I suddenly feel a shift move in the space. My eyes go to the door, and everything stops inside me. I blink my eyes ten times to see if I’m dreaming this. "Oh my God," Bennett says from beside me, and what sounds like a herd of horses running through the field fills my ears. I feel like my body is detaching from my bones. "Is that who I think it is?" My hand falls from my neck as if it weighs a thousand pounds. "That can’t be,” Bennett still beside me, and then I see Jake and Frankie with her. "Why the hell would you invite her?" He was the only person I confided in when I broke up with Harlow. He was the one who drove during the middle of the night to get to me and make sure I was okay. I was not. The minute she walked out of the room, I felt my heart shatter to a million pieces. The pain was as if I was being stabbed over and over again. It was practically unbearable. I kept staring at my phone, waiting for her to call me back, but nothing, and after two days of sending her messages, I found out that she blocked me.
"I didn’t," are the only two words that come out of me. My eyes don’t move from her as she laughs at something Jake is saying, and I want to throat punch him. "What the fuck?”
"So, it’s not just my eyes," Bennett says from beside me, and I force my eyes away from her and then turn to him. The shock on his face is apparent when he puts his hand over his mouth. "I can’t believe you invited her." He looks back at her, and even though my head tells me not to look over at her, I do it anyway. It’s even worse than before. I feel as if someone just kicked me in the balls, and my stomach has been pushed to my throat. She’s even more beautiful than she was four years ago. I shake my head and look around.