Page 84 of Out of Bounds
I would have ditched the party long ago, but I promised Mama I would be here.
As if I don’t feel bad enough, everyone is here with someone a husband or boyfriend.
This party is what the engagement party would have been like if Quinn didn’t go with me.
I’m by myself standing by the table with the canopies. I’m just watching and waiting for enough time to go by so I can leave.
Last night I decided this would be my last weekend in Ethan’s house.
What is the point in waiting for him to give me the boot. I’d also prefer if he didn’t come to the wedding with me either.
I’m barely holding it together and any extra involvement will tear me apart.
My theory—although I’m sure I’m wrong—is that if I start breaking ties with him from now, I hope I’ll be able to bounce back.
That’s the theory. Although I don’t believe I’ll have any bouncing back to do I can’t roll over and play dead.
I have to try something and get over the boy.
Maybe he was right, maybe we’d end up hurting each other.
Shelby comes up to me with a glass of champagne.
“Just checking on you. You don’t look so good.”
“I feel like shit,” I whisper. Any louder and the sharks will hear me.
My cousins have been whispering all evening. I would love to tell them to fuck right the hell off, but I don’t want Mama laying down the law on me.
“Well you look beautiful,” she offers.
“I still feel like shit and I want to go home. My home, not my husband’s home.” Tears sting the backs of my eyes when I think of Ethan and what we had over these few months. I want to go back to the start. “I want to go back to months ago when we first started this crazy journey.” I speak my thoughts sounding hopeless.
Shelby’s about to say something but something catches her eye and she looks over my shoulder and smiles.
“What?” I say.
“Every now and then people have a way of surprising you,” she replies and turns me to face the door.
That’s when I see him.
Ethan.
He’s here and he looks like he stepped out of a dream. I wasn’t expecting him back until tomorrow.
He moves to me through the crowd and I leave Shelby and head to him too.
We meet in the middle just as the music changes and it gets loud. But then he takes my hand and leads me out to the balcony.
We walk down the path until we’re alone and when we stop he takes both my hands into his.
“You’re here,” I say.
“I needed to cut my trip short.”
“How come?”
“Because when you said you loved me when we were kids and you still did, that should have been enough. I should have said, I love you too. Or better yet, I should have been the first one to say it.”
