“You really think this wouldn’t matter to me?” I asked incredulously. “Theo and I are supposed to get married next month!” I shouted. “You were supposed to be my maid of honor! Christmas is next week! We had plans to… And you’ve been fu.cking him! You betrayed me in the worst way possible, and you act like it’s fu.cking nothing?”
“It is nothing, because the two of you never loved each other,” Sophie snapped, finally getting up from my bed. “I knew it from the beginning. Poor Theo really thought you loved him. But I know you, Deidra. I know you were faking it.”
I stared at her with my mouth open for a minute. Partly because of her sheer audacity. Partly because… I think she might be right and don’t want to admit it. Theo and I didn’t have a lot of passion between us. I tried, really. I faked it so well that even I believed it. But I thought Theo was a good man. I thought that, at least, I was settling down with a man I could trust. A man who had a good head on his shoulders.
How’d I never realize how truly weak Theo is?
Sophie walked closer, and I held the gun up higher. She stopped with her hands up, looking at me like I was the irrational one here. It made me want to pull the trigger just out of spite.
“Look, I love you Deidra,” Sophie said. “So much. You’re my sister. I didn’t mean for this to happen with Theo, but…” Then she looked at him. He looked at her. And they fu.cking smiled. Smiled like they weren’t standing naked in my room after betraying me in the worst possible way.
“We fell in love,” Theo blurted, both of them looking at me again.
Sorry, did he just say love? They fell in love? Sophie fell in love? This Sophie? The same Sophie I’ve known my whole life?
I couldn’t help the snort that came out of me.
“Sophie? In love? Yeah, okay,” I said.
“It’s true,” Sophie said. “We were going to tell you after Christmas.”
“You mean, mere days before my wedding?” I asked. “Why not just tell me right away and get your money back for all the wedding bullsh.it?”
The guilt that flickered across Theo’s face had my heart sinking. I really thought I loved the guy. At the very least, I cared for him and trusted him. I was going to pledge the rest of my life to him. And he chose my best friend.
“The wedding is still going to happen,” Sophie stated, her voice soft but stern.
Still going to happen… just not with me. I think I made that clear. Hell, I think they’re making it pretty clear. So that must mean…
“You two… are going to get married?” I choked up, feeling the tears well up in my eyes.
“Yes…” Theo replied apprehensively.
Every single decision I made about this wedding, Sophie was a part of. It was my dream wedding. Not too big, but I don’t have family anyway. I had to reserve the venue two years in advance. It was the only reason we were waiting so long. Because I have had my heart set on the Greenhouse since I was little. And now my best friend is getting married there. To my fiance. I’ll never be able to get married there. Hell, I’ll probably never trust another man ever again to even be able to get married.
It felt like the walls were closing in. It was too much, too overwhelming. My entire world just imploded. Love or not. I trusted both of them. And Sophie… I can’t believe she’d do something like this to me.
“Was this the plan all along?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at my ex-best friend. “The whole time I was planning the wedding… you were really getting me to plan yours?”
“It didn’t start until after you got the Greenhouse,” she told me. “I never meant for it to turn out like this, Deidra. I just-“
“Never meant for this?” I scoffed, cutting her off. “You apparently told Theo I didn’t really love him. You inserted yourself into our relationship. YOU did ALL of this, Sophie! Knowingly! With an agenda! You seduced him into sleeping with you in the hopes that he’d break up with me, didn’t you!? You just didn’t expect to fall in love. Or that I would cut you out of my life.”
“You wouldn’t,” she whispered.
“Oh, I would, and I am,” I stated, holding the gun at them again. “Get your clothes and get out. You have two minutes. I never want to see either of you again.”
“You don’t mean that-“
“Get the f***k out!” I screamed, cutting Sophie off. “Before I fu.cking shoot!”
Sophie rolled her eyes.
“Oh please, you don’t have the balls to do that,” she said.
Something in me snapped. Maybe it was finding them in my bed together. Maybe it was knowing that my best friend had orchestrated this entire mess. Maybe it was Theo’s pansy a.ss remaining silent. Maybe it was the way Sophie brushed me off, like I was the crazy one, like I had no right to feel this way after finding her with my fiance.
Whatever the reason… I pulled the trigger. The gunshot went off, echoing harshly in the room. Sophie and Theo both screamed, which was great, because it was a huge turn-off on Theo’s part. They both looked at the hole in the wall. I co.cked the gun again and this time, they actually looked scared. However, I was done playing.
I pulled the trigger again, this time at their feet. They both screamed again, but started to scurry off. I reloaded the gun and followed them into the hall. I may, or may not have followed them all the way to the front door, shooting off five rounds in total. I chased them out while they were still butt-naked.
“You’re insane!” Theo screamed as he pulled the driver’s door open of his car.
I shot again, shattering his back windshield.
“Deidra! This is too far!” Sophie screamed.
“Nah,” I said as I reloaded. “Too far would be shooting him in the nuts, so you two could never have kids.” Then I aimed the gun right for his precious junk.
Before I could actually do it, he got in the car though.
“This isn’t over, Deidra!” Sophie shouted. “You will forgive me! I’ll see you at the wedding!”
Then she got in the car, and Theo tore out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell. I stood there for a moment, thinking how insane those two are. They called me crazy, but they expected me to just be fine with his betrayal. To accept it and be part of it. It’s disgusting.
Unfortunately for me, I am a little insane. Because I’d completely forgotten about the fact that I lived in an apartment complex. And I just shot off my illegal gun a f***k ton of times. The only thing that alerted me to my mistake were the red and blue lights accompanied by the wailing sirens that were heading my way.
“Awh, sh.it,” I muttered under my breath.
Deb is so not going to be happy with me.
Deidra’s P.O.V.
*******************************
“Jesus Christ Deid, you really got yourself in it this time,” Officer Melvin said as he stopped in front of the cell bars.
I sighed heavily. He’s literally the fifth cop to come back here and tell me that. Small towns. Gotta love ’em. Half these police officers grew up with me. The other half knew my parents. My parents might not have had any family, but they made a family here. My dad was a firefighter and Mom was a nurse. They were caretakers. Everyone loved them. And everyone felt it hard when they suddenly died.
Despite my parents being pillars of the community, I was not as sociable as them. I liked plants. I liked to garden or go for nature walks. I was content with being on my own. People made an effort to talk to me when they saw me and my parents raised me to be polite, but that didn’t mean I was as loved as they were.
I miss them.
However, Officer Dylan Melvin was someone I was a bit closer to, you could say. He and I were part of the garden club in high school. Dylan was nice, and we had conversations here and there, but I’m not sure that I would call him a friend. His parents knew mine, so I always assumed he just felt bad for me like everyone else. I understood their pity, but it was annoying.
“You gonna tell anyone what happened?” he asked me. “Deb said she gave you that gun for protection when Captain Russo called her. She can’t figure out why you’d be shooting off if you weren’t attacked though.”
I leaned my head back against the nasty wall as I looked around the nasty cell. Christmas music was playing low in the background. The whole station was decked out for the holiday. Even the cells are lined with Christmas lights. It’s super adorable and not at all what I pictured for a police station. Again, small towns and all.
There was one other girl in here with me. She looked like a prostitute, and I felt bad thinking it because I recognized her. She’s one of the Salvation Knights’ club bunnies. One of the nicer ones. I asked her why she was here, and she said one of the cops arrested her because he thought she was trying to sell herself on the street. Apparently, she’s waiting for someone from the club to come get her and raise hell for the farce of an arrest.
We actually talked for a while. I found out her name is Honey. I thought it was fitting for her; she’s sweet and has pretty brown skin. She asked me what I was doing here. I told her, but I did it quietly. It wasn’t like I was embarrassed by what happened. I just… the longer I stay here means the longer I can prolong going home. Once I get there, I have to face reality. I have to burn my damn bed, pack up everything that reminds me of those two, and tell my handful of friends that my wedding is actually being taken over by my ex-best friend.
Honestly, it all wouldn’t be that bad if I had my best friend. If I had someone to go through this with me. I have Deb, and she’s like a second mother to me, but she’s also taken care of me for the last nine years. I’ve always hated having to dump my problems on her. She uprooted her whole life to move here and take care of me. I don’t want to lean on her for every little thing for the rest of my life.
God, why’d it have to be Sophie?
“Deb’s worried about you, Deid,” Dylan said gently. “Just tell us what happened. Cap’s willing to maybe let you go if you just tell us.”
I sighed again, wondering if I should just give it up. I’m getting tired. I know Deb is probably freaking out. She’s probably tried to call Sophie a million times. Surprised the little wh.ore didn’t answer just to tell her how she stole my fiance.
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