Love’s Suicide(17)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I don’t know why I said it, but the words came blubbering out. “Make sure they don’t fight with each other.”

For some reason she knew exactly who I was talking about. “Katy, I don’t think anyone could predict what those two will do. For the sake of the wedding, they’ve both agreed to behave.”

“Thank you.” I closed my eyes and let myself rest.

I woke up to someone coming into my room. Melissa left her stuff at the door and plopped down on the bed next to me. “What are you doing sleeping? We’ve got celebrating to do.”

I sat up and noticed that I’d been asleep for nearly three hours. “I had an anxiety attack. It was horrible. I felt like I was dying.”

“Girl, I used to get them. You’ve got to stay calm.”

“Danica gave me a Xanax. I fell asleep and it’s gone now.”

She reached over and hugged me. “I’m so excited for you. I already saw Branch, and I met that fine ass brother-in-law to be. You were right. They are identical, but different. Do you think he’d like to have a good time with a complete stranger for a weekend?”

I felt like my closest friend had just kicked me in the face. It shouldn’t have bothered me. I’d been living with and was marrying his brother. Brooks didn’t belong to me, not that he ever did. “You’ll have to ask him yourself.”

I walked into the bathroom to freshen up and sat down on the toilet, covering my face with my hands. I was jealous of Melissa saying Brooks was hot.

What was wrong with me?

She waited for me to come back out, and then we headed out to find the guys. I spotted Branch first, because Brooks had changed from his uniform to regular civilian clothing. He smiled when he saw me approaching, but I quickly turned my attention to Branch.

He asked Melissa what she wanted and went up to get us drinks. Brooks leaned over and asked, “Are you feeling better?”

Why hadn’t my fiancée asked me that? “Yes, thanks.”

“Nerves got the best of you, I assume.” He took a sip of his beer and stared at a game on the television, instead of looking at me.

It was probably better, since Branch was heading over with a round of drinks for all of us. “Thanks,” I said as I grabbed mine out of his hand.

“We can have one drink before we need to meet in the restaurant for dinner,” Branch explained.

We stood around mingling, and finally things started to feel alright. Aside from Melissa staring at Brooks and him actually speaking to her, I was in a good mood. Branch seemed happy to have his brother home, and it was almost like old times.

We headed to dinner and sat at a large table with his parents. Brooks told stories of being in boot camp and things him and his buddies did to make the time go by faster. He talked about his upcoming deployment and what his job would be while he was gone.

I could see that it bothered Danica, knowing he was basically being shipped into a war-zone. I knew how she felt, because I was worried about him too.

While he spoke and everyone listened, I caught him catching my gaze every once in a while, and each time I got butterflies.

I hated myself for it, because I knew it was wrong and I couldn’t stop it.

To make myself feel better, I held Branch’s leg under the table, reminding him and myself that we were the couple everyone was there for.

After dinner, we met the pastor to go over the ceremony. We hadn’t planned anything special, but were expecting one hundred people and wanted the wedding to be pretty as well as quick, so we could get to the celebration afterwards.

Melissa was going to sing a song, and Danica was going to read a verse from Corinthians. Aside from that, we were going with traditional vows, because Branch insisted on it.

During the practice run, the pastor was going over where the guys would be standing. Accidentally, he grabbed Brooks and stood him with me. Branch hurried and corrected him, but my heart had already felt that pull again, seeing him standing there for that second and looking into my eyes, like he belonged there instead of his brother.

The worst part about it was I felt it too.

I went through the motions of the rehearsal, but after that happened, I was at a loss for words. While everyone in attendance was laughing, I was crying inside and had to avoid looking at either of the guys, in fear of them seeing right through me.

I couldn’t ruin things.

I was so close to having my forever with Branch.

What was happening to me? Why couldn’t I compose myself?

As the questions rolled through my mind, I felt the anxiety becoming heightened again.

Thankfully, the rehearsal was over and everyone retreated back to the bar.

Once we were all standing around having drinks, I settled down and started enjoying myself again. Melissa continued to hit on Brooks, but I was determined to let it go, because it wasn’t my business.

Branch seemed thrilled that Melissa was digging her paws into his brother. He’d even made lewd comments implying that he had a nice room upstairs. When he told her Brooks’ room number, I was shocked. I laughed with everyone else, but I caught his eyes looking at me again.

My smile disappeared and I knew that this was exactly what Branch had been worried about.

The time apart hadn’t made things go away between me and Brooks. For me, they were stronger and the more I tried to fight them and look forward to my wedding, the more drawn I was to figuring out why I couldn’t let Brooks go.

It was going to be a long night, and all I could hope for was that I drank myself out of all my irrational thoughts and woke up tomorrow prepared to spend the rest of my life with Branch.

Chapter 9

We’d been drinking steadily for nearly two hours, and it was getting close to midnight. Branch was getting belligerent, joking and making fun of strangers that were around us.

His parents had called it a night hours ago, probably guessing that us all hanging out was going to end in catastrophe. I think Brooks and I both knew that pretty soon he’d start running his mouth about us and we couldn’t let that happen.

I followed Melissa into the ladies room to tell her that our night was going to end abruptly.

She wasn’t upset. “I asked Brooks if he wanted company.” She leaned over and re-applied her lip-gloss. “He told me we could hang out later.”

I’d never wanted to punch my friend, but for some reason, it’s all I could think about doing. I didn’t want her hands touching on Brooks. I knew he wasn’t a saint and he’d probably been with plenty of women by now, but it still didn’t make me feel better with it being one of my friends.