Chapter 3 #3
But now… All that is dead. I feel cold inside. I feel numb. I feel nothing but regret, bitterness, and a simmering rage that’s about to boil over.
On the screen, Alex pulls out a tiny purple box and I lean in to look. He opens it and a fake spider lunges at me. I scream and jump back, tripping and stumbling onto the table. The whole thing comes crashing down. Candles tip, flowers fly, my legs shoot into the air as I hit the ground in a heap.
And Alex doubles over laughing. That sick, delighted laugh I’ve heard a thousand times before, always when he thinks he’s being funny. Usually at my expense.
My eye twitches. My hands squeeze into fists.
Alex and Sharon erupt into howling laughter beside me. They wave and chuckle as we come onto the screen. I just glare at the camera, gritting my teeth as the anger inside gets hot enough to melt my skin.
The feed cuts back to Walton Green. He’s standing in the studio holding a huge fifty-thousand-dollar check.
“And the winner of this week’s Funniest Home Blooper,” he says, “is prank engagement fall!”
My whole body goes cold as everyone in the room cheers. Alex and his mom hug my stiff body, screeching in my ears as we’re suddenly back on the screen.
I look at myself sitting between these two people and wonder what the hell I’m doing with my life.
“Congratulations,” Walton says as he comes on the screen with a big smile. “Joining us are Alex, Faye, and Alex’s mother, Sharon. Now, Alex, I’ve seen a lot of engagements, but never one so terrifying. What made you turn the most romantic moment of your lives into an amateur horror movie?”
Alex sits up with a big, stupid grin on his face. “Faye hates spiders, so I knew she would love it.”
Walton chuckles. “And what did you think, Faye? Did you love it?”
“No,” I say flatly, staring at the camera with dead eyes.
“Well, let’s hope the wedding goes a little smoother than the engagement,” Walton says. “What do you two plan to do with the fifty thousand dollars?”
“Wedding,” I say at the same time that Alex says, “A new truck.”
My jaw clenches as I turn and glare at him. A new truck? Is he fucking kidding me right now?
His current truck is less than three years old. Why does he even need a truck? He lives in the damn city!
“Well, if you do any more pranks to each other at the wedding, send them in,” Walton says, chuckling. “Congratulations, you two!”
The feed cuts and the cheering gets louder. Alex and his mother leap up and hug each other, screaming and hollering in excitement.
I just sit there feeling like my whole world is crumbling down.
It’s all so clear now.
It’s like a switch flipped inside me.
I’m not doing this. I can’t marry this man. I can’t even look at him.
I’m so done.
So. Fucking. Done.
Alex bounds around the room, hugging everyone. Except for Willow. She puts her palm up, steps back, and shakes her head. “Not after that.”
He does an embarrassing little karate routine in celebration and then sits back down, out of breath.
“Can you believe I won?” he says. “Fifty thousand dollars.”
I won.
“I thought we agreed to put the money toward the wedding,” I say, glaring at him.
“You suggested that,” he says, “but I decided to get a new truck.”
I just stare at him.
“What? It’s my money.”
My eyes narrow viciously.
“It is!” he snaps. “It was my idea, I set up the camera, I sent it in to the show. It’s my video and my money.”
I stand up and look at Willow. She nods like Darth Vader giving me permission to go all dark side of the force on this man-child.
“I knew you were going to take the fun out of it,” Alex says, shaking his head. “You always do this.”
“Oh, I am going to take the fun out of it!” I shout. Something takes over inside me. Some dark, vengeful part of me I kept bottled up for too long. “I’m taking all the fun out of it!”
Alex rears back as I grab the balloons and start ripping them apart with my bare hands.
“Faye,” Sharon says, aghast as I pop two more. “Stop that.”
“Fuck you, Sharon!” I holler.
Everyone gasps. Willow grins.
Alex is incensed. “Don’t talk to my mother like that.”
“Fuck you too,” I shout, poking him in the chest with my finger. “How could you do that to someone? To someone you love. You deserve to be single for the rest of your pathetic life.”
“It was funny!” he says like he’s desperate for me to see it.
“I’ll tell you what’s funny,” I say in a cold, serial killer tone. “Me thinking that you were worth marrying. Willow was right. You have never respected me. You are wrong for me in every possible way.”
He just opens and closes that big dumb mouth like a drowning fish.
“I am not marrying you, Alex,” I say, feeling life and energy returning into my body for the first time in a long time. “The engagement is over. This is over.”
I take off the ring and toss it onto the table. The ring I was given as an afterthought. The ring I was given while I had a scraped elbow and melted wax in my hair from his ‘hilarious’ prank.
I’m so done.
Everyone just stares at me in shock as I march out of there, high-fiving Willow on the way.