Broken (3 page)

She glared at me, looking
me up and down giving me dirty looks the entire time. I could
already tell the bitch was going to be a pain in my ass. I let out
a sigh and reminded myself to "
kill them
with kindness
"
as
Katie had instructed. With a huge fake smile on my face, I held out
my hand. “Hi, I’m Leila, the wedding photographer. Can I take a
picture of you with the bride?”

Her eyes scanned down to my hand, not
lifting hers to shake mine. “I’m Marie, the sister of the bride and
the Maid of Honor,” she replied in a snotty tone. She then pivoted
on her heels and sauntered out of the room apparently not wanting a
picture with her sister.

“
Ok, you fucking bitch,” I
breathed out.

I started chanting in my
head
“
Kill them
with kindness, kill them with kindness
.
”
This was
going to be the longest wedding ever. I gathered the bouquets and
began photographing them, staying as far away as I could from
Bridezilla. Once I was finished taking pictures of the flowers, the
rings, and the dress, I approached Susan and told her I was going
to go out to the ceremony site. She barely looked at me but nodded
her head. I assured her I would be back in twenty
minutes.

As I left the bridal suite, I stopped
for a moment. With the door closed behind me, I took a deep breath.
I composed myself and made my way through the lobby. How could this
wedding get any worse? The scenarios started running through my
head. Maybe it will rain? Maybe Bridezilla will get a bad case of
diarrhea? Maybe the groom won’t show up. I smiled at my last
thought.

Just as I was about to
step into the main reception hall, I heard a very familiar voice
and then a very familiar laugh. A laugh that stopped me dead in my
tracks. A laugh I would never forget. I hadn’t heard it in over
four years. At first, I thought I was losing my mind. I inched my
way over to the doorway where the reception was being held. That
was when I saw his reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall. My
heart sank.
Fuck
.
The wedding had just gotten worse.

Chapter 3

It was Garrett Levine. The man who
broke my heart four years earlier. The man who left a hole in my
heart that I’d been trying to fill with alcohol and one night
stands ever since. I hadn't seen him since that fateful night when
he told me he loved me, but he couldn’t be with me
anymore.

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!
I was ready to call Katie and beg her to switch
weddings with me, but I knew, deep down, that was impossible. I was
over an hour and a half away from home and who the hell knew where
Katie’s wedding was!

It had been four years since Garrett
left town and fell off the face of the earth. Why was he here? How
did he know Bridezilla? Oh my God! Was he marrying Bridezilla? My
mind was moving at a million miles a minute. I couldn’t think. I
couldn’t breathe, and sheer panic rushed through my body. I felt as
if I was going to pass out.

Just then a voice came from behind me.
“Are you ok, Miss?”

I turned around to see an older
gentleman, with gray hair, small framed glasses with an overly
large nose, staring at me with a worried look on his
face.

“
Yes, I am fine,” I
replied in between breaths.

“
Let me get you a chair,
you really don’t look well at all,” he said. He poked his head into
the reception hall and yelled, “Garrett, grab me a chair! Hurry
up!”

At his words, I said every four-letter
word I could think of in my head. This confirmed it was definitely
Garrett. I mean how many Garrett’s are there in the world? Now I
was going to see him after four years. I was fucked! I quickly
tried to stand straighter, which made me feel even worse. My legs
became weak, and I stumbled backwards towards the wall. Just as I
nearly fell on my ass, as Garrett walked through the door with the
chair. He looked at me and did a double take. He looked as shocked
as I was.

“
Leila?”

“
Hi,” I said
weakly.

The older gentleman looked at Garrett
with a confused look on his face. “You know this young
lady?”

Garrett replied, “Yes,” without
looking away from me, his voice barely a whisper.

As soon as Garrett set the chair down
I immediately sat. The older gentlemen introduced himself as, Gary
Scirocco, the father of the bride.

I said in a very meek voice, “Hi, I’m
Leila the wedding photographer.”

“
And you obviously, know
Garrett here,” he said as he patted Garrett’s shoulder.

“
It’s very nice to meet
you Mr. Scirocco and it’s nice to see you again, Garrett.” The
words were barely even audible as they came out of my
mouth.

There was so much tension in the air
you could have cut it with a knife. I’m sure Mr. Scirocco could
feel it too. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and asked if I
would like a glass of water. I looked up at him, finding it hard to
speak, and just nodded. He disappeared into the reception
hall.

Garrett crouched down next to me and
lightly touched the top of my hand. “Are you okay?” Instantly, my
heart started to beat rapidly. I felt as if the walls were closing
in on me. Garrett had haunted my dreams almost every night. It had
nearly killed me when he’d left and now all of those emotions were
rushing back. All I could do was nod my head. Even if I had tried
to speak I don’t think any words would have actually come
out.

He looked the same, but older. He’d
lost the baby face he’d had, making him look more like a man now.
He stood about five feet ten, hair much shorter than I remembered,
the top was longer and the sides shaved very closely to his scalp.
I looked into his eyes. They were always my weakness. Deep brown
and round like saucers but not overly large. He was wearing what
appeared to be a Marines uniform, which might explain where he’d
been for the past four years. His body filled his uniform in all
the right places. His chest was broad, and his arms looked
muscular. His physical appearance took my breath away. I couldn't
take my eyes off of him.

I wanted to ask him so many questions,
but nothing came out of my mouth. No sooner had I opened my mouth
to speak, Mr. Scirocco walked through the door with my glass of
water.

“
Here you go, my dear,” he
said kindly, as he handed me the glass.

“
Thank you.” I took a
small sip and a deep breath. I could feel the color coming back to
my face, so I decided to try to stand up. Garrett took a hold of my
elbow to help me. He’d always been a gentleman from the first day
I’d met him. He was like no one else I knew.

My mind wandered back to the day we
first met. I remembered it like it was yesterday.

It was the middle of
November. I just celebrated my sixteenth birthday, and I was in my
junior year of high school. Even though I was only sixteen, I‘d
been a bit of a wild child. I had many boyfriends before but none
of them ever seemed to keep my interest. It was kind of like a
revolving door with me. Nicole told me I had
boyfriend ADD.
I seemed to be
a
love‘em and leave‘em
kind of girl.

There was nothing wrong
with my ex’s. I think I just became bored with them. I had met my
most recent ex, through a mutual friend, Shawn. Shawn told me about
his friend, Garrett, and suggested I should meet him. Of course, I
was game. I was always game to meet a new boy. However, Garrett was
no boy. He was nineteen years old. His age made me a bit nervous. I
never dated someone that much older than me, but of course, I was
up for the challenge.

Shawn invited me over to
his house one day after school with the intention of me meeting
Garrett. Once I’d arrived at Shawn’s house, he informed me we were
going to take a walk over to Garrett’s place. When we got there his
mom answered the door. She was a cute little Italian woman with an
accent. She told us Garrett wasn’t home from work yet, but we could
come in and wait for him. Once in the house, Shawn pointed out a
picture of Garrett on the refrigerator. I walked up to it to get a
closer look, and my heart stopped.

There he was standing in a
bedroom. He was wearing a white wife beater and loose baggy ripped
jeans. His hair was a very dark shade of brown, almost black and
long and shaggy, almost like a surfer. His chest and arms were
toned and defined, you could tell he played some sort of sport or
worked out. His physical appearance was gorgeous, but his eyes were
what I couldn’t stop staring at, they were almost hypnotizing. He
had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a guitar in his hand.
I couldn’t help but stare. Shawn cleared his throat and snapped me
out of the trance I was in.

Yup, this guy is going to
be my parent’s worst nightmare.

Suddenly, I heard Garrett’s voice.
“Leila?"

I shook my head and realized I totally just
spaced out. I focused my eyes back on his.“Huh?”

“
Why don’t we go outside
and get you some fresh air?”

I nodded. Garrett waited for me to
start walking and put his hand on the small of my back as we walked
towards the double doors at the back of the building, I noticed he
was walking with a slight limp.

I stopped and turned to him. “Are you
okay? Did you hurt yourself?” I asked.

“
What?” He replied with a
puzzled look on his face.

I looked down at his legs. “Why are
you walking with a limp? Did you hurt yourself?”

“
Oh, No. I’m fine. I just
pulled a muscle in my calf at the gym. It’s nothing.”

I felt my heart jump and the
butterflies in my stomach go crazy, at his touch. As we stepped out
onto the patio, the cool air hit my face. I took a deep breath in
and exhaled. The cool air definitely was making me feel better
already. The patio was decorated with beautiful lanterns that hung
above our heads.

Garrett pulled out a pack of
cigarettes from inside his jacket, and I gave him a puzzled look.
“You started smoking again?”

He put the cigarette in his mouth, lit
it up, took a drag and turned to me. “Yes,” he said in an annoyed
tone.

Smoking was something we had always
fought about when we were together. I hated the fact that he
smoked. I hated the way it made my hair stink, how it stunk up his
car, and I told him it made me feel like I was kissing an
ashtray.

“
I started back up a few
years ago,” he said.

I looked at him with disgust on my
face.

“
Don’t give me that look,”
he snapped bitterly. He began to pace, not taking his eyes off me.
“Just remember which one of us went behind the other ones back.”
His sudden words stung. He shook his head and exhaled his tension.
“I am not getting into this with you here.”

But I wasn’t going to let him get the
better of me. I had four years’ worth of bitterness to lay on him.
“What are you doing here anyway? Are you marrying Bridezilla?” I
snapped back.

“
Bride what?” He said
shaking his head and scoffing. “You haven’t changed a bit have you?
The same ole speak your mind with no filter. That shit hasn’t
gotten you in trouble yet?” He asked coldly.

“
Nah,” I replied. “I’ve
learned to filter myself in certain situations.”

“
So?” I said
sharply.

“
So, what?” He
replied.

“
Please tell me you are
not marrying that mega bitch in there,” I said flatly.He took
another drag of his cigarette and said loud and clear, shaking his
head. “No!”

I let out a huge sigh of relief and
said under my breath, “Thank fucking God.”

“
Come on, Leila. Give me
more credit than that!”

I looked at him and said harshly,
“Well, you started smoking again so I thought maybe you had lost
your mind completely.”

“
I am here with . . . What
do you call her? Bridezilla’s sister, Marie.”

“
Oh, you are dating the
douche of honor,” I said in a very cold tone. “Wow! You got
yourself a real catch there.”

“
I said I was here with
her . . . Not dating her,” he snapped back. He sighed and put out
his cigarette. “Alright, I can see we are getting nowhere fast with
this conversation.”

“
Yeah, you’re right I’d
better get back to the blushing bride and her wonderful Maid of
Honor. Heaven forbid I should keep them waiting,” I said in a very
sarcastic tone.

As I headed toward the door, Garrett
said more calmly, “Yeah, you definitely do not want to keep those
two waiting, I know how they can be.”

He smirked, and my heart
flipped.

“
I’ll see you later,” I
replied quietly.

As I headed back towards the building,
I heard him say, with his voice cracking, “Leila.”

I turned my head to look at him. My
heart was breaking as I saw sadness in his eyes.

“
It was good to see
you.”

I nodded my head and said, “It was
good to see you too.” It came out in a whisper, and I was on the
verge of tears.