FRACTURES (The Lake House #3) *REUPLOADED*

Chapter Two

Ana

"I feel really uncomfortable letting you guys pay for my flight." I said to Gianna, bending down to lift my heavy suitcase off of the spinning belt. I had two weeks' worth of my stuff in it. We made our way to the crowd of drivers waiting for customers, immediately following the man that Gianna waved at.

"You're our best friend, Ana." She slid into the backseat of the SUV as I followed suit on the opposite side. "You're my maid-of-honor. We need you here. You can pay us back." Gianna winked at me.

I snorted, "Yeah, with my paycheck that'll take a long time."

"When does your family get in?"

"Saturday. Oliver still has school."

Gianna sighed with a dreamy smile. "These next two weeks are going to be absolutely perfect."

I shook my head as we pulled into the villa. "This is ridiculous." I said. "This place has to be worth more than my life."

"Gav texted me that they're out on the patio eating lunch, let's go." She didn't wait for the driver to even take our stuff out before she sprinted into the home. I smiled at him before going to follow her.

Gavin grinned wide when I walked out to the lavish deck. "Damn Romero, it took you look enough." He grabbed me, lifting me in his arms.

"You know I hate when you do this." I choked out, closing my arms around his neck.

When he put me down, I finally noticed Justin sitting at the glass table behind him. He was lifting his beer bottle to his lips and I took in just how different he looked. Longer hair that hung to the side, a stronger face with a few scratches here and there and the shadow of a growing mustache; large, toned arms littered with tattoos.

"Hey," I said quietly.

He got up with a smile that looked a little painful. "It's good to see you." He said, hugging me with a few slaps on the back like we were bros.

I patted back. "You too."

There was an awkward silence when we both pulled back. Finally, Gianna stood from the table. "So, Ana you must be starving, I know I am." She elbowed Gavin.

"Uh yeah, there's stuff in there to make a sandwich." He said, motioning for me to follow him. I nodded politely at Justin, side stepping him to get inside.

*

The night the rest of Gavin and Gianna's families flew in was when the real events began and when it sunk in that my two best friends in the world were about to be married.

The whole two weeks was just going to be filled with dinner parties and rehearsals and huge reminders that I was still single, starting with tonight. Every five minutes, Gianna needed me to do something. Talk to caterers; talk to guests, calm her down during her frequent mental breakdowns because something wasn't going exactly the way she planned. I finally threw myself down at the open bar and got a drink.

Justin came up next to me, "Let me get a beer, please." He said to the bartender. When the bottle was in his hand, he hopped up onto the stool next to mine, pulling at his tie to loosen it. "If anyone ever asks me to be a best man again, I'm saying no."

I chuckled. "Yeah, being a maid-of-honor is no stroll in the park either."

Justin looked up at me with narrow eyes, like he was studying me, before smiling. "Oliver's so old now."

I looked over to where my brother was on the dance floor with Gianna's mom, Ella. "He's gonna be 8 in August." I grinned. My brother was my favorite person on the planet.

"So, cliché question time. What've you been up to?"

"I'm a preschool teacher." I said and Justin hummed in response. "I got my teaching degree because it was quick but I'm hoping to save up to go back to school. I wanna go into psychology."

"That's really cool." He responded in a way that didn't sound like he found it really cool and just said that to be polite. Then there was the awkward silence that seemed to follow us everywhere.

"So what about you? World Champion MMA Fighter, the youngest they've ever had. You must feel so accomplished."

Justin smiled, "Yeah, I do. I worked really hard to get to where I am. Did you watch the fight?"

I frowned, "No I didn't. It's...not really my thing." That and I can't afford pay-per-view.

"Oh," Justin said, looking down at his hands. His knuckles were raw.

Cue the awkward silence.

Gianna came to grab me to dance and when I turned to say goodbye to Justin, he was occupied talking to Gianna's tall blonde cousin.

"So, I can't help but notice that Gavin has a lot of cute family members." Gianna giggled in my ear as we made our way to the ladies room.

"Are you gonna leave him for one of them?"

"No," Gianna said innocently. "Of course not. But I live vicariously through you, so you have to do everything that single-me would do."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh right."

I opened the bathroom door but stopped short at the two people already in there. Justin had the blonde pushed up on the sink, her short dress up above her thighs.

"Oh...uh-"

Justin turned to glare at me. "Do you mind?" He snapped.

"Sorry..." My face felt hot as I quickly let the door shut. Gianna didn't let it go, though. She ripped it open again as I was walking away.

"Are you kidding me?" I heard her scream. "Serena, do you have to sleep with every man you meet?

*

Justin

It was 4am and I still couldn't sleep. I'd gotten back from the party around midnight and the happy couple went straight to bed. I could see the light on under Ana's door and considered knocking and apologizing for what she walked in on. But I was really too drunk to care.

I grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and walked out onto the deck. It was a warm night and you could hear the waves of the ocean loud and clear. I had nothing to help the groom with tomorrow so I planned to relax on the beach.

From the deck, you could see the glass windows of the indoor pool. I swore this house was something out of The Sims. Ana was climbing out of the water and I watched as she walked over to her towel. She passed it through her long hair, arms stretching up. I let out a sigh, shaking my head at myself, and went back inside.

I sat on my bed, pulling a brown back from the nightstand. I flipped it over to dump out the bottles in it. I looked through them until I found the one I wanted.

Two years ago, I'd had my jaw broken in a rec fight and was put on painkillers. It had been a bad year for me and I was losing fight after fight. But then I'd met a guy who said he could help me out. Once I started taking the steroids, everything started looking up. I became a champion.

I poured two pilled out onto my palm and popped them into my mouth. I was better now. People wanted me. I was important. I was doing the right thing.

-

I'm so sorry for disappearing, I'm getting ready to graduate so things are really busy right now but I'm back!

Thank you for all the amazing feedback on the first chapter! You're all amazing.

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