Five Years

11

I stepped closer to Abby.

"Did you add someone on the list?" I asked.

"No. I don't even know who she is." Abby answered.

"I do." Josh added.

Before we could ask, James answered.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet my girlfriend, Alica."

Oh. She's... she's pretty. We all just kinda looked at her for a moment unsure what to do. Of course James and I's moms came to the rescue by introducing themselves.

"Did you know she was coming?" Abby asked Josh.

"No, and I don't think James did either." Josh said.

He was right. James looked incredibly surprised by her being here. I couldn't help notice, he looked uncomfortable with her being here but I quickly got rid of that thought. That's his girlfriend, he's just surprised nor would it matter whether he wanted her here or not. What did matter is that she forgot to tell my lovely sister, the bride , that she was going to attend her wedding. People quickly started to surround Alica. James took it to his advantage to sneak over to Abby and Josh.

"I am so sorry. I did not know she was coming." James quickly apologized.

"It's okay." Josh said.

"We just have to plan to add another chair to your table. It's simple." Abby said as she was already planning in her head how she was going to do that. It had to be ready before tomorrow afternoon.

Everyone took about another 10 minutes to introduce themselves to Alica before we all made our way to the elevators. The last person got off and it was only me, Aunt K, James, and of course Alica. I needed to watch myself because it's not fair to have this bitter feeling. She did nothing to make me not like her, in fact right now I don't like James so let's keep it to that.

"So you two are?" Alica asked.

Aunt K looked at me and we both turned to face her.

"Maribelle." I answer.

"Kathrine." Aunt K answers.

"Oh fun! I have my own Kathrine at home but I have never met a Maribelle." Alica says with a smile and a little laugh.

"I've never met an Alica. I hope we can be good friends." I say with a smile.

I could feel James and Aunt K giving me weird glances. I made eye contact with James. What? I can't be friends with her? She was nice, she was kind, and even if for whatever reason I wanted to hate her, I couldn't. The elevador stopped and we made our way out. Aunt K headed to her room and James just walked quietly behind us as we started up a very entertaining conversation.

"It's late but we should talk tomorrow." I suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Alica said with a smile.

"Here, I will be there in a minute." He said as he handed her the key.

She took the key and headed inside the hotel room.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"What? Nothing." I responded.

"Look I am not sure what but don't do anything people like Victoria would do." James said.

"You may not know me very well anymore but I am nothing like Victoria." I say coldy.

How could he compare me to Victoria?! Victoria was the queen bee at our highschool. She was a terrible person to everyone, even her few friends. She would sink her claws into anyone who would listen but her favorite was the boyfriends or the boyfriends girlfriends.

"No- look, that's not really what I meant." James tried to fix it.

"Yeah, sure, it sounded like it. Goodnight." I commented before trying to close my door.

"No- i just meant- I- okay I did mean it but I shouldn't have. I'm sorry. I just- I don't know what you're doing and it's not like you like me at all right now or have in the past five years. I'm sure you've planned your revenge." James said as he not sulauntly made his way in.

"Maybe." I replie.

"Just one question, is it worse than Victoria's herself?" James asked with some laughter.

"Maybe." I replied again.

"No, please no. Her revenge was terrible and we only were able to do half of it."

"She deserved and you James deserve five times as much." There was pain in that sentence.

"Mari, I am sorry. I did not know how much it would hurt you." He apologized quietly.

"Well you did. Four years of brokenness and I'm still trying to repair myself." I answered as I sat down on the edge of my bed.

"I- I really did think it would be better." He said as he joined me on the bed.

"How? How James because I really can't understand." I asked. I needed an answer, just to this one question. Why?

"I can't tell you..." James admits. I don't know how but we managed to get quite close to each other.

"What do you mean you can't tell me James? I deserve to know, I need to know." I stood up from the bed.

"I know. I just can't, not yet." He follows me.

"James, I need to know. I can't do this whole thing again. I am barely healed from before- I-." James grabbed the sides of my arm.

He just stood there. He wasn't waiting for me to talk. He glanced at my lips before he made eye contact with me again. He moved his hand up to my check and gently held it there.

"I know. I'm sorry for this. Please just wait a little longer Mari. Just a little longer." He said it so quietly, almost desperately.

I wanted to answer, I was trying but we just kept glances at each other's lips. I wanted to move away, I couldn't do it- this. We were so close.

"James..." I tried.

"Please."