It had been a long time since we dated and what felt like longer still since we had an actual conversation that included more than just pleasantries. I knew that he had gotten engaged, to some random girl he met in New York, not a dancer, not a preformer, a lawyer actually and a very sweet girl. I was half shocked when I got the wedding invitation in the mail, I didn't know why he would invite me, probably because it would be wierd if he hadn't, or because I'm amazingly close with his brother and sister in law, as is another ex girlfriend he also invited. A funny world, a funny small world it is that we all live in.
Sharna POV
I stepped out of the car cautiously, I half expected someone to run up to me saying that I wasn't invited after all, that why on earth could I expect a wedding invitation from him of all people, that this was all a joke and I should just leave now. But that didn't happen. It didn't happen throughout the entire ceremony, although beforehand I was assaulted by my wonderful best friend Peta but her and Maks had matters to attend to being the family of the groom and couldn't chat for long. It didn't happen as they walked out of the church, holding hands, smitten looks. It didn't happen as I showed up at the reception and ate and made small talk with some ex cast mates and friends of the bride.
So here I find myself, sitting alone at my table, not finding the courage to get up and dance or really do much of anything. When I see someone pull over a chair and sit next to me.
"Hey shar." I turn and look at the possibly only other person who understands me in this moment.
"Hey Jen, longtime no see" She looks away slightly embarrassed.
"Yeah sorry about that it's just with everything I..." she trailed off. I understood what she mean though, her and Val had been off and on for several years before he started to date me and I always knew he broke her heart.
"I understand" she flashed me a quick smile.
"It's wierd being here." She said looking around the venue. "I always kind of assumed it was going to be one of us." I looked at her getting why she has come over here.
"Me too, I just always thought he was going to get his life together and ask one of us, it didn't have to be me, but to not even marry a dancer, she just seems so foreign" she nodded.
"I'm sure you've talked to Peta too but she says she's really nice when you get to know her." I had forgotten that Jenna and Peta were so close, once I stared dating Val I wasn't as close to her anymore. I forgot Peta wasn't the same way. But Peta hadn't spoken to me about Val's new wife and I don't know exactly if that meant anything, I suppose I never asked either.
"It hurts a little, not badly, not as much as it would've a year ago but it stings. I don't know if I'll ever completely stop feeling at least something for him"
"He's wierd like that, he draws you in and makes you feel like you're all that matter and it's all so dramatic in the moment and when it ends it's like a piece of you has been ripped away." She spoke with the words I couldn't form, as if she was reading my thoughts.
"I hope they are happy together, no matter what happened between us I want him to be happy." She smiled and raised her glass.
"I'll cheers to that!" We clinked our glasses and smiled. "I suppose that's why he invited us, it's such a big step in your life and he was such a big part of my life, it would feel wierd if he just wasn't there" I nodded softly.
The rest of the night passed slowly, I know that Jenna left early, but I could bear to follow, who leaves a wedding early?
~~~
I thought about that night in passing moments over the next years, when I felt the worst or most alone. Until three years later, I hadn't spoken to most of the people from yeh show in almost five years, save for an occasional phone call from Peta every month or so. It stung a bit to no longer talk to those I was so close to, but I had new friends and I loved them. But it made a certain phone call much stranger.
One day around twelve in the afternoon I revived a call from and unknown number I vauguely recognized. It was Jenna.
"Hey Sharna it's Jenna I had a question for you and I know we haven't spoken since well. Since Val's wedding but it's sort of about that and only you can answer it." She was calm and composed but I could hear a tone of panic in her voice.
"Hey Jen," I said quite taken aback, she was not who I expected, " what do you need"
"I'm getting married today," this conversation was getting stranger by the minute. "to Artem, I love him and he is so so wonderful, Lindsay is maid of honor, Peta, Brittany and both my sisters are my bridesmaids, I'm so happy Sharna, so happy" I didn't quite understand why she was calling me.
"I'm happy for you"
"But keep questioning myself, Sharna I have been in love with Val for most of my adult life, he was my first true love, but I love Artem more than I have ever loved Val." I was throughly confused at this point. " he called my you know?"
"What? Who called you when?"
"Val, on the day he got married, he called me and asked about, well you, and me but he was talking about how much he had hurt the two of us, and that he was so sorry for everything and he told me that a small part of him would always love us and that if we said it back he would run away with either one of us. He would run from his fiancé and never look back. But I knew it was just wedding nerves, I knew that he loved that girl more than he ever loved us. It hurt but I told him I didn't love him, it wa a lie, and the hardest lie I have ever told but I knew it was right. Sharna I need you to be that person for me. No one else understands like you do. I need you to tell me that Val doesn't love me, that he isn't going to come back like before, that he isn't in love either one of us. Because I love Artem and I want to marry him."
I was shocked. Completely and utterly flabbergasted. But she was right I knew where she was coming from, Val had a grip on me for too long, so I composed myself and said, finally believeing it myself. "Val isn't in love with us. Jenna he is not coming back for you. You love Artem. He is a great guy and you are going to be happy with him. Marry the man you love Jenna" It felt so nice to say that. I knew in my heart that I was saying Jenna's name but it felt like I was talking to myself. If she could move on I knew that I could too.
"Thank you" she wispered and the phone fell silent.
~~~
Two years later I got a letter, inside was a baby announcement for a one "May Anna Chigvintsev". She was a precious little girl with her mothers eyes and her fathers head, scribbled on the corner of the paper was, written in her mothers scrawl, "thank you, for everything, raise a glass to happiness". I looked down at the little girls face, and at her bearing my name, and smiled. Before addressing a wedding invitation to Jenna and Artem Chigvintsev.
A/n thanks so much for reading. I have had this idea for a while now and I hope I did it justice. Please leave comments for prompts you want me to do in the future and sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I have a ton of school work right now but I have summer in thirty days so yay! Thanks again hope you enjoyed! Xoxo Reagan 💕💕
