"So, it really is fucking true then?"
Kylie saw her first. She was still facing Elijah, but the gun had been removed from between her slender fingers.
Elijah hadn't registered the sound of the door opening but the voice that echoed from behind him would not allow itself to be ignored again.
He turned around finally, the truth etched across his face. He need not speak for Jess to see his guilt. For it was plastered on his face, in his very body language.
They were standing close. Too close for it to ever have been innocent.
"My fiancé and my best friend." Jess spat out the words as though they were insults. "You guys must've been having a proper laugh at me, right? How stupid could I be?"
Elijah's head hung from his shoulders, in what Jess hoped was the shame. But no words emerged from either of her perpetrator's lips.
"Oh...I'm really sorry. Am I interrupting here? Should I leave and we can talk about how you two have been shagging behind my back at the altar instead?" The sarcasm dripped through Jess's gritted teeth as she spoke.
"Jess...I'm so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I know that sounds so stupid now but it's true, I hate myself for what I did." Kylie raced towards her friend, clutching onto her hands as she begged for her forgiveness.
"Get your filthy hands off of me. Don't even come near me." Jess screeched as she plunged herself away from her ex-best friend. "Actually...you know what, maybe I should be thanking you because at least you must have a tiny amount of decency left in you because you were the one who finally told me the truth. Even my own mother lied to me." She glared over at Elijah as she spoke, but he was still avoiding eye-contact.
"I did try to tell you. Two times." Elijah said quietly.
"Oh really? Because I can't recall a single time that you told me you were screwing Kylie."
"Did you ever give me a chance, Jess? Did Pattie ever give me a chance? I was going to tell you just last week but she was there, she's always fucking there, Jess. I'm not making accuses for what I did but please don't say that I didn't try and tell you, that I didn't try to rectify my mistakes."
"Are you really trying to turn this around and blame this all on me?" Jess yelled back in response.
"No. What we did was so wrong and I don't expect you to ever forgive us...to forgive me. But Jess, Pattie threatened me, she told me to keep quiet and to act like the affair had never happened or she'd make sure I'd end up all alone with nothing...like how I was before I met you." He explained, his hands resting on Jess's shoulders but she was no longer listening.
Her eyes glazed over, his words suddenly meaning nothing as another realisation hit her, a single tear running down her cheek, "when did this thing start? was it all those years ago? Have you always been going at it behind my back, even from the start?"
"No! It wasn't all along, I swear. It was just when she came to live us. That was the first time." Elijah lied.
"No, Elijah. We have to tell her the truth, we can't keep lying. It's the only way we'll be able to move on from all this." Kylie whispered from behind the two.
Jess's hands flew to her mouth and she stepped back, until her back pressed against the wall firmly, her body weight becoming too heavy for her to carry, and her body gliding down the wall until she was slumped down on the floor, a fresh pool of tears being unleashed, "I thought...I thought that it was something new, not that it makes it any better but...it just hurt less to think that...that our whole relationship hasn't been one big fat lie. When did it really start then?"
YOU ARE READING
Lethal Lust
General Fiction[COMPLETED] Elijah and Jess had been unbreakable since high school, so it comes as no surprise to anyone when the young couple decides to tie-the-knot. But when Jess's feisty and voluptuous best friend, Kylie, returns to the hometown for the wedding...
