Chapter 16: What Hurts The Most

A Chapter by Tina Bee

I looked at the dresses and they were mostly white. I didn't know of any bridesmaid that would try to upstage the bride with a white gown, but I decided to kill some time by trying on one or two gowns.

The first dress was all feathery. I turned around and made kissing noisy at the mirror. The second gown reminded me of a wedding cake and I took it off immediately.

I searched deep into the rack until I found a dress that took my breath away. It went on very easy to put on and it was embroidered with beads that gave off a rainbow gleam when it hit the light. The dress was form fitting until it reached the upper thigh area and then it flowed outward in the biggest poof since creation. The bag was overflowing with something else that I discovered was a veil. I put it on just as a the woman.

"Sorry to interrupt, but this young man says he knows and," she came in and gasped, "you look absolutely gorgeous."

I turned around to see Greg and the shopkeeper staring back at me with astonishment written all over her face. A smile seemed to be permanently planted on my face. This was the happiest I'd ever been in a long time.

"I don't think these are the bridesmaid gowns," was all I could say as Greg and the woman stared.

"Silly me, without my glasses I'm blind as a bat. These are the bridal gowns, but honey you are glowing in that dress. Tell me this young fellow is here to sweep you off your feet," she said and I laughed.

"If it were only that easy," I said and Greg shook his head at our little inside joke.

The woman looked at the both of us and laughed.

"I'm sorry to break up the fun, but I was supposed to close twenty minutes ago. If you want you can come back tomorrow to look at the correct gowns," she offered.

"Maybe not tomorrow, but I definitely want to come back sometime in the future," I said as I moved the veil from my face.

"Oh just call me anytime," she began and walked toward me with a business card, "you know I do bridal shows and you would make a wonderful model."

"I'll think about that," I told her and she nodded her head.

"Whenever you're ready," Greg said to me and I grinned at him, but he wouldn't make eye contact with me.

In the car little words were spoken until we reached the road that would lead to our street.

"They want me to drop the case against Langston," I blurted to Greg.

"Maybe it's for the best," Greg said and I was thrown back a bit.

"What he did was wrong," I said even though it felt like I was grasping at straws.

"From what you told me on the phone if they find out this isn't his baby you could be in trouble. Unless of course it is his baby," Greg said and I noticed that his voice had gotten a little deeper.

"It isn't his, but-" I started to say.

"So it isn't his baby. What's the worse that will happen? He'll go back to school and play football? You know that's what this is about, right? Why not let him go back and pass around the pigskin so all this could be forgotten," Greg said.

"You're in on this too, aren't you?" I asked and Greg looked away from me.

"No, but I've been thinking about what's best for you and the baby while I'm gone," Greg explained away, but that sinking feeling in my stomach was coming back.

"If you're not in on that little meeting back there then why are you acting this way? What's gotten into you?" I asked even though I had realized the truth behind Greg's frantic messages and phone calls, "so when did she arrive?"

"This morning while I was at school. I was only able to get away because I told her I needed to go pick up some stuff for tonight," Greg said staring blankly at the road.

"This isn't happening," I said as I closed my eyes pretending that I could simply wish all this away.

"Myra, she's my girlfriend," Greg told me.

"And I'm having your child," I countered and he looked down.

"When I saw you in that wedding gown with that smile on your face I could have just died there on the floor over this news I knew I had to tell you," Greg said to me.

He had put the car in park and he had his head on the steering wheel.

"I wish you would have died," I said to him trying to stop the tears from flowing.

"It's not fair to you or to Cadence that I'd string you both along while acting like everything was ok. I made a mess. I got you pregnant and now I have to deal with the consequences," Greg said and my head snapped up.

"A mess? You call this baby a mess?" I asked him in a heated tone, "you want to know what the mess is. The mess is you!"

"I know," Greg said with his arms hiding his eyes.

In the murk of the passing evening the rain pattered slowly against the top of Greg's car's roof.

As I sat next to them man who had impregnated me four months earlier in a fit of passion and who's life had almost been ruined by my own selfish actions I know that his mind had already been made up. He had chosen the girl he truly wanted to be with and it wasn't me. I thought back on all the years that I'd known Greg and then I quickly fast-forwarded all those moments to where we were right now.

There would never be a Greg and I. There would never be a happy home for the three of us or for any other children I might have in life. Outside this mental breakdown the house loomed. Lights were on in Kevin and Mike's room, but mom's Range Rover was absent from the driveway. A car passed by from behind us and I tensed thinking that she might have followed us from the shop to the house. I was relieved when it proved to be another diligent member of our community breaking the speed limit.

"It's ok, Greg," I said to him as I put my hand on his back and rubbed it gently, "the baby and I will be fine. You go on and live happily ever after in fairytale land with Cadence. I'll raise our child up to be a fine citizen and if you I'll never mention who you are to him."

"It's a boy?" Greg asked looking up at me.

"It's too early to tell," I said to staring him in his deep brown eyes that were pooled with water.

"Then how do you know?" Greg asked me with doubt now harboring on his brows.

"A mother knows," I answered and with that I took my hand back from Greg.

"It would probably be best if you didn't reveal who the father is," Greg said and that felt like the biggest slap in my face.

"Whatever you want," I said, placing my hand on the door handle.

Greg looked at me and I looked at him. This time he didn't hide from my gaze, but something new had come over him. The meek Greg, the caring Greg, the compassionate Greg was gone. He had been replaced with this man who sat next to me. This beast of man who I no longer recognized.

I opened my door and shut it. Before my foot was on the curb behind the car Greg pulled off. In the rain I watched his car crawl toward the Finster driveway. I walked slowly up to my front door and took a deep breath.

Today my life had changed and now I knew that revenge would come my way rather swiftly.

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