Face-Off at the Altar

by Toni Aleo

  “Come on, Kennie. I want this over. I want both my babies in the same room together.”

  Skylar looked at her, and all Mekena could do was shake her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can,” he demanded, bringing her into the kitchen and sitting her in the chair across from Skylar. “This is getting old. We want it like old times, when we could all be in the same room.”

  Libby came into the room just as Mekena looked over. “I didn’t know this was the plan,” she said, answering Mekena’s unspoken question as to why the hell she hadn’t warned her.

  “You could have sent a text.”

  “I did.”

  Mekena looked at her phone, and there was a message. Fuck. “Well, great.”

  “Please, let’s try,” her father said, sitting down and taking both their hands in his. “Look at each other, you’re sisters.”

  Mekena looked over at Skylar, and her sister’s face made her skin crawl. “This is a waste of time. I have nothing to say to her.”

  “Well, I have a lot to say to you,” Skylar said, and Mekena’s body went rigid with anger. “I’m sorry, Kennie.”

  “Don’t call me that,” she demanded, her eyes in slits. “It’s Mekena to you.”

  Skylar glared back, her smile dropping. “I did it for you. I couldn’t have you wasting your life on scum. You have to understand that. He wasn’t good enough for you.”

  “What bullshit! If that were the case, then you should have let me find that out myself and not sleep with him yourself.”

  “He didn’t deserve you!”

  “Again, that’s my job to decide, not yours, and you shouldn’t have slept with him to prove it.”

  “I don’t regret what I did. I did it for you—”

  “Don’t use me as an excuse for your whorishness. Everyone knows you’re a slut and that you fuck anything. You just couldn’t handle that I found someone who made me happy and that person wasn’t you. You were mad that I had it all—I was happy, I had a great life going for me and a great guy who cared for me, and you had to ruin it. You’ve always been jealous of me!”

  Skylar laughed. “Um, other way around, kiddo. I don’t care one bit what you do.”

  “You’re right, I wanted to be you. I wanted to be beautiful and witty, and I did everything I could to be like you, but it didn’t work. So I was me and I was happy, and you hated it because I wasn’t up your ass.”

  “You know nothing!”

  “I know everything! I know you slept with a guy I really cared for, whom I could have loved, and then you tried to say you did it for me. Um, no, you did it because you’re selfish and you were horny.”

  “Okay, that’s enough. We’re supposed to be working this out,” her father said, but Mekena shook her head.

  “Dad, there is no working this out. She slept with my boyfriend, she broke my heart, and because of that, she’ll never be anything more than a sister I don’t speak to,” Mekena yelled, and then she looked to Libby. “I’m ready when you are.”

  “Oh, let me get my things,” she said, running off as Mekena looked back to her parents’ and stood.

  “If you’re siding with her, then I’m done with all of you. She broke my heart, and I can never forgive that.” Looking to her sister, she held her gaze. “I will always love you because you are my sister, and if you ever need help, I’ll be there. But other than that, I have nothing to say to you.”

  “Mekena, she is trying,” her father yelled, but she shook her head.

  “No, she’s doing what y’all want. I haven’t heard from her in well over a year. I haven’t seen her, nor has she reached out to me at all. She doesn’t want to apologize except when you guys make her. Which is fine, she’s not sorry. She did it because she wanted to, because she wanted to hurt me, whatever. I’m done.”

  “That’s not true,” Skylar complained, but Mekena shook her head.

  “It’s not? Then why haven’t I heard from you other than when I come into this house?” she asked, and Skylar promptly looked away. “Because you’re only doing this to appease them. Not to own up to what you did to me. To really apologize from your heart and whatever.” Mekena’s voice broke as her eyes filled with tears. “What, did they said they’d let you stay here if you made things right with me?”

  “Skylar! Tell her that’s not true,” her mother yelled, but when Mekena met her sister’s gaze, Skylar only shrugged.

  “I mean, it isn’t. I don’t know. It was so long ago, I’m over it.”

  Tears started rolling down Mekena’s cheeks from the outright dismissal by her older sister. The person she had idolized for so long. She hadn’t wanted to accept that her sister did it to hurt her. She’d hoped there was some other excuse, but Skylar wasn’t saying anything. She didn’t blame Markus, nothing. She knew what she did, and she didn’t care. That hurt. It hurt more than Mekena could ever express.

  “And this is why I have nothing more to say,” she said definitively, shaking her head. “Don’t y’all dare do this to me again, or you’ll never see me again.” Wiping her face, she walked toward the back door since it was the closest exit. “Tell Libby I’m outside.”

  “Mekena, wait, please,” her father tried, but she slammed the door, leaning her head against it as her parents began to yell at Skylar. “How could you do this to her?”

  “I didn’t do it to hurt her. I did it for her!”

  “Skylar, this is disgusting! She’s broken from it.”

  “She’ll get over it! It’s just some guy.”

  But it wasn’t some guy.

  It was the guy.

  Mekena’s heart was in her throat. Her chest was seizing as the tears fell quickly down her face. She hadn’t wanted to do this. She was fine thinking that her sister loved her and hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but standing there, looking at her, Mekena knew that wasn’t true. Skylar did it because she wanted to, not for Mekena’s sake, and that hurt even more. Why was everyone out to hurt her?

  Wiping her face, she took in a deep breath as her lip wobbled. She hated crying over it. She wanted to be strong. She wanted not to worry about it, let it go, but it was still like it happened yesterday and it was gutting her. All over again.

  When she heard the front doorbell ring through the back door, she stood up straighter and decided she needed to go. No telling who that was, and she wouldn’t put it past her mother to call their pastor in to do a prayer meeting for them or something crazy. Sending a quick text to Libby that she was driving herself, she started around the house. But she came to a halt when she heard his voice.

  “I need to speak to you.”

  Markus?

  Standing in front of the girl who ruined everything, Markus thought he would feel something more. He thought he would feel hatred, anger toward Skylar Preston, but he felt nothing. As he looked into her eyes, he couldn’t believe the person who was standing in front of him, and he felt sorry for her. She didn’t look the way he remembered. She looked like she was on something, drugs or whatever. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was skinnier than he remembered. No longer muscular like she used to be. He wouldn’t make assumptions, but it was obvious this wasn’t the girl he had known.

  She wore tight shorts and an even tighter crop top, her breasts flattened under the shirt. She was basically showing off the cow and serving the milk in the back, but Markus wanted none of it. Not when he kept thinking about Mekena. She had left that morning in a cute little dress that covered almost every inch of her, and that had turned him on more than all the skin in front of him now.

  Looking uncertain and a bit surprised, Skylar shook her head. “Um. This isn’t really a good time.”

  “I don’t care. I need to talk to you,” he said, and he meant it.

  He had seen her house as he passed by, and it was on impulse that he told Jace to stop. He hadn’t meant to come here. He hadn’t meant to have it out with her right here, but if he planned to come clean to Mekena tonight, he needed to bury all his demo
ns so he would be ready to fight to get her back.

  Rolling her eyes, Skylar reached for the door, but her mother stopped her and yelled, “We aren’t done, Skylar! You need to fix this.”

  “I hear you, Mom. I’m coming, hold on. Five minutes,” she yelled back, shutting the door and walking past him down the stairs, looking around as he followed her into the yard. He wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but her brows pulled together before she shook her head, looking back at him. She wasn’t her carefree self; she seemed a little on edge. He figured it had something to do with all the yelling he’d heard.

  “What couldn’t wait? I haven’t seen you in, like, ever. Why are you here?” she snapped, and he figured his drug assumption was on point.

  Already annoyed, he hooked his thumb behind him to where Jace was waiting in the car. “Jace bought a four-wheeler for his niece, and we were driving back through the neighborhood when I remembered y’all living here. I actually didn’t think you’d be here, but then I saw your car and I thought maybe I’d try,” he explained, his heart beating out of his chest. He wasn’t scared of her; she couldn’t hurt him when he was in his right mind. But, still, she made him nervous. He didn’t fully expect her to own up to everything, but he wanted her to hear from his lips that she’d hurt him. That she’d hurt Mekena, and for that, he would forever hold her responsible.

  “Okay, well, you got me. So, what’s up?” she said, once more looking around, and he glanced in the direction she was looking but saw nothing. He wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he couldn’t keep Jace waiting long. This would be quick and easy.

  Well, he hoped it would be easy.

  “I wanted to talk to you about that night.”

  Her brows drew together, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “What night?”

  “That night,” he said, emphasizing the words. “The night we apparently slept together.”

  Her eyes widened a bit, but not in surprise, almost in annoyance. “Oh, what about it?”

  He hated how callous she was. How it didn’t matter to her one bit. But when he thought of it, he felt so unclean. “I wanted to let you know that you really hurt me. I know we weren’t that close of friends, but, still, I really didn’t think you’d do that to me.”

  “What did I do?” she asked condescendingly.

  He glared at her. “A couple days after that night, I had a pop-up drug test and I tested positive for Xanax, but I don’t take them. I almost lost my scholarship, but thankfully, I had a great coach who fought for me. But you did cause me to lose Mekena. Someone I truly cared for. Maybe even loved. But you didn’t let that be. You had to drug me up and take advantage of the situation.”

  Rolling her eyes, she laughed. “I asked if you wanted something to make the party feel better, and you said—”

  “I did not. I would never. I don’t do that shit because I care about my career, so that’s straight bullshit. And I would never sleep with you in my right mind. That wasn’t fair.”

  “Wow, how nice of you to say,” she snapped back.

  “I didn’t want you. I wanted Mekena.”

  “So what? You weren’t good enough.”

  “Who are you to say that?” He fought back, his eyes narrowing. “You don’t drug someone and sleep with them to prove that!”

  She laughed soullessly. “You act like we really did it. I sucked you hard, tried to fuck you, but you couldn’t stay hard, so it’s whatever. You wanted it.”

  His mouth actually dropped open. “If I couldn’t stay hard, didn’t you know that meant I didn’t want it?”

  “You didn’t know what you wanted. You were high out of your mind.”

  “Because of you!” he yelled, his nails biting into his palms. “Because you drugged me, because you took advantage of me, and made me feel worthless. I have gone over a year blaming myself for what happened, when, really, it was all you.”

  “So what?” she laughed. “It’s college, this shit happens. You’re fine. Big career in the NHL and all that jazz.”

  “But I don’t have Mekena,” he said, his eyes welling up with tears as his chest ached with the pain of a thousand armies dying on the battlefield. “I lost her, and you know what, I think I’m the most mad at you for hurting her. I couldn’t care less that you caused me all kinds of pain, caused me to be a little unsure of myself, to question my sanity and my worth. But I can’t forgive you for making that girl feel self-conscious, for questioning her worth. She is amazing, she is the nicest person I’ve ever met, and damn it, I love her. I love her so much that, for the first time in my life, I want to punch a woman in the damn face. I want to smack that smug look off your face,” he said, his whole body shaking as she just shook her head, chuckling a bit.

  “But you won’t.”

  “You’re right, because I’m a good man, a man who was good for Mekena, who would have done right by her.”

  “No, you would have gone off into the NHL and fucked someone else. I saved her the heartache.”

  He took a step toward her, but she stood tall, her face unmoving as he sneered, “If that’s what you have to tell yourself to live with what you’ve done, then say it all you want. But that isn’t the fucking truth. I wouldn’t have done that!”

  “Yet, you went to your room with me,” she pointed out, and he shook his head.

  “I don’t even remember anything about that night. Nothing. Which is all your and your drugs’ fault.”

  She shrugged, clearly bored with him, and that made him even angrier. “Are you done?”

  “Why? Can you answer that for me? Honestly, why?”

  “I already said why. You weren’t good enough for her.”

  “How do you know? Was I mean to you? Her? Tell me.”

  She was completely over talking to him, but he had to know. “I know Mekena. She needs some ugly bookworm loser who grovels at her feet. You’re not that guy. You’re too hot, have a great future in front of you, and have girls fighting for you.”

  “Though my eyes were only on your sister, and the fact that you think she didn’t deserve someone like me is sickening. She deserves the world, and I would have given it to her.”

  “You’re insane to think you’re even an ounce of good enough for her.”

  “I don’t think that I am, but I would have tried.”

  “You would have failed.”

  Shaking his head, he looked at her, really looked at her. He decided she was basically dog shit. “I thought you’d actually apologize, but I can tell you don’t care. You care about no one but yourself. Everyone knows you’ve been jealous of Mekena. She wasn’t the little sister who chased you around, begging for your advice. She had someone, and you couldn’t stand it because no one wanted you!”

  That’s when her hand came crashing into his face. He closed his eyes as his cheek stung, and he slowly counted to five. He wouldn’t lose it. He’d keep it together. She wasn’t worth it.

  “I don’t want anyone. I never did because men do nothing but hurt you, and I refused to let my sister go through the same thing.”

  He met her angry gaze. “She wouldn’t have. I would have done right by her, but you took that chance away from me. Because of that, we’re done.”

  “Great,” she said, turning and reaching for the door. “Have a good life.”

  “Oh, I will, but we all know you won’t,” he spat back at her as he turned, heading for the truck, but as he reached it, Jace rolled the window down, pointing behind him. “I’m done.”

  “Yeah, but, bro, behind you.”

  Confused, Markus turned to see Mekena standing beside the house, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered, and his heart sank into the acid of his stomach as his eyes met hers. They just stood there, staring at each other, and he wondered how much she had heard. He wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t know if he should go to her. But apparently, his legs had a mind of their own, and they started for her as she started for him, wiping her face.
>
  “Wow,” she said through her tears, and he figured she had heard everything.

  He nodded. “I wanted to tell you myself. I didn’t want you to find out like that.”

  Slowly shaking her head, she looked down to the ground and then just turned, heading into the house.

  “Mekena?”

  But she didn’t answer him. She just went into the house, slamming the door and shaking the windows.

  “Well, fuck,” he muttered, turning back to Jace. “Should I go in there?”

  “And do what?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Exactly, let her cool off…or kill her sister. Who knows? Come on, you’ll see her later.”

  Nodding, he looked back at the house, considering following her. But what would he do in there? Probably make matters worse. No, she needed time to think this through, and Jace was right, he’d see her later.

  So he left.

  And while the weight on his chest from the guilt of what had happened was gone, the worry of not knowing what would happen with Mekena took its place.

  Which was much, much worse.

  Her hand shook as she pushed open the door and reentered her family home. The words, the pain in his voice, the dismissiveness in her sister’s voice, the truth…everything shook Mekena like a magnitude eight-point earthquake. It almost didn’t seem real. All of it. Surely, it was all a dream. Before she could pinch herself, though, Libby came through the doorway.

  “Kennie, I was on my way,” Libby said, but Mekena couldn’t even look at her. She walked right past her into the kitchen where her mother, father, and Skylar were sitting around the table.

  “Mekena! You came back,” her mother cheered, but Mekena couldn’t even look at her. Not only was she mad that her mother and father were so clueless about the sluttiness of her sister, but she was also angry for the simple reason that they’d thought talking openly about the fact that their eldest daughter slept with their youngest daughter’s boyfriend would actually work. There was no fucking fixing what her sister had done.

  At least, now there wasn’t.