Game Changer

by Amelia Whitmore

  "What do you mean? Of course I like him. What’s not to like?"

  "I mean Emily, like are you going to see him when you get back to Texas?"

  I shrugged, even though she couldn't see it.

  "I'm not sure. I haven't really thought about it. I don't think I want to think about it yet. Getting through the week and seeing how it turns out sounds like a good start. So I guess we’ll take it from there and see."

  "Just be careful, okay? I don't want to see you heartbroken." She said with a yawn.

  "I know, thanks Kira."

  I fell asleep to the sound of her even breathing, thinking about everything we'd just said, and what I actually wanted if this worked out. Would it be possible for us to continue seeing each other when we got back home? Would he even want something like that? Did I? It wasn’t like he was just some normal guy. He was a professional football player.

  Chapter 5

  The next morning, Kira and I woke up to a pounding at the door.

  "Go away," Kira snarled. She'd never been a morning person.

  I slipped out of bed and answered the door. Erica was standing there, looking as amazing as ever, and staring at her watch.

  "You two are supposed to be downstairs in fifteen minutes. I just wanted to make sure you were up."

  My eyes widened. "Sorry Erica, guess we forgot to set the alarm last night. We'll be down in a jiff."

  "We'll be waiting," She said in her normal perky tone, before walking away.

  I walked back into the room and stole Kira's comforter from the bed. "Get up, we're about to be late."

  She pouted and rubbed her eyes as she stumbled her way to the bathroom for a quick shower. I washed my hair as best I could in the sink and spent about two minute’s blow-drying it, then I left it to air dry when I realized it was taking too long. I dressed in denim shorts and a white V-neck t-shirt.

  Kira rushed out of the bathroom, looking fresh after her shower. She tousled her hair and applied some makeup quickly. I looked at her enviously.

  "You're lucky that's all it takes for you to look amazing. I hate you sometimes, I really do.”

  She hip checked me.

  "You're not looking so bad yourself doll."

  I rolled my eyes.

  Downstairs, all the girls who were a part of the bridal party were waiting for us, including Darcy who has now decided she hated me.

  "Sorry guys," I said when we reached them. Erica just shook her head softly and led us out to the bus, which made me feel even worse than I had. Kira and I were quiet the entire trip, a mixture of having just woken up and being embarrassed about keeping everybody waiting.

  When I'd imagined Cancún’s bridal shops, I hadn't pictured it looking quite so American. The gowns were something typical of what I'd seen back home, which disappointed me.

  "Erica!" A woman from behind the counter called, as soon as she saw us. Her accent was thick.

  "Estela, how are you?" Erica asked as they hugged each other. It wasn't like an 'oh, we're family so let's hug’, it was a 'we've met before and hugging is what we're supposed to do now' kind of hug.

  "Good. And you? Are you excited?" She asked.

  Erica nodded and we were all shown to the dressing rooms. As soon as I saw the dresses, I almost fainted.

  "Don't say it," Kira hissed.

  The dresses were white with a tight bodice that led to a skirt made of feathers. It reminded me of a swan. No worse than that. It looked like a swan threw up.

  "Oh my God," I whispered quietly.

  "This is Erica’s day and we'll put up with it," Kira said.

  I nodded in agreement while secretly cursing my sister. What was she thinking with these dresses? Seriously, they were hideous.

  While being poked and prodded by a fitting specialist, I overheard Darcy cackling to the group.

  "Yeah, he totally wants me." I rolled my eyes, until I heard her next part. "I just have to get him away from the fat loser. I don't know what Aiden sees in her."

  My jaw dropped and I looked at Kira, wondering if she just heard what I did as well. Apparently, she did because she was about to march over there until we heard Erica speak up.

  "Darcy, you won't talk about my sister like that. She's beautiful and smart. And even if she wasn’t, who are you to judge her? If you don't want to be in my wedding, you can leave. But if you do stay, then you'll stop talking behind people's backs."

  I stopped the person with the needle who was clinging to my leg and ran after Erica.

  "Hey." She turned around and her cheeks were red. Erica had always hated confrontation, so I'm sure that just about put her over the edge. "Thank you."

  She narrowed her eyes at me. "Don't thank me Emily. I don't agree with what you're doing. I never thought that you were one of those kind of girls," She hissed at me.

  I stared at her with wide eyes. "One of what kind of girls?"

  What in the heck was she talking about? What had I done?

  "You know, the ones who don't care. How can you be with him? That’s not the Emily I know. What has come over you?"

  I settled my hands on my hips. "Erica, I'm not having sex with him or anything. I'm having fun, then I'm going back to my same boring self. God, you can't stand it that I'm not the chubby one who sits in the corner anymore, can you?"

  I could feel the sting of tears forming in my eyes.

  "You were never the chubby one Emi, y No, don’t be ridiculous ou were the one who would drive the boys crazy when you were older, and the one that everybody came to see when they came to our house. The one who mom and dad were so proud of when they talked about us. Do you think they ever in my entire life talked about me like they do about you?"

  She was starting to cry now.

  "Yeah, for my grades. The only reason I tried so hard was because I knew I could never be as beautiful as you, or as funny as Ethan. So I decided to be the smart one, the boring one, the one who never went out and you guys thought of as a freak. I’ve been the weird one in our family my whole life and now, for once, I met a nice guy who I’m having a good time with and you want to shit on me about it?"

  I took a deep breath, trying my best to hold back the torrent of tears that were threatening to erupt.

  "I can't do this right now. I’m sorry Erica."

  I turned around and went back to the dressing room, quickly changing and holding the dress out to the fitting woman. "I think it'll look amazing however you make it. Here's my number, call me if you need a certain measurement."

  With that, I walked out and made my way down the street. Once I was safely in a cab, I let a few tears fall. I couldn't believe that my own sister practically called me a whore. I paid the cab driver, and walked into the hotel. I looked up and saw Ethan and Aiden walking towards me from the cafe on the opposite side of the lobby. They saw me too.

  "Hey Emm Emm," Ethan yelled.

  I ignored him and pushed the button for the elevator.

  "Emi," He yelled again.

  I shook my head and walked to the stairs, running up them and dashing to my room. At my door, I realized that it was locked. I reached into my bag right as the elevator dinged and Ethan and Aiden exited. I fumbled, looking for the key, but I couldn't find it.

  "Emily," Ethan called pointedly, his final attempt to see if I was avoiding him, or if I just couldn't hear him. He realized that it was the former. He started jogging for me just as I found the key. I got into the room right as he reached me and slammed the door in his face.

  "Emm, knock it off. What's wrong?"

  "Go away Ethan. I'm not in the mood," I called out through the door.

  "Come on. Shutting yourself off from the rest of the world when you're upset doesn't help anything. Talk to me, please."

  I groaned. "I just want to be alone for now. Go away."

  "No."

  "Yes."

  "No."

  "I'm not playing this game Ethan. Leave or I'll call hotel security." I warned him.

  "No you won't. Stop b
eing such a baby and open the damn door."

  I clenched my jaw and walked away. Calling me a baby had always been a sore spot, and he knew that.

  "Shit," I heard him murmur. "Emily, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sor…" His voice dropped.

  "What?" he asked. There were muffled sounds coming through the door and the next thing I knew, a key was getting slid through the card reader and the door opened to reveal Kira letting Ethan inside of the room. I glared at her.

  "Leave me alone, Ethan." I said after the door closed behind him.

  "No." He crawled onto the bed next to me.

  "Please?" I asked, my voice breaking with the tears that wanted to fall after so much drama. He pulled me into his arms and rested his head on mine as I cried.

  "Tell me what happened."

  I sniffled. "Erica basically called me a whore because of Aiden. It's not true though, and I know that, but it still hurts. I've never done anything to deserve her saying the things she said to me."

  I heard him sigh.

  "Don't bother with her Emi. She's always had a stick up her ass. If it's not this, it's that and it'll never end. You know how she is. You really thought she would somehow magically change because we are in Cancún?"

  I sat up.

  "I know that, but she's my sister, that’s supposed to mean something. For the first time in my life, I'm not staying in my room when everybody else is out having a good time and all of a sudden I'm a bad person for it?”

  “No, Emi. Of course not. I’m proud of you on this trip. You’ve really been making an effort to enjoy yourself. I’ve never seen you like this. It’s like an alien kidnapped my perfect robot of a sister.”

  “You guys have always thought of me as the boring one." He was about to protest but I stopped him. "You're probably the least guilty, but you can't deny that you don't like spending a lot of time with me because we never do anything."

  He looked down, looking a little guiltily.

  "That's not what it's about. I like you the way you are. You're simple, like your biggest problem in life is if you're going to do well on an assignment, and that's a nice relief," he explained. “There isn’t all this complicated drama associated with you, like it is with most girls.”

  "Yeah, but it's not fair that you all just expect that from me. I'm not the girl who just doesn't care," I said, thinking back to Erica’s comment.

  He looked at me funny. "Of course you care. You care about everything, maybe too much."

  I shrugged. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. The wedding's in two days and after that, I'm going back home, back to my life."

  "Emily, do you realize how amazing you've been this trip?"

  I shook my head and he kept talking. "You've actually been smiling and getting out of the house, well the room, and yesterday you wore a bikini on the beach. Maybe Aiden is good for you."

  I looked at him. "It doesn't matter Ethan." I felt like a broken record.

  He looked angry. "Of course it matters. I'm sick of you being depressed and if this guy is making you happy, then screw whatever the hell Erica or anyone else says. That's what doesn't matter."

  I bit my cheek to stop myself from crying.

  "I want to take a shower now. I'll see you later." I said before going into the bathroom and locking the door behind me.

  I ran my hand through my hair and took a long deep breath. A little while later, I walked out of the bathroom thinking that I'd be safe now; I hadn't actually needed a shower, so I just turned on the water and waited a while. Turning the corner to where the beds were, I shrieked in surprise to see Aiden kicked back on my bed, his hands underneath his head leaning on my pillow.

  "What are you doing in here?" I asked, wishing that I was back in the bathroom.

  "Hey."

  I glared at him. "Why are you in here?"

  "How come you're perfectly dry if you were just in the shower?" He asked, a knowing smirk on his face.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Leave Aiden."

  "No. I don't like that you're pushing me away," he argued.

  "There's nothing to push away. We barely know each other."

  He sat up. "We may not have known each other for very long, but that doesn't mean we're strangers."

  I sat down on the edge of the bed and looked into his beautiful eyes.

  "I'm going to be perfectly honest here. I'm so stuck on what to do. My sister thinks I'm a whore for even talking to you for some weird reason, but Ethan thinks that you're good for me. I'm not sure who's right and I’m feeling confused and torn."

  He grabbed my hand and rubbed his fingers over my knuckles softly. "You're not a whore for being with me." He said softly, like a child who'd just gotten yelled at.

  "That's easy for you to say. This isn't me Aiden. I'm the good girl, the one who's reliable and people count on to be the levelheaded one. Now I'm off frolicking around with you and nobody knows what to think, myself included."

  He grinned. "Did you just use frolicking in a sentence?"

  I glared at him and stood up. "Yes, I did. Because that's who I am. I say words like frolic and ruckus and have known how to spell connoisseur since the first grade. That's who I am. I like that about me, and I don't like people teasing me about it."

  I knew I was overreacting at this point, but I just couldn't calm down. He stood up too.

  "I'm not teasing you. I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

  I threw my hands up. "It's not the kind of situation that you can lighten up. I don't know who I am around you and that's never happened to me before, don't you understand that? I've got Erica calling me a whore in one ear, Ethan telling me to go have fun in the other, and I've overheard plenty about how you'll dump the fatty and get with Darcy and I'm on overload."

  I felt his warm hand on my shoulder and was surprised when he tugged me into his arms, turning my body so that my face nestled into his shoulder. His arms and hands slowly rubbed my back as I sobbed into his shirt.

  "I'm sorry," I cried, my hands fisting the material of his shirt against his chest.

  "Shhhh! It's okay," he said soothingly.

  "No it's not. You probably think I'm psychotic now and I'm not so sure you'd be wrong," I argued, sniffling and crying the entire time.

  I felt his body shaking in laughter.

  "It's not funny," I pouted.

  He laughed harder.

  I groaned and pulled away, wiping my tears.

  "Don't look at me," I grumbled, knowing that I always ended up with bright red rings around my eyes whenever I cried.

  I turned my face away only to feel his hands cupping my cheeks and making me look at him.

  "You're beautiful to me, even with snot covering your face and my shirt."

  I laughed again, completely embarrassed. He kissed my lips softly and pulled me in for another hug.

  "For the record, you're not a whore. I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but Erica isn't really one to talk. I've heard stories about her that simply won't leave my mind no matter how hard I try."

  I grimaced.

  “I don’t care what other people think about me. All I know is that I met a cool chick on the airplane and I want to spend more time getting to know her. It may work out, it may not but I don’t want to lose the opportunity because someone else said or thought something about us.”

  I smiled and reached up to kiss his lips lightly.

  "Thank you for dealing with me. I don't cry a lot, so when I do it's like a freaking dam breaking."

  He shrugged. "I don't mind. Well, I do mind, watching you cry sucks, but it's not something I can't handle."

  "I haven't eaten all day. Do you want to go get something?" I asked.

  He smiled and nodded. We walked down to the poolside grill and bar holding hands.

  Chapter 6

  For the past few days, Ethan and Erica had been acting incredibly weird. At first, I thought that Ethan was just nervous about Kira and their budding relationship. I also thought Erica was j
ust different because of wedding nerves, but the more they were around each other, the more I realized it wasn't just nerves for either of them, it was more than that. I didn’t know what it was, but something was most definitely off.

  It didn't really matter though, today was Erica’s wedding and the past few days with Aiden had been incredible and nothing was going to take that away from me.

  I was happy, really happy in a relationship for the first time in my life. Okay maybe we weren’t really in a relationship in the traditional sense, but we were most definitely headed down that road.

  Last night he rented a yacht and took me out for a private dinner at sea. It was romantic and wonderful. After we ate we laid on the front of the boat, which was filled with fluffy cushions and talked about our past.

  "Ever had a serious boyfriend?”

  "Not really. I mean, there have been a few, but no one I really wanted to spend the rest of my life with. How about you?"

  "Yeah, there was one. I had a girlfriend named Brittney. We were engaged and some shit happened, and well, now we're not." His voice sounded like he didn't want to talk about it anymore, so I dropped it.

  Okay, I admit I was curious about what happened between him and Brittney to cause their breakup, but I didn’t have the nerve to ask. I figured if he wanted me to know, he would tell me. I just didn’t have it in me to be pushy.

  I would say that everything between Aiden and I was perfect. Except for the way that Erica and Ethan kept giving us dirty looks when we would kiss.

  I get that Erica wasn’t happy with me chatting it up with Aiden, but Ethan? I thought he said he supported my pursuit of happiness. What happened to change his mind?

  I wanted to talk to him about it, but I didn’t have the time. Today was the big day. Today my sister was getting married and I had to wear that God awful dress. But whatever, it's her day. If she wanted her wedding party to look like a bunch of freaks then so be it.

  As I walked down the aisle, I prayed I wouldn’t trip. Wearing this dress was bad enough, but to be caught on camera for all time in their wedding video falling on my face would just be too much.

  The ceremony was short, but not short enough for me. I found myself spacing out, thinking about the whole concept of big weddings and how they came to be in the first place. I don’t know when I became so against them, I just strongly feel that a wedding should be something sacred between the bride and the groom, not 500 of their closest friends.