It was going to be a long night, and all I could hope for was that I drank myself out of all my irrational thoughts and woke up tomorrow prepared to spend the rest of my life with Branch.
Chapter 9
We’d been drinking steadily for nearly two hours, and it was getting close to midnight. Branch was getting belligerent, joking and making fun of strangers that were around us.
His parents had called it a night hours ago, probably guessing that us all hanging out was going to end in catastrophe. I think Brooks and I both knew that pretty soon he’d start running his mouth about us and we couldn’t let that happen.
I followed Melissa into the ladies room to tell her that our night was going to end abruptly.
She wasn’t upset. “I asked Brooks if he wanted company.” She leaned over and re-applied her lip-gloss. “He told me we could hang out later.”
I’d never wanted to punch my friend, but for some reason, it’s all I could think about doing. I didn’t want her hands touching on Brooks. I knew he wasn’t a saint and he’d probably been with plenty of women by now, but it still didn’t make me feel better with it being one of my friends.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I said while trying to keep my emotions under control.
I hated myself for feeling the way I was. The only person I was hurting was myself. He needed to be with Melissa, so that I could have closure. It would be the best for everyone involved. She was a nice girl, and with her strawberry blonde hair and pretty blue eyes, she was always getting compliments. I knew he had to find her attractive.
She turned to face me. “How do I look?”
“Hot,” I finally said while smiling. It wasn’t a lie. She looked stunning.
She adjusted her cleavage and took another look in the mirror. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
I held the door open for her, thinking of how to respond. It didn’t matter anyway, because Branch was up in the face of another bar patron. Brooks had jumped up and pushed him away from the guy with ease, but he was still going off at the mouth, yelling profanities across the bar.
“Alright, bro. It’s time for you to call it a night, man.”
I walked up to him and grabbed his hand. He was so drunk that he fell on top of me. His weight was too much, and luckily Brooks grabbed the other side of him. I turned to Melissa. “I’ll see you back at the room?”
She smiled and pointed to Brooks’ back. “Yeah, I’ll see you later.”
I cringed when I turned around, but only focused on getting Branch to the elevator. When we got inside, he started singing at the top of his lungs. “Going to the chapel and I’m gonna get married.”
I couldn’t look at Brooks as we basically dragged his brother to his room. After reaching inside of his back pocket, I found his room key and opened the door. Brooks carried him in and tossed him on the bed. “Don’t leave me baby. Give me some love before you go.”
I swatted his hand away. “I can’t stay, Branch. It’s bad luck.”
He motioned for me to go. “Then get the fuck out. I knew I should have gotten strippers.”
I couldn’t believe he’d said something so hurtful to me, and Brooks didn’t seem too happy about it either. He slapped his brother upside his head. “Be respectful, you drunk piece of shit. That woman is going to be your wife tomorrow. Don’t talk to her like that.”
Branch rolled over on his back. He pulled his knees up and started laughing. “Listen to you, standing up for her still. Do you know how many times I’ve been inside of her? She’s never going to be yours now. I marked her.”
I felt another stab in my heart, while hearing him talk to Brooks about me that way.
Brooks pointed toward the door. “Go outside and wait for me.”
“But I-”
He pointed again. “Kat, go outside. Now!”
I looked back at Branch, who was watching me leave. “In twenty-four hours you’ll be my wife, Katy. Don’t forget it!”
Once outside of the room, I could hear Brooks yelling at him for disrespecting me. It wasn’t just because it was Brooks either. Had Walt heard his son talking to me like that, he would have killed him with his bare hands.
I sank down to the floor in the hall and tried not to listen to them. It was a terrible idea to think that everything was going to go smoothly, and if I wasn’t already feeling anxious about the wedding, Branch’s words were like a nail in the coffin.
What kind of man, who is supposedly in love with a woman, speaks to her that way on the night before they are wed?
By the time Brooks came out I was in tears. He held his hand out to help me up. “I’m really sorry about that. He didn’t mean it.”