Wanted (65 page)

I felt sick to my stomach and just sat down and started to cry. Gunner was over and down on
his knees in two seconds flat.

“ELLIE!
What’s wrong? Do you feel sick?”

I just threw myself into him. He wrapped his arms around me and then sat down and brought me onto his lap.
He was stoking my back and just kept saying it was alright. It wasn’t all right though.

“Gunner, I don’t know what’
s wrong with me! I keep waiting for the floor to fall out from beneath me. I’m so tired of school already, I’m stressed out, my mot
her won’t stop calling me, you’
re hardly ever around and when I do get to see you I have to watch girls throw themselves at you….
I’m
just waiting for you to get sick of me and leave.” I started sobbing.

“Sweetheart I’
m so
so
sorry. I didn’t know your mom had been calling you. I wish you would have told me or Jeff. I know school is rough baby; you took way to many classes Ells. Football is almost over
baby and we can be together mor
e often. It’s all going to work out. You need to talk to me Ellie, we can’t keep fighting over little shit that means nothing okay?”

I nodded my head and looked up at him. His blue eyes caught mine and I sucked in a breath from the smoldering look he was giving me. He
slowly started to pull me down and leaned me back
on the
grass and started to kiss me.

After I came back down to earth Gunner leaned in agai
nst my ear and whispered to me.

“Another first baby!
Orgasm next to the tank.”

I l
et out a laugh and looked at his beautiful smile
. Maybe everything really was going to be ok.

December……

“I cannot believe you’
re getting married Amanda. What the fuck? Don’t you think this is a b
it too soon?” Ari said for the fifth
time since we pic
ked Amanda up at her apartment.

“Ari, I’
m madly in love with Brad and he is madly in love with me. We want to get married as soon as possible so no
,
I don’t think it is to
o
soon.

“Y’all just
got engaged just over two weeks
ago for Christ sakes!” Ari said shaking her head.

Brad had asked Amanda to marry him on Thanksgiving right in front of his whole family. She of course said yes and they immediately started planning a
Valentine
’s Day
wedding. 
Classes w
ere
out for the semester and I finally felt like I could relax. When Amanda called and asked if we could go check out the
Drisk
il
l
Hotel we jumped at the chance to go and do something different
.

Jeff was with Brad helping him fix something on his father’s boat and Gunner was planning on meeting his
c
ousin
Shannon’s fiancé James, who was flying in a day earlier
tha
n Shannon
to catch up with Gunner. I guess Shannon and James were high school sweethearts and he went out
to
the ranc
h often. Gunner had not seen either of them in a few years.
They were
getting married that weekend.

“Okay la
dies. So here is the drill. We’
re going to look at two
different ball rooms. I’
m trying to keep this small but I have a feeling Brad’s mother is going to give me a
n
invite list a mile long. So keep that in mind. I’m thinking
no more than three hundred
people.

“THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE!”
Ari and
I
both said at the same time with equal
amount of shock in our voices.

“I know…
..I would like to keep it at one hundred fifty and that’
s my goal
but not sure the future monster in law feels the same way
. So just k
eep reminding me that while we’re looking. You’
re my bridesmaids…..this is your job.”

I had to giggle because Amanda was the type of girl who would have just ran off to Vegas to get married but Brad’s mother…..she was something else.
It shouldn’t take her long to figure out that Amanda was not going to put up with her shit.

We toured
a few different b
anquet halls and I knew Ari was just as bored as I was. I was in charge of note taking and I swear to god if Amanda says “Did you write that down Ellie?” one more fucking time to me I am going
to jam the notebook up her ass!

ARGH, the dude givin
g us the tour was a stick in the mud
..
….he was an older gentleman and he just kept talking about s
ervers, bartenders, chairs, linens, votive candles, china, silverware, flutes, dance floors….OH MY GOD! I couldn’t take it anymore! Ari had walked ahead and was peaki
ng in the doors to the kitchen.

We walked over and he was talking about catering …..

“Ellie, did you get that writt
en down?” I just looked at her.

“Yes. Yes I did……”
I said with a forced smile.

I saw Ar
i walking up to another door that le
d to the hotel rooms, that is what I wanted to se
e! I heard they were super
romantic and Brad was planning on staying the night at the hotel before they flew
out to Barbados.
Just then I heard Ar
i suck in a deep breath of air.

“Holy f
ucking mother of all good, oh
fucking shit.”

Our tour guide instantly stopped talking and looked at Ari. Amanda gave her a dirty look and
I
tried to hide my giggle. Ari walked up to me and g
rabbed my arm and pulled me towards the door to the hallway
.

“Thanks
t
hat was the most excitement I’
ve had all damn day!”

“I though
t you said Gunner was with his cousin’s
fiancé today.” Ari said as she kept looking back at the
door that lead
down to the rooms.

“He is.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so…..” She pulled me up and made me duck down and told me to look through the window.

Gunner?
He was
standing at one of the room doors. Just then the door opened a
nd I
heard a girl
shriek
. She
instantly
jumped into Gunner’s arms and wra
pped her legs around his waist.

Oh. My.
God.
This was not happening…..no…….

She looked so happy to see him and he looked so happy to see her. Then she kissed him. Not a deep kiss but a quick kiss on the lips. Then he walked her into t
he room and they shut the door.

I collapsed to the ground. That mother fucker was cheating on me. I was about to cry….I looked up at Ari who grabbed my arm and pulled me up to my feet.

“Oh no you don’t….not here….let’s go. AMANDA!
Code blue……NOW!”

Amanda spun around and looked at me and then looked at Ari.

“WHAT!!!!” she turned and
apologized to our tour guy. “
I’ll
be back in touch with
you but I loved everything! Thank you!”
Amanda called out as she was running to catch up with us.

She finally caught up to Ari as we made it to the lobby and Ari sat me down in a chair. I looked up at them both.

“Go” t
hey both said at the same time.

I lost it….I had never cried so hard in my life. I was rocking back and forth and all I could hear was my mother……
You will never be wanted by anyone
…….I threw my hands over my ears. She needed to get
the fuck
out of my head! I wanted to scream…..it was
Bryce and
Ryan all over again…..

“I knew it….I told you Ari…I told you that I had a feeling something was going on! I TOLD YOU! He has probably been trying to figure out a way to get rid of me. Even Emma and Garrett were acting strange over Thanksgiving! He probably told them he was going to be breaking up with me!”

Oh my god my chest was hurting. I couldn’t breathe. Amanda dropped to her knees and pulled my face up to meet hers.

“Ellie, look at me….if it is true
…..
”

“Mandy I saw him! I saw her….she jumped into his arms and kissed him and then they walked into a
fucking hotel
room together…..”

“IF it is true Ellie, he does not deserve you. He is a stupid ass mother fucker who needs to have his ass kicked.” Amanda looked up at Ari. “We need Heather…..”

Ari took out her cell phone and next thing I heard was COD
E BLUE meet us at my place in thirty
.

I started to shake my head.
I took a deep breath and then reached into my purse. I pulled out my cell phone. My hands were shaking. Ari looked at me and shook her head no. I put
up
my hand
to her
as I pressed Gunner’s number.

“Hey sweetheart!
You having
fun with the
girls
?”

Fucking bastard!

“Yes….it’
s been a very informative trip to say the least.”

“Ells, what’
s wrong. You sound upset.”

“So are you with James Gunner?”

“
Ahh
, yeah we were just sitting here getting caught up on times and I got a little bit of a
sur
….”

“Don’t.
Ever.
Call.
Me. Again.
I never want to talk to you again Gunner do you understand me?”

Ari reached down and pulled my arm to get me up and walking. She knew like
I
did Gunner wo
uld be out of
the
that
room in five
minutes tops and last thing I w
anted was to see him.

“Ellie, what’
re you talking about? What the fuck is going on now?”

“I saw you….I saw you with that whore. You fucking bastard you kissed her! I saw it this time Gunner with my own goddamn eyes!”

Silence……Busted….

“Ellie, I don’t know who or what you saw but it sure as fuck was not me kissing another girl. Where are you Ellie?”

“I know what I saw and what Ari saw…….we both saw you kissing on a girl and believe me you two were very cozy with ea
ch other and practically fucking
out in public. I hate you…..I hate you Gunner!”

“Jesus Christ Ellie
I don’t know what the fuck you’
re
talking about. Are you home? I’
m coming there now!”

“Don’t bother, I won’t be there! Good bye Gunner…I hope she
was
worth it.”

I hung up the phone and started to cry. Ari was b
ack on the phone with Heather.

“Scr
atch our last meeting place…we’
re coming there.”

I spent the rest of the night crying and then bitching; taking shots of something
that burned like a bitch when it went down….
…I didn
’t even know what the fuck I was drinking. I ended up turning off my phone because Gunner would not stop calling. Jeff
erson
starting calling Ari’s phone and when Ari told him what happened all I heard was Jeff screaming that he was going
to beat the shit out of Gunner.

I finally passed out around 3:30. I woke up
to
banging
on
the door. I sat up and oh my god…my head was pounding. Heather ran over to the door and peaked through. She turned back and said it was Jefferson. She opened the door slowly to make sure he was alone. Jefferson walked
in and
as soon as he saw me he came over and sat down on the sofa. Once I was in h
is arms I started to cry again.

“
Shhhh
, Ellie honey it is okay. Don’t cry honey…..
shhh
….I saw Gunner last night when he came home. He was crazy out of his mind worried because he could not find you. I do
n’t think he even thought to look here at
Heather’s place.”

“I don’t care Jefferson, I don’t care how worried he wa
s because he sure as shit wasn’
t thinking about me when he was backing some bitch up into a hotel room!”