3. Prove it, Ben.

Oliver

I must be deaf, or dumb, or is there any way to describe hearing something utterly wrong? I swatted toward Benjamin whose eyes didn’t meet mine. He suddenly found the table more interesting. Hard-shit or whatever his stupid name, still had his hand extended and that stupid smile on his face that reveal the most perfect set of teeth.

From this distance, he didn’t seem to have any blemish on his face. It looked so smooth that it could give the glass wall behind him a run for his money. The more he flashed his perfect teeth, the more my heart boiled.

“Am I interrupting?” I said, my teeth clamped hard to swallow the other words I had to say. Harvey cocked a brow to Ben as his hand fell to the table.

“Of course not, Oliver, you can sit.” Oh, he speaks? I swallowed the bile in my throat from hearing him call my full name as I sat beside.

The silence was heavy, heavier than the tray of food that the waiter placed on the table. I kissed my teeth in anger as I stared at the king crab in the broth. The waiter scurried away as if tasting the thick silence.

“I am getting a feeling that you guys know each other?” Harvey broke the silence. I turned toward Ben, waiting for him to introduce me but his lips remain tight, like glue had been sprayed across.

“My name is Oliver. Benjamin’s f-“

“Friend. He is a friend.”

It felt like I had seen Medusa and I was immediately turned into stone. My eyes welled up as the anger bubbled harder. A friend? I was his friend because he was with this…guy?

“Oh,” Harvey chuckled and he sighed, I could taste the relief. He pulled the plate of crab toward him before blowing on the steam.

“For a second, I was worried you had moved on, Ben-ten.”

With the emotions swirling inside of me, the only question that burst out of my lips was, “Ben ten?”

“Oh, yes, he didn’t tell you?” he whistled, “Benjamin always put me in ten different positions while he railed me.”

I didn’t know it was possible to get more furious than I was at the moment, but I was. I could feel steam surging out of my ears and all I could see was red. I wanted this guy dead, gone and dead. And Benjamin? I wanted him castrated. How could he just sit still while this-

“Ben, do you remember that one time that your parents almost caught us?” Hardshit chuckled and shook his head. Benjamin’s teeth ground each other and the muscles in his jaw worked extra time.

“Or that time when we went to the beach and there was this girl that couldn’t keep her eyes off you? Then we even had to pry that little girl off you because she had never seen someone like you with such a perfect face and all.”

A breath tickled my arm. Benjamin…the fucking idiot smirked. He was remembering it. There was no way I was going to sit through this and be insulted.

“I’m going home,” I pushed off my chair.

“Has that mark healed yet though? The scar on your back?”

I froze. The scar on his back. I had always asked him what happened and he never told me, he was evasive about it till I just gave up asking. Apparently Hardshit knew about the scar?

When I turned toward Benjamin once more, his face was hard and his demeanor seemed to darken at the question. He hadn’t moved a muscle, I noticed. He didn’t stretch his hand to stop me from leaving, he hadn’t even turned to stare at me. It was almost like I was…his friend.

I shook my head and stormed out of the restaurant, my heart racing faster than my feet as I swung into the car and hit the reverse.

“Don’t you fucking cry, Oliver. He loves you and there is some explanation to all of this. You’re getting married in a few days and you have to trust the one you want to spend your life with.”

How could I trust him when he could introduce me to another man as his “friend?”

I turned left as I ducked underneath the arch ushering anyone into the cemetery before parking the car by the curb. The tear crawled down my cheek and the anger slowly melted as I stared at the path that was burned into my brain. We were supposed to come here together and he had ditched me.

The wrapping paper was crunchy and it dug into my skin as I snatched it from the seat and pushed the door. The gentle rustle of the breeze on any other day would have been serenading, but today, it felt like an annoying tick.

“Hey, Mom,” I sighed at last, feeling the emotions slowly build up again.

“Today makes it…two years? I think?” I chuckled as another set of tears strolled down my cheek. It felt weird that she was gone. I had received the message from a strange number who I suspect to be Ruby, about the death of our mother. I had never and would never forgive them for what they had done to me, for believing a stranger over their blood especially after they found out the truth.

But she was my mother, she was family. I tossed the flower on her clean grave. Benjamin had paid for her grave to be regularly cleaned to prevent moss. I told him it was unnecessary but he insisted that it was the least he could do.

“Hey,” came the source of my tears.

“What do you want?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“You left me. We were supposed to go together.”

I scoffed, “can you listen to yourself? You were busy eye-fucking some random guy after introducing me to him as your friend and you expect me to sit still and wait for you?” I shook my head, I couldn’t do this, I was too angry for the conversation.

I turned to brush past him when he grabbed my hand, “he isn’t some random dude.”

“Are you…” I shook my head and stared at the sky to hold the tears in, “you’re defending him?”

“I’m not. Look, there is nothing going on between me and Harvey, okay?”

“Then why did you tell him that I was just a friend?”

He paused and I could see the gears in his head turning, “Harvey is…crazy and I don’t want him to hurt you.”

“What does that even mean, Benjamin? How will telling him that I’m your fiancé make him hurt me?”

“Trust me, it’s better this way.”

“Do you want to be with him?” I snapped.

“What? No! I want to be with you, that is why I am getting married to you!”

“Fine. Prove it then. Prove that you love me and that all of these things are just in my head.”

“How?” he asked.

“Invite him to our wedding.”

“Oli-“

“I’m not done.” He thumped the bridge of his nose.

“We should shift the wedding.”

“What!? It’s not that big of the deal, Liv, come on! We have been planning our wedding for months and its just two weeks away! We can’t shift it further.”

I smirked, “further? Invite Harvey to our wedding which will take place two days from now, or you can find someone else to walk down the aisle with you.”