Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Blakecome on. It’s time to take those rollers out,” Lauren says.
“I remember what you said at the bar, Teagan,” Blakely says. “I’m already sorry. I didn’t like hearing the way Ashlyn talked to you; I realized that’s how I talk to you, too. I won’t do it anymore.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” she says.
“Me, too.”
The shoes are uncomfortable. I feel like I’m in my own normal human costume in the tulle A-line dress. My hair hangs down my back in loose curls with a headband braid in the front. None of my scars are visible; all of my bruises have healed.
The ones on the outside anyway. As for the rest just when I think they’re getting better, something new comes along and presses on it.
“Hey, Teagan. It’s good to see you.”
“Good to see you, too,” I tell the person I don’t remember ever seeing in my life as they sign the guestbook. “Thanks for coming.”
This isn’t a job. It’s a nonjob. It’s the job you give someone just so they can feel included and the worst job for someone with my personality. Given the circumstances, I’ll keep my complaints strictly confined to internal monologue.
“Thanks for being here,” I say to another couple signing the book while awkwardly standing over them.
“What’s that?” the girl asks, pointing to the table beside us.
“Oh, the message in a bottle? It’s to leave a note for Blake and Austin to read on their first wedding anniversary.”
“Aw, that’s cute.”
I smile and nod. “Yeah, so cute.”
Kill me now.
Oh wait, I guess that’ll really happen later.
After I watch them write a note and drop it into the bottle, I check the clock. Ten minutes. The wedding starts in ten minutes. There are maybe a handful of seats still empty, including the two beside my parents that were saved for me and Sebastian. I haven’t seen him yet, and I’m getting nervous. What if he changed his mind?
My heart rate spikes, and I swallow the lump in my throat.
Just as I start to panic, he walks up wearing a black suit and a white button-up shirta better normal human costume than even Luca, especially considering not only is he not normal, but if you ask him, he’s not even a human.
He says nothing before leaning over the table beside me and scribbling something onto the parchment for the message in a bottle. I cross my arms in front of me and look away before he calls my attention back.
“Hey, Teagan. How’s this?” he asks, holding up the parchment.
I KILLED YOUR SISTER.
I stifle a laugh, looking around to make sure no one is watching before snatching it from his hand.
“You cannot put that in there,” I whisper.
“Why not?” he asks. “You think it’s funny.”
Using one of the candlesticks Blakely hates, I light the paper on fire, watching it burn down to my fingertips before letting it fall to the sand. “I don’t think that’s the kind of thing she will want to be reminded of on her wedding anniversary.”
I let it burn until there’s nothing left but smoldering embers and then stomp it out with my heels. When I look up, he’s staring at my dress.
“You don’t like it,” I say.
He places his hand on my waist and runs his fingers over one of the embroidered flowers. “That’s not true. That’s not what I was thinking.”
“I don’t want to know what you were thinking”
“I was just thinking that it doesn’t look like something you’d pick for yourself. And you deserve to have everything that you want. But you look beautiful, Teaganjust as beautiful as the first time I saw you.”
I cock my head to the side, narrowing my eyes at him. The first time that he saw me, I was covered in blood in a filthy men’s restroom.
“I know what I said. I know when it was,” he adds.
“Teagan, you two can come sit now,” my mom says. “Nice to see you, Sebastian. Thanks for coming.”
“Thanks for having me,” he says. “Everything looks great.”
When she turns around, I shake my head at the killer beside me.
“Wait,” I say as he starts to follow.
I quickly scribble onto one of those scraps of parchment, I hope you get everything you want. Love, Teagan.
I stuff it in the bottle, and we rush to our seats as everyone takes their places. A pianist plays “You Are In Love” by Taylor Swift, and everyone stands, waiting for Blakely to walk down the aisle onto the beach in a lace gown.
My parents and her bridesmaids cry as she makes her way to the altar; my mom reaches for me and clasps my hand in hers.
When she reaches Austin and we sit, Sebastian places his arm around my shoulders.
“How does the room look?” I whisper. “Did you take a picture?”
He leans into me, kissing my neck before whispering into my ear, “Convincing while not entirely obviousnothing over the top. Got rid of the De Rossi cum sheets, too. And no, I didn’t take a picture.”
“Can I see it?”
“No, you’ll mess it up,” he says. “I already put your stuff in the car.”
“I think it will be a relief for them that it’s over. Don’t you think?”
He hesitates before answering. “Yeah, sure.”
“I’ve been a burden to them. They can move on with their lives.”
“I think maybe they’ll stop seeing it that way,” he says into my neck. “I think they’ll miss you.”
My mom nudges me, giving me a side-eyed glare, and I shut the fuck up.
The ceremony itself is short, followed by a reception under the same open-air tent where we had the rehearsal dinner last night. Luckily, for me, enough people canceled on Blake and Austin last minute that it wasn’t an issue seating Sebastian. I catch looks from both of my parents as he speaks that seem to say now why couldn’t you have met a guy like this six months ago? I think he did more talking than anyone at the table, and I just sat there in awe of him.
Wondering how he plays the part so well and what he would be like if things had been different. Would he have been a rockstar, too, or just a regular guy? Was the killer in him more inherent than even he believes, and would this have always been his fate? Would all three of them have been a lot more innocent than they are now?
Would I have ever found love if that were the case?
Now, I’m alone at the table, pushing chocolate cake around on my plate. Sebastian stands at the other side of the tent, talking to Ashlyn and her husband, of all people. He’s taken off his jacket and rolled up his white button-up, revealing his muscular tattooed forearms. The humidity has both of our hair going a little crazy, but the curls look good on himit’s just ruining mine.
It smells like rain again.
“More champagne?” Sebastian asks when he returns, handing me a glass. He sits in the chair beside me, turning it to face me.
“Aren’t you worried I’ll get sloppy and do a murder?” I ask, rolling my eyes as I set the glass down on the table.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.