An onlooker would have never thought our family was a thick web weaved of chaos and deceit from afar. With the arrival of Ashton's family came an even bigger desire to please from Sarah. She was rushing around all morning trying to get everything set and ready. Given that I didn't have an interest in the wedding as it was, I wasn't going to wear the dress and ruin it tonight.

It wasn't until I'd been seated at the venue we'd be spending the reception that I realized how severely undressed I was. Outside of my loose tank top and shorts, my father in his polo shirt and jeans stood out. Everyone else, including my two-year-old niece, were dressed in the formal clothes they'd be present in tomorrow.

Fortunately my eyes remained glued to Mateo beside me most of the night. I noticed things I'd never stuck around long enough to see. Like the way his entire face warmed with his smile. Even his eyes melted into an amber puddle. His laugh would ease my anxiety anytime it started to peek as he conversed with my parents or brother. He had felt my anxious foot tapping and leg bouncing about an hour into the dinner and slid his hand onto my bare thigh under the table and the warmth eventually settled me down enough to try and take in my surroundings.

Floral décor draped from the awning overhead, a beautiful spring theme. My sister wore a beautiful white dress with lace sleeves and a intricate cut out in the back. Her hair was in a braided updo with a crown of small flowers resting on her head.

Ashton, however, wore only a pale green suit with a white undershirt-which sat untucked and partially unbuttoned most of the dinner. He had perched himself in that chair close to two hours ago and hadn't budged, completely disassociating from reality, drowning his thoughts with alcohol.

Though my sister didn't spare me a glance most of the night, when I caught her in the bathroom, she stuck around until I'd finished using it. Once I stepped out of the stall to watch my hands, I found her leaning back into the wall beside the paper towel dispenser with her eyes shut and lips pursed.

"Can I help you?" I asked, curious as to why she was still here.

She gave me a disgusted once over. "You couldn't have even tried to wear something more presentable? Do you just enjoy embarrassing Mateo?"

I crossed my arms with a raised brow, "Embarrassing Mateo?"

"He's dressed so formally, so nice. And you look like you just woke up form an all-nighter."

"I'll have you know that Mateo had no issue with me dressed like this." I shrugged. "I mean, other than the fact I'm dressed at all."

"I don't understand." she snapped through bared teeth. "Why do they all just swarm you? You have a nine-to-five job with no real career or plan for your future. He's literally the co-owner of a multi-million dollar tech company. Do you not see the issue?"

I swallowed the hurt that sprouted from the words and spun on my heels to leave before she could push me passed my breaking point. I didn't say a word to anyone as I reached the table. I swept my bag and jacket from the chair and waved at my parents and Bren. "I'll see you guys back at the beach house."

"Mads—" Bren shot to his feet to try and catch me, but it was Kate who's expression twisted and she snapped, "What'd she do?"

I waved both off and whispered, "I'm just tired. Everything is fine. You all enjoy yourselves."

I turned my back to them without allowing for any further confrontation. I was happy to breath fresh air outside the building and slowly leaned back as I tried to blink the tears from my eyes.

"You shouldn't let her get to you." Ashton's voice was the last I needed to hear right now. The smell of marijuana was just as unwanted. "She just wants to get a rise out of you. She likes you miserable."

"Ugh, go away." I groaned, hoping he'd parade his happy ass back inside to his future wife.

He laughed. "You're not going to be able to deflect your emotions forever, Mads. You'll push everyone around you away."

"That isn't any of your business."

"It's not." He agreed. "But you deserve happiness. What we did was truly inhumane and I've always wanted nothing but the best for you, Madison, however hard that may be to believe."

I snickered. "Please leave me alone."

"I'm shitting myself internally right now." he ran a hand through his hair and I averted my gaze to the street lamp a few feet away. "I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I want to do this."

"Well, you should have thought about that months ago." I responded. "It's too late now, buddy. You better grow a pair and be a man. It took both of you to make that baby, and the choices you've made up until this point, so you need to live with the consequences just as much as she does."

He eyed me warily, "I hate that you're always right. I swear, all of high school I had to come to you for everything because I knew you had the answer I needed."

"Yeah, too bad I wasted so long on you." I muttered, shaking my head to myself. "I've had a lot of time to think these last few months, and I truly don't understand how I allowed you to completely control me, Ashton. All I wanted through all of high school was to please you, to ensure you didn't find someone else. I did everything I could, even things I wasn't proud of, to try and prove that I was worth more than just a crappy high school relationship."

"Madi—"

I held a hand up to stop him. "No. I don't want to hear it. The entire time I was giving you all of me and losing myself, you were having sex with my sister. I bet all those nights that you left me at ten you snuck into her room and spent the night with her."

"Madison—"

"I spent my entire life wondering what it was like to be loved. The whole time I was, but it wasn't by you, Ashton." I threw a look at the door behind us. "It was by Mateo. I hate myself for a lot, but the thing that I hate most about myself is I fell victim to you when he was there the whole time."

If any of the words I'd said the last week hurt him, those did. He visibly flinched and stomped out the last of his joint. He didn't even look at me as he finally opened the door and back into the venue.

*

I spent the rest of the night looking through old photos on my phone. Most from high school. I found one of Mateo, Bren, and I at a waterfall from my sophomore year. We'd went camping, hiked for hours, and had all but collapsed in the water when we reached our destination. I was hidden under Mateo's arm in the picture, one of my hands vising my eyes so I could see the camera-or Kate, who stood behind it- and the other hidden behind Mateo's back. He hugged me against his side, bare torso dripping with water, a goofy smile lighting his face, and his eyes on my brother over my head. Bren was staring at Kate behind the camera, mid step, hands outstretched for her. It'd been my favorite photo from the trip because of the silliness of it.

"Hey, Stranger."

I peeked over my phone at Mateo entering the room, shrugging out of the jacket of his tux on his way to me.

"Hey."

"I heard you and Ashton had some words this evening."

I lifted my head slowly, surprised. "How?"

"He told me." he smiled weakly. "He was obliterated by the time I left, but he mentioned that you'd tore into him. Then told me he made a huge mistake and a bunch of other drunken slurs."

I sighed. "Sounds like Ashton."

"Whatever you said really upset him, Mads."

"What do you want me to do, apologize?"

He started to unbutton his shirt as he responded. "No, of course not. But I also don't want you living with regret over what you said."

"Trust me, Mateo. I don't regret what I said."

"Alright." he set the shirt aside and held his hands up in surrender. "I'll take your word for it."

I was relieved that he seemed satisfied with the answer and wouldn't pry further, but of course I couldn't get so lucky.

"Are you going to tell me what Sarah said that got under your skin?"

"It doesn't matter."

He touched his palm to my thigh as he climbed into bed beside me. "It does, Mads. You were fighting tears when you left. I would have went after you, but I knew you wanted your space."

"She said I was embarrassing you by wearing what I did."

"That got under your skin?" he stared at me skeptically. "You know I don't care how you dress, Mads. You're beautiful to me in anything you wear. Or anything you don't."

I nudged him with a shake of my head. "She also said that we were in two different places in life. She mentioned I had no real career right now and worked a nine to five while you—"

"Maddy—"

"She's right." I breathed. "What happens when we go back home, Mateo? You live this entire millionaire life and I live in a small apartment in a neighborhood where the crime rate is higher than my GPA."

He touched his index finger to my chin and turned my face toward him. "Mads, no amount of money can buy love. I don't care if you don't have any clue what to do with your life right now, you're twenty-two, you still have an entire life to figure it out. And I will be with you every step of the way, if that's what you want."

"I don't want to anchor you." I whispered. "Or embarrass you."

"Are you joking? Madison, you're gorgeous, funny, and one of the smartest people I know. If anyone in our relationship should be embarrassed, it should be me. Because I have no idea how the hell I managed to have the woman of my dreams."

I touched my hand to the top of his. "Eww, Mateo. That was so corny."

"It's the truth." he leaned forward and kissed me. "Don't let what she says get to you. If I didn't want you, Madison, if you embarrassed me, I surely wouldn't have spent the last ten years pining after you."

I curled up against his side, happy when he pulled the blanket over us. It wasn't even an hour later than I heard arguing from my sister's room, Ashton's voice far louder than hers. I looked to Mateo, but he shook his head, certain that they'd work it out on their own.

All I could hope was that Ashton took my words to heart, and however shitty of a person they both were, they would step up and be the parents that their child needed.