Left at the Altar

The sound of beeping reached my ears before I could feel my own hands. I opened my eyes, wincing when the bright light temporarily blinded me and the strong antiseptic smell hit my senses. Still, I slowly opened my eyes and noticed that I was in a hospital room.

I grabbed onto the bed in an attempt to pull myself up and that’s when pain ripped through my body, forcing me to moan out before plopping right back onto the bed.

“Hey, don’t try to move Scarlett. Lay down.” A voice said to me as hands tucked my blanket around me.

I blinked at the voice already knowing who it was. Davon Romanov. My best friend and coworker. I turned to him, my throat dry when I spoke.

“Davon,”

“Whoa, don’t talk yet. Drink this.” He instructed me as his hands put a glass of water to my lips. I did as I was told while he continued to speak.

“It’ll take some time before you get a bit more comfortable with your movements and speech since you’ve been under for three days. Do you remember what happened?”

I pulled my head away from the glass and raised a brow at him, my mind still fuzzy from just waking up. Davon sighed, set the glass down and explained.

“This is going to be a bit much but here goes nothing. You were stood up on your wedding day. Well more like replaced by that bitch Veronica, James embarrassed you and took everything you own, he also ruined your name to the blogs so now you’re the laughing stock of the city. More or less.” He said in one breath, eyes watching me intently to see what I would do.

I blinked, the memories rushing back to me. The wedding. James and Veronica betraying me. Getting hit by a car.

“What? Let me see.” I mumbled almost in disbelief as tears ran down my face but Davon just shook his head, refusing me to see what was circulating about me on the internet.

“No,”

My vision blurred and my body shook with sadness and anger despite the physical pain I still felt. How could they betray me like that? The question rang in my head over and over again. I spiraled trying to make sense of it all but a simple touch from Davon brought me back to reality. I looked down at his hand on mine.

“Don’t you dare cry. Not for anything and especially not for those bastards.” He warned me, his face both stern and concerned.

“DON’T CRY?! I lost my home, Davon. My money. My reputation. Every person in this city thinks I'm a cheating whore because of James. You said that I’ve been here for days. God, do I even still have a job anymore?” I blurted out, rolling my eyes as I sniffled, my world slowly crumbling away.

“You didn’t lose everything cause I’m still here. Plus, your job’s still safe. I spoke to management about it. You’ve got a month off.”

My eyes widened as I stared into Davon’s grey eyes.

“What?”

He chuckled and pulled away from me with a shrug.

“Don’t thank me. You would have done the same for me.”

I wiped away my tears, a bit glad that I had something good going for me when Davon spoke up again.

“What are you going to do now?” He asked me. I frowned.

“I’m not sure anymore.”

“So, James and Veronica go scot free after what they did to you?” He questioned, arms folded with a brow raised at me.

He didn’t need to say what I already knew. I was giving up, conceding to the people who hurt me but I had nothing left, not even my dignity. What the hell could I do? My silence was enough for Davon to get me. He sighed and ran a hand through his jet black hair.

“Giving up is not in your nature Scarlett. You’re a strong woman and I’m pretty sure that your parents wouldn’t like you caving in for some doucebag. So why don’t you get revenge.” He prompted, eyes still on me.

I bit my lip, contemplating. Davon was right. My dead parents would be livid if they found out what happened to me. They would be ripping James and Veronica a new one and here I was feeling bad for myself.

I steeled my mind, silently agreeing with Davon but then it hit me. Even if I wanted to get back at James and Veronica, how would I do that? They had a huge platform and with them blaming me for it all it would be next to impossible to convince the public otherwise.

“I don’t know if I can.” I replied solemnly weighing my options.

“Remember our movie, when Diana doesn’t let what happened to her because of her father get to her. Remember how she moved forward?”

I cock my head at him and in the moment a small laugh escapes my mouth. Davon’s eyes sparkle and he smiles.

“I’m pretty sure Diana from ‘Say Anything’ didn’t have her life thrown upside down like this.”

“Potato potato.” He mused before leaning forward, closing the distance between us. “All I’m saying is you can’t let this get you down. If it makes it any better, I’ll help you.” He offered.

I sat there in silence and smiled at him, a bit taken aback that a college acquaintance turned best friend who stood by my side for years was still willing to help me even if it didn’t concern him in the slightest.

“Are you sure? How would we even afford to do this? And you have work. You can’t juggle it all.”

Davon placed his hand on my hair and ruffled my auburn hair, watching me.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve already made arrangements.”

He pulled away and for the first time in a long time, I felt what it was to be cared for by someone.