Thank you to Anahi for beta'ing! This is my first Orange is the New Black fanfic :)
This has to have been the worst day of Lorna Morello's life, since her husband died a few years ago. She'd gone to her fiancé's house after work to surprise him, however, what she didn't know, was there was someone in his bed. When she opened the door to Christopher and some whore fucking like the world was going to end in five seconds if they didn't get each other off at that specific moment in time, she was so shocked and hurt that she fled. Christopher called out for her to stop and to wait, but she was already halfway out the door with tears blurring her vision.
She feels numb and the familiar ache in her heart is back. All of the wedding plans, the guest list, the appointments she'd made, the dress and veil she'd picked out with her sister, all that money she'd spent, all for nothing. Now instead of making dinner, she has to call every single guest she'd invited and tell them the wedding is canceled. She sits still in her car since she can't bring herself to drive away, or even close her door. She grips the steering wheel and lets out a strangled cry. She's shaking and sobbing while muttering, "Stupid, stupid..."
Christopher walks briskly to her car door. "Lorna, I didn't mean for you to find out like this...I was going to break it off with you tonight. I shouldn't have even proposed."
"Why did you?" she asks angrily. She still can't get the image of her once beloved fiancé naked and on top of another woman, out of her head as she slams the car door.
"It was a long time ago. If it makes you feel any better, I'm engaged to Angela, too. You kinda interrupted our celebration back there. I wanted to see who would be marriage material, and I'm sorry, but I choose her."
Lorna gasps, horrified. "That's bullshit! So, this whole time...when I thought we were...together...you've been with her behind my back?"
"Yeah, I mean, who could blame me? You're boring, childish, and addicted to heroin. I thought I could get over it within the year...but it bothers me. We're finished, Lorna."
"Fine by me, asshole!" she yells as she quickly drives away, humiliated. Lorna ends up at her apartment and once she gets inside, she calls her heroin dealer.
Later her dealer, Vee Parker, arrives demanding money in return for the stash of heroin. Lorna hands her a wad of cash and takes the bundle as she mumbles a quick, "Thanks."
"Want a cigarette?" she asks with her signature serpent smile. "I got that too."
"Sure, why not?" Lorna says with a weak smile in return.
Vee smirks at her and laughs to herself for a minute. "I knew you weren't strong enough to quit cold turkey. You came back like the rest of my girls...you always do," she stated as she walked away. Lorna closed the door behind her.
Lorna smokes and gives herself hits of heroin to numb the pain. She forgets about dinner and eats a huge ice cream sundae while watching her favorite movie, West Side Story. She texts her sister and asks her if she can let everyone know that the wedding is off, because she can't bring herself to do it. She'd fantasized about being in a wedding dress and walking down the aisle ever since she'd received communion, and she thought she finally found her prince in Christopher after Vince had passed, but she was so wrong. The reality that she'd never be Mrs. Lorna MacLaren is slowly starting to settle inside her, and a new wave of tears begin. She can't even enjoy her own pity party that she hosted for herself and thinks she'll probably be forever alone. It's a curse.
She wraps herself in her blanket and snaps off the television. "Fuck it! Romance only exists on the screen...anyway."
When she goes upstairs, she wipes her makeup off her face while staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She can barely recognize herself. Her eyeliner and mascara are running down her cheeks along with her tears, her lipstick is smudged, and her skin is blotchy. Her eyes are swollen from so much sobbing, and all of a sudden, she feels sick to her stomach. She runs to the toilet and lets everything out while she holds her sweaty hair back from her face.
He never loved her.
She's panting like she just finished a race. She's stuck on the floor. If he never loved her, why would he have spent his hard-earned cash on her sparkling engagement ring? "I guess that's his fuckin' loss," she mutters to herself. She doesn't know what to do with it. On one hand, she could keep it to play out her fantasies, and on the other, she could sell it and make lots of money.
He thought she was boring and childish.
Lorna tries to get up, but she can't move. He also had a problem with her being a former junkie, but she only turned to heroin when times got hard. She'd been clean for almost a year until the breakup ruined her sobriety. Her sadness is mixed with anger now. She clenches her fists while growling out a squeaky "God damn it!" and punches the side of the toilet. "It's all your fault...I hate you...I hope you rot in hell!" She screams until she loses her voice in a coughing fit. The confusing part of it was she's not sure who she is referring to. It can either be herself for being so naive, or Christopher for leading her on like he did. In the end, she decides that she had to have seen some signs and must have ignored them because she loved him so much. He told her she was beautiful and he was pleased with the fact that she was Italian-he said that after they shook hands and introduced themselves. He even called the day they met, lucky. To her, it really was.
Lorna faces the dressing room mirror with a satisfied smile stretched across her face. She's wearing a blue strapless jean dress, a necklace, a pair of earrings, high heels, and her hair is curled. Her makeup is perfect. "What do you think?" she asks her sister, Franny.
"It's a little much for a coffee date."
"Oh, come on! He'll adore me in this. I look hot, huh? I was kinda going for the Julia Roberts makeover in Pretty Woman."
"Yeah, if you wanna be thought of as a prostitute, sure."
Lorna sticks her tongue out and flips her sister the bird. "Shut up!"
"Okay, fine, you look gorgeous."
"Good answer."
She meets Christopher for coffee and they hit it off right away. They talk about lavish vacations, Italian cuisine, West Side Story, among other things. She tells him about her family, her job, and the fact that he's the key to helping her stop her heroin and smoking habit. She apologizes for being such a chatterbox. At the end of the date, she pushes him into the wall and starts kissing him.
"Let's get a cab to my place! We'll have more fun there...or we could go to yours!" She winks at him. "Do you believe in sex on the first date? I have this awesome idea that I could wear your sweater...with nothing else on!" She giggles. "Fuck, I want you so bad."
"No, it's against my religion to do anything like that until marriage. Sorry."
"Oh, okay." She's slightly disappointed when he leaves her to go home by herself.
She slowly stands on shaky legs and rinses out her mouth. She can't deal with the bile taste of breakup vomit. She goes into her room to undress so she can put on her pajamas, and she does so in front of her full-length mirror. She almost laughs at the sight of her heart tattoo that's under her left breast and off to the side of her body. He'd never seen that because their relationship didn't go farther than kissing. He wanted to wait until after they got married, and she was fine with that. She realizes now that he was just saving it up for Angela.
Quickly, she goes through her closet to find a nightdress to sleep in when she finds her bridal gown and veil. She bought all of it way too early. Even Franny thought so. The wedding would've been in six months. She strokes the plastic covering and unzips it to reveal the dress. She puts the veil on her head and slips into the dress while humming Almost Paradise, the song that was playing in the coffee shop on hers and Christopher's first date. She'd made it their song, but he'd said it was cheesy. She'd just giggled like a moron and agreed with him. She doesn't feel like she's in her own room, and this may not even be her house. She's in a different state of mind. Then, she has to remember that she's not a bride anymore, this is just pretend. She's always loved playing dress-up.
Lorna turns on the bath water and gets into the tub, fully clothed. She doesn't care that she's getting her dress and her veil wet, and she lets her tears slide off her chin and into the water. She leans her head back and closes her eyes while hugging her knees to her chest. It's like she's gone completely crazy, and she can't help it. She dreams of strangling Christopher's side bitch until she's dead, and it makes her feel a hell of a lot better. He'd just have to find out for himself that he's about to marry a slut. Lorna's loneliness is really getting to her, and she starts having thoughts that only a maniac would have. She brushes them away as soon as they come across her mind, because she doesn't want to be branded a murderer. She focuses on keeping herself calm through the storm that's raging inside of her.
Someone's knocking at her door and ringing the doorbell, and she figures it must be Franny. She gets out of the tub and dries herself off. "I'm coming, sis!" She throws off her veil and steps out of her dress. She wraps a towel around herself while running down the stairs. She doesn't want her sister to think she's gone nuts. She opens the door, and Franny envelops her in a hug.
"I'm sorry, Lorna."
"I don't know what to do!"
"You don't need to do anything. I took care of it, okay?"
"You mean you killed Christopher and that cooze?"
Franny laughs. "No, but I'd like to. I just did what you asked me to."
"Thank you."
"No problem. Do you want me to spend the night?"
"Oh no, I'm fine. I mean...I've been better...but even if you're here, I'll still feel really shitty. You don't need to stay. Besides, you have a son to take care of."
"He's with Dad. I could do these dishes for you. Jeez, it's a mess in here, Lorna, and do I smell pot or drugs? There's just a foul odor in here."
"No!" Lorna says fiercely. "Look, just mind your business, okay? I'm twenty-four, and I can do whatever the hell I want!"
"Well, what if the police do a random search in your neighborhood?"
Lorna crosses her arms over her chest and glares at Franny. "I'd flush 'em down the toilet."
"Be careful that your teeth don't rot and fall out, then."
"I don't even do it that much! Can you just go, please? I need my privacy."
"Okay, if that's what you want. Goodbye!"
"Bye."
Lorna rinses out her bowl and puts it and her spoon in the dishwasher. She starts it up, and then jumps when the doorbell rings. "Why the fuck is she back?" she asks herself. She walks over to her door and looks through the peephole. It's not her sister.
"Who's there?"
"Special delivery for Miss Morello!"
She slips her coat on over herself and opens the door. "Oh, maybe Christopher has decided to take me back," she says happily while taking the flowers from the Asian man in front of her. He adjusts his square glasses.
"You just took a shower?"
"Yeah, what's it to ya?"
"My name's Ron, if you ever wanna hit me up, babe. Everything about you is so perfect...and I bet you have really soft skin."
Lorna slams the door in his face. "I'm not interested! Go away!"
"You're a real heartbreaker, Lorna."
She freezes. "How do you know my name?"
There's no response, but she knows her answer when she looks at the card addressed to her that's attached to the flowers. It's the creepiest thing she's ever seen, so these must not be from Christopher. Lorna Morello, your breasts are like jello, and I could be your fellow. "Eeeww...gross."
She doesn't want to go out in the dark and throw them away in the dumpster, so she just stuffs the roses and the note in the trash. Her lights flicker on and off, and then she suddenly hears a crash. "Oh shit!" she yells as one of her hanging fluorescent lights falls to the floor. She dials an electrician from PG&E, and they tell her one of their workers will be coming in the morning.
She gets into her pajamas and puts her wedding attire back into her closet. As she's sleeping, she's also hoping she'll never get a weird present or see that strange man again.
As she's curling her hair and putting on her lipstick, the doorbell chimes. She's expecting a grimy dude in a tool belt with pants so big that they show off his butt crack, but she's surprised to see a woman with wild, curly, dirty blonde hair and huge, round brown eyes that were lined in black, grinning at her. She's in a blue uniform which doesn't sag on her at all. "Um...hi."
"Oh...you're the...ohhhh! Luscheck must have sent you. I'll show you my kitchen."
"Yeah, uh...I better get started, huh?"
"Sure, sure." Lorna gestures to the damage. "Sorry about the mess..."
The woman shrugs. "It's what they're paying me to do, kid."
"Thank you, ma'am."
The woman nods at her and gives her a thousand watt smile. Lorna doesn't know why, but it's awkward. Nobody has ever been this happy to see her, and this woman doesn't even know her.