SHOTGUN WEDDING
Chapter One
Darien was not able to be her parents' anniversary dinner party because he had to be with Raye. His girlfriend Raye.
Darien and Serena were childhood sweethearts, but ever since Raye, they were just friends. Not even close ones anymore. And it hurt.
It hurt Serena.
At first, they hid it from Serena. It was Raye's request, Darien said. She didn't want to hurt Serena. They were friends, she said, all three of them. Who ever said that three was a lucky number?
Three is a crowd. And it always will be.
"Sorry I missed your parents' party, Heart," Darien said.
Why does her heart still leap at the endearment that had become her nickname of sorts—even to other friends—really close friends anyway. She was well aware that it didn't mean a thing to Darien.
It used to be sweetheart, but then of course, Raye…
She shook her head and tried to smile.
"I know. Raye explained already. I understand." She didn't but tried to smile to cover the pain in her heart that must be showing through her eyes. Raye said she had something to do in school and she needed Darien. Raye never struck her as a helpless person. And for another, it was school. School offices were rarely until twelve midnight, right? The library, she mused. What do they need to…
Darn! She didn't even want to go there.
"Here, my gift. Hope this is okay. I know it's not enough—"
"What are you saying? I love it already. She hugged the stuffed toy bunny that had a hair clip with sparkling studs silver barrette pinned to one of its long ears and the long stemmed yellow rose that came with it. "Thank you." She smiled up at him.
"You won't use my absence as an excuse so as not to be there on my birthday?" He sounded terse, hesitant. He never was lacking in confidence in all the years she'd known him.
"No. I don't bear grudges. You know that."
"DARIEN'S IN A FIGHT," Molly announced to a Serena that was closing her locker.
"What?" Serena turned to Molly, allowing the girl to take some of her schoolthings.
"He's fighting with his teammate Jed in the basketball court. They were just warming up and then—wham! They're in each other's faces."
Four-eyed Melvin was trailing behind them.
He's never been in a fight before.
"That calls for a cliché. There's always a first time."
"Right," Melvin muttered.
Molly glared at her boyfriend. If Melvin didn't look like an Armani model in his grandpa shirts, she'd have thumped his head too. He suddenly looked awkward, endearing him all the more to her. No wonder the girls go gaga over this boy wonder as well. He has three different doctorates at such a young age, currently pursuing a different bachelor degree just for her. She certainly could not blame him if he thought this squabble was too intelligent for him.
Darien and Jed were both in the Karate-do Club, but they were practicing basketball earlier. Apparently, they're not doing any friendly practice now. They were sparring in the court, and there was nothing amicable in that either.
It was obvious that a few blows had been exchanged. They were hurling words now.
"Oh, yeah?" Jed was saying. "Watch my language around your girlfriend? Man, maybe she gave it to you before she served it to me, but we both know that we're not the only—"
The blonde Don Juan never got to finish his speech because Darien had slugged his jaw that sent the former sprawling on the well-polished floor.
Jed only gave a bitter, defeated grin, testing, with one long finger if his lower lip wasn't bleeding.
Serena was stunned by Darien's violence. She'd never seen him in this light in their years of friendship. She could not even move. She remembered abruptly coming to a halt.
"Just stay away from her." Darien was turning on his heel but Jed's voice stopped him.
"Tell her to stay away from me," he spat, standing up. This time, it was Jed who turned to leave. Serena saw him throw a well-meaning glance at Raye.
The woman was watching all this time and was not doing anything to stop the fight?
Darien was going to lunge at the unsuspecting Jed again but Serena saw somebody more alert, somebody who must have been watching longer than her moved faster and he would surely have landed a justified blow on Darien's face if she didn't do anything about it.
As it was, the man's blow caught Serena near the eye, on her cheekbone to be exact. The pain was shocking, but as it was not that hard and nearly a miss, she was brave enough to contain the gasp that escaped her lips, or the tears that stung her eyes. Also, the man must have been able to restrain the force of his hit when he saw her interference. For that alone she must be thankful.
The man was horrified to say the least. It was there in his voice.
"Serena!" It was Diam, Jed's older brother. "I'm so sorry!" he apologized profusely, as if she was near death.
Jed turned around and saw the new ruckus. His tone was also apologetic. "Are you okay?" he asked.
The fight was momentarily forgotten.
Still smarting from her trip to the floor, Serena, aided by Diam, managed to stand up. Jed and Diam Hammond were sons of an affluent industrialist and she had known their family for as long as she'd lived in their village.
It was then that Raye graced the scene. She fingered Darien's grim face.
"Let's get out of here, Darien."
"Yes, get out of here," Jed repeated sarcastically.
"Jed, please…" Serena begged.
"Your face is turning greenish-blue," Diam observed in his medical tone.
"What were you thinking charging into a fight like that?" Darien thundered, stepping so close to Serena and sidestepping Raye in the process without noticing it. "Let me see that." He was going to touch her face but she pushed his hand away.
"Just take your girlfriend home."
Diam assured Molly that Serena will be okay with him and Jed so her best friend left with Melvin.
Serena didn't know how true it was but rumors had it that the Hammond brothers were related to a French comtesse or something. The car sure looked and smelled expensive, all right.
The brothers were on the front and she was gently deposited on the backseat, like a princess.
"He started it, Aniki," Jed began. He sounded like a recalcitrant little boy.
Serena tried to hide her small smile. Boys.
"Or rather, she started it. The little actress," Jed continued, obviously referring to Raye.
"Urusai," was Diam's low but stern command, telling Jed to shut up.
"You call your brother Aniki? That's like big brother in Japanese, right?" Serena asked to relieve the tension. "Are you Japanese or something?"
Diam's laugh was rich and smooth while Jed grinned boyishly.
"Or something," Diam replied. It seemed like he was not one for explanations.
"When my Dad was just starting out in the business, he was stationed in Japan for more or less ten years. There he met and married my mother who's an Eigo-Nihongo teacher," Jed relayed. "And we," he said with a flourish, "are what you call history."
Serena laughed at that. She just had to. He seemed sweet and kind. Patient, even, which was more than she could say for Darien's brooding character. She simply wondered what had caused Raye and Jed's break up, if they ever were an item.
"Serena, we're here," Diam said. He had opened the door for her. Jed was running to the front door of the Hammond's mansion.
"I think I'd better go home," she said.
"I'll see that you do. Before that, let me attend to your face first."
"I'm fine," she insisted.
What an obstinate little idiot, Diam thought. But a beautiful one, nevertheless. His brother was the foolish one, wasting his time on that raven when this dove was around. Well, their loss, my gain, Diam said to himself. That Darien guy included.
"Not that I'm worried that my fist could mar your perfect looks, but at least let me make it up to you. Hmm, sweetheart?"
"Please don't call me that," she almost hissed. "My face is okay. I did as you asked and put on it a cold compress that you bought from the convenience store."
"I'll see you home then," he said.
"If you must," she said, defeated.
"I insist." His smile was triumphant.
"We could walk."
"Let's take the car. You're exhausted and in pain as it is."
Her thank you was stilted. They were at her house when he spoke again.
"I'm really sorry if I hurt you. I didn't mean to," Diam said.
Serena looked up at him and nodded. She couldn't smile. He meant to hurt Darien, not her. It meant indirectly hurting her. But Diam didn't know that. He did not need to.
Diam was already driving away when Darien arrived in his read sportscar.
He glared at the vanishing car and then looked at her, his face dark.
"What's he doing here?"
"He lives here," she dismissed. She hadn't entered the house yet. She was fishing for her front door keys.
"Oh, yeah? Here? In your house? Since when?"
"Be serious. You know what I mean. He just wanted to apologize."
"He already apologized earlier. I heard him."
"So? He wanted to make sure I'm okay. That we're okay."
"And are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Are you and him okay?"
She gave an exasperated sigh, managing to unlock the front door at last. "Go home, Darien. You're on a roll for violence today. What were you thinking. Fighting—"
"Are you really okay?" He sounded really concerned and Serena hated for mellowing to it at once.
She even allowed him to touch her face. She missed this side of him. She thought they'd lost it altogether.
"You should have followed Raye's example and stayed on the sidelines until the fight was finished."
"Go home, Darien," she said dejectedly, releasing herself from him. She closed the door on his face after saying that her parents are not at home and she wanted to rest early.
Unbelievable, she thought to herself. What an ungrateful excuse for a friend he was!
IT WAS A TWIST OF FATE that brought them together. Darien was with Raye and Serena was with a date. But when she woke up with a very bad headache the following morning, it was in Darien's apartment with their two sets of parents at the foot of the bed and an almost naked Darien—saved for his boxer shorts—still sleeping beside her.
Time, like sound, stilled for a moment.
"Mom, Dad, this is not what it looks like," she began.
Gaia, Darien's mother, emphasized what it looked like to them all by pulling the string of the shut blinds up.
"Wha-aa-at—" Darien groaned beside her and Serena swallowed her own groan of dismay.
Darien felt rather than saw her alarm. He got up to his feet. "What are you doing here?" he demanded of everybody.
Serena felt he demanded to know why she was there as well. And in his bed, too!
But James, her father's reply, was swift and silent. He hit the younger man and all three women gasped.
"I trusted you. I entrusted my daughter to you. I trusted you with my daughter," he accused in a barely restrained voice.
Serena could not even move from her place on the bed.
Darien stood his ground. "I never betrayed that trust," he replied, still staggering from the blow he received. His right hand was attending to the hurt side of his face.
"Keep quiet, Darien," Daniel Shields hissed. "Let's talk about the wedding, James." The older man reached for the other man's shoulder.
"What wedding?" Darien demanded. He was like a demigod amidst the mortal parents.
"Your wedding, of course, son," Gaia answered happily, as if nothing happened.
All Serena wanted right that moment was for the mattress she was sitting on to engulf and swallow her whole like whale did Jonas and never return her to this shore of a drama.
It was humiliating. The man of her dreams denying any sort of responsibility towards her and their parents—throwing, almost offering her to him. Like they'd always done since she could remember.
When would they realize that he'd never love her that way?
"We're doing this my way if we're doing this any way at all," she heard Darien say with finality.
Not if she could help it, Serena thought.