Disclaimer: I don't own the Host. A/N: This is a Jelanie fic. (Yes, I know, I am obsessed with weddings)
You have been invited to Jared Howe and Lacey Turner's wedding on the 21st of August at 1:00 p.m sharp. We hope you can make it.
Oh hell no. Jared was getting married to that bitch? I think not somehow. Everybody knows that he doesn't love her. To be frank, she is quite unlovable.
No Melanie, I chastised myself, that is just the jealousy talking.
Oh course it was. Jared and I had suffered a really bad breakup and I still loved him, I'm not sure how he felt about me but that isn't the point. Why the hell was I invited to the wedding?
It was most definitely that witch Lacey's work. Of course she would want to rub it in that she had won in the end. To be fair I probably would have done the same thing if I were in her position. The only thing was that I was going to attend the wedding. Not out of my own free will but Wanda had persuaded me to, because Ian was a best man and she would have no-one to sit with. Actually persuaded isn't the right word, I think guilt-tripped, threatened or emotionally blackmailed would fit much better.
. . .
I was riding to the wedding in Wanda's car. It was almost like every other wedding that I been to except for the small little fact that I was drunk before I got into the wedding rather than after it. Wanda wasn't impressed but understood my situation enough to let it be.
I stepped out of the car as gracefully as a drunk person could and smiled and waved at the people walking past. They shot me some queer looks.
"Mel," Wanda hissed. "At least try and act as if you are sober."
I attempted to walk up the path to the church, but I was really unstable in my heels. I shouldn't have worn five inch heels really but I didn't expect to get drunk this quickly.
Everyone had their eyes on me as I wobbled into the church, grinning like an idiot. I slipped into the nearest pew wondering if it was a sin to be drunk in the holy house of God... maybe I should go to confession... Oh wait, this is a wedding not mass, whoopsies.
"How long until the wedding starts?" Wanda leaned across me to the man that I was sitting next to. I didn't like him, he kept shooting me disapproving looks. Who died and made him boss?
"Ten minutes now. Is she drunk?" He asked turning his attention to me.
"No sir," Wanda answered. "Not at all." It was hidden sarcasm.
Suddenly movement at the top of the altar caught my eye. Jared was walking along it to take his place. He had forgotten to curtsey - I mean kneel, Jared isn't a girl. And trust me, I know.
I eyes him up, I guess you could say that I was checking him out in my drunken state. I began to giggle involuntarily. Many people turned around to look at me. The man beside me just face palmed himself.
"Melanie!" Wanda hissed in my direction. "What are you laughing about?" Her cheeks began to turn red from embarrassment and anger.
"Jared," I said attempting to calm myself. "Jared is in a suit." I laughed like it was the funniest thing ever.
"What is so funny about that young lady?" The man asked, frustrated.
"Never in all my years of knowing him, would he even touch a suit." I told him, somewhat calmed after my little laughing fiasco.
"Don't ask." Wanda told him. "Trust me, you do not want to know."
. . .
Lacey had walked up the isle with her old man hanging off her arm and Jared's face had lighted up with happiness, blah blah blah. Yawn. Nothing exciting there. The ceremony had drifted on and I had gotten bored, so I dozed off to sleep for awhile.
When I had woken up, I was, unsurprisingly, still drunk. No hangover or anything, the alcohol was still going strong in my body.
Unluckily for me, I had woken up right before the vows and I dos.
That's when it hit me like a brick in my chest. Jared was marrying Lacey. Jared didn't love me anymore.
I started to cry. The man beside me (I was surprised that he hadn't moved, I mean I was a crazy, drunk lady who had fallen asleep in the middle of a wedding and used his shoulder as a pillow. Maybe he wasn't as bad as he seemed.) shot me a confused look.
My tears started to flow harder as the realization hit even harder. It was like a hundred, no a thousand, little voices roaring 'Jared doesn't love you' in my head.
My tears grew stronger and heavier until I was sobbing, and I was making loud, heart broken noises that could clearly be heard all over the church. Whoever was talking shut up to stare back at me.
"Sorry," I sniffed. "I-it's just t-that weddings m-make the cry." I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.
"C'mon." The man next to me said gently. "Lets get you outta here." He put his hand on my back and led me out of the church, stumbling and shaking as I went.
"Are you okay?" He asked as we exited the gloomy church into the bright daylight. I didn't answer, I was sure that I looked a state.
"Are you going to tell me what that was all about? You don't seem like the type of girl to cry over soppy weddings when she slept through the majority of it." He coaxed.
"As I think you can guess," my words slightly slurred. "I am one of Jared's many exes who is still irrevocably in love with him." I muttered putting my head in my hands ashamedly. I had just embarrassed myself in front of a whole congregation and I had nothing to show for it.
"Do you want to go in and watch the remainder of the wedding?" He asked gently.
"Yeah, it might help me let him go." I answered, but really I'm still holding onto the foolish hope that he will dump Lacey at the altar for me.
We walk inside the church as inconspicuously as we can and sit back down in the pew we originally came from.
I watched the remainder of the wedding silently without any fuss or dramatics. For once in my life I was actually silent.
"Do you, Lacey Turner, take Jared Howe to be your lawfully wedded husband?" The priest asked.
"I do." She answered with a big, genuine smile on her face. Maybe she did love Jared after all.
"And do you, Jared Howe, take Lacey Turner to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
I crossed my fingers hopefully. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. I watched as Jared's eyes skimmed the congregation and seemed to rest on me. Please, I begged internally, please.
"I do." Jared answered.
"You may now kiss the bride." The priest concluded, closing his little book. Silent tears dripped down my cheeks. Jared had just kissed and gotten married to Lacey in front of me.
"You okay Mel?" Wanda asked, leaning over me.
"What can I say?" I gave a small smile. "Weddings make me cry."
"She'll be okay." The man who had been with me the entire time said. "Her heart just needs time to heal."
"Go to the party without me, I'll call a cab or something."
"You sure?" She asked uncertainly.
"Go ahead, I'll just be at home eating ice-cream. Trust me, I have enough of being drunk for one day." I reassured her.
"Okay then... Be safe." She kissed my forehead and went out to find Ian.
"You know," I said, turning to the anonymous man. "I never once asked your man."
"It is Eustace, Eustace King, but everybody just calls me doc." He held out his hand.
"Well Doc, I'm Bugs Bunny." I joked, that earned me a smile. "No seriously, I'm Melanie Stryder, I go by Mel."
"It is nice to meet you Mel."
"Nice meeting you too Doc."
"Eustace!" I heard a shrill voice call.
"Sorry, that's my fiance Sharon." He explained apologetically as a woman came into view.
"No way..." I breathed.
"Oh, Melanie." Sharon looked at me, seemingly debating whether to hug me or not. "I thought you have left?"
"Nope, still going strong." I replied.
"How do you know each other?" Doc asked,scratching his head like all men do when they are confused.
"Cousins." We answered at the same time.
"Well I'm going to get that cab, have fun." I called, walking, not quite fully stumbling but not quite standing straight either.
Now to let my poor heart be free...
. . .
*Seven years later*
Shortly after the wedding I had moved to England - it had always been a dream of mine. I left Jared and Lacey far behind me, but unfortunately, while doing so, left Wanda and Ian with their daughter Ellie. I was expected to frequently skype or call them and always visited for two weeks at Christmas and a week for Ellie's birthday.
One day, when Ellie was five years old, she decided that she wanted to go to the beach for her birthday. I was off course dragged along. Thank God her birthday was in July or else the water would be freezing.
I was walking along the pier, taking a break from my niece's excitement at building sandcastles and I stared out at the turquoise, calm sea that seemed to stretch on forever. I started to think about everything that had happened seven years ago and earlier here in America, in the outskirts of Florida.
"Your back." A voice I had been longing to hear since I had moved to England rang in my ears.
"Only for a visit." I answered, turning around to face him.
"What a shame. What were you thinking about?" He asked nosily. Yes, he was still the same Jared.
"Jumping in." I answered. "Where is your wedding ring?" I decided to be nosey myself.
"Gone. Lacey and I got a divorce a few years back."
"I'm sorry." I wasn't really but it seemed the only thing that I could say.
"Don't be, we just... weren't right for each other." He walked closer to me, invading my personal space. I swung around with the intentions of hitting him but he was quick. He grabbed me and kissed me. Then I done the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life. I kissed him back.
After a while, when I realised what the hell I was doing, I shoved him away from me roughly.
"Wha-" he began.
"Jared, don't." I cut in sharply. "Don't do this to me. Don't kiss me and not mean it." And with that I walked away from him.
. . .
I heard a knock at my flat door. It was nine a.m in the morning. Who could it possibly be?
I pulled myself reluctantly out of my bed and walked into the small kitchen.
There was another loud rap at the door.
"I'm coming!" I yelled irritated. I made my way do the door just as the person knocked it again, only he or she underestimated the strength of the door and broke it. Actually, to be precise, they stuck their hand right through it.
I stared at the door in horror.
"You are paying for a new door!" I screeched, pulled the ruined door open only to be silenced by Jared standing awkwardly outside with his hand covered in splinters. "You'd better come inside." I sighed.
. . .
After I had patched Jared's hand up, I demanded answers from him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I growled at him angrily.
"For you, I love you Mel."
"For me?" I laughed without humor. "Jared, if you loved me you wouldn't have married Lacey." I pointed out.
"I just travelled all the way out to England, just to see you, and you tell me that I don't love you." Jared asked in disbelief.
"I go out to America two times a year just to see the O' Shea family." I shrugged.
"Yeah, well I bet you don't buy them diamond jewellery." Jared muttered.
"Excuse me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
He slid off his seat and kneeled on one knee in front of me. Oh no. Oh dear Jesus.
"Melanie Stryder, if I am honest I really should have asked you this years ago instead of Lacey and I really haven't prepared a speech, but will you make me the happiest man on earth and marry me?"
"Is it Lacey's ring?" I asked.
"Of course not." Jared scoffed. "I'm not that stupid."
"Then yes, I'll marry you."
"Really?" He looked genuinely surprised.
"Yes Jared." I smiled.
"There is only one catch," he said hugging me. "Wanda made me promise that if she gave me your address, that if you said yes you have to come back to America." He mumbled.
"I hope you have those tickets booked then."
The End...
A/N: Guest who had a request for Wanda and Jared, yours in coming up next. I haven't forgotten