FORBIDDEN LOVE

2. I HATE HER

Dom lay on the couch thinking about his mother's words. He's been thinking about what she said a lot lately. At first, he figured he could just pretend he never met Stephanie and that she was not getting married or the fact that he was in love with her.

He thought the latter was easier than the first two because he could always avoid her whenever he visited Chris. They were twins and it was a norm for them to be around each other a lot.

None of those has been easy this past week. He was also convinced Chris was doing it on purpose because he was always inviting him to his apartment and because he always came when invited before, he had no choice but to show up every time he invited him lately.

He is even helping with the wedding plans, surely they could've just kept him out of it but Chris keep on telling him it was Stephanie's idea that his friends help and he doesn't have any idea why?

For all he knows Stephanie hates his gut and involving him in her wedding plans is not something she would want for a wedding gift unless she was hell-bent on seeing him suffer. It always seemed to amuse her whenever he was doing something he didn't want to do.

Is it weird that sometimes he would do something he hates doing because she would laugh at him? Well if yes then he was weird because he always did, if not anything just to see her smile. He always thought her smile was beautiful.

The first time he saw her she was laughing with her friends. Chris had told him he wanted him to meet his one and only sister. They had been friends for a month and he knew they were going to be best friends right from the beginning.

Chris never bragged about what he did with his family and he knew being around him would allow him a break from all the weekend aways and vacation conversations with his childhood friends. 

He was 12 at that time and Chris was 11 but was way smarter than him. He taught him a lot of things, everything he knows today.

The very first time he saw Stephanie he knew he was attracted to her. It started off as a harmless attraction and turned into something more, something that could cost him his friendship with Chris.

He fell in love with her and it was so strong it was hard to ignore. He would always try to talk to her whenever he can but she would always respond rudely to whatever he said, no matter how polite he tried to be.

Stephanie always blamed him for Chris being a criminal but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Everyone assumed the reason Chris turned out to be a bad boy instead of a golden son was because of him when the truth is that Chris was the one who introduced Dom into everything.

He was once slapped by Chris' mother when Chris was shot twice on his knee. Even when he too was shot a year later everyone said he deserved it and that he had it coming. Chris' father told him it was a way of paying for what he did to his son.

'Till this day he has no idea what he meant because he never shot Chris and he would never do it. He never asked him why he said that because he believed it was a way of coping for him, he needed to blame someone for his lack of parenthood and Dom was easy to blame. That shooting incident nearly took his life, it cost him a year out of school and there was no way of getting it back.

"Even a six-month-old baby could tell you don't wanna be here. Whats's up?" Scott, one of his friends asked sitting next to him.

"Weddings are not really my thing."

"Dom, it's not even a wedding day yet and you already hate the preparations. Are you even coming to the said wedding?"

"Why should I? It's not my wedding and I don't see a reason why I should."

"How about the fact that Stephanie is getting married?"

"Should that mean something to me? I don't really remember being related to her."

"Dude, she's our friend's twin sister! Surely that must mean something."

"How about no? It means nothing. She hates me, I hate her and that's something that should matter."

"She hates you, you don't," Scott said laughing at him.

"Yes, I do." He replied stubbornly.

"You love her. Dude, it's no secret. Everyone knows you love her, I bet she knows too. Now stop being a pussy and help prepare for her wedding or tell her how you feel. It would save you a lot of trouble. Your choice."

"Now you sound like my mother. Don't let Chris hear you say that. He'll kill you and I mean literally."

"Stop avoiding the situation here. Are you going to tell her or not? You need to stop sulking and man up."

"Nah man, just leave it."

"You know by the time you decide to man up it will be too late. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"I appreciate your concern bro, really I do but it's better this way. Now go and continue with whatever you were doing and leave me here to deal with these arrogant celebrities who think the sun shines in their asses. Almost everyone on this list that Chris gave me doesn't want to perform at his sister's wedding.

"I don't even know why they want a singer at their reception or why they want a reception at all. They should just say their I do's and go wherever the fuck they want to go for their honeymoon."

By the time he was done Scott was laughing at him and he also realized Ben and Aaron joined them too, they were all laughing at him and looking at him like he had grown a second head.

"What? What is so funny?" They just continued laughing.

"I think they also expected you to say you have no idea why Stephanie and Mike wanted a honeymoon too. Dude, you hate everything they want to do at their wedding." It was Marcus who replied, he was behind him and he jumped at his words.

How did he get there? A few seconds ago he was talking to Chris and he couldn't but wonder if Chris heard everything too because if he did then he was dead.

"Look here bro, to save yourself from all the trouble, just stop being a coward and tell the lady how you feel. It will save us all some trouble. You don't wanna be too late." He said coming to sit in front of him.

He always thought he hid his affection towards Stephanie well and his friends just proved he was doing a terrible job.

"Everyone knows how much you love Stephanie, even Chris. The possibilities of her knowing too are very high. I'm not gonna lie, you try so damn hard to hide your love for her with hate but we're your best friends and we know you as we know ourselves and we know what love is because of you.

"We see the way you look at her when you think no one is looking, your eyes are always full of what we like to call pure love. The fact that you don't have a girlfriend doesn't help your case either. You've never wanted a girlfriend and we always thought maybe you were gay but when we finally realised you were not interested in guys either, we knew you had your eyes on someone, someone you knew was off-limits and all we had to was figure out who the person was." It was Aaron who spoke this time.

Well, his friends just proved they knew him more than he knew them. All this time, he was under the impression that he wasn't an open book.

"My advice to you? Tell her how you feel man. You can still stop this wedding. It's not too late. I would support if need be." That was a final nail in the coffin, Ben is usually quiet and when he speaks, it's because he believes it's necessary.

"You guys are convincing me to sign my death wish. This is suicide. How do I even start a conversation with Steph? What do I say even?

"I can't just go upstairs to her room, full of her friends and say, Hey Stephanie, I'm sorry for being a fuckin' pussy all these years. I love you and I want you to cancel the wedding now, can I?"

"Of course not you idiot. Ask her out nicely, get to know her and all her favourites."

"That won't be necessary. I know her favourite colour is green, her favourite food is pizza, her favourite series is Riverdale, she wants to be a veterinarian, she wants to build her own animal clinic and she wants to have two kids, a boy and a girl, just like me.

"Oh, and her favourite car is an Audi R8 which she refused her father when he wanted to buy it for her on her 18th birthday last year because she wants to buy it herself with the money that she worked for."

When he finished they were all looking at him with their mouths open, even Chris was in front of him and he also had the same expression they all had. That just proved why his relationship with Stephanie would never happen. When did he even get there? Surely he didn't hear all that did he?

"Why are you all looking at me like that? Did I forget anything? What did I leave out?" He tried to play it cool.

"You left out the fact that she's my sister." Oh boy, he's angry.