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Tom buttoned his suit coat and looked at himself in the mirror. A man with flushed pink cheeks being cut by a big smile looked back at him with red glassy eyes. He looked at the black suit he was wearing, and he had never felt so hurt for just a piece of cloth. He was tired of the feeling of impotence that was crashing him down, and he would have wanted to scream, cry and kick everything that got in his way if it wasn’t for everything in the room was already upside down and his throat was raw and his face muscles were already exhausted.
If only for a day, a fucking day before, he had realised what he felt, things would be completely different now, but it was too late.
The ring was already set and the dress was already hung. He was just an hour of losing completely the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. He had taken too long to realise he had fell in love and god only knew how hard he had fell.
It was too late and he just wanted to lay his head back on the floor, close his eyes and forget about everything. He wanted so bad to stay in his dark and cold bedroom with some music deafening his eardrums so he could feel other pain than the one ripping through his chest.
With a sight he swallowed his sorrow and it was time to put on practice his acting skills.
Laughter, the sound of cars and people in rush greeted the actor’s eardrums. Standing near the entrance there was, Benedict with a pitch black suit and a red tie and hands in his pockets. Tom walked towards the tall man and as both met they gave each other a greeting hug.
“How are you feeling?” Ben asked his best friend with some concern in his tone.
“Being honest” he paused “like a pile of manure.” Tom rubbed his face that now looked completely clean and untouched as if he hadn’t drop a tear in months. Ben just smirked empathetically and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You know, you can still try.”
“What for? She said yes already and is probably getting in her dress.” His tone was bitter and solemn.
“Well you never told her. Don’t you think it’s worth a shot?”
Tom looked unbeliever at him. “From all the people I thought you would be the one saying, ‘You have to let her go and think on her happiness’ ‘Maybe this is the best, Tom’ ‘Maybe she wasn’t meant for you, Tom’ ‘Maybe she’s not the one, Tom’ ‘Maybe...” Tom was shut by Ben hushing him and telling him to calm himself for he had started talking louder and louder each time with more rage. Thomas just cleared his throat, and pressed his lips in a thin line before muttering a sorry.
“Tom, I’m just saying, have you seen (Y/n) today?” Tom shook his head negatively. “Well, it may be just me but there’s something on her face, something that just doesn’t fit in a bride’s face in her ‘great day’.”
Tom furrowed his brows and then chuckled bitterly as he begun to shake his head. “No, no, no, no. I won’t go with her and give myself false hope. I’m just going to sit in there, and pretend I’m hectic about the situation!”
“Tom...” Ben looked firmly at him with scold, his hands placed on both the blonde’s shoulders holding him still.
“Ben.” He stared right at him intensely with poison wrapped in his tongue. Ben felt sorry for having to deal with his friend in this mood. He had seen him sad and upset, but this time it was different. This wasn’t the angry Tom that would be laughing heartily in five minutes; this person he was looking at was someone different. Someone that gave you a smile but his eyes said something else, a thousand emotions bottled in that deep blue sea of his iris were battling like gods in war and Ben wished he could do something about it but he just didn’t know what but to try to cheer him up or try to bring him back from the ragnarok his emotions took him, to reality. Even if it hurt to face reality it was far much better than the world his hyperaesthetic emotions transported him.
“Hey guys!” A female approached them breaking the tension between them and both separated, Ben’s lips curled into a smile as he saw his wife coming towards them with a white flat box on her hands, meanwhile Tom looked away to take some breath before turning back at Sophie and greet her.
“Hi, Tom, you’re looking great today” She smiled friendly at him who spoke his thanks and complimented her back with a ‘you’re looking great too’. Sophie turned towards his husband. “Ben I need to talk with you for a minute, Tom would you be a darling and take this to (Y/n)? Please?” Sophie stretched her arms towards him for him to take the white box.
Before he could try to mutter an excuse, Ben who was guiltily amazed by the turn of events, took the package and placed it in Tom’s hand and wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist and took her with him inside the church, before he heard his friend protest.
You looked at yourself in the full size mirror, a white heart shaped dress hugging your curves. It was a simple wedding dress, but you liked it nonetheless, your hair was lose and contoured your face, you didn’t wear much makeup, the only thing you had put on your face is some mascara and a transparent lip gloss.
You nibbled your lip; your hands were in front of you as your fingers fiddled with the ring on your third finger. It was today, time had gone hurtfully fast, but now it had arrived. ‘Your great day’.
The sky was cloudy but beautiful, the weather was good, your dress was pretty, the people you loved were here, and everything was perfect except for one thing. Just a little detail you weren’t sure how you were supposed to change. There was something missing.
A knock on the door drift you away from your thoughts and you turned your head towards the door and said a loud enough ‘come in’.
From the door a man with curly hair peeked from the door. Tom smiled sheepishly at you and entered the room closing the door behind him. “You... you look gorgeous.” Tom said mesmerized, as he saw you in your white wedding dress and you were so taken by how handsome he looked in that black suit you didn’t notice the white box in his hand until he cleared his throat and showed you the box.
“A gift from Sophie... I think”
You smiled at him and walked towards him taking the box from his hand brushing lightly his thumb with your fingers and sat down on the love seat and placed it on your lap. You looked up at Tom and tapped the empty space beside you. You noticed some hesitation on him but he ended sitting in the spot beside you.
You opened the box and a wire wrap quartz [colour] necklace rested in a little pillow. You looked at it letting a small ‘ah’ as you looked at the beauty of the jewel. A note in a velvet envelope rested by its side and you opened it reading the message handwritten in cursive.
Dear [Y/n],
It is said this necklace is of good fortune and brings joy to your life; it brings a relief and shows you the colours of love. We’re not sure how that exactly works but this necklace is one of the lots of ways for us to let you know we care for you and will always wish you the best.
From the depths of our hearts,
Mr. and Mrs. Cumberbatch :)
You took the necklace carefully in your hands and handed it to Tom. “Could you...?” You said and Tom nodded taking the quartz in his hand carefully. You lifted your hair exposing your neck to him.
Tom held the necklace and, god, you were killing him. You looked so beautiful in that dress he had wanted to rip it off you the moment he entered the room. Now you were showing him your bare shoulders and neck and he was feeling weaker each time. He wanted to kiss every inch of your skin; you just were his weak point. For months he had feeling the urge to give you the entire universe, even further and being rewarded with just your smile, and later at night to press you against his mattress and hear his name over and over again rolling of your ecstatic lips as he made sweet love to you in all the ways his imagination could think of.
He placed the necklace in its place around your neck, and secretly he let his fingers brush your skin as he put the necklace in you, this was the last time he would be around you, at least in a while and a part of him wanted to remember this last time meanwhile the other scolded him and told him to just faintly disappear. It hurt him but it was the best, he had already planned his ‘run away plan’ and mostly it consisted in starting looking for projects each time further from here, enough for him to not come back in at least three years perhaps more, he knew he was dying from the inside when being close to you and after today, what is dying will never come back to life if he stayed. He needed to detoxify himself from the bittersweet pain of the constantly phrase that stabbed his brain since the day he knew you were engaged. “If only you knew.”
You let your hair fall back down and wrapped your fingers around the quartz. You turned towards Tom and give him your thanks. He just smiled and said “It’s nothing, darling.”
You took the box and placed the note inside carefully when you heard Tom’s phone beep, sign for a text message. It wasn’t your intention but you accidentally eyed the message in the phone as you sat back in the sofa. “TELL [Y/N] WHAT YOU FEEL.” Was read on the screen and before you could contain your tongue from doing the impropriate question you said.
“Tell me what?” and quickly you covered your mouth as you weren’t meaning to ask that. Tom froze in his place as you asked the question.
“I’m sorry, Tom.” You said quickly even though you wanted to know and well it was about you. It was his phone and you were taught reading someone else things was really improper.
Tom sighed and put the phone back on his pocket. He wasn’t looking at you, but instead he just leaned back on the couch with his face turned to the ceiling’s direction and his hands covering his eyes. Silence was between you for what it felt like aeons, and you were rambling through one thousand ways of breaking this rippling silence.
“[Y/n]...” He spoke. “There’s something I haven’t tell you. Something I wanted you to know but my misfortune wouldn’t let me...”
“What is it?” Your voice was tiny as a lump begun to form in your throat. Tom uncovered his face, and places his elbows in his thighs and rubbed his stubbly chin.
“Remember that night you found me breathless in your apartment’s door?” You nodded “Well, that night, was the night I broke with Jenna; I understood I didn’t actually love her. I told her what I felt and why we couldn’t be together, at first we argued, she was angry with me and said that I was liar and god she slapped my face so hard I thought she had left a bruise for the entire month! But the reason I understood I loved someone else and not her was that... when I found out she cheated on me it didn’t hurt me; instead I felt a great relief.” He paused. “After that, I knew I needed to tell you what I felt, I needed you to know that I love you, so I didn’t care about anything else and got in my car and drove and I really didn’t care about anything, for when the traffic was awful I wasn’t going to sit and wait, so I left my car and ran for I don’t know how many kilometres, jumped tables and pushed people until I got to your door with lungs about to explode.”
“That was the night that- that he proposed to me.”
“Yes.” Tom’s smile was so full of hurt when he looked at you. “That’s why I invented the stupid excuse that my car broke near your apartment and a dog was chasing me. I saw you with the ring and with...” He pressed his lips and swallowed “with him. I knew it was too late for me, because I couldn’t understand what I feel for you.” His voice broke and a tear slid down his cheek as he remembered that night, because he knew something died inside of him as he knew another part of him will die today when he hears those words in the altar that will make him bleed black internally.
“And now I’m here telling you all this and spoiling your day. I’m sorry. I should go.” Tom stood up in head for the door but was stopped short with a hold in his wrist. He turned around and saw you grabbing his wrist. He hadn’t notice but your face was red and your eyes were glassy.
His heart writhes seeing tears in your face, and before he could say something or get away of your hold, you had stood up and crashed your lips with his. He didn’t reply to the kiss at first, in shock to what had happened, your arms wrapped around his neck as you kissed his lips and soon he wrapped his arms around your waist as he kissed you with the same hunger and desire. After months of holding back his impulses of attacking your lips until they were red and swallowed, he finally let his inhibitions go and deepened the kiss getting drugged in your taste, in your scent.
Tongues battled together, and little moans mixed. His fingers wrapped in your hair and his other hand pulled you closer to his torso as both had been lost in this moment were any thoughts were in narcosis as you let only your sensations take over you. You stumbled and both fell to the couch, your back hit the soft material and his chest and hips crashed against you as he fell in top of you.
Panting, you looked at each other, his pupils blown out into dark abysms as he stared into your eyes that were just like his. You regained your breath and spoke with your voice hoarse from desire for him. “I love you. You are the only one I love. I said yes, because I thought I didn’t ever cross your mind, and that it was just a little crush that would pass by with time. I was wrong.”
Your heart felt so warmth knowing he loved you just like you did. Countless nights you cried when the wedding was getting neared for you couldn’t forget him. He wasn’t the only one who was withering painfully and slowly. Now you knew it.
“Be mine, [Y/n]. Let’s run away together. No one will ever stop us.”
You looked at him with a sensation you’ve never fell before fluttering like butterflies.
“Tom... Yes.”
People were muttering waiting for the event to start officially, the groom was standing in the altar with his hand in front of him, people were talking to pass the time and even there were some kids playing somewhere in the back. Benedict sat beside Sophie at one of the front rows, and next to him, Tom's spot was still unoccupied. Ben's phone beeped in its message tone and opened it.
You were right. –TH
The bride’s song started to play, and everyone turned towards the door that flung open to reveal the astounding bride.
No bride stood behind, and people begun to mutter. Just air stood behind ready to marry and people were confused and concerned about it. A woman appeared, not the bride, instead one of the bride’s maid with a [colour] dress appeared with a paper on her hands and ran towards the altar as the music played.
Benedict’s smile was ridiculously obvious as he followed with his eyes along with dozens of eyes more the girl reaching the groom and the priest.
“The wedding is cancelled.” The priest announced after had exchanged some words with the pissed groom. Benedict looked like a kid in a candy shop as those words were announced and Sophie turned to look at him with a raised brow. “What’s so funny?”
Benedict laughed proudly “Oh dear! And you made a big deal when I accidentally heard that [Y/n] had feelings for Tom!” Ben said showing her Tom’s message.
