The Wedding Rehearsal Game Broke Me Completely Chapter 01

The Wedding Rehearsal Game Broke Me Completely Chapter 01

At the wedding rehearsal, my fiancé and my best friend slipped right back into their favorite old game: pretending I didn’t exist.

While we were supposed to be exchanging rings, Grayson leaned past me, laughing, and asked Sienna what she wanted for dinner.

The two of them started chatting like there was nobody else in the room.

I stood there with my hand still hanging in midair, saying “I do” for the fifth time.

Nobody answered.

They’d been playing this game since we were kids.

The first time, I was six. I drew the short straw and became “the ghost.”

After that, they couldn’t get enough of it.

Neither of them wanted to lose and end up the next ghost.

No matter how hard I cried, how hysterical I got, they just looked straight through me.

Every single time, I was the one who broke first.

I’d cave and beg them to stop.

When the game was over, Grayson always ruffled my hair.

“It’s just a game. Don’t take it so seriously.”

Sienna would hide behind him, giggling into her hand.

“You always freak out so hard. It’s hilarious.”

Under the spotlight now, they chatted away like the perfect couple everyone always imagined they’d be.

Like I’d never existed at all.

I felt suddenly, bone-deep tired.

I pulled my hand back, tore off my veil, and walked out of the chapel.

Nobody came after me.

They probably figured the game just wasn’t over yet.

Fine. I’d give them exactly what they wanted.

I’d walk away from their lives for good.

***

Grayson got home while I was packing.

Five years together, three of them living under the same roof, and there was almost nothing here I actually wanted to keep.

He stopped in the doorway, eyes landing on the suitcase.

He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, then shut it again.

The Ghost Game wasn’t over yet.

Talk to me and he’d lose.

So he looked away and walked straight past me,

like I was just a patch of empty air crouched on the floor.

There used to be a time when moments like this sent me into a panic.

I couldn’t stand being ignored by him and Sienna.

I’d try everything to get their attention. Anything to make them look at me.

None of it ever worked.

He probably figured this suitcase was just another one of my tricks to make him crack first.

But this time, I didn’t chase after him.

I folded the last shirt and set it in the suitcase.

Grayson paced the living room a few times.

He poured a glass of water, closed the curtains, then finally leaned against the bedroom door and started scrolling his phone.

He set the glass down hard on purpose and kicked my charging cable toward my feet.

I bent down, picked it up, and stepped around him.

The apartment went so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop.

His expression darkened, bit by bit.

Right when he looked like he was about to break, the front door clicked open.

Sienna bounced in with a bag of fruit swinging from her hand.

“Grayson, I got the biggest, sweetest strawberries!”

Grayson went right over and took the bag from her.

“Cold out there?”

“Freezing. And you didn’t even come down to walk me up.”

The two of them laughed their way over to the couch.

Sienna tucked her feet against his leg like she’d done it a hundred times.

He reached over and draped a blanket over her.

The TV picked up right where they’d left off on some movie.

When I walked in front of the screen to put something down, their eyes slid straight through me.

For a second I was somewhere else. My eighteenth birthday.

I’d spent forever doing my makeup, saved up for a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, and sat there happily waiting for them to help me blow out the candles.

The second the candles were lit, right as I closed my eyes to make a wish, I caught Sienna shoot Grayson a wink.

The Ghost Game had started.

I asked, careful and quiet, “It’s my birthday. Can we not play tonight?”

Nobody answered.

Grayson kept his head down over a comic book, and Sienna leaned in close, pointing at the pages, laughing with him.

Not once, the whole time, did either of them look at me.

I watched the candles burn all the way down. Watched the ice cream melt.

The cake sagged into a puddle on the tray, the same way the tears I’d been holding back finally spilled over.

I sat there quietly, unable to hold back my tears.

“Okay, I lose. I give up. Please just stop ignoring me. Please just spend my birthday with me.”

Only now did I remember the wish I never got to make that night.

I’d wished Grayson would love me a little more.

I’d wished this game really was just a game.

“Ow!”

A sharp sting shot through my fingertip. I accidentally nicked my finger with the box cutter.

A small cut appeared immediately.

I gasped and dropped down, pressing my hand against the cut.

Laughter kept spilling from the couch.

“Where are my strawberries? Did you even wash them?”

Sienna’s voice was all pout.

Grayson mumbled something back and got up, heading for the kitchen.

Passing me, he lifted his leg and stepped right over me without a beat of hesitation.

The toe of his shoe brushed past my injured hand without him even noticing.

He couldn’t even spare me a glance.

I stayed frozen where I was, watching Grayson’s back blur out of focus.

A wish made without blowing out the candles didn’t count, apparently.

I’d been lying to myself.

Telling myself it was just a game they couldn’t get tired of.

I scrubbed the tears off my face.

When I spoke again, my voice came out strangely calm.

“Game over. I’m out.”

“And Grayson, we’re done.”