Warnings: Angst

Word Count: 2910

"I can't do this anymore," you sighed as you rubbed at your temple. Tears were still streaming down your face, clouding your vision. "I really tried, Tyler. I love you, but I just can't do this."

"Y/N, please, we can work something out."

He reached forward, but his fingertips had barely grazed your arm before you pulled away from his touch.

"Please," you muttered. Your voice was hardly more than a whisper. "Don't."

Your eyebrows furrowed as you looked down at the gold-lined envelope. There was no return address on the front and it was a rare occurrence that someone sent you a letter. You stuck a thumb under the flap and hastily ripped it open, not caring if the envelope was destroyed in the process.

A small piece of cardstock was inside the envelope, lined in the same gold foil as the envelope. There was a bad feeling in your stomach as you flipped over the card and began to read the writing on it.

"No," you gasped. "That can't be right."

You reached for your phone and immediately dialed your best friend's number. Tears were already beginning to pool in your eyes and you weren't so sure that you would actually be able to get words out if your friend picked up.

"What do you want?" he answered.

"Tyler's getting married," you blurted.

"Come again?"

"Tyler," you drew in a shaky breath.

"What about him?"

"He's getting married."

"To who?"

"I don't know. Some girl, I don't recognize the name."

"When is it?"

"Um," you wiped away a fallen tear so that you could read the invitation a little better. "Next Saturday."

"Next Saturday? And you just got the invitation?"

"I don't know, Zane, alright?" you huffed. The questions were getting tiring, all you wanted him to do was shut up and listen right now. "I'm just as confused as you are."

"Y/N, you know you can't go to that wedding."

"I have to. I have to see him one last time."

"No, you don't. You're finally moving past the breakup after years. Are you really going to risk all of that healing just to see him one last time?"

"I have to," you repeated before ending the call.

You picked up the invitation and ran your finger along the edge as tears once again began to cloud your vision. It was supposed to be your name on the invitation next to Tyler's, not this random girl's. That had been the plan: finish the tour, get married, start the next album.

Then you had let your emotions get the best of you.

You watched as another formally-dressed couple walked behind your car, completely unaware of you sitting frozen in the driver's seat. The car had been off for close to twenty minutes now, but you had still yet to open the door. Every time you reached for the handle, you hesitated.

Just as you were about to work up the courage to try again, your phone began to ring. Zane was requesting to FaceTime you and you knew exactly what his reasoning was. He wouldn't be happy if he saw you all dressed up for the wedding. You held a finger over the camera and answered the call.

"Hello?"

You watched as Zane's eyebrows furrowed, "Why's the screen black?"

"Is it?" you asked, trying to sound convincing. "Must be poor connection. Why did you call?"

"We both know why I called. And we both know why your camera has 'poor connection'."

With a sigh, you flipped the camera around so that Zane could see your face. He shook his head a little once he saw that you were all dressed up and in your car.

"Why are you doing this, Y/N?"

"I already told you. I have to see him one more time. It's like... closure. Or something. I don't know."

"Just be smart about it, ok? I don't want you to get hurt again."

"I'll be smart," you tried to give him a reassuring smile.

"Bye."

"Bye."

You slipped the phone into your pocket and stepped out of the car. On the other side of the parking lot, you could just make out all the wedding guests as they walked into the church. With a small shake of your hands, you took a confident step forward to go and join them.

A few people gave you weird looks as you joined the crowd, mostly extended family members that barely remembered your name or why you had been a part of Tyler's life in the first place. You settled for giving them shy smiles and finding your way to an emptier part of the room. This wasn't a social event for you.

You were scanning the room for any sign of Tyler when your eyes landed on another familiar face. Unfortunately, he caught your eye as well and began to make his way through the crowd towards where you were standing. Your stomach began to twist in knots as he grew closer.

"Y/N," he smiled once he was finally at an acceptable talking distance. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Zack," you returned his smile. "It's been awhile."

"What are you doing here, actually?"

"Attending the wedding." You wondered why Zack was so confused by your presence. "I got the invitation last week."

"Right," he nodded. "Well, I still have some more family to talk to. I just wanted to say hi."

"Hi," you said, giving him a little wave.

He smiled tightly at you before turning and walking back into the crowd of people. The way he had interacted with had made your stomach uneasy, but you brushed it aside as nothing. Today was probably almost as stressful for him as it was for you.

You waited until almost everyone had found themselves a seat before you dared to even enter the room. There was no way you would risk running into his parents or another of his siblings at his wedding. Hell, even running into Josh would be enough of a problem. Thankfully, he was easy to spot--and avoid--with his brightly dyed hair.

You took a seat towards the back, far away from the family members that you had once loved almost as much as your own. The people around you were ones you didn't recognize, most likely Tyler's childhood friends or other family friends that he felt obligated to invite. It seemed like the type of thing he would do.

Zane had texted you a couple times before and throughout the ceremony, asking how things were going and if you were doing ok. They had gone unanswered, mostly because you were too busy wondering what things would be like if you hadn't done the things you did. If that was you up there, standing across from him. The one that was causing him to smile and light up the room.

"Your vows," the officiant said, turning to Tyler.

You watched as he pulled a small, crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. He shook his head a little as he began to read, still unable to keep the goofy grin off of his face. Memories of times that he had written little poems and notes for you danced around your mind and made your eyes brim with tears.

He was reaching the end of the vows, but you couldn't stand to listen to another second of it. You stood up and walked out into the aisle, ignoring the few people who had turned to look at you as you did so. The sobs were getting harder to stifle now, and all you wanted was to get out of the building. Away from him.

The door creaked as you opened it and you could practically feel the stares boring into the back of your head, but you kept walking straight towards the front door. You just needed to hold everything back until you were in the car; then you could scream and cry and curse the world and yourself for everything that had happened to you.

"I'm telling you, there haven't been any pictures from the wedding."

"Come on, Zane," you huffed. "You know I don't like when you lie about this stuff. The damage is already done, can you just show me the pictures now?"

"I'm not lying to you, Y/N. Look for yourself."

Zane handed you his phone, which was open to Tyler's Instagram. Sure enough, the most recent picture was from a couple weeks ago. It was just a random selfie that he had put up with an equally random caption.

"That's weird," you said as you handed his phone back to him. "You'd think that after a week, they would have finally posted some photos. Did you check his girlf... wife's account?"

"What's her name?"

"I don't know, but if you scroll down a little she's tagged in his posts about her."

Zane scrolled through his phone for a little while, but his face only grew more confused, "Where are these posts about her?"

You sat up and leaned over Zane's shoulder. He had gone back through at least a year's worth of posts now, and yet there hadn't been a single post about her. Without thinking, you yanked his phone out of his hands and began to scroll through his account yourself.

"I know he definitely posted about her on Valentine's day," you muttered, more to yourself than Zane. "Why would he delete posts about her?"

"Did something happen at the wedding?"

"Not that I know of. I mean, I only stayed until the end of Tyler's vows," you shuddered at the mere thought of it, "but I don't think they would get that far into the wedding if someone was hesitant."

"I'm sure it's not a huge deal," Zane said as he took his phone back.

"Yeah. You're right."

Rain poured down onto your windshield as you drove home from Zane's house. The wipers were struggling to keep up with the constant stream of water, but they were working just fast enough that you could see the road. You suddenly wished that Zane didn't live so far from you so that you didn't have to spend nearly half an hour driving in this awful weather.

Your phone began to ring, making your music cut out. With a sigh, you glanced down at the caller ID to see if it was someone you could ignore so that your music would start playing again. When you saw the picture on the screen, your heart nearly stopped. You immediately pulled off to the side of the road and answered your phone.

"Hello?"

"Y/N?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Man," he let out a sigh of relief. "I thought you would have changed your number by now."

"Too much work," you giggled. It surprised you that you were acting so comfortable.

"Right," he laughed. "Anyway, the reason I'm calling."

"Yeah?"

"So, I saw you at the wedding and, well, do you mind if we talk? I can come to you, if you want."

"Uh, yeah," you said. "I'm on my way home from a friend's house right now, but I should be home in about twenty minutes."

"Ok, perfect."

"Perfect," you repeated.

"I'll see you then."

"Bye."

The call ended and music once again began to blast in your car. You took a deep breath and pulled back out onto the road, being extra careful to avoid a large puddle that had formed a few feet in front of where you had parked.

There was already another car in your driveway as you arrived home. Your breaths became shakier as you pulled up next to it, knowing that he would be waiting in the car. You didn't even dare to look over at him as you grabbed your things from the passenger seat and shut off the engine.

The slam of your car door was followed shortly by another one. His footsteps were noisy as he stepped through puddles towards the front door, just a few paces behind you. You fumbled a bit as you went to unlock the door.

"Are you going to acknowledge me?" he laughed.

"Once we're inside," you said. "It's too dark and wet out here."

You pushed open the front door and tried your best to dry the soles of your shoes before stepping inside. He followed suit and waited in the entryway as you set your things down and pulled off your coat.

"You don't have to wait here," you smiled. "You know where you're going."

He kicked off his shoes and hung up his jacket before disappearing past the entryway. It was easy for you to forget the reality of your situation as you shuffled towards the kitchen to get yourself something to drink.

"Do you want anything?" you asked.

"Water would be great."

You filled up two glasses with water and carried them back to the living room. He had already made himself comfortable and put his feet on the coffee table. He smiled as you handed his glass of water to him.

"So, Tyler," you smiled. "What did you need to talk about?"

"A lot," he sighed before taking a long sip of water. "Maybe too much."

You took a seat in the armchair and made yourself comfortable.

"Where do you want to start?"

"I'm not sure. So much has happened since... you know."

"Then why don't we start there?"

Tyler visibly swallowed, but he slowly began to nod, "Ok."

"I hope you know that I didn't want things to end. I loved you so much. So much. I was just frustrated and exhausted from tour and I needed an escape from all of it. I let my emotions get the best of me and I said what I did and I never quite worked up the courage to tell you I didn't mean it."

A smile tugged at the corner of Tyler's lips, but it was quick to fade.

"I wish you had told me."

You blinked back a few tears, "There's a lot of things I wish I had done differently, but hey, I guess it all worked out. I'm working a normal job again. You're still touring the world and you're married now."

"About that..." Tyler averted his eyes back to the ground. "I called the wedding off."

"What?"

"I saw you when you left during my vows. It was only for a few seconds, but that short amount of time was enough to make my knees weak and my mouth go dry. Nobody else has ever made me feel that strongly before and, in that moment, I knew the wrong person was standing across from me."

"Really?"

"Well, I knew for a while before then, but actually seeing you there confirmed it for me."

Your eyebrows furrowed as you looked over at Tyler sitting on the couch. He was still avoiding eye contact with you.

"Are you... saying what I think you're saying?"

He finally looked at you with that same hint of a smile on his face, "That I'm still hopelessly in love with you? Yeah, I think I am."

You weren't entirely sure how to react to his confession. Your brain was a mess of excitement and confusion and a number of other emotions that you couldn't quite seem to place.

"I... don't know what to say," you muttered.

"It's fine, you don't have to say anything. Even if you don't feel the same, I just wanted to let you know how I felt because the last time that I didn't, it became one of my biggest regrets."

"No, it's not that. I just thought you would hate me after how I ended things."

"Y/N," he exhaled a little. "I could never hate you."

Tears were consistently slipping down your cheeks now. There were so many things that you wanted to say and do, but you settled for walking over to the couch and wrapping your arms around Tyler. He lightly rubbed your back while you leaned against his shoulder and tried not to cry too hard.

"I'm so sorry. I love you, Tyler, more than anything else. I should have never let my emotions get the best of me."

"Hey, everything came together in the end. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Tyler helped calm you down, all the while pressing soft kisses to the top of your head. You finally stopped crying and explained to him all the emotions you were feeling. He had tears in his eyes too, but he was smiling.

"You know, I talked to Zack at the wedding. He seemed surprised that I was there," you sniffled.

"He told me about that. Nobody knew you were coming, actually."

"What?"

"I dropped the invitation off in your mailbox on a whim in hopes that you would come to the wedding."

"Why?"

"Like I said, I had to see you one more time and figure out if I was making the right decision." He brushed some hair back from your forehead. "As it turns out, I wasn't."

"We need to stop making decisions while running high on emotions," you laughed. "It always ends up in some kind of a mess."

"Yeah," he smiled. "But it somehow always works out in the end too."

He pulled you a little closer so that he could give you a kiss. His lips were soft and warm and familiar.

And you were happy.