Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding 2)

"You're going to leave your own sister's wedding?" she asked her eyes filled with utter disbelief.

"Yes," he said as a matter-of-fact. "If you cared for her at all, you would leave to."

"How could…" she shook her head unable to comprehend. "How would I be showing her I care if I left?"

"Because the only thing that is going to stop this mess is for us to stop denying what is going on here. Parker, just walk away," he implored her.

Parker looked torn. She peered over her shoulder at her best friend and the people she had known her entire life, and then back up at the man she had loved for just as long…the man she could never have again. "No," she whispered shaking her head and stepping away from him, "I can't be a part of this. I'm here for Bekah. If you don't care enough to stand by her, well that can't be helped, but I will. I won't give up on people," she said with a cold stare.

Ramsey nodded solemnly at her implied meaning and turned back towards Lexi before she made his decision waver. The past was the past, and he couldn't change it. He could only shape the future. "Lexi, let's go."

Lexi smiled up at him before turning back to the people she was so ready to leave behind. "I truly hope that you have a happy life together," she said with a pleasant smile across her face. She knew that it couldn't possibly be the case that her well wishes would come true, but she was certain that they didn't believed her.

As the quartet walked out of the groomsmen quarters, across the hotel, and through the enormous front doors, Lexi knew that she truly didn't care what they thought. She was finally doing what was right. She had done what she came to do. Jack was out of her system for good this time. She may not have been successful at stopping a terrible wedding, but she had succeeded in extracting herself from the situation entirely.

And even better than that, she had Ramsey again. They were on equal footing, and time may be the only thing that could tell where they were going from here, but at least they were going together. She couldn't ask for more than that.

"Where to now?" Lexi asked looking up at Ramsey hopefully.

He gingerly pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, and then laced his fingers with her own. "To our apartment?" he asked with the same note of hope in his voice.

A smile played on her lips. "I like the sound of that," she said as they walked hand in hand away from the wedding showing more solidarity for each other and more disapproval of the events unfolding inside than any objection she could have uttered prompted by the minister – speak now or forever hold your peace.

She figured she really was at peace.

The End.