The Wedding Crashers

Chapter Thirteen

Leah leaned heavily on the white marble sink, staring into the unseeing black eye of the drain. Her breathing had finally stopped hitching, and after a moment she looked up at her face in the mirror.

It was blotchy and red, of course-she'd never been a pretty crier. At least her makeup hadn't run. She straightened up and turned to retrieve some tissue from the stall. You'd never guess this was just a port-o-potty. Paneled with wood on the outside and with real fixtures, running water, and cloth hand towels inside, it looked like the bathroom in a four star hotel.

Typical, she thought tiredly as she dabbed carefully at her eyes, blotting away the remnants of her tears.

She'd thought that she was ready for this. She really had. She had her friends, and her new life, and she'd thought she'd put this all behind her. But as she stared at herself in the mirror, all she saw was that same angry, confused, and outcast girl she'd been from the beginning. She shouldn't let it hurt her-but it did. Her mouth trembled and she looked away, fighting off another crying jag.

She knew she should've known, should have expected the kinds of petty insults she'd get from her pack, but she hadn't, and it had knocked the wind out of her when they'd all started sneering at her and talking about her behind her back, just like they always had. And Emily-she should have known there, too. It had been nearly ten years, but Emily just refused to believe that Leah had gotten over Sam and just continued to pick at her, trying her hardest to open a wound long scarred over-all in the name of being helpful.

But when her own mother had started making the same accusations...it was too much.

So, here she was, just like before, just stupid, useless Leah running off to cry by herself.

She should have known that any invitation home would end like this. Only it would never end-she was always going to be unwanted Leah, at the beck and call of these people who wanted her around only to use her for their own amusement. It would never end, not as long as she was a wolf...and maybe even beyond that. She was trapped. It didn't matter that she'd left. Didn't matter that she was helping people, saving lives, and living her own. In the end, it would always come back to this.

She blew her nose noisily and wiped her eyes one last time. After pressing a cool, wetted towel to her cheeks, she re-applied a little mascara and lip gloss and then stood straight. Well-no matter what else they might do to her, she'd be damned if she was going to let them see that they'd made her cry.

Affecting a look of calm that she in no way felt, she left the little bathroom tucked away behind the pavilion and went out to rejoin the party. She held her chin up and refused to meet the eyes of anyone, human, wolf, or vampire. All she wanted to do was sit down somewhere by herself and wait for this hellacious day to end.

She didn't go back to the same table, instead finding an empty one even further away, and tucked herself out of sight behind the huge centerpiece of peonies and lilies surrounded by glass bowls of white candles. Surely it would only be another hour or two, and then she could find Sam and Dean and Cas, and they could take her away from all of this-at least for now.

She was sitting quietly, numb to all the babble of talk flowing over her, when she heard it.

An enormous belch echoed across the party.

All talk stopped. Leah looked up, startled, just in time to hear Dean remark loudly, "Hoo, boy-that sure tasted better going down!"

Her mouth fell open as he and Sam both laughed uproariously at his wit. Jesus, Dean! She looked around, uncomfortable. From the pursed mouths and disapproving looks from everyone else, their sentiments were obvious. But...somehow the boys didn't seem to notice. They had drawn literally every eye from the assembled guests, but were just carrying on loudly as if nothing had happened.