Stepbrother Bear - Complete (2 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Ryan was standing by himself to the
right of the celebrant. His two best men, who would soon join him, were dressed
a little differently than he was, wearing white shirts underneath their
jackets, with white flowers hanging out of their breast pockets.

Ryan’s getup
stood out from theirs, wearing a deep purple shirt and flower, with an
exquisitely refined jacket. As the bridesmaids and best men approached the
isle, everyone became silent and watched with eager eyes. Madison and Rebecca
looked absolutely gorgeous wearing shiny beige dresses with ribbons in their
hair, each clutching a bouquet of flowers as they were walked down the isle
with the best men on their arms. When they reached the front the girls went to
the left, and the boys to the right. Anticipation was building. Suddenly, there
was music blaring out of the loudspeakers behind us.

Lara and Dad
appeared at the front almost everyone stood up immediately and began to clap
and cheer. Lara looked half embarrassed, but overridden by her joy than
anything else. Without realizing it I was now in a state of relief that the
ceremony had begun and I could relax from the irritation that had been caused
to me previously.

The music
soon died and everyone returned to their seats as the celebrant proceeded to
conduct the ceremony via a hands-free microphone.

At this
beginning though, as I watched, I felt something descend lightly to the back of
my neck. I suspected it was a fly or something, but I didn’t want to swat it
away. My attention was where it should have been.

All at once
it was moving. I put my hand to it and grabbed something large and fury – upon
seeing it was a mouse I threw it and screamed.

The celebrant
broke off mid speech as everyone turned towards me, upset with the
interruption.

“It was a
mouse!” I declared. “I was attacked by a mouse!”

Nicole
reached out to the object that had fallen off of me, to show everyone what it
was.

“It’s just a
toy,” she stated.

And then I
could hear the scolding.

The grumbling
and the groaning.

Lara’s eyes
burned into mine, as furious as the lavas that ran along hell.

I stood up
tearfully, and fled from the ceremony, an absolute mess.

By the time I
realized I was in the car park and what I’d done, the ceremony had resumed
itself without me.

I crouched to
the ground, the harsh bite of the road cripplingly my legs underneath the
dress.

Looking out
to where I’d been, I could see Aiden had taken my seat next to Nicole, and her
head was ever so tilted towards him.

I knew he had
done this.

CHAPTER SIX

I returned with shame back to the
ceremony, standing with those at the back. There were no more interruptions. No
one getting punched in the arm or being assaulted with plastic mice. As it went
on, I’m sure it was everything Lara hoped for. Ryan took his vows to her on one
knee, claiming he worshiped the ground she walked on. Everyone seemed moved by his
display of humility. In his own words: “I am nothing without this woman
standing beside me here.”

We watched as
rings were exchanged and their kiss of love gave blessings to us all.

More
clapping. More cheering.

More music.

They signed
their marriage license together, and then everyone was instructed to get up and
prepare themselves for photos. As the crowd assembled and moved up along the
lawn, I began to back away myself.

I couldn’t
look at anyone in the face. I was still so embarrassed. Still feeling like an
idiot. Sure enough, one day I would be able to explain in detail to Lara and
Mom and Dad what had happened with Aiden, but I knew today they would not
listen to me.

As far as the
rest of the afternoon went, I just had to make sure I stayed as far away from
him as possible.

“Bianca!
Where’s Bianca?!”

I looked up
and saw my stepmom calling out for me. She was huddled with a group in front of
the photographer.

It would be
just the five of us. Lara in the centre with Mom on one side and me on the other.

Dad was
standing behind Mom.

Aiden was
standing behind me.

The skin on
my neck twitched. My stomach ached.

I kept
imagining something was wet there. Something creeping along. But it was all in
my mind. Aiden did nothing.

He didn’t so
much as breathe on me.

The photos
went on for about another half an hour. Every combination of persons and people
you could imagine, with different photos taken by different people. I didn’t
take any photos myself. I wanted to earlier, but I’d just been thrown out of
the loop now, and I was almost afraid to speak.

One of the
caterers then announced that we were to come inside to the foyer for drinks.

I won’t lie.
I was in the front of the pack.

Stepping into
the hall area there I could see various waiters and waitresses getting ready to
approach with glasses of wine, champagne, and bottles of beer. There were even
premixed cans in another part of the room. I began heading that way, until I
tap on my shoulder caused me to flinch and whirl round.

Aiden.

“What?” I
growled at him.

“Can I talk
to you?” he said.

“No,” I shook
my head. “You’re such a dick.”

“I want to apologize,”
he said. “Can we go back outside?”

I groaned and
bit my teeth together.

“Good,” he
said, grabbing my wrist. “Come on.”

He led me
back outside past the line filing into the foyer, and around the side of the
resort where no one else could see us.

“There better
be something for me to drink after this,” I said. “They better not run out.”

“They’re not
going to run out,” Aiden scoffed. “There’s no limit here. It’s all paid for.”

I shook my
head and folded my arms together. “So what the fuck was that shit before?”

“What shit?”

“The mouse,”
I said angrily punching him. “That was
humiliating
!”

“Yeah, that
was me,” he confessed. “I didn’t expect you to freak out or anything. I was
trying to be funny.”

“What were
you doing with a toy mouse anyway? This is a wedding. Why don’t you show your
sister some respect?”

“Do you mean
you or Lara?”

“I mean both
of us!”

One of the
waiters peeled his head around the corner. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ll come back.”

Aiden
chuckled to himself.

“Hey, don’t
you owe me something now?” I demanded. “Where’s my apology?”

“I’ll
apologize,” he said defensively. “When you calm down a moment.”

“I am calm.
I’m very calm, considering.”

“Do you want
me to get you a drink first?”

“Huh?” I
stared at him blankly.

“I’m trying
to be nice,” he insisted. “Do you want me to get you a drink? Then we can toast
to your apology.”

“Give me a
break,” I sighed. “You’ll probably put a laxative in it or something.”

“Just … Just
wait here,” he said.

He went back
round the corner.

I leant up
against the wall, breathing heavily.

Did I trust
him?

Was I going
to trust the apology?

He didn’t
deserve it. Grabbing my ass earlier could be classified as sexual assault, if I
was feeling particularly nasty.

But then
again, I didn’t know what Aiden had been through. Maybe he just didn’t know how
to behave around family anymore. Maybe, through his eyes, we had all abandoned
him. Maybe military school was a nightmare for him. And he’d seen and done
things I had no way of knowing.

Maybe there
was more to him.

I sighed. I
knew when I saw Lara again I had to talk to her properly. Explain what had
happened. I had to be strong with it. I had to be an adult.

When Aiden
returned around the corner, I was feeling much better about everything.

All he had to
do now was say he was sorry.

“I got you a
can of vodka and raspberry,” Aiden said, handing me the can. “I could see you
were headed that way.”

“Thank you,”
I said.

I held the
can in my hand. It was so, so cold.

“As you can
see, I haven’t tampered with it,” Aiden said. “And I really am sorry.”

He raised his
can of beer to my can, and cracked the ring of it.

“Thank you,”
I said again.

I cracked my
ring and instantly the can rocketed out of hands spraying its fizzy contents
everywhere.

“Yeah, I’m so
fucking sorry,” Aiden giggled and turned back round the corner.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Dripping with the contents of the
can, I hurried into the restroom dodging past a couple of other wedding guests
on their way out. In the mirror, I could see my dress was saturated. The pink
stains at the top of it were so wet they made my bra visible.

“Damn you!” I
screeched. “Bastard!”

I covered
myself with hot water and ripped out endless pieces of paper towel drying to
wipe the stuff out.

The restroom
door opened and closed.

Lara was
standing behind me.

“Oh no,” she
squealed. “What’s happened?”

She rushed
over to me.

I turned to
her, fretfully. “It’s Aiden. He did this to me. He’s done everything to me.”

“Aiden?” Lara
replied, sounding perplexed. She reached for additional paper to help me dry
off.

“Yes Aiden,”
I growled. “He shook up a can and gave it to me. And before he was the one who
put the plastic mouse on me.”

“Are you
serious?” Lara remarked. “That’s nuts.”

“I know,” I
gushed. “Thank you for hearing me. He’s driving me insane.”

Lara
straightened me up in front of the mirror.

I was still
stained but at least you couldn’t see my bra anymore.

“I guess this
will have to do,” she said. “At least we got the photographs taken already.”

“By the way,”
I said. “I am sorry I freaked out at mouse. And interrupted things.
Congratulations for getting married and everything.”

“Thank you,”
Lara nodded politely. “I’d hug you but…”

“I don’t want
to ruin your dress,” I said in agreement.

“So is
everything going to be alright now then?”

“Can you get
me moved to another table?” I asked. “At the reception?”

“Oh, I don’t
think so, why?”

“Why?” I
stammered. “Why? Because you have me sitting next to Aiden?”

“Look, you
could sit outside with Mom and Dad I suppose. But I’d really prefer you to be
inside quite frankly.”

“Can’t you
see how he’s terrorizing me? What’s he going to do with me sitting there with
him for the next five hours?”

“I’ll talk to
him,” Lara said. “I’ll make sure he backs off. Okay?”

“What if he
doesn’t listen?”

“It’s my
wedding day. He has to listen to me. So do you.”

I lowered my
head in anguish.

She had me
there.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Drinks were soon over. I took another
can from the table and moved through the onlookers to go back outside and sit
alone by myself to drink it. Nicole had Aiden pinned up against the wall. They
weren’t yet kissing but looked like they were about to.

I was just
thankful that
she
wasn’t going to be at our table.

Seriously, I
couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe I was overacting. I had to keep reminding
myself that this was only for a few hours, so what if I looked like shit now,
by next week no one is going to remember any of it anyway.

Except they
would remember. This was a
wedding
.

Even inside
the reception area there would be a professional video filmed and a zillion
more photographs taken. I couldn’t escape who I was this day. It would be
something that stayed with everyone for a very long time.

But I had to
be positive. I had to stop thinking about myself. It didn’t really matter and
Aiden was only able to hurt me as much as I let him.

Why should I
be so worried…?

The party was
now filing out of the foyer they were moving around the side of the resort back
towards the car park and to the main entrance. This was the reception area,
where we would be all seated around the centre of a dance floor. We would be
served a three course meal, there would be speeches, and plenty of music,
drinks and dancing afterwards. On any other day, I would probably be having the
most fun ever. Perhaps that was still possible.

Head held
high, I joined the party as we moved onward. My step mom saw me, my dress, and
stopped a moment so I would catch up with her.

“What’s
happened?” she hissed. “First you run away during the ceremony and now –”

“Please chill
out,” I said. “This isn’t my fault.”

“Well, just
whose fault is it, may I ask? You always were so clumsy.”

“What?” I
spluttered. “Your son, the one everybody hates, shook up my drink before he
gave it to me. That’s why I’m like this. Because of him.”

“You should
listen to yourself,” my stepmom said shaking her head. “You haven’t seen your
brother in five years, and now this is the welcoming he gets. No wonder he
feels abandoned.”

She stormed
off back to her little group, and I was left grinding my teeth together.

Thanks, Mom.
Just the uplifting boost I needed.

I looked for
Dad thinking he might be my one solid rock of solace, but he was too busy
conversing with Ryan and his father. Boys only.

We entered
the resort and the caretaker explained to us that we should take the seats that
had our names attached. There was a door just behind my allocated area which
led to an outdoor smoking area, where Mom and Dad’s table had been set up for
them.

Instead of
sitting down all by my lonesome, I decided to head to the bar first which was
as before, all paid for. I asked for a glass of wine this time and carried it
back towards the table, sipping it gently.

Aiden was
seated. His eyes were on me as I walked back across the room.

Sinister.
Seductive.

Alluring.

Wait, what
are these words about my brother…?

As I
approached the table, Aiden stood and pulled out my chair for me.

Without
really thinking – stupid me – I just sat down on the chair as he presented it
for me, without looking as to what lay beneath there.

Despite all
the chattering, the shuffling of tables and chairs, and everyone moving all
around the room – there wasn’t a person who didn’t hear and stop what they were
doing as soon as I sat down.

What
thundered in the vicinity of my butt, was the loud, long, and disgusting sound
of a blown up whoopee cushion, being flattened against the chair.

Laughter soon
rang afterward.

Applause and
cheering.

It was as if
Lara and Ryan had just gotten married all over again.