AN: Read & Review!!

The reception was being held at a hotel called La Grande Puanteur. I suppose whoever named it didn't know much about French. I turned to Jen. "You know what the name means?" I asked.

"The big something," Jen said.

"Stink. It means the big stink."

She giggled. "Well it could have been worse, you know," she replied.

"Like, La Grande Derriere?" This sent both of us into an uncontrollable fit of laughter that made various people walking near us stare. So we were immature. Their lives wouldn't stop now would they?

"Staring is rude," Jen said. And a couple of the people turned around while several others stared even more. "Fine then, be that way," she huffed.

We walked up the stairs and into the hotel lobby. We followed the crowd into a ballroom. The floors were a dark, beautifully polished wood, and the walls were a deep red. That'd make my stepbrother happy. If he killed me, he wouldn't even have to clean up afterwards.

"Relax," Jean reminded me.

"Easy for you to say! You don't have to…"

"Riley!" We both turned around. My other friend Pierre was waving at us and walking our way.

"Hey," said Jen.

"Hey." He looked sideways at me. "The big stink?"

"Apparently," I said. Pierre would know better than anyone, he spoke fluent French, since both of his parents were from France.

"So, why did you not wait for me?"

"We're hiding from," I lowered my voice to a whisper. "You-Know-Who."

"Ah, your 'brother'. I can see why. I'd hate to be stuck with him for the rest of my life."

"Thanks for the consolation," I murmured.

"Hey, it's not forever Ri, he moves out in two years!" Jen reminded me.

"Murder happens overnight," I retorted darkly.

She sighed. "I give up. Let's eat."

They were playing some of that jazzy music stuff my dad likes. I nabbed a few finger sandwiches and some fruit from the table and got cokes for all of us. As I was performing this delicate balancing act, Pierre came just in time to stop the food from falling to the floor. We headed over to where Jen had found a table. It was in the corner, with a great view of the whole room. Pierre and I sat down.

"This is perfect," I marveled, "We can see the door, and then we he comes in I can hide under the table!"

Jen and Pierre exchanged glances. "Could he really be that bad?" asked Jen.

"Where were you when he threw that first grader off the top of the jungle gym three years ago?" I inquired.

"Hiding behind a brick wall with us," Pierre said. "You know, the one the boy hit."

"That was a rhetorical question," I said through gritted teeth.

"I mean, sure he's bad at school and in public, but maybe that's just an act, maybe he's different inside the home," Jen suggested. "A lot of bullies are like that."

"Yeah, sure." I looked up. "HIDE ME!" I yelped, and dived under the table. He was coming.

Through the floor-length tablecloth I saw him approach. "Are you Riley's friends?" I heard him ask.

"Yes we are," I heard Jen say. "I'm Jen, and you must be his new brother. I saw you at the church with the other groomsmen. You looked very handsome." I could imagine Pierre making a face right now. And rightly so. Jen was good; she was buttering him up like toast. I'm sure she didn't mean a word.

"Thank you," he said. "have you seen my little… brother?"

"No, sorry. I was just going to ask you the same question. He went off to look for his dad so he could congratulate him and we haven't seen him since."

"Oh Jen," he said, and I imagine he was shaking his head. "If he's not here, why do you have three plates?"

"We're saving food for him so he doesn't have to wait in the line."

I saw his shadowed form reach for the table cloth "Then you won't mind if I-"

I slipped out from underneath and into the corner. Jen glared down at me. My stepbrother was bent over to pull off the cloth. Jen jerked her head towards the door. I nodded.

"Expose him!" he finished, pulling up the cloth. A he did, I slipped under the table next to ours and watched from there.

"Where is he?" my stepbrother growled. But that was all I heard.

I left the cover of that table and made my way out of the ballroom. As I left I saw him storming off and a thankfully unharmed Jen and Pierre coming towards me.

"Well done," I said.

"He's going to pulverize you, and us," Jen said angrily.

"Oh come on Jen," I said sarcastically. "He can't be that bad."

"Don't make me slap you."

"Technically, he cannot make you do anything," observed Pierre. Jen turned her glare on him.

"Look, guys, follow me, we can stay out of his way and enjoy ourselves," I said.

I led the way to the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth and highest floor. It was not a tall hotel. Once we were there, I opened a door that read 'Stairs to Roof' and we climbed them. The roof was beautiful. There was a rooftop garden, a hot tub and some tables and chairs.

"Brilliant," breathed Pierre.

Jen just whistled.

"He has no idea this place exists," I said.

We sat on the edge of the hot tub with our feet in and talked for a while. After about an hour I checked my watch. "They should be cutting the cake now."

"Do you want to go down?" asked Pierre. We all agreed that cake was worth risking our lives for and shut off the hot tub. We replaced our shoes and headed downstairs to the ballroom, where, sure enough, the cake had just been cut. I sought out my dad.

"Congratulations, Dad," I said and hugged him. Then we got cake. We fled to our corner table to eat it. Pierre was having traditional wedding cake, while Jen and I opted for my dad's chocolate and strawberry groom's cake. It was around this time that they started playing a bunch of cruddish couples-dance slow songs. It was also around this time that I noticed Jen seemed to bee looking at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied, turning very red.

"Wait… you didn't want to..." my eyes flickered from the dancers to Jen. "You know I can't!" I protested.

"Would you try?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Yeah? YEAH?!?! Wait a minute there! Did you just agree to make a fool of yourself?! I ignored the screaming voice inside my head, instead wondering why I wanted to so badly.

I realized that I was moving, walking unconsciously toward the dance floor. This is it, I thought. Here we go.

We copied exactly what everyone else was doing, and it turns out it wasn't that difficult, or excruciatingly painful in any way. It was actually pretty fun. Until…

"Looks like Riley's got himself a little girlfriend!" I heard someone say. Uh-oh.

"Butt out Ian!" I told him. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"That's not very nice little brother," I glared at him. He glared at me. He winked at Jen and I moved in front of her. And somehow, nobody seemed to notice what was going on.

Pierre was suddenly there at my side. "Ane," he muttered, looking at Ian. I'm not going to translate that one for you. Lucky for Pierre, Ian was not bilingual.

However, a few people who apparently were had turned around and were whispering to each other and I think I overheard Pierre's mother's name a few times.

"I'll see you at home Riley," Ian said, and walked off. Jen, Pierre, and I let out one sigh of apprehension, relief and despair all rolled into one.

That was the beginning of my life with Ian Howe.

AN: Beofore this chapter, I didn't know if the stepbrother was Ian or Ben. But I wanted an Angst story and I like Riley and Ben better as friends than as brothers or stepbrothers for some reason. That's why I chose Ian. Don't like, don't read. If you do like, or dislike, or despise, as long as you read it, send me a nice review. You know where to click :)