Chapter 1

     “Listen, I don’t need your s**t. I’ve got plenty of my own, so skedaddle!” she almost yelled at him, glaring so intensely that it seemed she would probably be popping something soon. He didn’t bother to even reply, maybe even listen, and continued pulling out the chair next to her.

     “Must make it quite awkward in the bathroom then. No wonder you spend such a long time in there.” Oh, my god, she thought, I’M GOING TO KILL THIS GUY!

     She chose instead to ignore that little comment, focusing her attention instead on the door, which she wished she could kick his damn a*s out. Bad idea, it turned out, when the newlyweds stepped in. The world couldn’t seem to spare her of anything.

     She smiled slightly at how happy he looked…holding the hand of his spouse, who could have been her, but wasn’t. It was the girl who decided to ruin her life the moment she laid eyes on her, Jeanie Parker. Beautiful, blonde, curvy, blonde, blue-eyed, blonde, and with a perfect head of hair. Fran looked at her with distaste, even to the end Jeanie had to make her miserable. Fran had cried enough after Jake, Jeanie’s newfound husband, had told her that he wanted to break up with her. She cried even more when Jeanie called a few days later declaring her marriage to Jake and that Fran was invited to their wedding. Of course, Jeanie apologized and asked if Fran was still bitter about the new coupling…in a voice that made it seemed like she couldn’t care less, which she couldn’t. Fran, after hearing this couldn’t stop herself from telling Jeanie how very much  it didn’t bother her and that she would see her at the wedding. She never thought it would be this hard.

     She averted her gaze to the cloth of the large round table she was seated at, fiddling with the neatly folded napkin. “The people who folded those wouldn’t take it kindly to see you messing up their work,” a voice to her right spoke up. She turned her head towards him, glare already intact and menacing.

     “What are you even doing here, Alex?” her eyes narrowed further, if that was possible, “Seeing as how Jeanie was originally your fiance, I don’t really see why you would come.”

     His eyes hardened at her and he had to hold himself from grinding his teeth as he spat out, “I could say the same to you. My brother left you for her, what the hell are you doing here?”

     She silenced at that, staring down at her lap. She’d worn her finest dress for the evening, partly to show that she wasn’t  at all affected still by Jake’s betrayal and partly because she didn’t really have anything finer. She picked out her black cocktail dress, loving how it hugged her slender body and ruined the color arrangement to no abandon. She noticed that Alex decided to do the same thing, wearing a black tux in a crowd of white. She looked at him with approval before turning her gaze back to her lap and muttering, “Sorry.”

     He spared her a glance, feeling quite a large amount of sympathy from how piteous she looked. Afterall, if he didn’t show it, he felt very similar to how she looked. Looking more closely he could see that she chose to wear black also, smiling, he told her, “It’s fine.”

     She straightened and looked right into his eyes as she argued, “No. No, it isn’t. I was harsh.”

     He cracked a smile, “Was I any better?” she didn’t respond, but smiled in answer. “Looking at them makes me sick.”

     She nodded in agreement. Getting through the exchanging of vows was hard enough, now she had to sit through(literally) Jake trying to drag off Jeanie’s garter with his teeth. One day, she would make Jeanie regret all the things that she did to her, she told herself. One day, she’ll make Jake regret choosing Jeanie instead of her, she told herself also. Today was sadly not any of those days.

     Halfway through the sickening show of seeing Jake’s head buried under Jeanie’s enormous dress(you already have one wedding cake, you don’t need another…) Alex stood up, taking Fran with him as he excused himself. Fran was glad, she couldn’t stand the way that Jeanie looked at her as Jake continually failed at finding the garter. No kidding, she thought, who would with that huge dress of her’s. But Jeanie made it all the worse by smiling tauntingly at Fran and once even licking her lips and laughing as she looked at the remaining part of Jake that wasn’t swallowed by her dress. Damn her, damn her to hell, she thought.

     “You shouldn’t be cursing, we’re in a church,” Alex casually said as he pulled her around the corner, not noticing that she didn’t mean for it to have left her mind and out her mouth.

     For a moment, she was startled to silence, then her cheeks grew hot and she muttered, “Sorry.”

     “It’s fine,” he drawled out, “I would be saying the same thing if I didn’t still have feelings for her. Jake’s another matter, but I can’t curse him out or hit him unless I want mom to say that I’m the black sheep of the family.”

     She smiled a little at the thought of Alex, a rebel all his life, to be reprimanded by his mother. He was all ripling muscle and bad-a*s, but Mama Wendall was a force to behold. She liked Fran enough, but Fran was still frightened of the old woman’s might. More than once had Jake cowered in front of his mother as she complained about how she was getting old and didn’t even have grandkids yet. Not to mention her rant on how he could at least visit now and then before she died, but when he said he would she snapped, “I couldn’t care less about you, bring Franchessca here next time with a ring on her hand and I’ll be happy.” God did that woman scare her, but she was very loyal and quite a nice person to chat with over tea. Fran laughed when she heard that the woman had not taken well to hearing Jeanie was her new daughter-in-law. In fact, she had frowned at Jeanie before looking down her nose at her and saying dryly, “You chose this over Franchessca?”

     Fran was snapped out of her reverie as Alex dove into a room, pulling her in after him. Gasping, she almost fell to her feet if it weren’t for Alex catching her in his arms. “You okay there?” he asked, amusement lacing his voice as he looked down at her. However, he caught himself staring at her face, she really was quite a beauty with her long dark hair and light blue eyes. He was suddenly filled with the desire to trace the curve of her lips. But before he could process why he would want to, she jerked away from him.

     She felt like her face couldn’t get any hotter than it was right now. She turned away and silently freaked out. She found it very disconcerting how warm and comfortable it felt in the circle of those big muscled arms. Like being hugged by a big teddy bear, she mused. The silence stayed for a while before Alex awkwardly said, “Sorry for dragging you here.”

     She turned around, smile in place when she saw how ridiculous he would have been as a teddy bear. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”

     He smiled back, “Ah, but you’re grateful aren’t you? The sight of those two were going to make me barf up whatever the hell I ate during the reception.”

     She lifted an eyebrow, “When did you get so considerate as to take me with you? If you do decide to upchuck, though, not on the shoes…or the dress. God knows that I don’t have anything else as fancy.”

     He chuckled, “You know me, I look all big and tough but inside I’m really a big teddy bear.” At this she started laughing uncontrollably. Laughing so hard at one point that she had to hold her stomach and stop tears from rolling down her cheeks. He stood by, watching with uncontained amusement. “What’s so funny?” he asked, sounding rather indignant.

     “Nothing,” she choked out. “Nothing at all.” She couldn’t stop, not when she kept picturing him as a big furry teddy bear.

     He held his ground, “It must be something! You’re close to tears!”

     “No,” she straightened, willing herself to stop, “It’s nothing.”

     He didn’t for a second believe her. Closing the space between them, he held her by the shoulders with a solemn look. “I swear that I will tickle you if you don’t spit it out.”

     She stilled. “You wouldn’t dare,” she breathed.

     “Try me,” he told her before his hands left her shoulders and started tickling her stomach. He loved the way she squirmed and weazed as he brushed his fingers stategically against her stomach. After a while, he thought of stopping. He was getting distracted about how flat her stomach was and would have sworn she would never tell. It was a lost cause, he told himself, but then she screamed, “I’ll tell you!”

     He immediately stopped, arms plastering to his sides as he willed himself to not pull her against him to see exactly how flat her stomach was. “Well, don’t let me stop you.”

     She gave herself a moment to catch her breath before she confessed, her cheeks a flaming red. “I…uh…I compared you to a teddy bear,” she spoke, too fast for him to really catch what she was saying.

     “Wait, say that again. I didn’t really catch it,” he said, leaning closer. She glared at him, but relented and breathed before murmuring, “I compared you to a teddy bear.”

     He lifted an eyebrow, her blushing state was entirely too endearing for him. “Really.”

     She couldn’t stop herself from ranting, even when her cheeks lighted themselves even more afire. “It’s just that when you caught me…it felt so warm. And comfy! And you are big! Big and cuddly. Then you even called yourself a teddy bear! So I…I…you know,” she was at a lost for words, so embarrassed that all she could was cover her face with her hands and slump over defeatedly.

     He thought it was all too amusing, and endearing. Infact, everything about her seemed endearing to him. “What are you doing?” he chuckled, taking in her defeated form.

     “I’m so embarrassed,” she wailed, but the wail was muffled from between her fingers.

     He groaned in frustration. Taking her wrists, he dragged them from her face, “Say it again. I didn’t hear"“

     “You,” he breathed, stunned by the sight before him. Her whole face was flushed pink, her eyes slightly watery, and she had been doing something with her lips because they were slightly red and swollen. It was too much of a distraction for him. Slowly, he leaned forward, taking forever to get to her lips. Or so it seemed to her.

     She was shocked still, but gived in as soon as his mouth pressed against hers. She kissed him back and as soon as his tongue gently ran over her lower lip, her own tongue darted out to meet his. He groaned and her heart went berserk. When he let go of her hands, she shoved them into his dark hair, eliciting another groan from the man. She smiled inside as he wrapped his strong arms around her and kissed her even more deeply, their tongues raging against each other.

      The both of them were so immersed in their intimate transaction, that when the door opened, they didn’t notice it at all. Not until they heard a shrill voice screaming bloody murder.

 

Reviews

[A Red Red Rose 4 U Luv]

....when i saw the word skedaddle you immediately caught my attention. I really enjoyed reading this i can't wait for the next chapter please do send me a read request when you do. :)