Chapter One

This is a wedding story. Don't get your hopes up, it's not mine. By the end of this I will not be married or anywhere close, but please enjoy the ride, anyway. It's bound to be a story worth waiting around for, full of friendship, under cover spy missions, betrayal and, yes, we can't forget the romance.

This story starts at-where else?-a wedding.

One of my best friend's wedding, to be more specific.

I sigh and lean back in my chair, gazing out at the large room full of white covered tables. There must be at least a dozen out there, each and every one crowded with eight people. How the hell Katrina knows all these people, despite the fact that she has a grand total of maybe seven people in her family outside of her parents is beyond me.

Some of them must be from Parker's side, something in my brain reminds me. And he has a rather large family. But there's still no way that can account for all these people.

I wrack my brain, attempting to tag a name and relation to each face. Katrina went over them all with us what has to have been three or four times, but even so for the life of me, I cannot pinpoint so much as one familiar face outside of our table. I can't even find where my family is sitting, but somehow I doubt that they showed up at all. Despite the fact that Katrina and I have been best friends for over eleven years, they still didn't feel it necessary to use even a second of their precious time to pay their respects.

"When is dessert coming around?" I lean over to whisper into Cassie's ear.

The brunette turns to raise an eyebrow at me as she works at swallowing her mouthful of food. "We just got the main course like, two minutes ago. You've barely even touched it."

I scrunch my nose down at the plate in front of me. I've never been one for food any fancier than spaghetti, which makes wedding delecacies something I gag at. Besides, I know that these are the types of events where you normally should be able to cheat on your diet, but I can't just stop now. I can either eat this or dessert, and the cake sounds a lot better.

"You at least have to put in an effort to make it look like you're enjoying the meal." Cassie nudges me harshly in the shoulder. "Kat won't be happy if her maid of honor spends the entire night glowering at her steak."

I sneak a peek over at our friend, seated on the other side of her parents. Her long black hair is pulled away from her tanned face, her dark eyes in plain view for the entire world to see for once. She's laughing excitedly with her brand new husband, barely paying any attention to anyone or anything else around her.

"I doubt she'll even notice. Besides, you're the maid of honor."

Cassie rolls her eyes, lifting another forkful to her mouth. "We both know that's only officially. As far as she's concerned we're both the maids of honor."

"But officially is all that matters."

Cassie narrows her eyes over at me. "Just eat your steak before I have to break your face. You know you're dying too. You even grabbed the ketchup and barbaque sauce for it."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes, but I still find myself doing as she instructed, cutting off a small corner, before lathering it in BBQ sauce and lifting it to my mouth. It's pretty good, I must admit, but I still can't help but wish that it was a Big Mac or Whopper I was eating instead.

"So you thinking your wedding will be this big?" I ask, gazing out at the guests again. A couple months ago, Cassie's boyfriend-well, now fiance-of two years, Sal, had proposed to her. Their wedding was set to happen in a few weeks.

"Dude, this is tiny compared to how big my wedding is going to be." Cassie laughs before shaking her head. "You guys are gonna die when it happens."

HTRYBFW

"What in the fresh hell is that?"

I turn around, away from my snack, at the sound of that voice bouncing off the walls of the apartment I share with Katrina, Cassie and their significant others. Standing by an open door is a familiar boy. With short dark blonde hair and bright green eyes, he's easily one of the most attractive guys I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.

"A slice of the giant ice cream sandwich Cassie and I made the other day." I nod toward the freezer where the rest sits. "Want some?"

"God, yes," the blonde makes a b-line for the fridge, allowing the front door to slam shut behind him. "So has the happy couple left their room once since we got back from the hotel?"

"You're the one who shares a wall with them." I retort, cutting back into the large cake and lifting it to my mouth. "You should know better than anyone, Sterling Silver."

Sterling turns to shoot me a harsh glare. "How many times have I told you not to call me that?"

I make my blue eyes grow wide over at him as he opens the freezer door and pulls the cake out. It takes up most of the space, but is well worth it. It's pretty fucking amazing, if I do say so myself. "But that's your name, Muffin Baker!"

"My brother's name is Ben. Ben!" Sterling shakes his head as he grabs a fork and proceeds to bring the whole cake over to the couch to sit down with me. I make a mental note to make sure he doesn't finish it all off. "How can they name him something so normal and me something so..."

"I like it." I giggle around a mouthful of ice cream.

He rolls his eyes. "You would." he glances down at my plate before lifting his eyes back up to my face. "Are you supposed to be eating that?"

I shrug before taking another giant bite. "The wedding is over with, and besides, I jogged for like an hour this morning already. I've earned this."

"Just make sure Keagan doesn't catch you." Sterling sings, spitting almost half his mouthful out onto the rest of the cake that he's eating. And just like that, we've lost it. Cassie is going to be pissed. "You know just how he gets into these things."

"Don't remind me." I wince. "He's been busting my ass since November. I have no idea why he's still so into this. I didn't think he'd make it to the wedding!"

"Then why did you ask him to be your 'Personal Trainor'?"

"Didn't you hear me? I thought he would give up!"

"And then you wouldn't have reached your weight goal for the wedding."

"But was it worth the sacrifice?" I hold up the cake and gaze at it as if it were some sort of ancient releck that deserves to be praised.

Before Sterling gets the chance to answer, the sound of Busted's Crashed the Wedding begins to echo off the walls. I stretch over the blonde's lap, ignoring his grunt's of protest, grabbing my phone from where it sits on the coffee table. It's Cassie calling me, causing me to frown.

"Hello," I say, holding the phone to my ear. I'm still draped over Sterling's lap, but he's apparently given up on trying to yell at me.

"B-Birkley?" Cassie sniffs as she stutters out my name.

"Cassie?" I all but gasp, lurching upwards at the tone of her voice. The top of my head slams into Sterling's chin, causing him to let out a loud grunt, but I ignroe that as well. My over protective mother instinct has already begun to sink in. "What's wrong? Are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm standing right outside Sal's house." Cassie's voice breaks, she's clearly trying her best to hold back her tears. "I think he's cheating on me."