New Step Brother, New Family, New Life? Thanks for Nothing, Dad

The day after Trent and I agreed to go horseback riding was incredibly hectic. It was the first day of actual wedding shopping. Smokey and I were forced to go. You might think that this kind of thing would be fun and happy.

Not if you're with a tall blonde shopping junkie.

It took about two hours to get to where we were going. Apparently, Anne wanted to meet every female relative she has, including cousins. All in all, there were about 26 people with us.

We spent the whole day in the largest store I had ever seen. It was completely full of wedding supplies and dresses. Anne had taken the time to print off a picture of everything she would need for the wedding. Nope, she didn't care about wasting paper or killing trees. Not one bit.

The 26 people were divied up into groups: Decorations, Food, Gifts, Guests and Reservations, Entertainment and last and certainly worst, Clothing. Guess which group Smokey and I were in? Yep, Clothing.

Since Smokey and I were bridesmaids, we had to try on multiple dresses until Anne and her mother found the perfect ones. Two other women that I inferred were Anne's sisters were also trying on dresses.

Anne's mothers was nice and all, but she was exactly like Anne. Blonde, naive and definitely a city chick. On the bright side, she had good taste in clothes. In the end, Anne decided she wanted four different dresses; one for Smokey, Anne's two sisters Eden and Glenda, and me. My dress was black and a little bit short. It was actually really pretty. Smokey had a nice light grey ruffled dress. Black strappy heels complimented both of our dresses. Eden wore black like me and Glenda, grey like Smokey. However, their dresses were much longer and reached the floor.

Anne's mother, whose name is Elizabeth, proceeded to pick out our white lilly bouquets. They were my mother's favorites flowers. It was going to be hard to hold them in Dad's remarriage...

"Aren't you excited?!" Eden said, coming up to me in her dress. I nodded half-heartedly and smiled. "Anyway," she continued, "You look pretty. And I've heard your dad is a pretty great guy." I nodded again. Eden then smiled and was called off to look at accessories.

I know one thing is for sure. I would definitely be wearing my mom's necklace.

"I feel so girly in this," Smokey complained, looking at herself for the millionth time in the 3-way mirror. I laughed and stood next to her.

"You look that way too," I teased. She stuck her tongue out at me. I rolled my eyes and added, "But hey, at least you look totally amazing in that outfit."

Smokey smiled and replied, "So do you! That dress is perfect on you! Damn, Anne's mom knows her fashion."

I laughed. "Of course she does! She has enough money to keep up with all the trends."

Smokey shrugged as Anne approached us. "You girls look wonderful," she said, "But I have a favor to ask of you. Ethan and those two friends of his will be here soon. Tyson and Sean--"

"Tyler and Trent," I corrected, but Anne continued on without acknowledging me.

"Will be ushers in the wedding. Ethan will be a groomsman along with my brother and your dad's friend, Mark from work." I could only smile. Mark had always been like an uncle to me. He was an awesome guy and apparently my dad's best friend since high school.

"As I was saying, Ethan and his friends will be here soon. They are going to try on their tuxedos for the wedding. I have them over at the other dressing rooms and need you to make sure the boys actually try them on. I know how my son is... Well, got to go!" With that, she scurried off to go do more wedding junk.

"Yay, they get to see us in dresses. This should me interesting," Smokey muttered. Not wanting to intentially deal with the uncomfortableness of heels, we took ours off and sprinted bare foot to the front of the store. The floors were actually pretty slippery. So, when I found the door, I pratically slid another few feet after my feet stopped moving.

Smokey crashed into me and we both tumbled to the floor. Smoothing our skirts down, we burst into a fit out laughter, sitting in awkward positions on the floor.

"Um...what the hell are you doing?"

We stopped laughing abruptly and strangely in unison... Hmm... Sometimes I wonder if Smokey and I have that weird twin ESP. We're not twins but we sure act like it sometimes. Wow, I get off topic way too often. I must have the attention span of a squirrel on crack or something.

Anywho! Ethan, Trent and Tyler were standing over us with confused but amused expressions on their faces. I bit my lip in order to keep from laughing uncontrollably again.

"Um..." Smokey said, struggling for a witty responses since I had none, "Baking a cake. What does it look like nimrods? Don't judge us!" I glanced at Smokey wide-eyed because of her fast random response.

"Okkkkkkkkk then. Uh, just show us where we're supposed to be going please?" Trent said after a moment of awkward silence. He stuck out his hands to help Smokey and I up, which we gladly accepted. We're both clutzes after all.

The boys surveyed us in our dresses, which is still pretty creepy. I rolled my eyes and said, "C'mon!" before leading them to the Men's dressing rooms.

"In there. Tuxedos. Try them on. Come out and show us. Anne's orders," Smokey stated in clipped sentences. I rolled my eyes as the guys complained, even Tyler, but headed into the dressing rooms.

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So here I lay, collapsed over my bed at 7:00 PM later that night. With Smokey laying under me in the opposite direction. I had basically walked up to one side and fell forward. Smokey was laying on it the way you're actually supposed to. I hadn't known she was there when I fell on to it, but she sure made a comfortable pillow.

"Mickey Mousey!" Smokey complained, using her nickname for me. I just groaned and didn't move. "Get up," she persisted sleepily, "or you are gonna miss your date with Trent." She accented the word 'date' teasingly.

"It's not a date!" I said loudly, though still with an exhausted tone. Her chuckle rumbled beneath me.

"Just get into some hot riding clothes," she replied, pushing me off her on to the floor.

I hit it with a grunt. It seems I'm falling on this floor too many times nowadays. "Fine, fine," I muttered, climbing to my feet and into my closet. I changed from my nice dressy clothes I had worn to meet Anne's family and bridal shop to a pair dark grey skinnies and a Paramore band tee with my old dirty Converse.

Running a quick brush through my hair and reapplying eyeliner and lip gloss, I grabbed my black straw cowgirl hat (yep, I actually had one of those. I love it!) and put it on. I took one last look in my mirror before there was a light tap on my bedroom door.

Here I go.