Almost Sinder3lla

Love Endures

Ralph started going on a date almost every evening. It seemed to Chloe that he spent almost everyday with her. But she didn't complain, because he seemed too happy. She could tell that Lucas didn't like her very much either.

Lucas and Chloe were sitting in the house, alone. Ralph had taken Stephen with him to the carnival with Heather.

"Lucas?"

"Yeah, Chloe?"

"Do you like Heather?"

"No. Do you?"

"Nope."

"At least I'm not the only one."

Chloe smirked. "Yeah. Should I go out with Becca's brother again?"

"Naw. You guys just don't go together. Plus, it would be a little weird because me and Becca are dating."

"True. But he doesn't like it that I broke up with him."

"Oh, well."

Chloe laughed a little. She thought Rob was hot, but Lucas was right. He just wasn't her type.

"When do you think dad will find a better woman?"

"I don't know. But he needs to spend more time with us. I kinda miss him. Not that I mind hanging out with you. You are pretty fun."

Chloe smiled at her big brother. He was cool. Except the point that he was a player, Becca changed him though in the past few months they'd been dating. He used to sneek around with girls every week. But now, with Becca, he was different and he didn't do that.

"Becca is awesome."

"Yeah, she's changed you."

"That's not always a good thing." He smiled.

I rolled my eyes. "In your case it just might be."

"You don't approve of your big brother? We're the same. You know it. You just aren't into it as much as I am."

"You're right. But I don't think I'll ever do that."

"Why not? Afraid of being called a slut?" he said leaning froward.

Chloe slapped him on the arm. She knew it wouldn't hurt him. "There's that, and the fact that I don't think I want to."

"You'll enjoy it. I promise."

"Could we stop talking about this please. You're scaring me."

"Fine."

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Dad walked in at nine o'clock.

"Could you guys come in here?" he asked.

We walked in. "Yes?" we asked.

"I've got big news. I'm engaged."

I almost fainted. I felt his arm hold me up as if he knew I was going to fall over. I glanced at him. He looked worried. I couldn't blame him, I was too.

"When's the wedding?" Lucas blurted out.

"Next week." Dad looked pleased with himself.

I smiled. If Dad was happy, so was I. I wasn't about to ruin his happiness with telling him how much I didn't like her.

"So, I was thinking you could go shopping with Heather and Julian in two days."

I hesitated. Lucas nudged me. "I guess I could."

"Great, and Lucas, Stephen said he wants to go the same day. So you can drive and get a tux for yourself."

Lucas nodded slowly, and I watched as he glared at Stephen. I snickered a little. Lucas never liked his little brother. But he loved him. Lucas smiled at me as if we shared a secret. We did. We shared many secrets. We treated each other like we were best friends. I think we were best friends. We talked to each other almost everyday. It was cool to have my best friend live at my house and to have him here whenever I needed him. Lots of the girls at my school were jealous of me. Because he was my brother. But I didn't care if there were tons of girls that hated me because of that. They were dumb, and obsessed.

When you were leading a boy on, you couldn't get obsessed. You gotta make them want you, not the other way around. That's one thing I learned from my brother. We taught each other things about being a player. It was fun, really. I'd get to know lots about guys and he'd get to know stuff about the girls. Sometimes we even went undercover for each other and found out if the person liked us and if we were doing a good job on leading them on. Being two years younger than him was fun. We were great friends and when our dad was around, we'd hang out. But lately, he was always hanging out with her, which made us mad. He didn't notice that we didn't like her, which was kinda good. But it was like he was under a spell, not noticing how mean she was. She bossed us around sometimes and she'd always say bad things about our farm. It was so nerve racking. But I always told myself that it was for dad, so eventually I got over it.