My Step Brother's Obsession - Carly #2

Ethan

Carly

I can't believe he's back. I haven't spoken to him in almost five years since he was deployed at the same time as Jonathan and Kyler. Even though they weren't in the same regiment, they were where they were. I have spoken to him a handful of times, mostly with Alijah. I spoke to Jonathan and Kyler more before shit started to hit the fan. I wasn't even sure if any of them had made it until the day I returned to camp and in the second year of uni they hadn't spoken much about either Ethan or Alijah. I couldn't blame them; they were still on their shit list for what th3 had done to me back at camp when I was sixteen.

Now he's here at Caspian's wedding. They hadn't mentioned him being on the bachelor night, so I gathered he was either dead in a ditch or deployed because it had been that long.

But seeing him at arm's length, I found it hard to believe he was at my best friend's wedding. He looked at me and smiled as he walked through, not even acknowledging me with a hug after all of this time knowing Jonathan and Kyler were next to me giving him the evils. I guess we will catch up eventually.

Once all the guests had been welcomed, everyone had been escorted to the dining hall and sat for an early supper. Jonathan stood and clinked his glass, making sure that everyone was listening, and he introduced Caspian's dad, who was in his late fifties or early sixties with slightly graying hair and a physique that told everyone he still worked out as much as he could.

"Well, what can I say about my son?"

He looked at Capsian and smirked. "I'm so damn proud of your son from the time you were sixteen. You knew exactly what you wanted to do and the goals you set, and you achieved them by the time you were twenty-three. You became a Sergeant and led your troops into the unknown. You could've been lost to us in those few years you were in the army, but god gifted you two chances, and you decided to come out of the army core and work alongside those less fortunate in life, no matter how hard they try and fit in they never do and get bullied for who they are. Then you meet your beautiful bride, Star. I hope you both all the best take care of her and cherish her."

"I will dad."

He raises his glass and we all toast to Caspian, then he sits down and Jonathan introduces Star's father. "Thank you son."

"My pleasure." Jonathan grins and sits down.

"Well, not everyone knows who I am. I am Star's father and let all of you know I didn't chase her name, her mother did."

We all laughed.

He cleared his throat. "Star by name, Star by nature, she's truly the biggest sparkling star in the sky. She deserves to be loved and cherished. She always puts everyone before herself, no matter how they treat her. She's the apple of mine and her mother's eye. I'm glad she's finally found someone who will take her for who she is and not try and change her into someone she is not. She's a little eccentric, our little star. Good luck with her, Caspian."

They all laugh, and he nods toward Star's father.

He sits down and Jonathan gets up smirking. "Well, here it is folks. Ky and I have known Captain since we both joined the army. He was our commanding officer and boy was he a tough SOB. He made us do sets and laps around the field whilst carrying weights on our shoulders because we couldn't get on with each other. We finally found common ground between us when we decided to get him back because of all the torture he put us through that day. We got the grosser water we could find and decided to give him a bath in it. Boy was he angry at us. " He chucked. "Once he was calm and told us we were going to pay for drenching him in the stench of disgusting water. He said he was glad we had stored our rift out. But we never realized that Caspian was as no cunning as us until a few days later, and he got us both back by turning the water cold in the shower and swapping our shampoo for dye. We looked like smurfs." He chuckled. "The pranks didn't end there. There were times with slime and running for miles with balls on chains around our ankles whilst we hauled small trunks on our shoulders whilst chained to them. He was one tough cookie, but we wouldn't have him any other way. Our Sergeant and our brother."

Joanathan took his glass of champagne off the table and raised it in the air. "To the bride and groom."

Everyone raised their glasses repeating, "to the bride and groom."

"Let's eat and celebrate the joining of two of our best friends in marriage." He looked at Caspian and winked. He tipped his glass. In a thank you, even though his face was extremely pale, maybe he thought Jonathan would let more out of the woodwork than he was comfortable with.

Johnathan sat down, and the server came round with the food and everyone began tucking in. By the time we had dessert, I was full and about to explode.

After food, everyone made their way from the tables so Star and Caspian could cut the beautiful four-tier cake with roses going down the left-hand side. It seems such a shame to ruin such a beautiful cake for people to eat it.

Everyone clapped and headed to the bar. I excused myself to go to the little girls' room. Jonathan and Kyler nodded and said they'd get me a drink.

After relieving myself, I washed and dried my hands, headed out of the bathroom and straight into a brick wall. "Sh... I'm sorry I didn't see yo7 there."

"It's okay."

I looked up, recognizing the voice of a guy I would never forget. He smiled. "Ethan."

"Hey Carly."

"How are you? You went off the radar."

"I know and I'm sorry. We had a lot of shit go down after I called you. I wanted to call you, but it's been non-stop since Africa. I wasn't back in the barracks a month before we got deployed again. Jonathan and Kyler were lucky that they got to come back home and stay home, and I didn't. What about you?"

"I finally finished uni and started to work full time for Caspian at the camp and children's center."

"Congrats. I'm sorry I missed it all. You graduated from Uni, I mean."

"It's fine my brother was in the army, so I know how hard it can be to come home."

"I'm sorry I ignored you on the way in, but you had two bouncers either side of you."

"It's fine."

"So can I get a hug? It's been years."

I nodded, and he smiled, wrapping his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I returned his hug. "I've missed you Carly."

"I've missed you too, Ethan."

I feel his smirk on my shoulder, wondering what he has planned.

Ethan

I finally had my chance to talk to Carly after the wedding and the handshakes as we were greeted on the way in. I wanted so much to pull her into a hug and tell her I was sorry I didn't keep in contact with her and I missed her, but her bodyguards were watching my every move. They had already warned me not to do anything tuned if they would be all up in my space.

Finally, I got a break when they finally left her alone to go to the bathroom. I waited until she was out of their site and followed her. What I didn't expect was her to walk straight into me. I was going to tell her everything I had planned to say to her. Before the helicopter came in precisely ten minutes. I wanted to stay for the first dance, but they needed me to be there like yesterday being my last deployment before heading home for good. But once I had pulled her into a hug, all was forgotten for a brief moment. I didn't want to let go until we got interrupted.