Charming Smirks | ON HOLD

{1} "It's not your fault, Lottie."

Chapter 1

"I DO."

My heart was beating so fast, it felt like I was dying. 

I may as well be.

I tightened the strong grip I had on the bouquet in my hands. It was the only thing I could hold onto that wasn't going to suddenly change within the blink of an eye.

My mother blushed, tears vivid; her cheeks colored a rosy red. Thomas carefully lifted the veil, looked into her eyes for a moment, then leaned down and kissed her. It was merely only a couple seconds before claps and shouts were heard from our family and friends.

I was my mother's maid of honor, despite all my constant protests of being against this wedding. Even thought I hated it, I couldn't deny that the ceremony was beautiful. She did a lot of work to make this happen, albeit my persistence on not wanting her to get married. She knew I didn't want anything to change, yet she went ahead and tied the knot with Thomas.

Thomas. That was my new step-father's name.

I couldn't lie, in the six months I'd known him before the engagement, he was the nicest person ever. He treated my mom like a queen and I knew she deserved that. My mom deserved it all after my dad.

But I didn't want a new life. I was happy with my old one.

The one thing - well, more than one thing - that I couldn't stand were the three boys that prominently stood still behind my new step-father with clear identical looks of annoyance displayed on each of their faces.

When my mother finally told me about the man she'd been dating for the last eight months, the most important thing she forgot to inform me about was that Thomas already had three boys. They were the same age as me, same grade, even the same school.

The Carter brothers were the most popular students at my school, let alone the whole city. The eldest was an amazing hockey player, the second won every piano competition in the state, and the third was an exceptional artist.

The three of them were Irish Triplets, born within twelve months of each other. Braedyn was seventeen. Emerson and Levi were sixteen and they were twins.

Unfortunately for me, they didn't like me at all. I knew I didn't have a choice in the whole marriage, but the one thing I wasn't expecting was to have step-siblings that hated me. Then again, I wasn't too fond of them either.

They were cocky know-it-alls, that was for sure. All the times we'd seen each other since the engagement, had been filled with heated glares across the table or insulting remarks. In school, they weren't nice to anyone that wasn't in their clique. And even though our parents were getting married, I still wasn't bestowed with any nice gestures from the all-mighty three.

Of course, I'm definitely not involved in their circle of friends. My best friend and I more or less liked sticking to ourselves, but it wasn't like we were oblivious to who The Carter Brothers were. It was hard to not know who they were, even if you lived under a rock.

I looked over to see them giving me a glare, no surprise at all. Not wanting to ruin anything for my mom, I didn't retaliate. My mom deserved her second shot at happiness and I was too selfless to take that away from her.

Even after I countlessly begged her not to.

They broke apart, grasping hands and turning to walk down the aisle. I was about to follow after them before Braedyn, Emerson and Levi slyly pulled me behind them so they could go first.