Chapter 2 - wedding

'Dating any more fatties at the moment?' Emma would ask, snidely on the rare occasions Nick had to be alone with her.

'Like you care,' sighed Nick in response, leaving the room as soon as he could. It was a long trip home from college and one that he tried to make as infrequently as he could. Why waste time getting frustrated with Emma? She would only laugh if she knew he had gone on a date with a beautiful, heavy girl last week; taking her back to his room and spoon feeding her ice cream to his heart's content.

The wedding confirmed pretty much everything that Nick had ever thought about Emma. The whole day seemed to revolve around the huge team of photographers who descended upon the event to capture the beautiful couple; Chris' choice of impressive wedding cars, Emma's perfect smile and incredibly revealing, flowing dress.

Emma's idiotic and equally gorgeous champagne-loving girlfriends also ruled the day with their loud and crass behaviour, hitting on any guy who could flex his biceps for them. Nick was happy to be out of there. Now his brother was safely married off, he would be out of his hair for good; along with his ill-chosen wife.

Nick wouldn't have returned to his hometown at all were it not for the perfect job being offered to him after he left college. He got a place of his own close by and rarely had to deal with his jerk brother and bitch wife. Although 'rarely' still didn't seem good enough.

'Why don't you try a bit harder with your brother?' asked his dad one Sunday.

'You know why. He's an idiot. Always has been, always will be. And Emma is just as bad.'

'I know your brother is a tricky character. He's not easy to get along with at all. But if Emma can put up with him, so can we,' muttered his dad, unconvincingly.

'Emma puts up with him because she's just like him!' scoffed Nick.

'Yeah, well, maybe when she was younger, I'll give you that. But she's mellowed a lot in the last couple of years. You don't see her, so you haven't noticed.'

'Whatever,' dismissed Nick, chuckling at his dad's lame attempt to bring the family back together.