The wedding had gone by pretty well so far, which I was relieved about. I'd been nervous about how things would be with the Lanes without Louise there to act as a buffer but they'd been great. Keith had even helped me get dressed, which I'm not entirely proud to admit.

The church ceremony was alright, and both bride and groom looked incredibly happy. Same with the speeches. Keith was on form and even the best man's speech got a few laughs out of me even though I didn't know anyone involved.

Now, as I stood at the bar ordering a beer and an orange juice I was finally feeling totally at ease.

"Having a good night?" Came Keith's voice from behind me. As I turned to face him, his hand patted me on the back. He ordered some drinks before I could answer him.

"Yeah it's been great! You? You must be pretty proud?" I finally replied.

"Yeah, you bet I am. There's nothing quite like giving your daughter away on her wedding day. I'm assuming you saw the state Lyn's in?" I nodded and he continued, "Well don't tell her this but I was tearing up a bit myself, you know? Clark's a good guy though and he's perfect for Anna. He's the type of guy you'd want to marry your daughter"

"I'm glad. She deserves to be happy" I smiled as I received my drinks.

"And so are you, by the way" He added, stopping me from returning to my table.

"I'm sorry?"

"I know you and Lou aren't like that now but I want you to know that if she was a bit older, or you younger then I'd be more than happy with it. You're a good man"

"Thank you Mr. Lane" No matter how many times we seemed to be going over this, it never hurt to hear it.

"Any of the girls here taking your fancy?" He asked with a wry smile.

"I haven't looked to be honest" I laughed. "But Brandon's already on a scouting mission so I'm sure he'll let me know"

"Is it bad that I'm kind of proud of him?" Keith sniggered as he got his drinks and joined me on the walk back to Louise and Lyn.

When we reached the table the women thanked us but we didn't have any time to sit down or take a sip of our drinks before the newlyweds joined us, finally off the dance floor for the first time that night.

"Hey guys!" Keith cried, hugging them both, with Lyn and Louise following him and doing the same.

"Congratulations" I shook Clarks hand and hugged Anna quickly.

"You're Jason? Louise's friend right?" He asked.

"Yeah that's right" I nodded, briefly looking at Lou but she was busy staring at something at the other side of the room. "Are you guys enjoying yourselves?" I asked. Before they could answer, the wedding photographer came round and took several pictures. Pictures of Anna and Lyn, Anna and Louise, Lyn and Louise, Keith and his daughter and countless more. He even got one of me and Keith, which I thought was a little strange but I wasn't going to argue. Finally though, Anna did answer.

"We've had an amazing day! And I'm so glad you could make it"

"It's no trouble at all" I smiled. "I'm just surprised that you guys finally stopped dancing!"

"You and me both!" Clark laughed, getting a soft punch from his wife for his troubles.

I sat with the Lane's for a little while, trying my best to keep up with Keith's beer drinking but before long, he was much drunker than I was. Lily and Mason had now joined us but didn't look like they were anywhere near to getting together. I was barely speaking to Louise either, not through any fault of either of us. She was being spoken to by what I soon found out were her aunt and uncle. Eventually though, she broke free.

"That looked awful" I joked.

"It wasn't so bad. I'm just glad that I've managed to avoid grandma and grandpa. They could literally talk to me until I was there age" She joked.

I was about to give her a mini-lecture on how it was important to talk to your family, but two things stopped me. The first was the fact that I still tried to avoid my own parents. They'd been in my apartment twice since I'd moved in and I'd only been to visit them once. It would be a little hypocritical for me to say to her so I made a promise to myself that I'd call them the next day. The second thing stopping me was the song that had just started playing.

"What a song!" I cried at the exact same time that Keith did. We looked at each other and gave each other a high five as INXS' Need You Tonight started blaring around the hall.

Keith was up in a flash and grabbing his oldest daughter, demanding that she at least give him this one dance. She complied, rather reluctantly.

"Don't even think about it" Louise warned me once she saw me looking at her expectantly.

"You did say later!" I reminded her.

"Ugh. Fine!" She cried, sounding frustrated, yet happy at the same time. I helped her up and led her to the floor before we both began dancing awkwardly. I was glad I wasn't the only terrible dancer because there was no way that I was drunk enough for this. Keith was though. He was shuffling around like he was possessed by a dancing demon.

Thankfully, the song finished quickly and one that I didn't know came on, giving us an excuse to sit back down. It was safe to say that I regretted that dancing decision.

"Another drink?" I offered Louise.

"Sure. I'll be back soon though, I need to go talk to someone" She replied.

I saw her off then headed back to the bar, being joined by Mason on the way.

"You want a drink?" I asked him after noticing that he was awkwardly stalking me.

"No I'm good thanks. But I could use your help though" He whispered just loud enough for me to hear him.

"With what? A beer and an orange juice please" I said, first to Mason then to the barman.

"Well . . . you strike me as the kind of guy who doesn't really have any problems with girl's right?" He asked.

"You know all about me and Lou right?" I chuckled.

"Yeah, but apart from that. I need advice" He didn't laugh along with me.

"Sure, what's up?" I asked, taking my drinks and handing over the money for them.

"Well there's this girl that I really like. I just don't know if I should tell her or not"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Because she wouldn't be interested in someone like me! We're totally different in pretty much every way but I can't stop thinking about her and its killing me!" He cried.

In that instant I knew exactly who he was talking about.

"Well do you know her already?"

"Yeah"

"Well that's half the battle won" I shrugged.

"But now I'm totally stuck" He sighed.

"Look, I'm not exactly Romeo myself. Trust me; I've had my fair share of colossal failures"

"Really? But you're . . . you're you!" He gasped.

"My point exactly" I laughed before turning serious again. "The advice I would give you is that you can't talk to her like she's this unattainable angel. That'll just freak you out even more. Just talk to her like a normal person. And then, when you feel comfortable enough, tell her how you feel. Trust me, you'll only regret it if you never know"

"I guess I'm just not confident enough" Sulked Mason.

"Well you should be, man!" I cried. "You're funny, cool in that "I don't care" way and for what it's worth, I know for a fact that she likes you too" I winked.

"You don't even know who I'm talking about" He argued.

"I have a pretty good idea. And she's looking pretty lonely over there without you" I pointed over to Lily who was sitting alone, watching all of the old couples swaying together on the dance floor. Mason looked back to me and nodded his understanding before looking back at Lily. "Go get her, man" I encouraged before heading back to my table.

I made a note to watch over the two of them for the rest of the evening, because now I knew that both Mason and Lily wanted it. Just because me and Louise weren't going to be together, didn't mean that these two couldn't.

When I got back, Louise had returned from whoever she was talking to.

"Hey check this out" I nodded towards her two friends and she immediately gasped in amazement.

"What did you do?" She asked incredulously.

"I just gave Mason a shove in the right direction" I shrugged. "Did you find who you were looking for?" I asked.

"I did, yeah" She said, tearing her watchful gaze away from her friends and their deep conversation that they'd now started.

"What is it?" I asked cautiously, detecting that she wanted to talk me about something pretty serious.

"Nothing" She flashed a smile at me but I wasn't entirely sure I believed it was genuine.

This was exactly what I didn't want to happen, and why I was hesitant to come to the wedding in the first place.

"Come on, we have to go see what they're talking about" She changed the subject in a flash and dragged me up towards her friends at the edge of the dance floor.

"Shouldn't we leave them to it themselves?" I asked.

"We will. We'll just intervene if it goes south"

We reached the dance floor and pretended to slow-dance to whatever song was on at the time, even though it was ending, whilst eavesdropping on Mason and Lily's conversation. Well, as best we could anyway.

"And I know we've been friends forever and I know it could be weird but I really need to tell you something" Mason spoke to Lily as if his words themselves were sweating.

"What is it?" Lily asked, a hopeful gleam in her eye. The song changed but Mason's panicked tone didn't.

"Well you know I like hanging out with you. And Louise, but I'm not here to talk about her. I'm here to talk about you, and me. Like, what would you think if we . . . um"

"Mason!" Lily interrupted.

"Uh huh?"

"Shut up and dance with me" She ordered, almost like she was speaking along with the words of the song.

https://youtu.be/6JCLY0Rlx6Q

I had to admit that I liked this one too. So when I saw Mason's fear turn to joy as he took Lily by the hand and led her to the floor to dance, I did the same with Louise.

"Looks like your ship is finally sailing" I mused.

"You're still not allowed to say that" She laughed. "They are cute though, right?"

"Sure"

"Like, they aren't going to do this whole cute moment and then go back to their annoyingly awkward self's right?"

"I think you have your answer right there" I said, nodding over her shoulder.

She turned to look round and saw that the two of them were kissing each other, much like Anna and Clark had been earlier on.

"Yes! Finally!" She cheered, hugging me in celebration as she did.

"I take it you're happy about it then?" I asked.

"Are you kidding? This is the best thing to happen in ages!"

"Nothing like a wedding to bring people together huh?" I smirked.

"Yeah . . ." Louise returned to her distracted state from earlier before she seemed to snap out of it and turn serious. "Actually, that's kind of something I wanted to talk to you about"

"Louise" I sighed, moving away from her. "We said we wouldn't do this. That was one of the conditions for me even coming here in the first place!"

"Jason, wait"

"I thought we were passed this!" I cried. I'd just gotten things to a good place with my neighbours and I was determined not to ruin it.

"It's not about that!" She yelled. "It's not about us, it's something else"

"What?" I asked, still frustrated but a little more relaxed.

"Let's sit down" She said, not waiting for my answer before trudging off back to the table.

"What's this about?" I asked after joining her.

"Ok listen" She sighed before inhaling a deep breath again. "I know that this thing with us isn't going to happen and I'm ok with that. Not one hundred per-cent but ok, I swear"

"O . . . k?" I said, not following where she was going with this.

"What it does mean is that instead of being your girlfriend or whatever, I can be the next best thing"

"A friend?"

"A wingman" She said proudly before changing her mind, "Wing-woman"

"I don't get it"

"Ok, see that girl over there? She's been staring at you all night" She pointed across the room to a girl, who, contrary to what Louise was saying, wasn't looking at me. Instead she was talking to Anna, allowing me to see her naturally. And she was beautiful.

She had straight dark brown hair and a light complexion, with a few light freckles dotted around her cheeks. Her eyes were a caramel brown and her smile was as wide and bright as they come.

"Who is she?" I asked, guiltily staring at her thin figure in the black and red dress that she wore.

"Her name is Caitlin Queen. She went to school with my sister and they've been friends ever since. She's super nice but pretty shy so you're going to have to turn on the charm" Louise explained.

"Lou, I'm not going to hit on somebody at your sister's wedding. Not in front of you. You don't deserve that"

"Yes you are, because I'm telling you to! Look, I promise she's really, really sweet and you two would be perfect together" She smiled. Apparently me and this Caitlin girl were the new Lily and Mason.

This was a weird situation for sure. I wasn't going to deny that Caitlin was cute, hot even. But I meant what I said; I didn't want to flirt with anyone in front of her. I knew how it felt seeing her kiss that guy in our hall and I didn't want to do that to her. I couldn't believe Louise was even suggesting this. But I knew by now how persistent she was.

"Please Jason. She's really nice, and she's only two years younger than you! Even I know that's better than you and me!" She joked, finally making me smile at her instead of Caitlin.

"Why are you doing this?" I finally asked.

"Because I'm your friend" She sighed. "And you've had such shitty luck lately and from what I hear, she has too. You both deserve somebody who's actually going to treat you how you deserve. And I know that it can't be me so I want it to be someone I know is good for you. Plus, she works in an aquarium. You can't hate that" She shrugged.

I looked back over towards Caitlin and had to smile when I saw her quickly moving her head in the opposite direction. She'd clearly been looking at me after all.

"She's the person you were away talking to isn't she?" I asked as the pieces finally fit into place.

"And she had plenty to say about you" She winked.

"Like what?" I asked curiously.

"That you were hot, looked really friendly and a lot of fun. I'll spare you the rest of the details"

"No you won't" I laughed.

"I'll tell you if you promise to go and talk to her first. Please?"

I looked at Louise for a long second before asking if she was sure, one more time.

"For god sakes Jason, get over there! Before Brandon does!" She giggled.

That made my decision for me right then and there. I wasn't going to let him steal another girl from me. So with one last careful look at Louise, I walked over to Caitlin.