You May Now Kill the Bride (Return to Fear Street Book 1)
You May Now Kill the Bride: Part 2 – Chapter 19

“Aiden?”

He disappeared into the building. The front doors whooshed shut behind him.

I took off running, my shoes scraping the dirt path. I was nearly to the entrance when the red-haired valet stepped in my way. “Nice night,” he said. The name on his uniform badge read: Walter Q. “You taking a walk?”

I nodded. “Yeah. The path. Very nice.” I tried to edge past him.

“There’s an even nicer path around the other side,” he said. “Lots of wildflowers. Of course, you can’t see them at night.”

“I . . . have to catch up to my friend,” I said.

He nodded. “Okay. Have a good one.”

I pushed open the doors and stepped into the lobby. No sign of Aiden anywhere.

It was late. There was no one behind the front desk. I could hear voices and music from the bar. I trotted down the hall to check it out and look for him there.

My eyes must have been playing tricks on me. There was no reason for Aiden to come to Marissa’s wedding. Not after what happened. I knew for sure that no one had invited him.

The little purple-and-gray bar off the hall was crowded. I recognized most everyone. They were from the wedding party. Doug sat at the end of the bar with a bunch of his buddies clustered around. They were clinking beers and laughing a lot.

Marta, Uncle Kenny’s ex-wife, sat at a low table across from my aunt Dawn. They both stared at martini glasses in their hands.

No sign of Aiden.

My cousin Sarah waved to me from a stool against the back wall, but I pretended I didn’t see her. The memories about Aiden were washing back to me, like ocean waves on a beach, one after another, an endless sweep of memories.

I gave the bar one last search. Then I hurried to my room. I wanted to be away from the laughing voices and the clinking glasses and the faces. . . . Away from all those faces, so I could remember.

I kicked off my sneakers and settled back on the bed, rested my head against the soft, padded headboard, and let the memories come, let the waves wash over me, cold and steady, chilling as they were, chilling and painful in so many ways. . . .

A year ago. No. A little more than a year ago. It was April of last year. Spring break and we were all looking forward to seeing Marissa, hearing about her semester, her adventures in Madison.

She always came back from college bursting with stories and funny anecdotes. She loved it at Wisconsin. I pictured her fluttering her arms like a bird—so happy to be free, so happy to be away from Shadyside and starting a real life on her own.

She was nice to me on those visits. I don’t really think she missed me when she was there with all her friends and her classes and the orchestra she played in. We’d talk maybe every two or three weeks on FaceTime. But our conversations were always short and awkward, and I could never think of anything interesting to say.

I was going through a serious guy phase. I was kind of crazed. I was hanging out with three—or four? I can’t remember exactly—different guys that year. So there was no way I could talk to Marissa about that. But when she came home during vacation breaks in her chirpy, excited, enthusiastic mood, she was nice to me, and even caring.

But believe me, we were all shocked when she came prancing into the house, pulling Aiden behind her. “This is Aiden,” she announced, as if that was explanation enough.

Mom and Dad acted as if they weren’t the least bit surprised, but, of course, they had to be. Robby and I tried to act cool, too. But I was stammering and maybe blushing a little, and couldn’t stop staring at him.

I mean, she could have warned us, right? It’s not like our family is big on surprises. Like, Dad gave Mom a surprise birthday party on her fortieth birthday, but he made sure he told her about it in advance. Get the picture?

And, of course, Doug was the 800-pound gorilla not in the room. I knew we were all thinking about Doug and how Marissa had vowed to wait for him as we stared at Aiden and tried to be casual.

You might expect Aiden to be a little uncomfortable, meeting us all for the first time, seeing that we had absolutely no warning from Marissa that she was bringing him. But he seemed totally calm, almost relaxed.

He had that little newsboy cap pulled over his curly blond hair, and he had a bit of reddish-blond scruff on his chin. He wore a black bomber jacket that looked perfectly broken in over faded jeans torn at both knees.

His eyes kind of sparkled. I know it sounds dumb but they did. They were big and dark. He had a warm, toothy smile, a soft voice, and he had this adorable little dimple in his chin.

I thought he was hot. I confess, it was like an instant attraction. I had this strong, ridiculous urge to kiss him just to see what it would be like.

Staring at him and trying not to look like I was studying him from across the room, I wondered what it was like when you were close to him. I wondered what he smelled like.

That’s totally weird, isn’t it?

And it’s not like I’m usually jealous of Marissa. I mean, I don’t have a sick thing about wanting everything she wants or trying desperately to be like her. But I had this feeling about Aiden. Love at first sight, maybe? Ha.

Marissa held his hand and told us how they’d met at a fraternity party that neither one of them had been invited to. They both crashed the party, and it gave them something to talk about when they bumped into each other. “We already had something in common!” Aiden exclaimed.

Robby laughed too hard at the story. Mom and Dad just nodded with these strange smiles frozen on their faces. I knew they were studying Aiden intensely, and they probably thought he was some kind of hipster with that hat and the beard and the tattoo creeping up his arm where his sleeves were pushed up.

Yes, I’m sure they thought he was some kind of arts major. Maybe a musician, not like good old solid Doug, who was already working in a furniture store and taking business courses—trying to make something of himself.

And then we were sitting around in the living room, drinking white wine to celebrate Marissa’s return for spring break (a special treat for Robby and me since we were still sixteen) and enjoying Mom’s great blondies. That was when Aiden revealed that he was premed and planned to be an orthopedic surgeon.

After that, my parents loosened up. Maybe that was the moment they decided to forget about Doug, too. I don’t know.

I remember that I kept thinking about Doug and wondering if Marissa had told him. And if she had told him, how?

Did she break up with him over the phone? Send a text message that said, “It’s over”? Marissa couldn’t be that cruel. I knew that for sure. But she certainly wasn’t mentioning Doug now. Maybe Aiden didn’t know about him.

So everyone was settling in, having a nice conversation. Aiden was talking about his parents in Milwaukee. They were both doctors, and that’s why Aiden was inspired to become one, too.

Robby was playing Candy Crush on his phone while we talked. He can never do one thing at a time. He always has to do at least two or three. Marissa asked me about my woodworking classes. I was actually flattered that she remembered.

“I’m really into it,” I said. I didn’t tell her that I took the class because a really hot guy named Zack was taking it, and I wanted to get to know him. Funny thing was, I quickly discovered I seriously liked working with wood—and I had a knack for it.

Zack and I hung out a few times, but we weren’t really into each other. He was too quiet and sincere for me. But I kept showing up at the woodworking class because I wanted to get really good at it.

“I’m building a cabinet in the basement,” I told Marissa. “I’ll show it to you later.”

Aiden squinted at me like I was weird or something.

“My dad has a workshop in the basement,” he said, setting down his wineglass. “Actually, it’s more like a studio. He does bronze busts of people. Very big heads.” He laughed. “He isn’t any good at it. He admits it himself. His heads are all lopsided. But it helps take his mind off his work.”

“How lopsided are they?” I asked.

“Well, they keep rolling over onto their sides,” Aiden said. “They don’t stand up.”

We were laughing about that when Nikki came in. She burst into the room, crept up behind Robby, and mussed up his hair with both hands.

“Hey—!” he cried out angrily, but then he saw who it was, and he laughed.

Nikki is all arms and legs, and she was wearing a seriously short skirt, black and straight, and so tiny I thought it might be a belt. But she likes to show off those long legs.

She looks like a garden fairy with her white-blond hair in that undercut pixie, that pointy chin, and those enormous green eyes.

“Nikki, come meet Aiden,” Marissa said.

“Okay.” Nikki grinned and plopped down in Aiden’s lap. “Hi,” she said. Then she tugged hard on a lock of his hair until he cried out.

“Nikki,” I said. “Why’d you do that?”

“Because he’s cute,” she said. “You’re cute, aren’t you, Aiden?” She tugged his hair again, more gently this time. Then she climbed out of his lap, laughing.

“Um, nice to meet you,” Aiden said. He turned to Marissa. “Is she always like this?”

Marissa rolled her eyes and nodded.

“I have that same hat,” Nikki said, removing the hat from Aiden’s head and examining it. “Yep. I thought so. It’s a girl’s hat.”

“Nikki—” Robby started.

“But it looks good on you,” Nikki said. She handed it back to Aiden. “Are you and Marissa a thing?”

“Yes. We’re a thing,” Marissa said.

“Well, he’s adorable,” Nikki said.

“Glad you approve,” Marissa replied.

I could see that Nikki didn’t get Marissa’s sarcasm. She sat on the arm of Robby’s chair and mussed up his hair again.

The conversation turned to the Shadyside High Tigers. The basketball team went to the state finals, but lost in the first round. Then Marissa had some stories about her friends in Wisconsin.

And that’s how it went. Pretty comfortable, actually, considering there was a surprise boyfriend in the room. Everyone agreed Mom’s blondies were the best. Dad talked about how long our family had lived in Shadyside. “We were here almost since the town began. They even named a street after us.”

The seven of us were having a nice, relaxed get-to-know-Aiden chat.

A pleasant evening.

And then, two nights later, I did something crazy.