Spencer Carlin really hated weddings. This of course was not a well known fact about the pretty twenty four year old woman. One would look at her and expect her to to be exactly the kind to love everything about weddings, from picking a cake to dresses to the flowers. That was not true about Spencer, weddings made her sad. It made her think of promises made and broken, of a time when she dreamed about the day she would give herself to someone and know it was forever. She had been naïve back then, she had known that the moment she had looked into Ashley Davies' eyes waiting for an answer that never came. That moment of hesitation before the shots rang out that killed her brother, that was the moment she lost her innocence.

She tried not to think of that time in her life, of the period she spent mourning her brother without the arms of the one person she had loved above all else around her. She had missed Ashley so much in the months that she had spent in Europe, even knowing that if she came back it would not have been the same between them anyway. Maybe if Ashley had stayed for once in her life instead of choosing the easy way out they could have worked things out, but Ashley was Ashley and she had run hard and fast.

Of course, when she finally came back with her answer, one that Spencer wanted to hear so badly three months earlier, it was too late. Spencer knew that for certain when she came to school the next morning only to find out that Ashley had once again run to Aiden.

So they drifted apart, Ashley having Aiden for awhile and Spencer meeting Carmen. Spencer had always known in the back of her mind that if they ever parted ways, they would, no could not stay friends. Friendship with Ashley would have killed her everyday a little more, so when Ashley left for London with barely a goodbye halfway through Spencer's senior year, Spencer had felt both relief and a profound sense of loss. But she got over it, in her own way with help from people she would never of expected it from.

There was her friendship with Madison that surprised everyone, including Spencer herself. Now she could not really imagine her life without the feisty Latina in it, they even shared a small house on the beach. With Aiden. Yup, that had surprised a lot of people, but it worked well with the three of them. Regardless of their history, they were now the Three Amigos as Madison drunkenly named them one night. Their's was now as tight a bond as can exist between people who are not related by blood. They, almost more than anyone else, were changed drastically by the shooting and naturally gravitated towards each other.

Obviously there was Chelsey, who would always be her rock, a constant in her life that would never judge or waver. She and little Clay were a joy in her life that she thanked God for everyday.

Last there were the two people responsible for her duties as a bridesmaid, Glen and Kyla. They had started a rather rocky relationship after Spencer's eighteenth birthday party were they had gotten drunk and woken up in Miami together. No one was exactly sure how that had happened or how they had actually progressed to the point of marriage. Yet there stood Spencer in a rather flattering light blue bridesmaids' dress.

Spencer nervously glanced at Kyla as she stood staring at her critically. Kyla was going to have a perfect wedding, even if she had to beat everyone involved into submission. Kyla's own words, not Spencer's.

“Hmm...you look okay. Not as good as I'll be looking, but okay.”

Spencer smirked to herself and shook her head. Kyla was something else.

“Thanks, Kyla. I'm just glad you let go of the purple dress idea, no one really looks good in it.”

Kyla had had her heart set on a rather awful looking purple material for the dresses, but Madison had threatened bodily harm and came out victorious. Madison, even after softening up a bit, could still be damn intimidating when she wanted to be.

“Oh, please, Ashley would have looked good in it, great even, Luckily she will look good in this blue too, if she even shows up that is. She said she'd be here by tomorrow afternoon, but you never know with that one.”