The Wedding Crashers

Chapter Nine

Sam stalked furiously amidst the throngs of wedding guests. He didn't know how much more of this he could take: obnoxious, interfering werewolves or self-satisfied vampires who wanted to take a bite out of him. He forcefully tipped back his glass of champagne, and nearly swore aloud when he realized it was empty again. He was coming to the conclusion that the only safe way to avoid talking to anybody would be to just stare at the ground, looking like an idiot be damned. He glanced back up at the buffet table, where the champagne glistened invitingly, and against his better judgment he started wending in that direction. Unfortunately, as he walked he couldn't help but overhear the conversations going on in the little clusters of partygoers scattered between himself and the solace of the alcohol.

He grimaced and moved away from the two vampires discussing how wonderful this whole hideous setup was, only to find himself within earshot of two more who were doing nothing but talk about how the bride just was the most amazing and unique person on the planet. He picked up his pace, hurrying by the group blathering on about the Cullens and what generous people they were, and nearly vomited into a nearby flowerpot when they starting marveling over how their style and class only seemed to increase with each passing year. It was only by sheer force of will that he didn't hurl his champagne glass at the back of Eleazar's head when he saw him again; he had accumulated a circle of vampires as his audience and was doing nothing but rant and rave about the sulfur-smelling human with the amazing potential.

Sam eyed Castiel, sitting quietly and calmly in his nice, safe little monster-free zone, and was seriously contemplating joining him just to get away from all of this unmitigated bullshit. But he didn't, instead steeling himself once again and weaving through all these pretentious dickwads to get somewhere out of the way, trying (and failing) not to hear the snippets of talk all around him.

"Yes, they bought this dress for me-Ambroise Lemaître, a new designer from Paris, and not cheap-"

"-the way they have everything arranged, it is truly amazing. I can tell the humans have never seen anything like it-"

"-saw Bella before she had to go help her daughter with her dress. The diamonds she has on are truly stunning-"

"-and Leah was pretending like she didn't know what I was talking about. It was a complete joke."

Sam stopped dead. He recognized the voice-and the tone-and he couldn't help but listen in, turning and focusing on the small group of Native Americans, two of whom he already knew: Jared and Kim.

It was Jared who had spoken, and the big beefy man next to him who was obviously another wolf gave a scornful laugh. The woman clinging to his arm pursed her lips. "It's not funny, Paul," she scolded and then turned to Kim, saying, "Kim-didn't you say he didn't know at all?"

Kim nodded energetically. "He obviously didn't even know about Sam and Emily until today," she said, clearly relishing sharing these juicy tidbits of information. "And he only found out about them when they were introduced! I can't imagine what Sam must've gone through-our Sam. But that Winchester boy, he's insists that he's been keeping himself and Leah as 'just friends'," she explained, sounding skeptical.

Jared took up the train of conversation, and the disdain dripping from his voice set Sam's to grinding his teeth. "Wonder how long that will last. I saw Leah when she first came in before Alice took her off-she was hanging all over him."

Sam could only boggle at the hypocrisy as the other woman, the one who was all but attached to the man she was with, frowned. "But wasn't she also holding his brother's arm?"

The man, Paul, sneered, "I guess she figures if she can't have another Sam, she'll just make do with the brother or something."

"Then who's the other weirdo she came in with? Plan C?" Jared chimed in. All four of them looked behind them, scowling in unison at Cas. As if feeling their eyes on him (which he probably did), his head slowly turned in their direction-and they all hurriedly looked away.