It was the day before the wedding. We still had school, but whenever I was with Alice, all she could talk about was the wedding. Even Ellie was excited. We were driving up after school to the hotel we'd be staying in for a couple nights over the weekend. Alice and I would be sharing a room, Catherine and Mark in another and Joseph had a room to himself.

A few of my other classmates were going to the wedding, too, since their parents were friends with Ellie's mum. It was the social event of the year. I imagined that usually weddings wouldn't have so many teenagers there, but Michael was extremely rich. The wedding was going to be huge. Zoe was going, in my geography class, who had helped Alice at Dylan's party earlier on in the summer. Neither of us were really paying attention to what our teacher, Mrs Harris, was saying in our lesson. We were sat in the back, discussing all the champagne we were going to drink and the food we were going to eat. I wasn't close friends with Zoe, but she was very easy to get along with. She was the kind of person in the year who was just friends with everyone.

"You know, I heard that Michael spent eighty thousand pounds on the wedding," Zoe whispered to me. "Eighty thousand! The average wedding usually costs, like, thirty thousand."

"How do you know that?" I asked, doodling in the corner of the worksheet we were supposed to be doing.

"Well, because I've already planned my wedding. Obviously."

"Of course," I said, nodding. "And who's the lucky groom?"

Zoe chewed on the end of her pencil. "That's still a bit uncertain. But it's a minor detail." She thought for a moment. "You know who is yummy? Alice's brother. He could definitely be the groom."

I looked at her sharply but then controlled my expression. "Joseph? How do you know him?"

"My brother went to school with him. They're pretty good friends. So I saw him quite a lot." She sighed wistfully. "Sad for me, he only ever had eyes for a girl that also went to school with them."

"Really? Who?" I questioned curiously.

"I don't know. I never met her. My brother just told me to stop obsessing over Joseph, firstly because I had no chance, and secondly because he was taken. A kind boy, my brother." We both shut up as Mrs Harris strolled between the desks, giving us a suspicious look. We smiled at her and pretended to be writing on the worksheets. When she left, Zoe resumed talking. "But I heard he's single now. So I'll be keeping an eye out for him at the wedding." She winked at me. I forced a smile back as I reminded myself that I had absolutely no right to want to hit Zoe right now. Stupid jealousy.

"Well, he does seem to be in quite high demand," I commented offhandedly. "Something about girls being drawn to mysterious boys."

"I don't know what it is," she said, shaking her head. "Other than the fact that he's ridiculously good looking, of course. But that whole brooding thing... really gets me going."

I gave a huff of amusement. "I'm not surprised."

Zoe nudged me with her shoulder. "Well, you live with him. You know him best. Is he always mysterious and brooding?"

I shrugged. "I mean, not as brooding, but still mysterious."

"Bet a lot of girls ask you about him a lot, huh," she said knowingly. "Must get hard, having to live with a boy who looks like a model."

I elbowed her. Mrs Harris shot daggers in our direction, putting her finger to her lips. We shut up and began to actually do some work.

School ended, and I found Alice waiting by the car. She tapped her watch in an exaggerated gesture, calling, "Hurry up! I've aged ten years just waiting for you."

I flipped her off. "Did you sprint to the car after your last class, or something?"

"Uh, yeah," she said with a 'duh' expression as we got in the car. "So much to plan and pack. Gotta get home."

"Alice, we're going to be there for two nights."

"And? I need to bring options!" she exclaimed, driving away from the school. "I'm so excited. So many people were talking about it at school."

"I know. I think this is way more exciting for people than any party Dylan could throw," I said, and I saw Alice wince slightly at the sound of his name. Still not over him, then.

"Well, it is a wedding thrown by the richest person we all know. It's all very exciting to talk about." She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "We should both make it our aim to kiss someone."

I looked over at her. "Should we?"

"Yes! Just a kiss. It'll be fun." Alice grinned over at me. "And aim to kiss the hottest guys there."

"My plan is to just eat and drink as much as possible. Make the most of it," I said.

"Well, we'll do that too."

The drive up to South Buiyes was long and boring. Joseph had put earphones in and barely talked to anyone for the journey, while Alice tried to get us to play 'fun' car games, but 'I spy' didn't really work out since the whole journey was full of motorways and fields. When we finally arrived, everyone was in slightly worse moods, which improved at the beautiful view that greeted us.

Helryn Manor stood majestically on a clifftop, overlooking the ocean. It was made even more beautiful by the setting sun, casting golden rays across the calm sea and cloudless sky. The building was gorgeous and made of white stone, the walls adorned with ivy and huge arching windows.

"Oh my god," Alice said dreamily. "That's it, I'm getting married here."

"Mm. And who's paying for that?" Mark questioned as he got our bags out the boot.

"Don't worry, dad, I'm going to be extremely rich," she said confidently. "I'm not quite sure how, but I will be."

Mark shook his head at her as he passed her bag. "Honestly, I can't believe how much stuff you've brought, Alice."

"What? I need it all," she complained. Mark then passed my smaller bag to me, and I thanked him. "Come on, Ana, let's go inside."

I followed after her, still looking around me in wonder. The inside of the manor was just as incredible, with high ceilings and marble floors. Alice dragged me over to the reception and excitedly said to the receptionist, "Hi! We have, uh, three rooms booked under 'Moore'."

Catherine and Mark appeared and took over from Alice, talking with the receptionist about payment details and such. Joseph came into the lobby, casting his gaze around before seeing us and walking over.

"Come on, Joseph, even you can admit this place is amazing," Alice said, giving him a look.

"It is," he agreed.

"And did you see that sunset?" she continued. "And the sea? And the cliffs?" Her eyes followed a group of boys our age walking through the lobby. "Not bad company, either."

"Not something you want to say to your brother, Alice," Joseph groaned. I laughed. Joseph glanced at me at that, and smiled.

"Ana!" A loud voice came from the entrance, and I turned to see Zoe and her family. Her face broke into a big grin as she came over with a boy I assumed was her brother, and a girl who looked like a slightly older version of Zoe. "Hey! Fancy arriving at the same time. This is my sister, Allison." Allison nodded and grinned at us. I saw Zoe's eyes glance appreciatively at Joseph, and she flashed him a winning smile. "Nice to see you again, Joseph."

"You too," he said politely, smiling back at her. Stupid jealousy. "Alice and Li – Ana, this is Connor, who was in my year at school." I bit back a smile as Alice looked at Joseph suspiciously. "Sorry, I forget people call you Ana." My eyes met Joseph's and I saw the very subtle 'oops' expression on his face.

"You've only been living with her for three and half bloody months," Alice pointed out, rolling her eyes. "Honestly."

"It's fine," I said, nudging Alice. "Nice to meet you, Connor."

"Likewise," he said, and he smiled a charming smile at me. I saw out of the corner of my eye Alice giving me a look. I could admit that Connor was very attractive, with his dark skin and dark eyes, and if I wasn't so in love with Joseph–

My own thoughts brought me up short. Did I really just think that? I couldn't have. I hadn't known Joseph long enough for that, surely. Well, nearly four months. And I didn't even know what love really felt like. I mentally shook my head to myself and pushed my confusing thoughts out of my head as Catherine and Mark came and greeted Zoe and Connor's parents.

Alice grabbed our key from her parents, saying, "Okay, we're going to go dump our stuff in our room." Then she dragged me towards the lift. I glanced behind me and saw both Joseph and Connor watching me. Then Joseph looked over at Connor and a brief scowl crossed his face. I bit my lip to stop myself laughing.

"So I happened to notice that Connor is very attractive," Alice said casually, looking at her fingernails.

"Oh, you just 'happened to notice', did you?" I teased. "I think anyone could see that he is a very good-looking guy."

"And," Alice resumed as the lift arrived and we stepped inside, "he was definitely checking you out."

"He was not," I dismissed.

"He was! Honestly, sometimes you're even more oblivious than Ryan." We shot up to the fourth floor where our rooms were. "You should kiss him tomorrow."

I shrugged and we stepped out of the lift. "We'll see."

Once we'd put our stuff in our room – which was extremely luxurious – we got a text from Catherine saying that we were having supper with Zoe's family. Alice and I changed into some smarter clothes and put on some makeup before heading down to the hotel's restaurant to meet everyone.

Dinner mostly involved Zoe flirting with Joseph and Connor possibly flirting with me. I wasn't very good at telling when people were flirting with me – I didn't want to assume.

"So, Ana, what are you studying for your A-Levels?" Connor asked me, sipping on a glass of red wine.

"Oh, nothing interesting," I said, waving my hand in dismissal. "Geography, English and Politics."

"That sounds interesting to me," he said with a smile. "What do you think you might do at university? If you want to go, that is."

"I do want to," I said, "but I'm not totally sure what I want to study, yet. I think a gap year is the way forward for me."

"Need to go and find yourself, do you?" Connor asked, winking.

I smiled. "Something like that. What about you? What are your plans?"

"Joseph and I are off to the same uni," he said, nodding over at Joseph. "Can't seem to shake him, the clingy shit."

I laughed, and I saw Joseph glance over at us. Zoe looked over too, a sly smile on her face. "So, Edinburgh, then? What are you going to study?"

"Law and French. Hey, you're studying good subjects for law," he said with raised eyebrows. "Have you considered that?"

I thought about it. "I don't think I'd make a very good lawyer. I'm really bad at confrontation."

"Ah, well, you could be one of the behind-the-scenes people."

"But that just doesn't sound as exciting. I mean, I wouldn't get to be one of those people who shout 'objection' all the time. That's all they do, right?"

"Oh, for sure," Connor agreed with a laugh. I did keep the idea of law in my mind – it was something I hadn't considered that much before.

Connor and I kept chatting for the whole dinner – he was very friendly, charming and easy to talk to. But I wouldn't be kissing him. I knew that.

Zoe had inched closer to Joseph throughout the meal, laughing just a little too loudly as they talked. Zoe was a lovely girl and my closest friend in my geography class, but she was pissing me off. She wasn't doing it knowingly, so I tried not to scowl in her direction too much.

After dinner, we went back to our respective rooms. I knew I wouldn't be able to go and see Joseph, not while sharing a room with Alice, so I tried my best to go to sleep. But as per usual, my mind was not turning off. And mostly, my thoughts were about my realisation earlier. As I thought about it more and more, I knew it was true. I had never been in love before, so I was new to this department, but I was in love with Joseph. I was. Three, nearly four months didn't seem like that long, but I was living with him, seeing him every day. And those feelings I experienced when I so much as looked at Joseph? It was love. I didn't think I would be in the right mindset to feel that way about anybody, but you can't help these things. I loved someone I hadn't even kissed. But that didn't matter. Not to me. I loved him.