Chapter Three: Us? Drama? Never.

"BRIDGETTE!" Courtney shouted once she was back inside, startling the blond who was taking a break from wedding planning.

"Huh? Everything okay?" Bridgette asked, looking very concerned. The tone of voice that Courtney was using was one Bridgette hadn't heard since their Total Drama days. She quickly made her way to her upset best friend and placed a protective arm around her. "What happened?"

Courtney, despite her anger, found herself melting into Bridgette's embrace. "Why is Duncan here?" she whispered into Bridgett's shoulder.

"Duncan?" Bridgette asked, furrowing her brows. She thought about it for a moment, trying to guess why Duncan was here. "Oh…That's what Geoff meant in his weird text…" Earlier, she had gotten a message from her fiance that just read, "D coming. 2 hi. Sry."

"I guess Geoff must've forgotten about our appointment at the venue, gotten high, and sent Duncan in his place when he remembered," Bridgette explained once she pieced everything together. She knew her fiance very well at this point, but that didn't mean she always approved of his bad decision-making. "I'm sorry, Courtney. I wouldn't have put you and Duncan in the same place if I could avoid it. Or at least, I would've given you a chance to mentally prepare."

"But is he part of the wedding party?" Courtney asked. She was told that Brody was going to be the best man, with DJ and Trent as the other two groomsmen, but no one told her about Duncan. In hindsight, it made sense, considering how close Geoff and Duncan were and the fact that Bridgette had four bridesmaids so there had to have been one more groomsman she wasn't told about. However, she did feel a bit hurt that no one had told her ahead of time.

Bridgette looked down guiltily. "Sorry… I swear we were going to tell you, but I was scared of how you were going to react and we were so busy with wedding planning stuff that I didn't want to stress you out even further."

Courtney sighed. She knew it wasn't Bridgette's fault and that she meant well. Even though she was still upset, she decided to reassure the bride-to-be. "It's fine, Bridgette. I'm a big girl. I can suck it up and be in the same room as my ex-boyfriend." Until she realized something else. "Great, I get to be in a wedding with my ex-boyfriend AND the girl he cheated on me with."

While she had accepted the fact that Bridgette and Gwen were very good friends and had eventually forgiven the goth girl for stealing Duncan from her during All-Stars, Courtney wasn't sure if she was ready to face all of that. This whole scenario seemed like something Chris would create just to boost his shows' ratings.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Bridgette said, trying to comfort Courtney.

"All I want is no drama, please," Courtney said with a heavy sigh.

"Us? Drama? Never."

Courtney rolled her eyes. It was going to be a long wedding season.


She had already walked away from him once today. Could he really handle the heartbreak of watching her walk away from him twice in one day? (Although, he did enjoy the view.)

Duncan was sitting on the sand, debating whether to go inside the beach house. On one hand, he told Geoff he would be there to help out. On the other, his very hostile ex-girlfriend was in there and honestly, they probably didn't even need his help because of her presence. And again, no, he was not afraid of her. He just didn't want to upset her further with his presence, being the nice, reformed guy that he was.

His train of thought was interrupted by a cough. He turned around, ready to argue with another employee, but instead was faced with a cross-armed, frowning Courtney.

"Oh… hey…" was all he managed to say.

"Duncan," she replied in a tone so hollow that he wanted to shrivel up and die right there. "Since we are both part of the wedding party, we are probably going to have to see each other a lot until the wedding is over."

"Yeah and?" Duncan asked, wondering where she was going with this. Was she going to ask him to drop out of the wedding? Because that is the one thing he could not do. Geoff was one of his best friends and he had to show his support.

"So, I'm calling a truce… with some ground rules."

Before he could stop himself, he found himself saying, "Yeah? And you're gonna make me sign a contract or something?" He instantly regretted his words when he saw her flinch. It seemed that it was a sore spot for her still.

"No, no contracts," she huffed, trying to hide her hurt. "All I ask is that we don't talk to each other unless we have to. Keep our contact to the minimum and only talk about things that are related to the wedding. And absolutely no bringing up the past."

Duncan frowned. All of those rules sucked. He didn't want to minimize their "contact" nor did he only want to talk about things related to the wedding. He wanted to apologize and fix his past mistakes. How could he do that without talking about it with her?

"Courtney… I just-" Duncan started, but was immediately interrupted by Courtney.

"No, I don't want to hear whatever it is you have to say unless it is an agreement to those terms. If you won't then I'll just ice you out again completely"

Even a simple apology now could break down her walls. She had to remain strong, even if it meant being frigid.

"Fine. Deal," Duncan agreed. Some communication was better than none and he really couldn't stand it if she began icing him out again. Maybe this could be the first step in the right direction. She'll see that he can be trusted again and eventually be worthy of talking to her again. Progress was progress, right?

"Good. Now go home. Bridgette and I can handle everything from here."

"But I just got here!" Duncan argued. He didn't drive two hours to get there just to be sent home after only a couple of minutes of sitting on the sand.

"Fine. Just watch in the corner and we'll tell you when we need your help," Courtney replied.

They were both caught off guard at her willingness to compromise, but Duncan wasn't going to question it. "Sir, yes sir."


Fortunately for Courtney, Duncan followed her commands to stay put. He even helped out the employees with moving the tables and chairs around when she told him to. It turned out that he was more useful than she thought he would be, as he was much faster with carrying the tables and placing them where she wanted them than the regular employees.

Once Courtney was satisfied, she took a picture of the room so she could create the seating chart later. They have already decided which decorations, tables, and chairs they were going to rent out for the wedding, so everything should be set location-wise by then.

"You would've made a great wedding planner," Duncan said offhandedly, while they were cleaning up and getting ready to leave.

Although it was a little off-topic, it was a comment related to the wedding, so Courtney let it slide. "Yeah, well, I've been dreaming about my own wedding ever since I was a little girl," she replied.

"I bet you had some sort of scrapbook or something with all of your ideas. I'm imagining there were lots of pictures of princess dresses and castles?" he asked, teasingly.

"What girl didn't want to be a princess?"

"If I recall correctly, didn't you already achieve your princess dreams?"

"Yeah, but it was just one of Chris' lame ploys."

"You were still a pretty badass princess. Especially when you pushed Justin off the tower."

At this, Courtney couldn't help herself but let out a small chuckle. "I was definitely more of a villain than a princess that season."

"Nah, to me? You're always gonna be Princess."

Courtney looked at Duncan with wide eyes. In return, he gave her a cheeky smile that caused her to immediately look away. "That's everything. Good work. Bye." she said quickly without even pausing for a breath and walked to her car.

When she thought she was finally alone, she brought her hands up to her face which was beginning to turn red. How could he say something so cheesy to her like that? Did he forget their dumpster fire of a relationship? And why was that simple line making her feel so flustered? She lightly slapped herself across the face. "Focus, Courtney. Don't fall for it again. You know better than that." She took a moment to count to ten and regulated her breathing, something she learned from her therapist.

After she managed to calm herself down, she drove herself home while blasting music to distract herself from her thoughts. This wasn't something she typically does, but she didn't want to hear her inner voice right now.

Still, inside the beach house, Duncan was feeling satisfied with himself. It was just a little thing, but he could tell that she was starting to let her guard down a tiny bit. This meant there was hope for him after all.


Author Note: Thank you to those of you who have read this far! I don't know how often I will be updating this story but I am having a fun time writing this. Please don't hesitate to leave any reviews with what you want to see in the story or your thoughts and questions about the story so far. Thanks again!