My Hired Boyfriend (Completed)

4. Medusing and Hot Tomatoes

Chapter 4

            “-And it is in that moment, that he sinks down to one knee and pulls out that black velvet box,” My older sister Gwen says, a distant look to her eyes as the room lays captivated.

            Oh yes. Surprise trip to Paris, surprise proposal under the Eiffel tower- how romantic.

            Gag.

            She lifts her left hand, the rock glinting in the light.

            It was the kind of rock you would see in the stone ages-all big and flashy.

            I refrain from an eye roll, slouching in my seat and stuffing a stuffed mushroom in my mouth.

            I nearly gag.

            Rich friends. Rich food. Rich talk.

            I hated everything about it.

            “So, when will you be finding a lucky person, hazel?” one of my distant aunts- cant really remember her name at the moment-asks me.

            I blink, startled at how everyone’s attention shifted to me.

            I feel my face heat up, a furious blush tinting my face a blood red.

            “I-er-um- don’t have a boyfriend,” I mutter.

            Distant-Aunt-can’t-remember-her-name narrows her eyes at me. The room is so silent; I can feel it slip down my throat, suffocating me.

            “Hazel is a bit of a free spirit,” my mother’s clear voice says from the doorway. “Too young to settle down for anything,” She finishes, a small smile on her face.

            The tension in my shoulders fades as she stares at me reassuringly, the room shifting their short attention span to my mother instead of me.

            “But still, Marilyn, she’s nearly 18 and has yet to have a boyfriend,” another aunt pipes up.

            Oh boy, here it comes again. She would of course follow into how girls my age would already be married.

            “Girls her age would already be mar-“ She begins.

            “It’s just because no boy has actually asked her out,” one of my cousins snickers, her beady eyes squinted.

            Even though she half whispered that sentence, everyone heard.

            At it was at that moment, feeling this anxiety bubbling in my chest, my face burning, that I blurted out the stupidest thing.

            “I have a boyfriend. He is coming with me to the wedding,” I rush out, my voice to squeaky for my liking.

            I was the unattractive duckling in comparison to my slim, tall older sister.

            Whatever Gwen achieved, I was held up to that expectation and up until now, I was able to achieve them as well.

            Straight A student, check.

            …. Well I guess that’s all I’ve achieved.

            It was pathetic really.