Staying Human

Six

Max actually let a howl as he looked right at me and then he smiled. “Well who’d have thought it; seems we both want it.”

“No!” I said.

“Too late,” he replied.

I tried to pull myself off Max but he gripped me tight.

“I thought you did not want this. You said you did not want to marry me; why did you have to look at me?”

“It’s hard not to look at you when you’re straddling me and your face is sucking mine, admit it Rachael you’re happy we connected. Now you have me trapped”

Arrogant jerk.

I wanted to wipe that smirk of his face.

“Trapped?” I snapped at him, “Trapped?” I then shouted but he just laughed at me. “We would not be in this situation if you had chosen someone else, you trapped me. I am not a woman that needs a man to marry her”

“No difference for me really; I would still be in the same situation; it would just be with someone else.”

“Why did you have to pick me?” Tears were now welling in my eyes.

“I told you, I thought your father would refuse me; imagine my horror when he agreed along with everyone else.”

“I don’t want to marry you; they can’t make me.” I cried now sobbing into my hands. “Tell them you’ve changed your mind.”

“I can’t it’s not my fault your father agreed; he said no once for Jason and I thought he would do the same for you, I can’t go against my father’s wishes and you know that. He’s never demanded it of me before.”

My father had said no once for Jason and Jason had never really forgiven him for it. He’d wanted to marry a woman named Jennie but father did not like her, she was not approved of, she was considered rather wild and had already played the field quite a few times if the rumours were true and father did not want her name associated with ours. He would shout that good women never ‘played the field’ and she was trying to corrupt his son.

The arguing at the time had been dreadful and I’d spent most of this time at the shop keepers as I did not want to be at home. However Jason was defiant and would not end the relationship with her, so father had her married to one of the elder members to ‘get her out of the way.’ Jason did not speak to our father for three years after; it was only when our father had a heart attack that they began slowly speaking again.

However Jason and Jennie were in love, are still in love and behind closed doors they continue to see each other. This situation is what forced Jason to become so hard, at first the rumours and the gossip about them was rife and Jason took many beatings from Jennie’s husband and his friends until he became of age, became stronger and learnt how to fight back and now no-one dares to try and touch him or speak about her within earshot of him, not even our father.

That’s why I think Jason beat up Max, he’d seen first-hand how Jennies husband treated her and he did not want that for me. From the gossip I’d heard her husband liked to use his fists rather a lot and Jason snapped the second time he put her in the hospital and he almost killed him for it.

Jennie and her husband led completely separate lives after that and I have never seen Jennie with a single bruise since.  People would always whisper that her two children were actually fathered by my brother but no-one had ever said it out loud; not even Jason.

Max wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs and sighed, “I don’t know what else to say Rachael. I thought you would be happy when they told you; no-one else is displaying any interest. ”