BELLE (True Love Series Book 3)

CHAPTER I: Isabel and Jojo

They are my best friends... the family I wish I had...

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Year 2002.

My parents forced me to take up a Business Management course even if I wanted to become a teacher. They are preparing me to take over the family business after I graduated. During my college years, I became a rebel. I'm industrious at first in my school work, but then I slowly became aimless and indolent. I wanted to show my parents that they can't control me and that I can do decisions in my own terms.

I have two faithful best friends, Isabel Flores and Jojo Santos. They knew that I secretly like girls and I'm exasperated as I sought for my parent's affection.

Jojo is my gay best friend. We both have the same age, but I was ahead of him in terms of school years because I attended school in an early age. I met him two years ago when his family had a vacation in Paris. I accidentally learned his deepest, darkest secret, he's a closeted gay! While I was hanging out in a bar in Paris, I saw him making out with another man. All this time he's pretending to be a skirt-chaser so that his parents will not disown him. I can relate to him and these secrets made us closer!

And because Jojo was known as a "playboy" while I was known as a "playgirl", both of our parents decided to set us up for an arranged marriage. They said that we could still have "fun" on our remaining years until my 18th birthday. After that, we will start preparing for our wedding. I never dreamed of being trapped in a loveless marriage!

Isabel is my childhood friend, I met her during one of our family's summer vacation in the Philippines. We instantly became friends and we hang out every time my family is visiting the country or sometimes her family visits in Paris too. She's two years older than me. We both wanted to become a teacher but she's the only one who achieved her dream. Her mother was my mother's very close friend in high school. I really expected that my parents will set her up to be married with one of my brothers. I wanted her to become my real older sister! But my parents didn't consider that idea because Isabel's family were not as rich as ours. Their family background didn't pass the overall assessment of my parents. As what my father always say, "If there's no money, then there's no future in our family business."

Tonight, I invited Isabel to a bar near Marais to celebrate the end of my sophomore year in college and my last year in Paris. She's here for a month-long vacation. We grab a table on the sidewalk and we met new acquaintances --- some girls that were college students like me, and older guys that returned here because this is their hometown. They said that they visited their families and friends after a long time. This place is where all the gay people and all the people of color congregates at night. The youngsters and elders, local and foreign, all gather around for a happy hour of pies and pints for the rest of the evening.

After an hour of constant chatter, we called Jojo's mobile phone number. I put it on loudspeaker.

"Hello?", Jojo said.

"Hi, J!", I smiled even though he's not seeing me. I miss him!

"Hey there bitch! How are you?!", Isa merrily greeted.

"Oh! You two bitches are going wild on a party again tonight, huh? I'm doing fine here. I miss

you girls!", Jojo asked.

"Nope. We're just celebrating tonight. No girls or boys to take home tonight! We miss you too, J!", I replied.

"How about you J? No bouncing and grinding on boys tonight?", Isa asked.

"What foul mouth you have on you, Teacher Isa! Ha-ha-ha! Yes, I will have fun later! So be envious of me!", J replied teasingly.

"Just be careful there, J. You know that Dad might be spying on you!", I joked but that was half meant true.

"Don't worry my future wife, I'm careful. I always include girls in my sexcapades."

"Oh kiddos! You are both disgusting!", Isa said with a grimace.

We exchanged some playful banters then Jojo told us about his experience as a freshman in his new high school. He said that he had a lot of friends and that he maintained his 'playboy' persona.

After his story-telling, I started to tell them about the new plan of my parents.

My dad planned to open a new business in my mother's homeland next year. They wanted me and my older brother Logan to manage that business, so we needed to transfer in one of the famous universities in the Philippines. Isabel eagerly said that she would also transfer near my new university, she will continue her last year of being a practice-teacher in the same school where Jojo was attending.

My best friends and I also planned my soon-to-be marriage with Jojo. Five years is enough to prepare our game plan. The date of our engagement is on the day after my 18th birthday party.

Jojo promised me that he'll make a way to fake our marriage. He said that we could apply for a marriage certificate online. There is an online form from a website that we could get. We will fill it up like we're going to marry each other. We needed two witnesses and we already have Isabel and Jojo's boyfriend. Then for the final step, we just needed to copy a seal from online images of registrar seal, convert to PDF, print and --- voilà! --- a ready to go marriage certificate. We could try to convince our parents that we already have applied our marriage certificate, so we don't need a church wedding anymore.

Isabel suggested that we needed to build up our courage, be strong-willed and be firm in our decision to say NO. We should not be scared on keep saying NO to our parents, even if they blackmail us to force their plans. We need to clearly show them that we didn't want a marriage that's against our wishes.

That's all our plans for now. Isabel's plan is unclear,I am not sure if Jojo and I could pull that off successfully. We needed toproduce other backup plans too. Our parents were all business-minded people andit won't be easy to play a trick on them without grave consequences.    

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