It was just normal day; I got up, came to school. The smell of steel lockers and old books filled the air. My Airpods played my music as I passed by the usual cliques in their respective corners doing their normal useless activities. The band nerds were banding. The debate teams were debating. The drama kids were drama-ing. Just a regular day. Just as I had reached my locker, which had a permanent dent from the time Ricky Hall slammed a freshman into it, I saw a jumping little Asian girl appear out of nowhere. She was my best friend, Jenny. The two of us had been tighter than PB&J since kindergarten. It was when Lilly Rivers wouldn't stop throwing food at me during snack time. Jenny and I bonded in time out after that. It turns out putting bugs in her cot during nap time as an act of revenge didn't sit right with the teacher. Since then, we had always been Nikkie and Jenny: thick as thieves and twice as devious . Every day, she would meet me at my locker and the two of us would chat about whatever crap we could think of.
Unfortunately, a part of this routine was also Kathrine McDowell. She was the definition of pure evil. Our freshman year, she managed to spread a rumor that got the math teacher fired, convince one of her little minions to sleep with another girl's boyfriend and write my cell phone number on the wall of the boy's bathroom all in the span of a week. From time to time, I still receive dirty text from strange boys at 2:30 in the morning. Other rebellious teens got sent to military school, but Kathrine McDowell had gotten so bad, she got kicked out of military school. For some odd reason, I was her number one target. I think it had something to do with the incident in second grade when Billy Clark gave me a valentine instead of her. She thought she was the hottest thing to come out since sliced bread. Sure she wasn't ugly on the outside. She was your typical blonde haired, blue eyed popular girl that all the guys went crazy for. I guess if a guy needed to settle the whole "Blondes VS. Brunets" argument Kathrine McDowell would be the closing argument. Every morning, she walked past me and every morning she gave me a dirty look.
"Nicole" she said sternly
"Kathrine" I replied to her cutting my eyes.
"Hi Jenny" she said happily waving while she continued her morning "Patrol". Kathrine was always nice to Jenny because her dad was a talent agent and Kathrine had convinced herself that she was the next Brittany Spears.
"Could she be anymore fake?" I asked Jenny angrily as I put my math book in my locker
"Well I feel worse for her boyfriend" Jenny pointed out. I turned my head to see Kathrine making out with her boyfriend, Leo Reynolds, against the lockers.
"Poor guy" I said to Jenny. "She's practically eating him" I said. Sure, Leo was pretty cute, but now that he was with Kathrine McDowell, he was damaged goods. It was truly a shame. Just then I got a text from my mother. That read
"Come STRAIT home. We have something important to talk to you about." It was unsettling, but I knew I had to do just that.
"Everything okay" Jenny asked.
"I'm not sure" I told her. I shrugged my shoulders. "It's probably nothing. You know nothing ever happens at my house" I told her as I made my way to AP English"
Later that day, When I came home, there was something different about my house. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but even the air was unsettling.
"Mom?" I shouted. "Dad, I'm home" I said as I walked into my house. I found my mother and my father sitting on the couch. She looked at me I knew to sit down. I looked at them. It was so quiet; I could hear the ticking from the grandfather clock.
"Okay, I'm just going to kill the elephant in the room" my father said as he told me one of his crazy expressions. "Nikkie, due to your grandfather's wheeling and dealing, you have to do something for our family". I saw my mother grab my father's hand.
"I thought we agreed not to tell her until her 18th birthday" she pleaded.
"It's only three weeks away and we can't wait any more" he replied.
"Can someone please tell me what is going on" I asked getting rather anxious. The silence quickly returned.
"I think I can answer that." I heard a voice say from the other room. I turned my head quickly. I saw my grandfather step through the doorway. He let out a deep sigh. "It was many years ago." He paused and looked at me with sad eyes. "I was young, selfish and stupid." He said. He removed his glasses, looked into my eyes and grabbed my hand. "I won't get into details, but long story short; you're engaged to the grandson of a man who I made a deal with years ago". I looked away from him and back at him.
"Yeah right guys" I said chuckling. "What's for dinner" I asked. "There's this new Thai place that just opened up and I think it looks promising" I added. The room went held it's silence. I looked around at everyone. "This is a joke right" I asked not wanting to believe him. I stood up, pulled my hand out of grandpa's grip and looked at all three of them. "Is this the part when a TV crew jumps out and shouts 'Gotcha!'?" I asked desperately. My grandfather shook his head.
"Uh, no Nickkie. It isn't" he said shaking his head.
"There's more" My mother said. I fell back on the opposite couch.
"Oh so it gets better?" I asked sarcastically.
"We, all of us including your fiancé's parents, got you a condo to live in with him" I flinched at the word "Fiancé" and again at the idea of living with a total stranger. He could be a serial killer for all I knew. This was disgusting to me.
"How long before I have to marry this guy?" I asked.
"It's not until after you graduate so you do have awhile" my mother said trying to make it sound better, but it wasn't better. Nothing could make this better.
"I can't take this anymore. I can't be around any of you right now." I said angrily and began towards the door. When I reached the doorway, I stopped and looked back at my grandfather sitting on the couch still looking at me. "Especially you Grandpa" I said as I walked out of the room. As I started up the stairs, the tears I had desperately, tried to fight had come spilling out of my eyes. I felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach. Most 17-year-olds had to worry about getting a car or trying to impress their crush. I had to worry about what dress to wear for my wedding with a guy I didn't even know. I plopped down face first on my bed and continued my crying. I couldn't believe it. From the day I was born, I was meant to marry a complete stranger that could have been across the world. All of a sudden, I heard the song "So Sick" coming from my phone. I looked down and saw that it was Jenny calling me. I let it go to voicemail. Soon after, she sent me a txt.
J: "No answer? Explain please"
Me: "I'm trapped"
J: "In what?"
Me: "In marriage"
J: "You're MARRIED?!"
Me: "Not yet. I'm just engaged"
J: "To whom?"
Me: "I don't know and THAT'S THE PROBLEM!!!"
Two days of feeling sorry for my self later, It had come to the point when I had to meet the hubby-to-be. Mom and dad were about as excited as I was but what was done was done and we all had to be strong for it. I heard the doorbell ring and a chill went down my spine. I could feel my heart pounding as I got closer and closer to the front door. It was the longest walk of my life. I reached for the door knob and it felt like fire in my hands as I turned it. I opened the door and there was Jenny standing there with a smile on her face.
"Hey what's up?" she said with a wave.
"You know very well 'what's up'" I told her. "Tonight is the night that I meet..." I trailed off.
"Oh was that tonight?" she asked as if she didn't know. "You look pretty tonight" she laughed.
"Jenny, what, may I ask, are you doing here?" I said slapping my hand to my forehead as if I didn't know what the answer was.
"You think that I'm gonna miss the night my best friend meets the man who stealing her away from me?" she asked walking in through the front door. I was kind of glad to see Jenny. It took the edge off. "Jenny, you have to stay for dinner." I told her. "You can sleep over and everything. I have a feeling that I'm not going to want to be alone tonight" I told her. Jenny smiled.
"My stuff is already in my car" she explained. I smiled at my friend and hugged her.
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything" we heard a voice say. We looked at the doorway and thought we were dreaming. It seemed as though we had fallen into a parallel dimension. There, in my doorway, was Leo Reynolds.
"I just remembered. I have to be somewhere that's not here" Jenny said in an attempt to leave. I grabbed the back of her jacket.
"Nice try" I said to her. "You wanted to know and now you do" I told her. My parents soon came in and saw Leo and his parents on our front porch.
"Come in and make your selves at home" my mother told them and my eyes never left Leo's face. I was in disbelief at the fact that the boyfriend of Kathrine was in my house and to make matters worse, he was my fiancé! This was a new definition of sleeping with the enemy. Ugh! I had to get that image out of my head. I looked over at Jen and she was also frozen.
It had to be the most awkward, longest dinner of my life. I spoke when spoken to and nothing more except to talk to Jenny. I caught Leo stealing glances from me but he would look away from me when I did. I couldn't help but have the feeling like this was end. It was the end of my life. We were supposed to be graduating in the spring. How was I going to backpack across America with a wedding ring weighing me down? My dreams of open mike nights at campus cafés and meeting intelligent people were shot down by the idea of being stuck in a condo aiding to my husband. When Leo wasn't looking, I noticed that he had the same look on his face. I may not have been the smartest person in the world, but I wasn't an idiot. This didn't sit right with him either. It was then that I noticed our parents talking and laughing like they had been life long friends.
"Your daughter seems like a smart young lady" he pointed out. "Good quality in a fiancé. Wouldn't you say so son?" he nudged Leo in his arm.
"Yeah Dad" he said nervously.
Later, I was looking from the door of the kitchen when Leo was walking past and I grabbed him by the chest of his shirt and pulled him into the kitchen with me so we could be alone. I pushed him against the refrigerator and pinned him there.
"Oh come on Nikkie, can we at least wait until the wedding night to do this" he said smirking. I rolled my eyes and let up.
"Listen up". I asserted. "There is no possible way that you can be okay with this whole couple-to-be thing" I told him.
"You don't even know!" he told me. "Besides, I love Kat." He said. "...Or at least that what she tell me" he added. I rolled my eyes again.
"Great. Looks like I got brightest crayon in the box", I said sarcastically.
"Hey, don't act like you know me" he argued back at me.
"I know for a fact that you haven't told Kathrine about our little arrangement." I folded my arms and looked at him.
"Are you kidding? She'd kill us both" he said.
"Oh please. You're afraid of her?" I asked him
"Not of her. Just of what she'll do" he clarified. "Besides, you know what they say: There be no fury like that of a woman scorned". I looked at him and was surprised. Maybe he really wasn't dumber than a sack of wet hair.
"So what do we do on Monday at school" I asked. It grew silent between us. There were three things I knew about this whole situation. One: I was engaged to my worst enemy's boyfriend. Two: we had to hide this all the way through the school, which had just started last month so this secret had to live from October to June. Three: I was screwed no matter what I did.