Quick A/N: Hey! I hope you're enjoying 'Accidentally Married' so far as I'm having a lot of fun writing it. I have a few chapters that I wrote over the summer which I'll try to post weekly. Since school has started again, I have been busy the past month and I don't have much time to write any new chapters. However, as soon as I'm up to date with my school work and have time, I will start writing again. And, thank you for reading!
alavaraa x
**********
It had been almost a month since I'd moved into the Turner-Allen house and I'd settled into my new life. The weekday mornings were a blur - everyone was rushing around the house trying to get their things in order. Catherine's car was at a mechanic's, and her and Rob (he'd insisted I called him that as we were family) were currently working different shifts, so she was using his car to get to work for the week. This meant that Levi had to drop his sister off earlier at school, and Josh and I went along with them.
"Where's my t-shirt with my band's logo? I can't find it." Liv yelled from the top of the stairs. It was just a Wednesday and the four of us were running around the house looking for misplaced books, pencil cases and t-shirts. We were alone in the house as Catherine was at work and Rob had realised in the beginning of the week, that it wasn't necessary for him to witness our morning madness, as I knew the happenings of the house almost as well as anybody else that lived here, and had made the decision to go for a daily morning stroll, that probably ended as we left the house.
"Check behind your door," I yelled whilst trying to make some toast. As smoke began wafting from the toaster, I gave up and threw it in the bin. I grabbed a banana and finished it in three bites.
"You look good this morning Mrs. Turner," Levi said, giving me a quick kiss. "And you burnt the toast again, didn't you? Also, have you seen my Science book?"
"I've not changed my name. Still a Miss. Still a Jones. And kitchens hate me. Your book is in my bag, remember? You lent it to me yesterday for the notes," I said.
"Right. Thanks. You should think about changing it. Mrs. Turner sounds nice."
"Nope."
"Fallon," Josh yelled from his room. The downstairs store room had finally been renovated and had turned into Josh's room. "Have you seen my pencil case? Or my homework?"
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see me. "Josh, you don't own a pencil case and you've never done your homework."
"Josh stop bothering my wife," Levi said as he made coffee.
"Levi stop bothering my friend," Josh came out of his room and stole Levi's coffee.
"Wife trumps friend," Levi argued.
"I am still only your girlfriend," I said to Levi.
"Girlfriend who is married to me," he muttered under his breath, thinking I couldn't hear him. I kicked him in the shin.
"And both of you stop arguing. We are going to be so late." I ran to the stairs to shout for Liv but found her running down the stairs. "Did you find your shirt?" She nodded.
"Levi, did you make lunch?"
"Shit! I knew I forgot something."
"Babe, you had one job," I yelled. Since I couldn't cook, and everybody else was too busy, Levi had taken the responsibility of making lunch for himself, his sister and I. Josh ate at school.
"I'm sorry," he shouted.
I looked at the time and saw that we weren't going to make it to school on time. "We've got to go now," I yelled. We ran into the car, Josh locked the front door behind him and got in. Just as Levi started to reverse his car, Liv shouted for him to stop. "What is it?" he asked.
"I forgot my drumsticks."
"They're in the boot," I said. Liv breathed a sigh of relief and Levi started driving again. "What would you guys do without me?" I asked, amused.
"We'd be dead," Levi said. At the same time Josh said, "We'd have edible breakfast."
I ignored him and took a tenner out of my purse. "Since your brother forgot to make us lunch, buy something in school. Please don't starve, your dad would kill me." I handed the money to Liv. She put it away, telling me my dad would kill Levi, not me, if she starved.
Even though I'd only been living with them for a month, I'd become more responsible, thanks to Catherine. She'd helped me to adapt to my new life. I definitely wasn't the same Fallon who'd said yes to the dare that changed my life almost four months ago. I'd missed having my parents around in the couple of weeks or so, but now, I knew for a fact I didn't need them anymore.
Levi parked down the street from Liv's school. "Don't forget I'm competing today. You guys have to come to support me." Liv was competing in her school's annual Battle of the Bands competition and today was the final.
"We'll be there," Josh reassured her. "And don't forget your drumsticks." Once Liv had taken everything and started running to her school, Levi started driving. "So where are we going for breakfast?" Josh asked.
"We're going to school," I said. "We've skipped so many lessons, I don't know how we still have good grades."
"Exactly, we've missed so many lessons, it won't matter if we miss a few more," Josh said.
"School it is," Levi said. Josh made a whipping noise. Levi braked hard at a red light causing Josh to fall forwards. The rest of the drive was silent.
**********
"Is that your wedding ring?" a girl asked. I nodded. I was currently sitting in Art, a lesson I had with none of my friends. If somebody came up to me and started asking me marriage/Levi related questions, Kelsey and Vanessa would direct them elsewhere. I'd not seen a single guy ask Levi a question. Unless they did it when I wasn't there.
"Was your wedding magical? Did you wear a white dress? Was Levi in a tux? Did you guys invite your families?" she fired questions at me.
I looked up from my sketchbook and said in the flattest tone possible, "No. No. No. No." Her smile dropped. She opened her mouth to ask me another question but another girl beat her to it. "Where did you guys get married? Did you have a honeymoon?" she winked. I sighed and looked around the room. Everyone quickly avoided my gaze. They were all listening.
I stood up on my chair and the teacher shouted for me to get down. Ignoring her, I said loudly, "Listen up. You all seem to have a lot of questions about something that doesn't involve you. It's starting to get on my nerves because I've had the same questions thrown at me for almost five weeks. So I'll make a deal with you all. I answer any question that I think deserves an answer and for the rest of the year, you do not bring this subject up in front of me or Levi unless absolutely necessary." Everyone murmured in agreement.
A boy towards the back of the class shouted, "What counts as absolutely necessary?"
"You're thinking about getting married and need advice," I said and got down from the chair. I listened as everyone discussed what questions they were going to ask. The teacher tried to get everyone's attention but it wasn't working. I texted Levi and told him what I'd done. He replied, Well done.
Lunchtime rolled around faster than normal. I walked into the cafeteria with my friends and saw that the place looked more full than normal. The table where we usually sat had people there too, even though on any normal day nobody else except us sat there. My friends sat down at our usual table but I found the middle table and climbed onto it. As I looked around the cafeteria, I saw a few of the teachers standing around the edge of the room.
"We all know why we're here so let's do this. We're going to need a systematic way to do this because there has to be two hundred people here." Everyone was silent as I thought about how to do this. I didn't have any ideas and looked to my friends for help.
Kelsey texted me and said, Just make them put their hands up and pick. Since I had no other options, I went with hers. I told them her idea and then said, "Let's continue, shall we."
"Why did you get married?" the first student asked.
"I was dared by Jamie Brown, Levi's best friend."
The next student asked, "What, where, when, why, who, how?" People laughed.
"Smart," I said. "What: marriage. Where: at a courthouse after Kelsey's party. When: August 31st 2018." I paused and thought about the other questions. "Why: like I said, a dare. Who: me and Levi, duh. How: er, we went to a courthouse, we said 'I do', exchanged rings, signed a certificate."
"What's it like being married?"
"It currently feels like I'm permanently dating the same person."
"Do you ever feel like a wife or does it just feel normal?"
"Now that I'm living with Levi and his family," I made finger guns at Levi and Josh, "I do feel very wifely sometimes."
"Do you cook?" My friends all started laughing.
"It's 2018 not 1918. Women do not need to cook. And no because I don't know how to and Josh will kill me if I step near the stove one more time." Some of the students laughed.
Josh yelled, "I will also kill you if you go near the toaster, the microwave, the oven and anything else that makes food." which made more students laugh.
"How whipped is Levi?" a guy who was friends with Levi asked.
"Not whipped at all," Levi yelled.
"Incorrect," I shouted. "Very whipped." A lot of the guys, including Jamie, Josh and Elliot started making whipping noises.
A girl who hung around in the same circle as Miles asked, "Were you kicked out of your house or did you choose to move in with them?"
People had started whispering to each other. "I said I was going to answer questions that I think deserve answers and unfortunately I don't think that question deserves an answer." Everyone yelled.
"That's not what I've heard," the girl said.
"People have only heard what they wanted to hear," I said. "But I'll answer your question: I was kicked out." They were going to end up finding out sometime so they might as well have heard it from me. "I won't be answering any more questions about this," I added and saw some hands go down.
"Would you have married whoever Jamie dared you to?" Miles shouted. Unable to look him in the eyes, I nodded. It felt like people were pushing in closer to see what was happening between us. "I know you do everything you're dared to do," he continued. I didn't respond. "So I dare you to get divorced," he finished quietly. I heard the whispers of confusion. They were trying to figure out what he said, but I'd heard it clear as day, maybe because he was standing directly opposite me, or because I was expecting him to say that.
I shook my head. "I can't do that." Miles walked closer until he was next to the table. He looked up at me and asked, "Why?"
I jumped off the table and said quietly, "Can we talk somewhere without 400 ears?"
"No, I want to do it here."
"You really don't." Miles started to argue but I stopped him. "Please. Give me a second." I looked at the time and saw that it was almost the end of lunch. I jumped onto the table again and yelled, "It's the end. I'm feeling nice so if you have any more questions, find me tomorrow." I watched as everyone slowly trickled out. I asked my friends to give us some space so that I could talk to him privately. Levi looked worried but I reassured him that I'd be fine.
Miles sat down at the table. "What changed? I know we were broken up when you got married, whatever. But what changed from how you felt at the beginning of summer to the end?"
"I thought I was in love with you. I think it was just infatuation because you were the first guy I had romantic feelings for."
"And now I'm telling you that I love you," he quietly said.
"I can't say it back. Do you understand how I felt then, when you couldn't say it back?"
"Is that why you're doing this?" I shook my head. "Then explain it to me."
"I've been through so much with Levi, I wouldn't be able to leave him now."
"Haven't we gone through a lot?" His question irritated me.
"Levi and I have known each other since we were babies. We hadn't talked in years and then we woke up one Saturday to find out we were married to each other. We find tattoos of each other's names on our bodies," I said.
"Tattoos?"
I ignored him and continued talking. I'd bottled my feelings and thoughts for too long and unfortunately for Miles, it was his stupid question that made me explode. "We both got jobs to earn money for a divorce because we thought 'We got ourselves into this mess, we'll get ourselves out.' We've spent three months hiding it from our parents because we thought we'd sort it out and then we'd tell them. We thought we had.
"We're dating each other and our marriage isn't derailing our lives so we told our parents. My life turned upside down. I was kicked out of my house. Do you know what that's like? Your own mother telling you she doesn't trust you anymore. My dad and I decided I was going to stay at Levi's for only one night. He was going to talk to my mum and persuade her to let me come back. I'm at Levi's for a few days before he comes to visit, only to tell me I need to pack up the rest of my things. I've talked to my dad one other time in the last month. Levi was by my side throughout everything. And you think we went through a lot."
"I would've been there for you if you'd told me what was happening," he said.
"Nope. We're not going down that road." I shook my head.
"You can change things now. You can leave him if you want to," Miles stood up and held my hands in his. "You can thank his parents for helping you and giving you somewhere to live. You said so yourself, you saved up money for a divorce. Get a lawyer. You can move in with me. My parents won't mind. In fact, they miss seeing you around the house."
I pulled my hands out of his grip. "I don't want to leave him," I said quietly. He didn't hear me or chose not to hear me because he continued talking. I repeated myself, louder this time. "I'm not leaving Levi. I love him."
"You only think you do because he's helped you out."
I screamed in frustration. "Miles. Stop. Listen to me. I love Levi," I shouted. "I love him and I'm in love with him."
Although I'd said it to get Miles to understand, I knew in my heart that what I'd said was the truth. I was in love with Levi. Sure, we'd only been dating for a month, but we'd been through so much together. I'd gotten to know him better in the four months that we were married and Levi was exactly the type of guy I'd imagined my future with. I didn't care if people told me I'd fallen in love too fast or that I didn't know Levi well enough to be in love with him. I knew for certain what I was feeling.
"Did you forget that you'd said the same thing to me? How are you so sure this is the real thing? Maybe I was the real thing," I could see the hurt in his eyes but I knew that this might be the only way he would finally move on.
"With you, I was heartbroken for a week. This might sound harsh but when you broke up with me, I was relieved. I realised that I wasn't really in love with you. I just thought it was love," I said. "Levi is the real thing because I can't imagine living without him. Breaking up with him, would break me."
Miles' eyes moved to look at something behind me. I turned around and saw Levi standing there. Without saying anything else, Miles left. Levi was frozen where he was standing so I walked up to him. "Did I hear you correctly?" he asked after I'd shoved his shoulder.
"Yes. I love you," I said. Levi had the biggest smile I'd ever seen on his face.
He pulled me in for a kiss. "I love you too."