My Personal Hell, D. Richardson [ebook reader browser txt] 📗

when I was dodging a question. Things really hadn’t changed that much.

“She doesn’t agree with the marriage process does she?” Mom asked.

“It wouldn’t seem like it,” I answered, I hadn’t had a decent conversation with Ailith in weeks. The subject of marriage had never come up. But I couldn’t stop my exasperated sigh. “What was Drake thinking? Planning her ball and sending out the invitations without telling her?” He just kept making mistake after mistake with her.

“Well, he was probably thinking that it would be easier than fighting with her,” Mom answered. “Though I have the feeling that any male he picks out will have a difficult time of it.” I couldn’t help but shake my head.

“She’ll refuse the vows,” it was a simple statement of fact. She would never allow herself to be forced into an arranged marriage. She’d leave before they could get the gown on her.

About ten minutes later we decided to leave. The meal was long over and they needed to get home before my father sensed that something was amiss. We said our goodbyes at the table, and they left before me. I reached down to grab my jacket that I had placed for Ailith to sit on and a small dark blue bundle of clothe fell on the floor. I picked it up and felt the hard plastic of a phone underneath the thin material. Ailith must have forgotten it in her anger.

So when I got in my car I pointed it in her direction. Intending on simply dropping it off and leaving. I didn’t even get there. About three miles down the road I saw her walking. Carrying those ridiculous shoes in one hand while the other swung freely at her side. It was November, the chill in the air was more than enough to give her a cold. However, if she was still angry it wasn’t likely that she’d want any help.

So instead I pulled up ahead of her and opened the door. She could get in or walk past. It was her choice.

 

 

 

 

 

Ailith

 

 

 

 

I never slowed my pace as the car came closer. I knew it was Sadler, no one else would make a wordless offer and leave it completely up to me. It was tempting to just walk by it. But my feet hurt and I was freezing. Asher still had my coat, and it was still another five miles to the house. So I kept my stride and slid into the car when I got to it.

He didn’t say anything, which I was grateful for, and handed me that damned purse. I must have left it at his table. I took my phone and money out of it and tossed it out the window. I already felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders.

The drive home was silent, though it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. It was just one of those drives that silence was accepted. By the time we pulled up to the house, my anger had drained. I tried to climb out, but he spoke.

“Lily.” I looked back at him. His hand had landed on mine in his effort to get my attention, and neither one us moved for a beat. “It’s going to be alright.” I didn’t have anything to say, so I just nodded and made my way into the house.

Drake, Becca, and Asher were waiting for me. Asher hadn’t even changed out of his clothes. It looked like he had warned them of my outburst at the restaurant, because they looked like they were ready for a fight.

“Ailith, we need to talk.” I just sighed.

“There really isn’t anything to talk about. You had no right to start planning my marriage without my consent.” He opened his mouth but I cut him off. “I understand that you have expectations to meet. But I will not enter into an arranged marriage. You do whatever you have to do to save face. I don’t mean to sound petulant, but the simple fact is…you can’t make me.” I made it to the other side of the kitchen when Asher finally spoke.

“Where’s your bag?” I barely paused long enough to give a polite answer.

“Somewhere along the highway.” It wasn’t until I was changed and wrapped in my blankets that I took a deep breath. And then I remembered what happened in the car with Sadler. All I could think before I fell asleep was, it had been an awfully long time since anyone had called me Lily.

Chapter 21

The following week went by quickly. It was mostly filled with work, school, and preparing the benefit. For the first few days we were in a frenzy when we figured out what our deadline had to be. In order to save up the money in time to keep the school from closing we needed to have the performance before graduation. So we had roughly five months to prepare, get enough money for the equipment, and rehearse.

Though after those first seven days things slowed down. Jake managed to assign each performance to a specific person, then handed it over to Stacey and Christine to choreograph. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to want to do any of that without my presence. Claiming that I came up with the initial ideas that would make them memorable.

Our goal was to make each major performance a theme pertaining to the song. And until we had the theme we couldn’t move forward with costumes or set designs. Ultimately it led to all of us getting together at the same time to hammer out all of the details. That meant that we were drawing attention. Even if that attention was positive.

We were all sitting around the living room floor, deciding that it would just be easier to get together at our house. That way Jen and Camilla could be there and it not be as suspicious. Kind of one of those, ‘nothing to see here just a group of teenagers hanging out,’ type of thing. We even put in a movie and were eating microwave popcorn to add to the effect. Though we were having a lot of fun with the popcorn.

“Oh my god! How do you do that?” Christine laughed loudly, while I was throwing popcorn up in the air and catching it with my mouth. It was my sign that someone was listening in. Though I had seen her try it a few times when she didn’t think anyone was looking.

“Just don’t think about it,” I answered and demonstrated one more time. After a couple more tries she managed it and that led to Stacey and Jake attempting it as well. A lot of popcorn ended up on the floor.

“So when do we get to the pillow fights?” Jake asked with a wiggle of his brow. He bellowed out a laugh when four handfuls worth of popcorn hit him in the chest. “What? It’s like every guys dream to crash his sister’s sleep over. Don’t ruin it for me now.” That carried us until we were sure no one was listening again.

Camilla had her sketch pad open on her lap, while Jen whispered things in her ear. Stacey and Christine sat across from each other, that rivalry still hadn’t quite dissipated, which left me and Jake to play peacekeeper.

“Anyway,” he leaned in, back to business. “I was thinking that you could sing Battlefield.” He was looking directly at me.

“What? Why me?” I asked, the less time I was seen on the floor the better. This wasn’t about stage time and I didn’t want it to turn into a competition among the performers.

“That’s obvious,” Christine cut in and I looked at her, confused. She let out a heavy sigh. “Look, you have this weird ability to look like a complete bad ass, we should use that.”

“Yeah, we could stage the entire thing as one big battlefield. The dance itself could be a battle.”

“What like hand to hand?” Jen asked, looking up from Camilla’s drawing.

“No,” Stacey answered a look of contemplation crossing her features. “I think it should be with medieval weapons. It would be more impressive.”

“Do you know how to use any of them?” I asked, I was just starting to train with weapons, mostly swords and a long bow. Bastion had said that my hand to hand was coming along fine and he wanted me to expand.

“No, but I know the fencing coach at the center. He could probably train the dancers.”

“Then you need to pick whose going to be trained,” Jake provided absentmindedly as he wrote something down in his notebook.

“Wait, can we trust him?” I asked, unsure.

“He signed the petition, and he loves conspiracy,” Stacey reassured me.

“Okay, so we’ve got the blue prints for that one. What about, ‘A Thousand Years’,” Jake asked. Stacey jumped in with an excited grunt as she chewed on her popcorn, it wasn’t just for show.

“I actually have a great idea for that one. I was thinking it could be a big ballroom, with dozens of dancers. I was thinking it could an elaborate waltz or something. With the girl singing it could be the main character, and her partner could be on the opposite side of the room, and they make their way over to each other until they meet in the middle.”

“Ooh, that’s really good. Whose going to be the lead?” Camilla asked. Everyone looked at me.

“What?”

“You would make the perfect lead for this one,” Jen gushed.

“No, no, no, no. I can’t be a bad ass and a ballroom dancer, it just doesn’t work like that.”

“Sure it can. You stick to the back a lot but you still demand a presence,” Stacey added, I couldn’t stop the betrayed look I gave her. Which she shrugged off.

“Besides, we saw you at the restaurant, you rocked,” Jake supplied.

“I didn’t even know what I was doing,” I protested, but everyone seemed to have agreed.

“Whose the male lead going to be?”

“He has to match her, if they’re height or weight ratios are off it’s just going to look awkward.”

“What about that guy at the restaurant?” Jake asked, but Christine shook her head.

“Too short, they barely pulled off their performance as it was, and that was just because they were being spontaneous.”

“Guys I really don’t feel comfortable…,”

“That’s okay, we have a few months to figure it out,” Jen cut me off.

“Yeah, but I don’t know how to ballroom dance,” Stacey added self consciously. I let out a loud exasperated sigh.

“I can get a hold of someone who could either teach us or point us in the right direction,” I answered, miraculously everyone heard me this time. And that’s how it went until it was so late that they actually did end up staying over.

 

 

 

Drake

 

 

 

 

Yet again I heard the peel of teenage laughter. I was surprised to say the least when Ailith asked if she could have a few friends over. I wasn’t too happy about the Wilt boy being among them. But she had been so antisocial for so long that I counted my blessings.

When Asher had come home alone last week, I was expecting a major explosion. The size of which this house had never seen. I didn’t want to force Ailith into marriage. In all actuality I had no right to arrange it to begin with. She