More than Another Brick in the Gray

It was a hot June day when I found out my whole life had been planned out already. I was still in middle school, just a mere kid. My parents took me to go meet the guy I was supposed to get married to and have kids with, when I still thought I was going to be a real-life Hannah Montana. It was the first time in my life in which I had felt truly trapped. I thought I was supposed to carve out my own path, my own future, like all of my teachers thus far had told me to do.

His parents were really nice, but they examined me like a piece of fine jewelry, not the twelve year old girl I was. They told my parents how beautiful I was going to be when I was older. I failed to understand why my parents brought me to these people or even who these people were, until they brought him out. Joey was a tall lanky kid, but undeniably was going to grow up to charm girls with his American looks. He smiled when he saw me. I smiled back, but not genuinely, feeling an overwhelming sense of confusion. My parents set my teenage rebellion into act with what happened next.

“Scarlet, meet the boy you will marry, have kids with, and grow old with. His name is Joey,” My mother smiled at me warmly, nudging me towards the lanky blonde boy before me. This had to be the most awkward introduction ever.

“Scarlet it is such a pleasure to meet you. Can I say you are just the most beautiful person I’ve met.” He spoke smoothly, like this is something he had said many times before. I looked around at everyone confused. No one could be serious right? This had to be some elaborate prank that my parents were pulling on me. They couldn’t have promised me off to some boy I hadn’t met yet.

“Scarlet, be polite.” my mother harshly scolded me.

“Hello Joey.” I said, playing along with what had to be a joke. No one spoke after I said this. I looked back at my mom, who’s eyes told me you better try harder than that.

“I’m so sorry, Scarlet has been going through this weird phase right now, she’s a little awkward around people she meets, but I swear she will grow out of it.” My mother apologized for me.

Something in the way she said this, made me realize this was not a joke. This was happening, to me of all people.

“Oh don’t worry about it, they are very awkward at this age," his mother chuckled, "Why don’t we go to the kitchen to discuss more on our arrangement and let them get to know each other?” His mother smiled at me. My mother smiled warmly back at his mother.

“Of course Charlotte, that sounds perfect.” My mother said, both Joey’s and my dad silently followed them out of the room.

I then looked around the room really taking in my surroundings. The white walls held photographs of a smiling four members of a family, perfectly posed in each photo. They all looked so fake. The only thing that changed between the photos is the age of everybody and the background. Nothing about the photos seemed genuine, just like this family didn’t seem very genuine. They seemed really nice, but only on the surface. They were just too practiced and careful.

It freaked me out.

The couches were a black leather and looked really uncomfortable. The whole house, or at least that I had seen, had been designed to be really modern. The walls, picture frames, and furniture was all in shades of white, gray, and black. The only thing that added color to the room was the damn fake photographs.

“Tell me a little about yourself.” Joey said. I stared at him blankly. He lives in such a monotone world. Everything I’ve seen of him was so rehearsed. Who was he beneath this?

“I’m Scarlet Perry. I live in a world full of color.” That was all the information I was going to give him. I wanted to see how he’d process what I said. I felt the need to show him I didn't fit and I wouldn't fit.

Without any hesitation he spoke, “don’t you know we all do?” He cocked his head to the right at me.

“Some people don’t. You have to see what I see in the world to understand.” I said, still pulling to get a reaction from him. He was too easy, it was too fake.

“So explain it to me.” he said. I seemed to pull a little bit of a genuine reaction out of him.

“It’s something I can’t explain, Joey was it?” I asked, pretending not to know his name.

“Can’t explain or won’t explain?” he asked me. He didn't respond to the part about me asking about his name, which indicated to me that he knew I was messing with him.

“Won’t explain. Why are we being forced to marry?” I asked. It was as good of a time as any to ask the hard questions.

“Company merger. You may not know this, but you are the heir to a wealthy oil company. Your family’s biggest competition in the oil market is owned by my family. Marriage is the only legal way to merge the two businesses into a monopoly, that will dominate and run the other smaller oil companies out of business.” he explained. It was a lot to take in. I didn’t speak for a minute, attempting to recollect my thoughts with all of this new information I had received. I did not know before this I was heir to an oil company. Come to think of it, I hadn't even known my parents owned an oil company. I never noticed this.

“Why us? You have a brother don’t you?” I said pointing to a photograph, that showed another boy in the photos with them. “I have a younger sister and brother. Why do they get to chose their lives?”

“Because we are the same age and can merge the companies a few years before anyone else. We are but a few months apart in age.” He explained, reaching over a grabbing my hand. I pulled my hand away from him.

“How do you know when my birthday is?” I stared at him like he was some creep. I could see the gears turning in his mind and he tried to figure out how to explain it to me.

“I’ve known about you and our duties to our families for many years. I had to know this stuff about you. You were born in the early fall, and I was born in mid-summer. It just is another sign that it was meant to be.” He smiled warmly at me. I felt really disgusted. My parents must've had this planned for a long time. Why had they never told me? I had gotten a chance to see what the world was like. Maybe if I had grown up on the idea, like he had, it wouldn’t seem so bad. I had a taste of what the world had to offer, even at such a young age and I didn’t want to give that up, ever.

“Since you seem to know everything about me, why don’t you fill me in on who you are?” I said, not wanting to be the center of attention anymore.

“Well, I’m Joey. I sprint and do pole vault in track. In my spare time I like to volunteer at hospice homes. I’m a very active member of my church...” I tuned him out. I just needed more time to understand everything that was now happening in my life. I was heir to a huge oil company. I had to marry the rival company’s son to form a monopoly. I didn’t get any choice on what happened with my future. I had to be with Joey. Joey was a very fake person. I don’t know who he was under the artificial layers he was presenting me with. Nobody volunteers that much unless they are trying to get something out of it. So what could he be going for? Good publicity for his company, maybe. Most likely, he was trying to give himself another edge to get himself into a good college. I can’t say I blame him, you have to start younger and younger each generation.

Perhaps he mentioned the volunteer work so early on to make himself seem caring and nice. I have a funny feeling, because of how fast he presented that information, below the surface, he had a bit of a mean streak.

The longer I sat half-listening to what he was telling me, the more I felt like a caged bird. Joey was nice, but he was not ever any type of guy I’d want to be with. He talked too much about his future and what he wanted for us. He definitely was one of those guys who was all talk and had nothing to show for it.

Finally when I got really bored of listening to him ramble on I took notice off what he looked like. His blonde straight hair was dark in parts. He had thick, dark eyebrows and freckles that littered his face. It was nothing really impressive. What made him stand out was his icy blue eyes, that sparkled. They were the only genuine thing in the room. He had long eyelashes protecting his eyes. I had a funny feeling he used that to his advantage a lot, maybe to get things out of unsuspecting girls. I just met the guy though I can’t assume I know everything about him.

“Are you okay with the whole being forced to marry me?” I asked. I saw a pang of sadness hit his features. There it was. The line that made a crack in his fake exterior.

“Honestly, you are very pretty, so I don’t want you to get offended or anything...but no. I want to be able to meet someone one day that I fall deeply in love with. I have felt for years like I’m not human, just a tool in our parents game to dominate the oil market. If I had the choice I would run, far away from here and this situation. I don’t have the means to do so and even if I did, that would just condemn my brother to my fate. I couldn’t do that to him.” He said; his face was determined and strong, but his eyes were crestfallen.

After a silence that felt like forever, my parents emerged from the other room, with his parents in tow.

“Scarlet we must go. Thank you for opening up your home to us.” My dad thanked his family. My mother hugged his mother goodbye.

“We will keep in touch Charlotte. Come on Scarlet let’s go.” My mother urged me forward. I walked over to her. We left the house and got in the car. That was the last I was going to hear about my arranged marriage for years.

My parents didn’t push even the relationship part on me at all for a while. It didn’t stop the feeling of being a caged bird from getting worse. As I watched my friends talk about boys and their dreams about their future, I felt like I was sitting in my cage by a window, watching all the other birds frolic freely. I was stuck to the confines of my cage, never to spread my wings and take off in the direction that pleased me.

I didn’t even see Joey until two years later, my freshman year of high school. I saw him the moment he also saw me. Both of us were thinking the same thing. This was no coincidence that we were at the same school. We both didn’t speak a word to each other, but I knew we would have plenty of time for that later. I just wanted to push it off for as long as possible. We didn’t have very many classes together, just honors biology, in which I was grateful for. I had to spend the rest of my life with this kid, I wanted at least a little bit of my high school experience to myself. I went through the day confused and not paying attention in any of my classes. My parents seriously couldn’t want me to start dating him now. I know we had to make the marriage look real, but this was pushing it. My parents hadn’t mentioned that day for two years. I hoped they didn’t want this now. Unfortunately for me, another conversation I wouldn’t forget happened the day after high school. I walked myself home from school after the last class bell had rung. I didn’t live far from the school and I had always liked to walk. I remember smelling flowers as I walked home and saying hello to people I passed.

The whole day was very relaxing, preparing me for what was waiting for me behind the door. After I turned the knob to my front door and swung it open, I instantly regretted not taking more time walking home. Joey and his parents sat in the living room. I saw all of their heads snap up and look at me, giving me no way to escape like I had never seen them.

I walked into the living room and now could see my parents there as well. I knew that this could not be good for me. I sat down opposite of Joey. His father spoke, breaking the silence that loomed in the air.

“Both of our families have come to a conclusion. It is time for you two to own up to your responsibilities and begin the courting process.” The way his father spoke reminded me of what Joey had said two years before ‘ I have felt for years like I’m not human, just a tool in our parents game to dominate the oil market.’ His parents and mine came to the conclusion that it would be a good time to start dating. This was it. I thought I had a few more years of freedom left, but things don’t always go as you thought they would.

Joey stood up faster than I could react.

“No!” he shouted, “I don’t want this. It’s too early! Let us have some fun before we are stuck with each other for all of eternity. Let us live a little!” His father also jumped up to his feet. Right in front of us, I saw his father smack Joey in the head so hard that Joey collapsed to the ground. His mother kicked him over onto his stomach and pressed one of her black stilletoes into his chest.

“You are embarrassing us and making your future wife feel bad about herself.” His mother sneered at him. If only they knew how relieved I felt to see he didn’t want this either.

I fought with all of my might against this future, slamming up against the bars of my cage. I’d sneak out at night and go get wasted at parties, ran away, and kissed boys who’s names I couldn’t remember the next morning. Finally, everyone agreed I wasn’t ready yet. While it made me feel temporarily better, I knew I was not going to be able to push our relationship off forever.

Another two years went by and I grew more accustomed to the idea of my future with him. The fight in my spirit was depleted after so long of being unsuccessful.

I had been broken and there was very little that could make the fight in my soul come back to life.

Joey was pleasant at times. He really charmed me. For a while I was fine with the idea of our future. I liked him and grew to love him, except I was not in love with him. I realized this my senior year, but it was too late for me to go back. Everyone expected this now and I knew if I didn’t go through with this, my future would be much worse than ending up married to him.

After my senior year, my parents didn’t let me go off to a University. We finally met a compromise. I could study at our local junior college, but be done after getting my AA. I would take any excuse I could to push off my future with Joey.

Which brings us to where this story begins.

While I was studying at the junior college, over our first thanksgiving break, my parents accidentally took me to where my true destiny laid, Costa Rica.

We stayed with my mother’s high school friend, in a house she rented out. Call it luck, but at the same time, her son, who was the same age as I was there too. The mere chance that we would ever meet outside of this trip was slim to nothing.

Our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica, landed early. I was excited to finally be off of the small tube of an airplane. I jumped to my feet, excited at the prospect of being free. Finally when we got off the plane, we walked to baggage claim.

A small little bit of excitement grew in my chest. This wasn’t as bad as I thought. I knew that a lot of Costa Rica would be considered third world or severely impoverished in the United States.

The thought of staying somewhere like that scared the snot out of my pampered self, especially because I knew all the potential health risks of doing pretty much anything. The one thing I was looking forward to is the boy I had seen from the photos that my Aunt had showed me. He was the son of my mother’s high school friend, which meant I would be seeing that hunk all week long. I was fine with that, there’s no way this guy and I were going to end up together.

He was the kind of hot that always would have a girl around. Still, the eye candy would be nice.

Our baggage came very fast and we got pushed through customs. After we got out we went out of the airport and to the car rental place. I started at it wondering how this whole thing wasn’t burning down. I could see evidence on the wall of a fire. While the rest of my family was inside I stood outside, my fear of the place I was about to stay growing immensely worse. Finally they got the car and my the guys explained how nice it was. I looked at them in disbelief. It was just a Nissan. My car back home was probably more money than that. Either way I rolled my eyes and hopped in the car. We took off driving on what had to have been the worse paved road ever. I plugged in my headphones and sighed. This was going to be a long drive.

After two and a half hours, the sun had gone down and we were still not there. We were without a doubt, lost. Finally we got direction from some random stranger on the side of the road. We had been driving on dirt roads for about 45 minutes now and hopefully we were going to make it. We were driving in some area with trees all around it. I just hoped we would get there soon.

Suddenly we turned around a corner and there was my Aunt and someone else was standing there. My dad slammed on the brakes and my mom jumped out of the car. She ran over to the two ladies and hugged them. I was really confused. I knew My Aunt, but the other lady is only who I assume could be Jessica, my mom’s high school friend. They hopped in the car with us and I hugged my Aunt and said hello. I awkwardly said hello to the other lady, who I only could assume was Jessica. We got in the car and drove maybe two more minutes till we pulled up to a house with a gate. The lady and my Aunt got out and opened the gate.

We went into the house and put our bags down. I walked up to the stove and began the prepare myself some kind of a dinner. As I was doing that the other lady left and reappeared with the guy I had seen the pictures of.

I was done for the minute I laid eyes on him. I was so dumbfounded by the human being that stood before me, that my brain went dumb. He had jet black hair that matched the night sky and deep brown eyes that were very curious and comforting at once. He was tall, but not too tall that made him look like a giant. His skin was pale like the stars in the sky, it even kind of glowed, but maybe that a bit of his personality showing through. I’ve always had an eye for seeing that. He wasn’t lanky like Joey, but not too stocky that made him stiff. Like the kind that could lift me up in the air like the ending of footloose but not to where he was lifting all day, everyday. He was wearing a black shirt and light colored shorts. He exceeded my mental picture of him.

I was attempting to make quesadillas at the time, and because of the stunning human being that entered the room, managed to spill all of the cheese out everywhere. After I managed to get my mind functioning again and focusing on making my quesadillas, he came over to me. He scooped me up into a hug very quickly.

“Hi, I’m Vic, it’s nice to meet you.” He said.

Every laugh brought a bursting warmth within me that made me feel like someone opened up the door to my cage, and I was finally able to spread my wings and fly.

He made me feel alive.

Notes

Hi, so I don't know how long this story is going to end up. I have 21 pages written out so far and this is a little less than seven pages. ^.^ So we will see. Also I'm backkk!