“Are you SERIOUS?!” I scream

“Chloe, honey, please come down,” my mom begs “This is in the family's best interest.”

“Sure, the family's best interest,” scoffing, I turn on my heel. “Tell Dad I refuse to help his stupid computer company by agreeing to marry his company competitor's son. I don't even see how you can even ask this of me! This is the 21st century! People don't have arranged marriages anymore!!!!”

“Sweetie, I'm afraid you don't really have a choice...” her voice wavering she sighs. 'I knew she wouldn't take this well John, I hope you really think this is worth it.'

“Don't have a choice? What do you mean I don't have a choice?” I glare in her direction.

“Your fiance is showing up in an hour to take you out for a celebratory dinner, just the two of you. Now go get ready.” She shoves me towards my room. “It's an upscale restaurant so put on one of your nice dresses.”

Stomping up the stairs muttering curses under my breath, I pull out my cell phone and call my best friend.

“Hey Laura?” I ask when she picks up the phone

“Hi! What's up Chloe-flow?” she answers giggling

“Can you come over? I need some help getting ready for some stupid dinner I'm being forced to go to.” I say mumbling more curses under my breath.

“Sure! Is it another one of your dad's dinner party things?”

“Umm...not quite, I'll explain when you get here” Flipping my hair over my shoulder. “So you'll be here soon?”

“Yeah It'll take about five minutes” She says already running out the door. “See ya soon Flow!”

“Bye.” Hanging up, I hear my mom yelling something from downstairs “WHAT DID YOU SAY MOM?” I shout back through the door

“I said Chloe are you getting ready up there?” Sighing, grudgingly I reply yes and start pulling out dresses for Laura to choose from. My door suddenly flies open with a bang and Laura runs into my room dive bombing me in a gigantic hug. I look up at her and open my mouth to say something when she suddenly she jumps off of me and starts looking at the dresses I've pulled out.

“Here, try on this black one!” Throwing it in my direction she continues to ravage through my closet flinging clothes in all directions. Noticing my hesitation she stopped and sat down on the floor looking up at me. “Is everything okay Chloe?” She whispers. My angry and gruff demeanor quickly crumbled away leaving me defenseless with crystalline tears streaming down from my eyes. Collapsing upon my knees, Laura quickly runs over and gives me a comforting hug.

“No” I shake my head “Nothing is okay Laura, I'm getting MARRIED!”

“To Oleg?! Oh wow! He proposed to you!!!! Wait, why are you upset about this? You guys have been dating for a year and a half now.” Laura asks half confused “Oh...no! He didn't get you pregnant did he?! I'll kick his punk ass!!!!!” Smacking Laura I turned the shade of a tomato and proceeded to dry my eyes. “Owww what was that for?” She whimpers.

“Don't be stupid Laura! No he didn't get me pregnant!!” sighing I decide to spill the truth “Actually...The one I'm getting married to isn't Oleg..” I trail off.

“WHAT?!” She jumps to her feet “What's wrong with you?! Have you been cheating on him? Oh no! Don't tell me this mystery guy got you pregnant!” She shouts in sudden realization.

“Laura!!! Shut up and let me explain!” I explode. “No false accusations here! Just sit down and I'll start from the beginning.”

“Okay sorry” Laura apologized, awaiting an answer, she looks at the floor in a faked sudden interest in my carpet.

“So here's how it all started...” I begin speaking, remembering what had occurred only hours earlier.

'Crap crap crap I'm late!' I run in the direction of a secluded lake and mentally scream at myself at the same time. 'I told Oleg that I'd be here over fifteen minutes ago!!! Ahhhh, crud, I hope he's still there.' After nearly tripping over every root a forest of trees can grow I'm beginning to get really frustrated. Am I really willing to push myself this hard just to go see a guy? Well, if it's Oleg, hell yeah.

Eventually I burst into a quiet clearing and look around to see if he waited for me. After giving our clearing a once over glance I figure he must've gotten tired of waiting for me and left. Sighing, I turn around to leave when I accidentally walk right into some random guy's chest.

“Oh sorry...” I mumble not even bothering to look up, wallowing in my disappointment, I step aside and start back down into the forest.

“What? No hug?” A deep male voice says mockingly hurt. “Do you honestly think I'd leave here without seeing you? Though, you are late so maybe I should just leave now anyway.”

“No fair! Stop teasing me I got here as soon as I could.” I whine while crossing my arms and sticking my tongue out in his direction.

“I missed you.” He whispers huskily. Taking long strides he easily covers the distance between our two bodies and gently takes me into his arms, he softly places his mouth over mine. Breaking apart I'm left gasping for breath I feel like unless he wasn't holding me up, I would fall down.

“Come watch the sunset with me?” He asks and walks towards the lake leaving me behind to the most breathtaking picture. With his back facing me, the sunlight left behind him a deep shadow of his well built figure. The sun shone through his beautiful blond hair and even though I couldn't see his face, I know by heart how perfect his azul eyes are. Oleg has a fairly nice looking body if you ask me, I've seen girls drool all over him before. 'Hahaha I'm glad he chose me.' I think to myself. His rippling muscles are well defined and his legs are long and very sexy. His taste in books, music, and clothes are impeccable, he's what most would like to call “perfect”.

Sauntering up behind him I drape my arms around his neck and give him a quick peck on the cheek before sitting next to him. Watching the sun turn ravishing hues of red as it slips behind the trees and mountains it starts getting colder. Moving from my head from his shoulder I rub my arms attempting to keep myself slightly warm. Then I feel a heavy coat fall on top of my head. “Owwwww” I mumble, muffled from beneath the jacket.

“There, put it on so you don't catch a cold.”

“Hey, but what about you Oleg?” I ask. “Wont you be cold without it?”

“I'll live without it.” He shrugs. “I'm practically impervious to the cold anyway.” Putting on his jacket I smile and take his hand. “I love you”. I say to him. “I love you too Chloe.” He replies.

Arriving back home I walk into the house and head for the kitchen. Mom calls out from one of the back rooms and beckons me to come to her because she and I need to have a “talk”. Groaning I shut the fridge and trudge to the room she's in so I can get it over with. After all, our “talks” are never really good things and usually end badly.

“Yeah Mom what do you want?”

“Sweetie, we need to talk about your relationship with Oleg.” She starts off hesitantly.

“Why? There's nothing wrong.” I state quickly hoping to end this conversation soon.

“You need to break up with him because your father set an arranged marriage up for you...” Flinching as she waits for my explosion.

“And uhh...yeah, that's pretty much what happened.” I finish.

“You're stuck in an arranged marriage with some guy you've never met? Wow that sucks.” Laura says.

“All this for a merger for my father's company, it's so stupid and my cover will be blown. Everyone in school is going to know who I am now!” I complain as I start pulling on a deep emerald green dress. “I mean, there's a reason why no one knows I'm rich! I only want to be treated normally and make real friends, not bimbos after money.”

“Sorry that the truth hurts, but I doubt many people are going to treat you the same after they know you're practically an heiress.” Laura hands me a pair of black heels with crossing straps that I have to tie up. Looking up at my reflection in the mirror, Laura gives me a thumbs up and we both head down the stairs.

“Honey you look amazing!” Mom gushes. “Thanks for helping her get ready Laura, she looks perfect!” Then the doorbell rings and instantaneously I'm frozen over with panic and fear unable to answer the door, Laura opens it for me. 'Smile you moron SMILE this is your future husband so make a good first impression even if you hate his guts.' I inwardly wail. Turning stiffly, I let out a forced smile and walk over to greet my new guests.

“Chloe, this is Jordan Clarmon, your fiance.” Mom introduces us as he smirks at me and holds out his hand for me to shake in a polite greeting. “Congratulations you two, so you guys go have fun tonight!”

“Oh, excuse me Mrs. Frane, Chloe forgot her bag upstairs so will you please excuse us for a moment?” Laura asks. “What? Laura I'm not bringing OW...” She elbows me and motions to go upstairs. “Right, my bag...hold on, I'll be back in a minute.”

As soon as Laura successfully closed and locked my bedroom door behind us she whirls around with a look of unbelieving shock on her face. “I can't believe you're getting married to THE hottest eligible bachelor in the WORLD!!!!”

“You're making it sound like I should want to get married to this guy Laura...” I grab a small black purse and head back down the stairs to my waiting ride. “I'll be back in a few hours! Bye.” When the front door closed and we were no longer under watchful eyes, expeditiously both our fake smiles dropped from our faces.

“Look, I don't want this any more than you do.” Jordan pitches in. Scoffing I reply “As if, you have no idea how much worse for me this is than it is for you. Everyone already knows you're some famous rich pompous ass, what about my friends? My boyfriend? I don't play off of the fact that I'm rich to make unintelligent fake friends.”

“Hey I'm not as stupid as you think I am! If I were as stupid as you say I wouldn't be a 4.0 student and leaving for Cornell University in a few months.”

“Wait if you're going to Cornell and I'm forcibly getting married to you, I have to move to New York too?! There's a certain point where I cross the line buddy, I'm not getting up and leaving MY life behind for you.” I complain as we pull up to the restaurant. Getting out of the car I take a good look at the place we've arrived at. A dark red carpet leads up to the front double doors, walking towards the beautifully engraved doors they're immediately swung open for our entrance. Approaching the reservations desk we're promptly ushered to our table where candles are lit and a wine bottle sits.

“This is..ermm nice I guess.” I mumble while taking a seat.

“We're in, literally, THE nicest restaurant around and all you can say is that it's 'nice'?” giving me this I-think-you're-insane look, he turns his attention to the soft music flowing through the air. “Well, whatever. I'm leaving anyway, all the staff need to know is that we showed up so they can report back to my father. He just needs to know is we were here, it doesn't matter where we go afterwards.”

Scoffing at him I can hardly believe it, here I am, 'supposedly' celebrating my engagement to a complete stranger and he's practically standing me up to my face. “Fine, you go ahead and I'll just get a cab back to my friend's house.”

“No.”

“I'm sorry, did I say you had a choice?” I ask

“I said no, weren't you listening?” provoking me into an argument. “We have to leave together and look all lovey-dovey for the press. If your thick-headed stubborn dumb butt hadn't noticed, the place is swarming with people 'undercover'.”

I couldn't manage anything other than an “oh” out. Wow, I feel dumb because there have probably been hundreds of pictures snapped of us together in the past 10 minutes and I hadn't even noticed. Plastering the biggest grin on my face that I could possible achieve I stand up from my chair. “Ready to leave sweetie?” Sarcasm dripping from my lips, the glare I received from Jordan was totally worth it. Firmly grabbing my waist and dragging me towards him he dips me back into a low and very deep kiss. Straightaway, even though my eyes were closed, I could see the flashes from cameras going off everywhere. Pulling me back up, smirking in my direction he replies “Yeah, I'm ready to go.”

Once safely inside the car we drive a few blocks until he reaches a park. Slowing down, Jordan comes to a complete stop next to a water fountain.

“..Wha..?” I begin but he rudely interrupts.

“Get out,” he demands.

“EXCUSE me?!” I half screech

“You heard me Chloe, I said get out.”

“What do you mean get out?”

“Are you daft woman?! Open the door, and get out of my car!!!” his patience snaps as he leans over and opens my door, giving me a shove I stumble out. Slamming the door behind me I watch my ride zoom out of the parking lot, stranding me in an unknown neighborhood.

'Jackass...' I mutter in my mind. Looking around doesn't really help me much because I'm about as lost as lost can get. 'Is that a rain cloud I see? Oh lovely, I get my own depression cloud to follow me around. Great, just great.' Feeling the tell-tale rain drops starting to fall at a steady pace, I run for the nearest shelter I can find.

“Does this park ever end???” I scream to the unforgiving world. As soon as those words left my mouth, I see a 7-Eleven across the way. Running into the dry haven, relief overcomes me with a warm silence.

“Hey, lady, are you gonna buy anything?” The burly cash register growls out at me.

“I'm umm...left my purse somewhere so I don't have any money on me.” I say hesitantly thinking of my poor purse currently located in the back of Jordan's stupid car.

“That's what they all say, so just get out.” He opens the door.

Shoved out once again, I find myself alone and quickly getting soaked from the relentless rain. Crossing the street, I almost proceed to be run over by a car.

“Watch where you're going ass-ho...Oleg?” I begin to stutter as he swings his car in a circle and pulls up beside me.

“Chloe what's going on?” Oleg asks, rolling down his window, he's clearly becoming angrier at me by the second.

“Just tell me Chloe, am I not good enough for you? Not rich enough?” He yells. “I come home and see pictures of you making out with some famous guy. What, you didn't think I'd find out? You're all over the news!!!!”

“Oleg..please...” I beg.

“No Chloe, you can't fix this so don't even try.” Oleg turns his engine back on.

'It's better if he hates me' I thought to myself. 'Just let him move on because it's time to let go.' I think sighing.

Looking him straight in the eye, I know that if I break his heart and mine at the same time he'll still have a chance to be happy. “You're right, I want someone with money, someone famous.”

“Well I hope you're happy” he seethed. “I'm sorry I ever loved you.” He whispers then speeds off into the night.

Falling to my knees in the middle of the road I begin sobbing. 'So this is what it is like to have your life fall apart before your eyes.' I lament, bawling until I drag myself to the side of the road and fall into a deep unsettling sleep.