Chapter 6

Marry me, sweetheart

“Okay, we have decided that you will be engaged for two years and then get married when you are both 18,” My mom said, sounding happy about their decision. Another family meeting between the Hommais and the Ryans families. This time Seth’s 13 year old, blonde, little sister Caroline, was there. She was very sweet and I got along with her just fine, but Seth still tried to get her to hate me. So we didn’t talk much because of him. He would tell her to go every time we had a chance to talk.

“Tanya, you realize that we will be legal adults then, right? That means that we can deny to get married,” Seth said in a very cool voice. The hate between us had only gotten worse since we were told a week ago that we were getting married.

“Yes, we took that into consideration Seth, but you are engaged until then and you will get married,” Michelle said in a stern voice. Seth went very quiet. Everybody in the room, except maybe Caroline, knew that we could deny it, but that would be to upset our parents, disappoint them, and you didn’t do that. You did what your parents told you to do. At least until you were married and had your own family.

“Well, I think we should go now. Dina, Seth will pick you up tomorrow,” Michelle said. She was referring to the dance I had to go to with Seth. I wish I could just stay home. Sam wouldn’t be there since he was on vacation in Europe and my parents wanted a night alone, so I would be all alone with Seth and his family.

“Dina, will you follow them out,” Mom said more than asked. I got up from the couch and showed them to the front door. Caroline gave me a goodbye hug and Seth’s father, David gave me a smile before stepping outside. Michelle gave me a loose hug and when Seth began stepping around us to get outside his mother spoke up in a sweet voice.

“Seth, aren’t you going to say goodbye to your fiancée?” He mumbled something about me not being his fiancée before looking up from the ground.

“Goodbye, Dina,” he said in the hateful voice I was used to.

“Goodbye, Seth,” I said in a formal voice that hid the hate for his mother, but I knew Seth could hear it. Michelle smiled and closed the door behind them.

I laid down on the couch in the living room and tried to relax. I hated that I had to see Seth so much and it had only been a week! How was I going to live through two years? And then I would see him every day for the rest of my life. I needed Leslie right now; I needed my best friend. But she wasn’t here, she was home in Washington, together with all my other friends.

I sighed and fought the tears, that was ready to fall. I walked slowly up to my bedroom and put the dvd A Walk To Remember on. I needed to justify my tears and it was sad enough to do that. I fell asleep half way through the movie.

I was happy. My white dress was beautiful and the veil went down to my waist. My bouquet was white freesia and it was just as beautiful as the dress. My dad was beside me, we were ready to go, now we just had to wait for the wedding bells to ring. I had three bridesmaids, Shelia, Amy and Leslie. Leslie was my maid of honor. They were all wearing light blue dresses and they were as beautiful as everything else.

Dom, dom, da dom… The doors opened and people raised from their seats. I was smiling and so was my dad; he looked so proud. First the bridesmaids walked down the aisle and then me and dad followed. Some of my old friends were there. They were all smiling at me. I could see Seth’s friends too. And my mom; she looked so happy. I had never seen her happier. Michelle and David were beside her and they looked really happy too. Everybody was happy. And I was happy too.

Finally I stood before Seth, looking into his eyes. He was smiling at me. He took my hand and squeezed it tight. The priest started talking, but I didn’t listen. Suddenly something hit me. When did I start to like Seth? When did he start to like me? I looked down at my dress. It was big and flounced with pearls all over it. It was tight around my neck and the sleeves were long and loose. It was the ugliest dress I had ever seen! Why hadn’t I noticed before? I looked around in panic. I couldn’t get married in a ugly dress.

My eyes fell on my bridesmaids. Their dresses were exactly like mine, only they were blue. Leslie’s and Shelia’s hair was on top of their heads and looked really weird. Amy’s hair was too short to be put that way and was curled instead. Not pretty. The curls made her hair even shorter and now she had curls that were just above her ears.

I looked back at Seth. He was wearing a purple penguin-suit and his hair was flattened down on his head. He was still very good-looking, but he looked… weird, ridiculous. Suddenly the happy feelings were replaced with the normal hate.

We were in a big church, the walls were a golden color that meant to make it look like gold, but it didn’t. I took a deep breath. This was not what I wanted. I didn’t want to marry him, I hated him! I would never marry him! But how could I not, it was what my parents wanted. There was nothing I could do. How could everyone in here look so happy? Everything were ugly and we hated each other. Why would anyone be happy because someone who didn’t want to get married, were getting married?

There was a slight cough from the priest and I looked over at him, still in panic.

“I repeat, do you Dina Elizabeth Hommias want to take Seth Zachary Ryans as your husband?” I looked over at Seth and he transformed into a smiling, green monster in a purple suit.

“Marry me, sweetheart,” the monster smiled.

I screamed myself awake. I sat up in my bed and curled into a ball, hugging myself. Suddenly I could hear footsteps from the other room and then my door was shot open. My mom ran to the bed in her baby pink pajamas, looking panicked.

“Honey, honey, what is wrong? What happened? I heard you screaming.” She was clearly panicking.

“Mom--” I tried to say.

“--Oh, no! Did somebody break in? Are someone in your room? JACK! JACK!” she screamed.

“Mom, MOM! No one are in here! It was just a bad dream. Relax,” I said trying to calm her down.

“Oh, then I will just go to bed again. Unless you want to talk about it?”

“No thanks mom. It’s okay. It’s nothing.” She walked back to the door, but before she stepped out she turned around again.

“Are you sure? I could stay with you,” She said hesitantly. Suddenly I could see how tired she really was; she was almost sleeping on her feet.

“No, mom. Really, I’m okay.” She nodded and quietly closed the door behind her. I laid back down on my bed, covering my face with my hands. I couldn’t believe that eventually I would have to marry that bastard. That bastard who turned into a monster in my nightmares. A monster. Maybe his new nickname should be monster, or the monster.

I fell asleep again around 03.00 PM. A dreamless sleep. A good and happy sleep, but I was still really tired the next morning. My eyes were red and I looked like I was asleep on my feet, just like my mom had at night. My hair was a mess; I looked like a zombie. And this was the day of the dance, the dance I had to go to with the monster. After school I would have to go home and get ready for the dance I would rather die, than participate in.

I tried to cover the bags under my eyes with make-up and brush my hair. I still looked like a living-dead. This was a really bad day for me and I decided that I really didn’t care about how I looked. I put on loose jeans, a black t-shirt and put a grey sweatshirt over it. I put my hair into a knot to get it out of my face and put on my old, ruined pair of converse. I decided to walk to school, instead of driving.

When I arrived at school were the halls already full of happy teenagers. Some girls gave me weird looks and when Shelia saw me, she gasped.

“What happened to you?!” she screeched. She looked horrified.

“Huh?” I didn’t really understand. Was it about my clothes or what?

“’Huh’, is that all you have to say? Did you look at yourself in a mirror this morning?” This was about my outfit.

“Yes, I did actually,” I said in a matter-of-fact tone. Her eyes blazed.

“Did you? Really, then why are you wearing that? Why do you look like that?” I shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t care how I look.”

“I repeat, what happened to you?! Of course you care! You can’t not care!” She was still screaming and it hurt my ears.

“But I don’t.” I put a hand over my mouth as I yawned. She sighed.

“Dina, please, tell me what happened!” I hadn’t told Shelia and Jared about Seth. They didn’t know about my betrothed, so I couldn’t tell her.

“Nothing happened. Just had a tough night, that’s all,” I said waving her off.

“Fine, but I’m taking you home at lunch to change;” she said giving up.

“No, you’re not,” I said and made my way past her to walk away, but I bumped into someone. I looked up into Seth’s green, glaring eyes. I pushed myself away from him and hurried away for class. I didn’t need to argue with him right now, there would be plenty of that tonight if I had to be with him for hours. Hours. Hours in company with the monster.

The monster I detested. I would surely die tonight.