Arranged...WHAT?!

Chapter 24- Plotting

Chapter 24-

Jason’s POV:

“WHAT?!” My body shook with anger.

My mind mind drifted back to the few times my parents had recently talked about arranged marriages. I’d thought nothing of it.

How wrong I was………..

“All this time they were just preparing me…………….” the sentence dragged on. It didn’t need more explaining. Even Rick had been there a few times when they’d talked about it.

Rick and I both thought it was a stupid, controlling thing for someone to be put through……… AND NOW IT’S HAPPENING TO ME!

“How in the heck could this happen!?” My body shook harder with my fists pushed down at my sides so I wouldn’t hit something on accident.

“Dude….that’s why they ran away!” Rick was looking at me like he’d just won the lottery.

I smacked him around the head. “NO DUH! Heck! We should be doing the same exact thing right now!”

“You and I have no idea how to survive on our own, dude. We’ve got to find some other way to get out of it…… let’s try talking to the girls. They might have some other idea by now besides running away.”

His calmness about the situation rubbed off on me and as we made our way upstairs my heart almost returned to normal- keyword almost.

By some miracle we found them walking through the hallways talking conspiratorially between themselves. Their voices were so quiet that even as we walked up directly behind them we still couldn’t hear them.

“What do you want?” Rae demanded, never stopping in her act of listening to Cody’s rushed whispers which I still couldn’t hear.

“I want out of this marriage thing, and I’m almost positive you do too. We should work together.”

Cody spun around, froze, and looked utterly shocked……not necessarily in that order.

“You know?” She finally settled on saying. Her shock turned to anger and she lunged at me, trying to pound her tiny fists into my chest.

They were tiny little hits and I easily caught them, so she opted for kicking me instead. She looked like a four year old throwing a temper tantrum, and when I saw her furious little face I cracked up laughing. Her eyebrows were scrunched up, eyes clamped shut, nose crinkled, and lips in a tight scowl. “How long…..have you known?” I could tell she was attempting to regain some self-control, but it appeared hard.

“About ten minutes now. How long have you known?” How long has she kept this a secret from me? My blood began to boil. I’ve never wanted to hit a girl before, but in this instant I think I could bring myself to do it.

“I found out I was being forced into something the first day you arrived at the house, but I didn’t know it was you until this morning……I don’t know how I didn’t see it, it was so obvious now that I recall…..” the last parts she was muttering to herself, and my mind wandered off, along with my anger towards her.

It’s not her fault. She hates this just as much as I do.

“How it happened,” Rae began with a note of finality,”  doesn’t matter, and how long people have known doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we figure out a way for it to be called off, and that we do it fast- like within the next six days fast.”

“Right.” I said. “What’s the plan?”

Cody opened her mouth, but there was rattling down the hall, so she changed what she was going to say, while we all looked wearily at where the sound was coming from. “Let’s go somewhere more private to trouble shoot. Rae, I was thinking………..studio?”