The Search for Fireworks (ONGOING)

1 ~ The Surprise!

"Reilly, please," her mother said with a level of exasperation, "I have told you a thousand times: It's been set in stone, since the second you breathed your first breath of air, you will marry him."

"I haven't even met him, Mother! How can you expect me to marry someone if I don't even know his name?"

"He doesn't know your name either," her father inserted dryly.

"That doesn't make it any easier," Reilly slammed her hands on the table and pushed herself up, glaring at her parents in defiance. "The wedding is tomorrow, why can't we know?"

"That was the arrangement," they said in unison, their eyes twinkling with amusement. She raked her hands through her short, blonde hair and waited for her parents to tell her they're joking. They didn't.

Groaning in frustration Reilly stamped out of the room. She's been trying to talk sense into her parents for weeks now, but nothing seems to be working. Slamming the door shut she fell onto her bed, screaming into the pillow, before bursting into tears.

The tears raked through her body fast at first, then slower and slower. Her eyes seemed empty as she stared off into the distance. A plan formulating in her head. She got up then, dried her eyes and squared her shoulders bravely. She's going to try again.

Reilly breathed in deeply as she opened the door and made her way to her parents, her movements strong and deliberate. The opposite of the emotions raging in her heart. She sat down in front of then with feigned calm.

"Mommy. Daddy," she said with her sweetest voice, "I'm seventeen years old. I'm young. I'm smart. I have my whole life ahead of me. I'm starting university next month. Please, pretty please, don't make me do this!"

"Sweetheart," her father said taking her hand in his. "It's for the best, you'll see."

"Your father and I thought about it for a long time, and besides, we were a blind match as well."

"Love isn't a whirlwind that sweeps you up and turns your life upside down. It is a deep respect that you build over years.

"Exactly, we want you to have what we had. Tomorrow is going to be the start of a beautiful life. Come on, don't look at us with those wide hazel eyes. You'll see, you'll thank us for it."

Reilly stared at her parents in horrified shock. Until now, she didn't know her parents marraige was arranged. Until now, she thought her parents were functional members of society. Until now, she thought she had a chance to convince them not to do this.

She got up slowly then, went up to her room and softly closed the door behind her. There was nothing left for her to do, but accept the fate she was born for.

Disheartened, she took a book off her nightstand and trailed her fingers over the lovers on the front page. Book after book has introduced her to love story after love story. They never started like this. The heroine was never forced into a marraige she didn't want. And the heroine always met her husband before marrying, if they ever got married.

Reilly decided years ago she didn't want to get married right away. She wanted to be swept of her feet and live her life. When her parents told her about the arrangement, she thaught they were joking. Clearly they weren't. Tomorrow Reilly Burke is set to marry a nameless, faceless member of the opposite sex, and there was nothing she could do about it.

The indistinguishable sound of a cellphone ringing broke her out of her despondency. She took it out of her pocket, glancing at the name on the screen before answering.

"So? Have you managed to convince the 'rents that you're not getting married or should I be knocking at my sister's door to borrow a dress for tomorrow?"

"You better start knocking, Tianna," she responded softly to her best-friends jest.

"You sound terrible Rye," Tianna piped down her peppiness and replaced it with worry, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get married tomorrow, I don't have a choice."

"Just because your parents are basically forcing you, doesn't mean you don't have a choice."

"What else can I so, Anna-" Her voice filled with angry fear, "Run away?"

"Yes! Why not?"

"And what? Leave my family behind? Leave you behind? Besides, I'm starting university next month!"

"You don't have to stay away forever, you're turning eigthteen in three weeks. They can't make you do anything you don't want to do then."

"Tianna, you are crazy," Reilly said dismissively, "I have to go, we'll talk again in the morning."

Reilly twirled the romance novella around in her hands, reading the back of the cover. Words like "whirlwind" "electricity" "passionate" "sweltering" and "irresistible" stood out to her. This is what she wanted.

Walking over to her cupboard, she grabbed her favourite clothes and started packing. She's not going to sit around and allow her parents to choose her fate. She will go out and make her own.

With her backpack on her back and her savings in her pocket, Reilly opened her bedroom window to the cold, yet somehow inviting night and climbed out. Her feet hit the garden floor with a thud, she spared a last glace into her window, her eyes falling whistfully onto her cellphone on her bed, before she turned to the street and ran.