Locked in Marriage

Chapter Nine

Two weeks had passed since the night they almost kissed and Colton told Kayla of his family problems. But a lot had happened in those two weeks. They began to get along much better then they had previously. Colton was much more willing to compromise and Kayla was learning much more about him that the world never saw. However, when Kayla began her final exams and seminars, she became even more irritable then ever. This was her last set of finals before she would graduate.

"Colton! Seriously, I'm trying to study here. Can you watch TV upstairs?" Kayla yelled from the kitchen. She had been studying for her teacher exams for hours and she wanted to get the top spot in the class so she could begin applying for teacher positions, which she also hadn't mentioned to Colton yet.

"Fine," Colton grunted as he sulked his way upstairs. She heard him turn the TV on and slump onto the bed. She shook her head and continued her studying. After she had finished another chapter of her book, she felt bad about yelling at Colton and went upstairs to apologize and talk to him about finding a job. When she got to the top of the stairs she walked straight to the bed and sat down beside Colton who was lying there watching the TV.

"I want to apologize for yelling at you earlier," she said quietly as she played with her fingernails not looking at Colton and standing over him as he watched TV.

"No problem," Colton said as he continued to watch the TV. Kayla was nervous; she didn't know how to bring up the fact that she wanted to find a teaching job. She knew he wanted her to do well, but she didn't know what he really wanted out of a wife.

"Um, I wanted to talk to you about something," she said, her voice shaky. "Can you turn the TV off and pay attention to me for like five minutes?" Colton turned it off, grudgingly, and sat up against the headboard and looked at Kayla. She came and sat down on the bed beside him.

"What is it?" He asked her, he crossed his arms and continued to stare at her.

"Um, so when I graduate in a couple of weeks, I will have to start looking for a job," she said quietly trying not to look at him.

"Yeah, and what does that have to do with me?" Colton asked confused.

"I thought you would want me to stay at home and be like a trophy wife or whatever. I didn't think you would want me to get a job and not be home all day," Kayla said.

"What? A trophy wife? That's for like 80-year-old guys who marry 20-year-old women. I always thought you were going to look for a job, I just didn't think you would do it right after you graduate," Colton said chuckling a little. Kayla was relieved but also kind of embarrassed that she thought Colton would want her to stay at home.

"Ha, yeah I guess that sounds a little ridiculous now that you said it out loud. But, I just wanted to let you know that I was looking," Kayla said smiling.

"Thanks for letting me know," Colton said patting her leg and turning the TV back on. Kayla felt as though he didn't want her in the room anymore and so she got up to leave and went back down to the kitchen to study more. Colton came downstairs a few hours later and rummaged through the fridge to grab something to eat.

"What are you studying even?" Colton asked as he continued to stare into the fridge hoping something would appear that he wanted to eat.

"Lots of math stuff and physics," Kayla said as she wrote an equation into her notes.

"Math and physics? Those are like the two worst subjects in school. Is that what you are planning on teaching?" Colton asked as he looked around the fridge door at her. He finally found enough food to make a sandwich for him and spread everything on the kitchen island.