Never Say Never (Arranged Marriage Love Story)

Chapter Six

|Chapter Six|

After lunch was over, Jeremiah needed Ashley for some important business, so I would finally get a few hours of blissful peace to myself. I was so happy I could have kissed Jeremiah, but that would have probably ended badly in very many ways. Instead, I decided to take the time to sneak out to the garden with Willow before Anastasia could ask me to join her and my mother in the ball preparations. In all honesty I wouldn't have minded hanging out with Anastasia, but I wouldn't want to have to think about my engagement ball.

"Ah! Blissful peace at last!" I sigh as I sit down on the garden's fountain's edge before turning so I could lean my back against Willow's side.

She chuckles, "Is being with him really that bad?"

I nod my head as I closed my eyes and basked in the warm rays of sunlight. It felt amazing to finally be able to get alone with my best friend and just relax and act like life was once again normal. "That man will be the death of me." I add yawning. I didn't realize how tired I was until now. Now that my nerves, and stress were gone I remembered the restless sleep I had had last night and how tired my body actually was.

"You're a lot quieter than I thought you would be." She says after a few moments of comfortable silence.

"Silence is nice," I mumble out. "It's never quiet when Ashley's around. It's even worse with Titus,"

"Titus seems like a sweet guy, though." She hums and I open one of my eyes and turn my head to peer up at her blushing face.

"Just wait until you get him and Ashley together without anyone else. You'll change you're mind real quick." I reply thinking about the perverted comments Titus had spoken to me. There was no way I would categorize Titus as sweet. Flirty, yes; but not sweet.

"Mmm, and how was that?" Willow muses raising her eyebrows before I resume my earlier position.

"I ended up getting thrown to the ground as well as being offered to being "comforted in the middle of the night in his bedroom, where anything could happen," by Titus." I retort, blushing as I said the words.

"You're kidding me right?" She asks, but when she sees my shaking head she adds, "Maybe you're right about him, Luce."

"I told you so."

"Anything else you want to get off your mind?"

"I don't know..." I trail off thinking. I did want to complain to Willow about everything that had happened so far, yet I didn't want to burden her with it as well.

"If you don't vent out your frustrations now, something bad's going to happen when you blow up on the wrong person," She replies with an amused smile on her face.

"Alright then," I say taking a deep breath. "But you asked for it."

I sit up and face Willow before I begin. I pour out all my emotions and frustrations at her saying things that I didn't even know I was feeling inside. I told her about the dream last night and how I had lied about the cut on my head, as well as the whole changing "incident" before I got on to how I couldn't begin to comprehend Ashley's bipolar personality and how his parents seemed to be surprised that Ashley had ended up making me. I told her about all my fears and unanswered questions swimming around in my brain as well as the effects the mark had on my body which made me struggle to hate the man who caused me so much pain and frustration.

Willow stayed quiet for most of it, only asking questions when she was truly curious about something. She seemed to ask a lot of questions about my dream and scolded me for not telling her what actually happened.