Our Arranged Marriage

Chapter Two

There was the sound of sobbing, along with the soft and gentle feel of a hand carefully petting her hair.

Isabella opened her eyes. 

It was Jordan.

Jordan quickly realized that Isabella was now awake and gasped loudly, almost screaming.

"OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! BELLA'S AWAKE, SHE'S AWAKE!"

A few blurry figures ran into the room as she could feel Jordan hugging her gently.

"Uuugh.." she groaned. "Am I... dead?"

"No you're not, girl you're awake and alive! Thank God, thank God!" Jordan exclaimed in relief, enthusiastically, her eyes liquid with happiness.

Isabella then felt the sharp pain of a needle being inserted into her arm. In her head was a stinging pain; she was having a pounding and excruciating headache. She also felt awfully nauseous.

"What... happened to me?" she used some strength to ask.

Jordan shifted in her seat. 

"You were knocked out by a large basketball," a doctor, standing by, said kindly.

"And a fragment of your skull was cracked. And you had, like, insane blunt force trauma in that area!" Jordan added on the verge of tears.

Before Isabella could say anything, she slipped into unconsciousness again. This time, she had an electric-like buzzing sensation in her head, and she could feel her eyes suddenly rolling to the back of her head. Her mind felt fuzzy.

Then, she felt absolutely nothing for a very long moment of time, until she woke up again with the same pain and headache in her head.

"My baby! My baby!" She could hear her mother shouting. "We NEED to get her to a BETTER hospital!"

She could heard another voice, perhaps a doctor, pleading. "Ma'am, calm down please. She just had an epileptic seizure, ma'am. Luckily, it wasn't too extreme-"

"SEIZURE?! What do you mean?! WHO?! WHO was the person that DID this to her?!" her mother's voice raised. "BRING THE PERSON TO ME! NOW!"

The stress of her mother's yelling stressed Isabella out, worsened her headache. This caused her to go unconscious once more.

                                                                                  .            .           .

This time she felt a little pressure on the arm she was injected in, as if something was resting on it.

She exhaled deeply and nudged her arm a little to get whatever it was off of her. But it still remained stationed on her sore arm. Isabella slightly frowned, a little frustrated, and opened her eyes to see whatever it was.

Resting on her arm she could see the head of a person's jet black, shiny, sweaty hair. The person's head was what was on her arm, but it was turned the other way.

"Hey..." she quietly called out, tiredly.

This time she nudged her arm as hard as she could. The sleeping person flinched awake and brought their head up, finally revealing their face.

Isabella looked at the person, and she suddenly couldn't stop staring. It was a guy. Probably the most handsome and gorgeous guy she had ever seen in her life. He had a perfectly chiselled jawline and his medium-long black hair nearly reached his nose. His hair was wet, suggesting that he had been sweating, but it looked so smooth and shiny and silky, and the perfect shade of black. Isabella, although in her current hurting, energy-consumed state, almost wanted to reach her hand out and caress his face.

The guy made eye contact with her and she felt a rush of butterflies.

"Oh." the guy said. She was surprised at how deep his voice was. "You're alive."

Isabella frowned, an offended mocking frown. "Of course I'm alive."

"Ok." He said dismissively, and looked away from her.

She was slightly taken aback by his attitude. Then she felt a small feeling of exasperation inside of her. Why was he being sassy to her, meanwhile she was clearly in a bad state?

The guy ran his hands through his hair stressfully. Isabella couldn't help but think how much he literally looked like a thirst trap.

There was a moment of silence.

"Who are you?" She finally asked.

"The reason why you're here."

"What?!" she whisper-shouted, her voice suddenly weak and hoarse. She did not expect that answer. "Nah, you're joking. You're too handsome to be that kind of person."

The guy suddenly looked back at her, his face curious, as if waiting for her to say something. But then the expression disappeared and he looked away again.

"Well you're different," he said. 

"I'm what?"

She heard him sigh a little and there was another short moment of silence until he spoke again.

"Nothing. Don't make this awkward. I'm sorry that you're here."

Isabella scanned his face again. Damn was he handsome.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"The basketball that flew in your face? Remember that? Or did it cause some memory loss?"

He looked back at her, again with the curious expression. This time he maintained eye contact. "Aren't you mad at me? I literally cracked your skull."

"Oh." Isabella frowned. "And... you'll have to pay for that. You're lucky I'm still alive. You could be jailed for manslaughter!" she said sternly.

"Ugh, for God's sake, I'm not dumb. I know, okay?" he replied harshly.

"What's your name?"

He hesitated. "Why do you want to know?"

Isabella held her eye contact with him menacingly, forcing him to give an answer.

"Ugh. It's Daniel."

Then he abrubtly got up and left the room.