Betrothed

Chapter 2

I sit on my bed still wrapped in my towel reading the note from my shoebox over and over again. I fumble with the key flipping it back and forth between my fingers. I read the label Door to Another World.

The Door to another world is another thing my father told me. In our house there are about a thousand doors but the door to another world is the most remarkable. It is the same size as all the other doors but it is designed in an old victorian kind of style with hand painted symbols on it. The door is so intriguing that as a child I would always try to pry it open but it was always locked. I asked my father why it was locked and he told me the story of the Door to Another World.

The door to another world was built to hold the world's deepest secrets, I'd always question why the world's secrets were stored in our house but he would shush me and continue. One day a boy opened the door and all the world's secrets were put in his head and the door became a passage to another world that the boy would pass back and forth through and share the secrets of the world with everyone. Then he would always end by saying something different like and that's how I know why the sky is blue, or thats why I know what they make hot dogs out of.

He told me this magnificent story about the door, but I never thought I would hold the key to it in my hand. This key was going to unlock the door and open up my new life, a life I was going to spend with Ryan not Mr.I know What you're saying.

...

I throw on yet another outfit my mother picked out for me, at least this time it's a pair of jeans. I slip into them and put on the black tank top and sheer pink button up that she laid out. This afternoon I do my own hair, straight and thrown back into a ponytail. I pick up my eyeliner but my mom takes it out of my hand.

"No, Tiffany knows how to do your makeup correctly." My mother says in a tone that is almost hurtful, as if I don't know how to do my makeup. I would make a snippy comeback, but I'm trying to not let her see right through me. I can't see her heart broken after today's lunch I'm unlocking the Door to Another World getting whatever is in there, because I'm assuming it's not a passage to another world, and leaving.

"Of course," I respond, "You know best mother." I smile and nod like someone who does what their told all the time. My mom smiles back she doesn't question the fact that I just listened because she wants to believe I've changed I can see it in her eyes.

"Larken," she says, "I'm so proud of you, You've grown up a lot in a night." She wants to believe this is true, why not let her. I smile and nod, nod and smile. This seems to work because she smiles and then leaves.

Tiffany stares at me and then follows after my mother only to return shortly followed by Esther, my best friend. She smiled and opened her arms to embrace me.

"ESTHER!" I squealed like the little girl my mom wished I was, "You're back!" I ran into her hug. "How were the mountains? The beach? the..I'm sorry where did you go again?"

"Oh, Larken" she laughed, "Do you ever listen, it's no wonder you got a B in current events." Esther was always like this making little stabs about my grades or my hair or something but I knew she didn't mean it she was just born to speak her mind, she has no filter. "Well if you must know I was exploring the forests near a little town, that believes in Bigfoot. Goodness my father can't help but help Jakobs, he's determined for me to be with that boy. Honestly though, he's too high up for me I want someone less known. Like you who are you marrying, Jackson, have you ever even heard of such a name, your boy must be a serious low in the middle class that's what I want. And.." she babbled on and on I just had to interrupt.

"Es?" I said, "How do you know his name?" Tiffany and Esther stared at me with pity in their eyes. Esther walks over to me and put her hands on my shoulder then pulls me into a hug.