Arranged Marriage (Niall Horan)

Chapter 1

He stroked my cheek and gave me a sweet gentle kiss on the mouth. Man, how much I loved this boy. I smiled at him as I played with his hair. He looked me in the eyes and gave me another quick, but sweet kiss. He gave me the biggest smile and pulled out something from his jacket. I raised my eyebrow at him. He opened the velvet box and pulled out a ring.

“This...,” he said, “is a promise ring that someday I’m going to marry you no matter what obstacles we face.”

            I looked at him with wide eyes and he put the ring on my ring finger. He kissed me once more and wrapped me in a tight hug.

“Happy three year anniversary babe, I love you forever and always. Don’t forget that,” he said smiling down at me. I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled his lips to mine.

“I love you too,” I said after we broke away.

            He took my hand and laced his fingers with mine. He walked me back home. Now and then I’d kiss him to tell him I loved his gift so much. I couldn’t wait to marry him. We’ve had planned out our life before, but I didn’t think he was serious. As we got to my porch, I kind of felt bad. I was going to have to say good-bye until I saw him tomorrow. As we reached my porch, he pulled me into a long passionate kiss. I smile into the kiss. He was always so caring and gentle with me. He never forced me to do anything I never wanted to do. He stroked my cheek and kissed my forehead.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, I love you.”

“I love you too, and see you tomorrow,” I said pouting.

He kissed me one more time and said good-bye. I watched as he got into his car and drove away. I quickly sighed and open the front door that seemed to be unlocked. I walked in and saw my mom fixing the house.

“Hi,” I said looking at her.

“Sweetheart, you’re home. We’ll meet you in the dining room. Kenny, put this plant somewhere where it’ll look nice,” my mom screamed.

I made my way to the dining room and saw my younger brother doing homework.

“Matthew, can you go do your homework in the kitchen or in your room. We need to talk to your sister,” my dad said appearing from out of nowhere.

I quickly took a seat across my dad. My mom then walked in and took as seat next to my dad.

“Honey, we have some very important news to tell you,” my mom said.

“Sweetheart, I know this might sound weird, but I need to tell you my family history,” my dad said.

“Ok, what is so bad about it?” I asked.

“Well your very great grandmother is the reason why we have this tradition in this family and before you ask what tradition, let me explain. Back when your very great grandmother was growing up her family was poor. Her dad struggled to get money in the house. The house was full of women and back then only boys and men went to work. He didn’t know what to do, so he sold your great grandmother to a wealthy man her age. Then after that, in your great grandmother’s family they would sell their first daughter to a man to earn money no matter how poor or wealthy. Eventually one of our family members decided it was wrong to sell their first daughter and instead chose the man they wanted their daughter to marry. Ever since then it’s been like that. My family doesn’t have girls. My parents decided that they weren’t going to choose who we’d marry. My parents decided that I’d have to give up my first daughter because I was the eldest in the family. The thing is I knew this was going to happen and well I kind of told my best friend this story. We knew at one point we were going to become distant. So we both promised each other that one of our kids would get married to each other.” My dad looked up at me.

“So you are telling me that Leslie is married to your best friend’s son,” I asked.

“No, she isn’t. Leslie is married to the man she wanted to marry. Sweetheart, you are the one marrying my best friend’s son.”

“Wait, what?! You two are playing a joke with me right? Leslie is the first daughter not me. Why didn’t she get married to your best friend’s son?”

“Your sister is older than him. Your mom had your sister her first year of college. Then they had their first son 6 years before we had you. We didn’t think it is right if we had you two get married because by the time you turned 18, he’d be 24.”

“This doesn’t make sense. If he is older than me, I’m not marrying anyone right,” I asked looking at both my parents.

            My mom sighed and looked up at me, “When you were 3, we found out that your dad’s friend had another son, who happens to be only a year older than you. Sweetheart, I’m sorry to say this, but sometime after your 18th birthday you are getting married to him.”

            That is when my whole world came crashing down. I wasn’t going to marry some boy I didn’t know. This was just some kind of joke. I looked between my parents

 “Couldn’t you have waited so Leslie would’ve gotten married instead of me?”

“Honey, I know this may sound bad, but…”

“Bad, this is horrible! How are you going to tell your boyfriend that you just happened to be with for three years that you can’t be with him anymore because you’re getting married?”

“You aren’t getting married so soon. You still have 7 months before you turn 18,” my mom said.

“Whatever, I’m going to my room. By the way, I hope you know you are ruining my life forever,” I said.

“Honey, it’s not like you haven’t met him. You two were such good friends when you were six,’ my mom said standing up.

“Yeah, but that was when I was six! I’m not six anymore.”

“He’s coming in a week to meet you. So you’ll meet him then. We’re going dress shopping to buy you a nice dress ok,” I heard my mom say.

“I’m not meeting him, and I’m not going dress shopping with you. In fact, I’m locking myself in my room until I actually have to go out and not be seen with you.”

“Don’t talk that way, you know we are following traditions in this family and you can’t just break them because you want to live life your way,” I heard my dad say.

I gritted my teeth together and turned around, “Well you know what, even if I do get married, there is no way I’m ever going to love him. I will never love him. It’s just a force marriage and no one said I couldn’t divorce.”

            With that last sentence I stomped upstairs to my room and closed the door. I looked at the promise ring Jake gave me. I took it off as the tears poured down my face. I didn’t get why this had to happen to me. Out of all the girls this could have happened to, why me? I wiped off some of my tears. Now I had to meet and marry this guy I don’t even love. So much for marrying Jake and having the future we planned.