Earth (Complete)

Eighteen

"Gay boy proposes." Dylan stated as I walked towards him down the street after Jeremy left, not even bothering to wait until I was actually next to him. "Guilt makes girl swoon. And she says yes?" He smirked, though I detected no trace of humor from it.

I stopped before him, trying to keep my expression as indifferent as possible. But obviously, I failed. He scoffed and let out a humorless chuckle, disappointed almost. "She fucking said yes. Pathetic."

"I didn't say yes." I jumped in to defend myself. Though, I didn't have much ground to stand on. His eyebrows lifted in question, and I caved instantly. "But I... I didn't technically say no either."

He hopped off the tiny ledge he was sitting on, another humorless laugh slipping through his lips. "God." He cursed, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What did you expect me to do?" I asked, sounding incredibly useless, like a tiny little lamb crying for help before it's slaughtered.

In that instant, I swear it was like I waved a red cloth in front of an angry bull. His eyes darted towards mine, fury consuming his green irises as tiny droplets of water fell from the artificial sky. "I expect you not to be such a spineless clone and follow in the footsteps of your psychotic mother." He snapped and I jumped back at the anger threaded through his voice.

He didn't shout. He didn't scream. He didn't even say it loud enough to generate such a big reaction from me. He said it with so much control, so evenly, it would've been better if he had yelled. The words that slipped so easily from his lips had hit home, and it stung. Hard.

I found myself biting back tears as he breathed through whatever emotion he was containing right now. Something I hated about Dylan: I could never read him, what he was thinking, what he was feeling. It was all just a guessing game with him. And I could never win.

Stepping closer, he stood right in front of me, looking down on me as droplets of water sparkled in his spiky hair. "Don't become a part of the traditions of this fucked up society, Jane. If you do – you'll end up no better than mommy." He said simply.

I stopped my lip from trembling and looked up at him, and the words that came out of my mouth, was no louder than a whisper. "What should I do then?" I asked, pleaded almost.

One corner of his mouth curved into a tiny crooked smile, and he replied simply, "You're a clever girl, Janie Bear. You'll figure it out."

And with that, he turned and left. I watched him walk down the street and round the corner. After which, I turned and walked back to my empty house as the tears that rolled down my cheeks mixed with the rain falling on my face. And the minute the door of my bedroom shut close, I lay on my bed, and cried for a solid ten minutes before I forced myself to stop, and let exhaustion take over.

Marriage to a man of privilege. Or rebel with a man who has nothing. No money, no status, nothing. Only a name to get him by. And what a name it was. If I rejected Jeremy's proposal, not only will I shame my own family, but his as well. Unless that little sob story he sprouted was a load of bull. He'd land up alone, as will I.

If word got out that I've rejected a suitor – my first and only suitor – that wouldn't make me much of a contender in the games of the privileged. No man would want to try with me again seeing as Jeremy had been trying, or whatever he was doing, for three years.

Three miserable years of my life, I've been off the market, momentarily someone else's property until they sealed the deal. And either I would have to say yes, or live the life of a disappointment, under my mother's suffocating roof, forever.

But what would that mean for Dylan and I? Of course, I knew our relationship was doomed for failure from the beginning. Never in my life had I thought it would get this far, where he'd resulted in calling me the spineless clone of my crazy mother in order to get through to me. Well, he did a great job at doing exactly that.