alessandra [#1]

broken gates.

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"What do you mean 'You're down', the only thing you'll be down for-" I was cut off by my dad standing up and slamming his hands down on his desk furiously.

"Alessandra! You're going to marry Rocco whether you like it or not. This has been decided for over a decade. There is nothing you can do or say to stop this. It is final." Tears of anger burned my eyes before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around angrily to see Mia.

"We're going to take a walk." Mia grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the room. We weaved through the hallways that I grew up walking in every single day. "How the hell do you get out of this place?"

"Take a right here it'll bring us to the garage." Taking the right Mia and I suddenly heard our names being called and people being told to 'Find us' We began to run towards the garage and grabbed a pair of car keys. I ran towards my dad's Maserati. "Get in."

Not questioning what we were doing, Mia got in and we drove out of the garage. Ahead of us was a gate which being closed as we drove towards it. I pushed down on the gas a little hard put both of my hands on the steering wheel.

"Hold on." A loud crash came when I drove the car through the gate. "How does ice cream sound?" Mia nodded and I whipped on to the main road. I knew sooner or later my parents would find us and that was ok. We weren't trying to permanently escape just go out for a little.

If I wanted to escape, escape, I would've taken one of the untraceable cars not my dad's car. All of our cars have trackers besides a few.

When we arrived I knew we had about 10 minutes before our families were in front of the ice cream shop. So we got our ice cream and sat down. I carefully timed our families and sure enough 10 minutes later they arrived.

Our dads' stepping out of the car along with Rocco and thundered towards the ice cream shop. Slamming the door open our dads and Rocco came to our table.

"Get up we're leaving." My dad said in a no-nonsense tone. I sighed heavily and got up. Mia followed me and we all left the ice cream shop together and ended right back where we started, my dad's office.

"I can't even begin to express the-, I'm gonna- I'm so-." Anger had taken over my dad and he couldn't even form the words he wanted to say. Therefore my mother took over for him.

"You two are in a lot of trouble. Alessandra, you're getting married to Rocco and if you are so unhappy about it just think about how Mia will be your sister-in-law. You two seem to be great friends already." Finally, I realized why Mia was here in the first place, she and Rocco were brother and sister. It makes sense now.

I sat in a chair in front of my dad's desk with my arms crossed as I glared at Rocco who stood behind my dad who was trying to calm down.

"Alessandra go upstairs I don't want to see you right now." My dad said in a final tone. I didn't argue not wanting to start another fight so I just left and went to my room. Slamming the door behind me I plopped on my bed with my face in the pillow.

This was not my plan.

♕

"Debate Day" Is what Mr. Henderson called it. Debate day is a day in literature class when you debate about a book that you're currently reading.

The book we were reading was called Circling Jupiter. The story is set in medieval England about a girl named Jupiter and a bunch suitors who her father picked for her to pick who she wanted to marry. Though Jupiter didn't want to get married she was being forced. To make a long story short, Jupiter sets these suitors on a series of tests to see what they would stick around through. In the end, she ends up happy with a guy who wasn't even a suitor. It was a royal guard.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Circling Jupiter, let's debate. I want you to debate these questions. Why do you think that even though Nikolas, the suitor passed all the tests, Jupiter picked Kane, the guard? Did she do the right thing? Was Kane the right choice? Or should she have picked Nikolas?" Mr. Henderson asked. Everybody got quiet and thought about the question, in the book Jupiter never really explained why she picked Kane it left off with her picking him then the book ended.

"Because she followed her heart, not what other people want for her. Yes, Nikolas passed all the tests but he's not that Jupiter would have picked. Therefore he's not really what Jupiter wanted."

"But Jupiter's father says that Jupiter is naive and doesn't know what she wants and doesn't know what's best for herself. And she even proves what he says is right in the book multiple times." I turned to see who had said that and saw that it was Rocco.

"The only person that will ever know what's best for you is you." I challenged.

"That maybe the case but Jupiter is only what? 18? She doesn't have the life experience that her father has. Not to mention that each one of those suitors owned something that if they had married Jupiter it would've made their business boom. All those businesses helped people. She didn't think about anyone else besides herself. If that isn't naive and selfish I don't know what is." Rocco's tone was leveled with no real emotion in it.

"Just because somebody doesn't have the experience someone else has doesn't mean they're anymore naive than the next. Everybody needs to choose for themselves, learn, experience life, people don't get anywhere by being coddled by mommy and daddy." Rocco didn't challenge me instead he nodded his head and lent back in his chair.

"Anyone willing to challenge that idea? Well, both of you are wrong, you two read too much into the situation. Jupiter picked Kane to show independence from her father by basically saying 'I can choose for myself and make a good choice.' But good thinking guys." The rest of the class was Mr. Henderson droning on about the book and asking a few more questions.

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xo anna