Playing Pretend

what's next?

Chloe and Evan came into the house following Chloe’s mother Teresa to the living room where the TV had been turned on and was displaying the latest entertainment news. “This just in, Evan Holloway, who just recently announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend and former costar Erica Pride, has been keeping a little secret of his own, he’s already married! No statement has been released from either Evan Holloway or Erica Pride on whether they are still together or how this impacts a wedding in the future,” said the TV host before switching to commercials. Everyone sat down in the living room just staring at the screen lost in their own thoughts.

Finally Evan spoke up first, “How did they find out?” He was saying it more to himself but did want to know the answer.

“It was leaked from someone who knew about the marriage certificate,” said Lizzie. “No one but our little family knew that it was a real marriage.”

“Except the minister who married us,” said Chloe trying to name suspects.

“Oh Pastor Johns passed away 3 years ago,” said Lizzie trying to wave off the comment. “No, it had to be someone that found out about it recently. Maybe Erica did it to ruin Evan’s career,” said Lizzie at Evan.

“Wow, mom, you just won’t stop will you; you hate Erica so much for nothing that you stoop so low to accuse her of trying to ruin my career. Why would Erica have any reason to ruin it?”

“I’m just saying she might be trying to ruin it because you are doing so much better than her and she doesn’t like it,” said Lizzie trying to shrug it off. Evan just shook his head at his mother for always trying to accuse Erica for something that goes wrong. He didn’t even understand the reason she still hated her so much; before he could understand because she was keeping the secret that he was already married from him but now that it was out in the open, it didn’t make any sense for her to continue to hate Erica.

“No I think it was someone else. Evan, do you think it could have been whoever helped you at the courthouse that discovered the marriage certificate for you?” asked Chloe.

“Yeah, it could have been, she seemed pretty excited to know that she was helping Erica and I get married like she was a fan, so she could have sold the information to the media. That means she could have also sold your name to them as well,” said Evan looking at Chloe for the first time since they came into the house.

“No, I don’t think they know Chloe’s name yet, otherwise they’d already be here trying to get information from Chloe about the marriage. Plus they never said anything about who you are married, just that you are married,” said Teresa.  

“So they don’t know who my wife is, but they do know I’m married; how are we supposed to annul the marriage now? The moment anyone spots me in court to file the annulment with Chloe, they’ll see who she is and have every dirty secret dug up on her by dinner,” said Evan. Chloe smiled a little when Evan called her his wife, even though in the same sentence he talked about an annulment.

“Perhaps you should find out who released the information and silence them,” suggested Teresa. “Don’t you celebrities always have scandalous rumors like this and then they go away when someone else does something scandalous? Perhaps you can go back to Hollywood and pretend this is just a rumor until it blows over, then you can quietly file for an annulment.”

“You mean play pretend that we aren’t married when we are just like we played pretend that we were married only to find out later it was real?” asked Chloe. Everyone sat there for a moment silently, Chloe and Evan mad about their situation while Teresa and Lizzie were embarrassed.

“I agree with Teresa, I say we just pretend this never happened and then things quiet down, we’ll legally make it never happen. I can go back to planning my wedding with Erica and Chloe can go back to getting ready for college,” said Evan finally.

“I’m glad you all can just pretend that this hasn’t shaken up anybody’s lives, and that we can make it quietly go away, but for some people this impacts them a lot,” said Chloe her voice getting louder, “some people never wanted to have their first marriage end in divorce!” Chloe stomped off to her bedroom more upset then she had planned. She had seen how the divorce of her parents had affected her family and vowed to never get divorced.

“Chloe, can I come in?” asked Evan. This was the second time he had come running after her when she got upset but he didn’t understand why he felt the need to protect her.

“Go away, Evan, go back to you perfect little fiancé and your perfect little life and leave me alone. You don’t want me anyway,” cried Chloe into her pillow, even though she knew he had entered her room anyway and closed the door.

“Chloe, don’t be that way, I never said that. I was just trying to figure out a solution to get us out of this mess our parents put us in,” said Evan, standing over by the door. He wasn’t sure whether he should continue to stand by the door or comfort her on the bed.

“You know, when my parents got divorced I promised myself that I would find a good man that loved me and would never leave me when times got tough so I would never have to go through the heartbreak of a divorce,” said Chloe, never looking at him.

“But we aren’t getting divorced; we’re getting an annulment.”

“What difference does it make? It’s still a marriage that doesn’t work out,” said Chloe.

Evan goes to Chloe’s bed and lays down on it, snuggling her into his arms; he didn’t know what possessed him to do such a thing but once he did it and had her in his arms, it felt so right to have her there. “I understand you wanted to have a perfect marriage, but life isn’t perfect and neither are people. This wasn’t what we chose but what our parents chose to do to us.”

“At one time, we did chose this though, Evan, we asked them to marry us because we wanted to marry our best friend,” said Chloe, her tears subsiding. She felt comfortable in Evan’s muscular arms and felt safe from the world there.

“But then we grew up and grew apart,” said Evan matter-of-factly. He couldn’t help but breathe in her scent of strawberries and cream that had to have been from her shampoo.

“Why did you leave me, Evan? I loved you,” said Chloe. They both thought back to when they were kids and what happened after they were married.

“Life happened.” Evan and Chloe remained on the bed cuddled up for a little longer just enjoying the comfort of each other’s presence. After a little bit Evan finally stood back up off the bed while Chloe rolled over to look at him. She looked like an angel to him with her long warm brown hair creating a halo around her head on the pillow while her green eyes looked up at him with a trace of sadness. He had the urge to lay back down on the bed and comfort but fought it. “I should get going back to L.A., Erica will be waiting for me; plus I guess you need to get on the road to college, and I hope you enjoy it. We’ll get this mess taken care of soon so I won’t have to bother you again.” Evan walked out of the room leaving her on her bed to her thoughts.