My Best Mistake [#1][#WATTYS2016][COMPLETE]

fifteen*

[chloe]

It had been almost two months since my father declared that I was going to be marrying Matthew and, when my father had said that preparations were already in place, he hadn't been joking about that. He really had begun putting the preparations in place and he had thought of everything which he needed so that this 'wedding' flew as smoothly as possible.

I had been fitted for a wedding dress, though I knew that it was already going to need adjusting before I walked down the aisle, because I was growing bigger each week and my bump was now visible. I was used to the judgemental looks I got from our neighbours whenever I left the house and I was even used to the whispering which was still going on at school, but none of that bothered me now.

Matthew had, reluctantly, decided on the cake which we were going to be having. My mother had paid for the venue because, just as I knew she would, she agreed that marriage was the right decision since she didn't want her grandchild growing up without both its mother and father around. I had wanted to make a comment on how I had turned out just fine without the love of my parents, but Matthew had forced me to bite my tongue and then I had ended up staying in his spare room that night so that I wouldn't do something which would cause me more problems.

Christmas was less enjoyable than it usually was. The pregnancy hormone had wreaked havoc with my emotions and, if I wasn't crying uncontrollably, then I was laughing at something which wasn't even funny and, if I wasn't doing that, then I was planning how I could best murder my parents without being caught. I spent the entire period in my bedroom and I was almost grateful when we went back to school in January, simply because it meant that I could escape that house for six hours and I could pretend that I was a normal seventeen-year-old who was in her final year of school.

And my father had even decided on the guest list. I wasn't surprised when I didn't see Jodie on the list because she was just another one of those people my father hated and didn't want me to be friends with her, but that was a friendship which I pursued with to spite him and piss him off even more than I already had done.

I remember when Jason found out about the marriage. He was fuming, so much so that he punched our father in the face and broke his nose. He told our father that he was a fucking idiot and, if he thought that marriage was the answer, then he really was a sorry excuse of a man. He is now uninvited to the wedding but, when Jason walked away from him laughing, I don't think that he really gives a damn either way whether he is there or not.

John and Vivienne were still trying to convince my father that this wedding was a bad idea and that there were other ways we could ensure that this baby had both sets of parents in their life; they had even told him that it was against the law in so many ways. I had even told him that I would run away if he forced me into this marriage but, as my father cruelly pointed out, there is nowhere for me to go because there is no one—with the exception of Jason, John and Vivienne—who actually loves me, and my father would find me if I went anywhere with any of those.

Braydon had tried to get back in contact with me but, when he found out that I was marrying the person who had gotten me pregnant, there was an argument and he told me that it really was over between the two of us this time. He told me that there was no way in hell that he would ever be happy with someone who would happily give myself to any man who showed me the slightest bit of attention—he even told me that he never would have slept with me, even if I wanted him to, because there were far better women out there who could give him everything I would never be able to.

In four weeks, school would be finished with for the term, and the week after that I would become a married woman. I didn't want it to happen, I just wanted to run and hide, but I knew that my father would find me in the end and he would do everything in his power to make sure I suffered for running away from him—it was just easier for me to do what it was that he wanted me to do and then I could live my life, pretending that I wasn't married, and that I was just a mother to my child.