An Arranged Marriage with an Old Friend [one other]

"I told you, I was taking responsibility for my actions," he told her. "I got too drunk one night and that's what happened. If I was smart, I'd let her have that stupid abortion like she wants and let her go on her way," he sighed. "I don't like her. I don't want her here. But that's my kid inside her and I can't just leave her."

Marisa raised a brow and scoffed. "So because your parents drilled into your head that it's murder to have an abortion you want to deal with her? That's a sad life to live." she said quietly, obviously angry and frustrated. She never expected him to fall into a trap like this, nor to think this way either. "There's no way in hell I'm marrying you, just know that. You've changed and so have I." she exclaimed, shaking her head and walking back inside. She decided she needed a walk, something to do before she blew the house up out of anger. Slamming the front door closed, she started walking, unknowingly bumping into someone along the way. "Ugh, what the he-....Michael?" she asked, looking up and staring. She couldn't believe it was him.

Michael cleared his throat, and stared her down. She had changed, a lot. Still, he wondered why she was here in the first place. "Hey..I heard you moved. Why are you back here?" he asked, his voice deeper than she remembered.

"Uh...Damien hasn't told you? Or your parents?" Marisa asked, blinking.

"Nothing. I don't speak to my parents or even Damien that much..it's been a while." he explained nervously, not wanting to get into too many details.

So she didn't love him, he concluded, watching her storm out of the room. He had no hope, then. He would keep his promise of never loving another. Which made the pain all that much worse. He went back to working his muscles, letting his tears fill his goggles as he kept his head under the water. This was the only way he could cry - when everyone just thought he was soaked from swimming. He worked until he could hardly breathe. Only then did he get up and sit on the edge of the small current pool, wiping his wet eyes after removing his goggles. He caught his breath, or tried to. Quiet sobs shook his frame with his back to the door.

It was an hour long walk that Marisa took, and of course she brought Michael along. He was planning on seeing him anyway. As soon as they walked in, Michael was amazed to see Stacey. She was pregnant..and in his brother's home. That was odd. "Uh, who are you?" he asked, staring her over in shock. Marisa sighed, nodding. "This is Stacey, she's the mother of your brother's child. Hasn't he told you already?" she asked, even more shocked. Could they be that disconnected?

Stacey looked Michael up and down with obvious interest. He was hot. Maybe even hotter than his little brother. "Nice to meet you," she said cheerfully, getting up from filing her fake nails and going to shake his hand with a big smile plastered on her face.

Damien was done crying and back to his workout, swimming until he couldn't swim anymore. He got out and dried off, drying his face with the towel and wrapping it around his waist. He got to the tiled kitchen and got an orange juice, chugging it while the rest of him finished dripping. He heard voices and went to investigate. He blinked, seeing his brother. "Michael, dude. Where you been," he asked his brother. He was glad to see him, all things considered. He knew his brother would help him. At least he hoped he would. He had hoped for Marisa, too, but that had gone to hell.

Michael looked at her strangely and cringed. Seriously? This girl was pregnant with his brother's child and she was hitting on him? He could already tell just by how quick she got up and ignored Marisa for that matter. "Yeah...you too." he said, shaking her hand awkwardly. He then looked up as he heard his brother's voice. "Hey bro, uh, what the hell happened?" he asked, motioning with his eyes towards Stacey and then looking at him with a "you're a dumb a**" look.

Marisa could almost taste vomit in her mouth as she saw the desperate attempt of getting attention from Stacey. Was she that..easy? She sighed, still disappointed with Damien. She couldn't say she didn't like him anymore, he had grown up of course, but there was still the matter that he let himself go. He got drunk and then made the worst mistake of his life. Something she never expected. It hurt. A lot. It was hard to digest after realizing that he was going to be her husband apparently. She stayed quiet and had gone to sit down on the couch across from the lounge chair that Stacey had sat on. "I have no part in this." she muttered to herself, sighing and taking one more peek at Damien and then back at the floor.

Damien sighed, frowning as he saw Stacey's obvious interest in his brother. He rolled his eyes at her. "I got too drunk," he stated simply to his brother. "Now just taking responsibility," he shrugged.

"Where are you gonna sleep," Stacey asked Micheal.

"Where he wants. You're staying in your room," Damien told her, obviously annoyed already by her bouncy self. "I'll sleep out in the sunroom," he said, letting them know his room was free for whoever wanted the bed.

Michael knew his brother changed a lot since they last spoke. But jeez, this much? He looked back at Stacey and cleared his throat. "I uh, have a room in a hotel, so it's no problem. I don't uh, need a room." he said, feeling uncomfortable around Stacey. He figured she was...unique. "Either way, I wanted to see how you were doing. A visit." he smiled towards Damien. Marisa however was fuming with how nonchalant Damien seemed to act. As if this horrifying error in judgement wasn't terrible enough! She was worried about herself, how she was acting. She didn't like it, and it almost felt like jealousy. Still, she didn't really...not still love him, but it was hard to show. She almost can't even remember why they lost contact in the first place. "I'll take the sunroom..ok Damien? That's your room, you shouldn't have to accommodate." she muttered, looking away.

"I wake up at dawn anyway. I'll only end up waking you up if you stay in the sunroom. Take my room," he insisted to Marisa. He had to resist calling her Rissy - his nickname for her from way back when. "I'm not taking no for an answer," he told her and went to put her bags in his room on the foot of his bed.

Marisa sighed, ignoring Michael's small smile at how childish they acted. She followed, sighing as they got to his room upstairs. "Why did you sleep with her? What got you so drunk off your ass to even do that?" she asked, a bit of hurt in her voice as she sat on the end of the bed next to her bags. She expected him to run away, as usual. They were close, but she knew him like the back of her hand. He didn't like confrontation too much. Unless..that changed too.

He looked at her. "So you do care, then," he murmured and sighed. "I wish you'd make up your mind..." He thought for a minute. "Drinking gets my mind off of it. Partying gets my mind off of it. Knowing I can't go back to what we were back then. Other than that... I don't understand why you're mad," he frowned at her. "My parents moved. I had to go with them. I wrote you, but you never wrote back. Then again, knowing my dad, he never actually sent those letters..." He sighed again. "I tried. Apparently it wasn't good enough."

Marisa stared as he seemed to switch between answers and then resorted to going back into the past. Why delve that far? She didn't need to be reminded. "Whether you sent them or not..they never got to me. I only had gotten one letter..and that was the end of it. Either way, it's been quite a while, we've both changed obviously. I grew up, apparently you still have a bit of maturing to do. Drinking your pains away? That's not going to hide what you did. Now you're stuck with a child you didn't really expect to have..and not with this girl I think. But honestly, you can't tell me you haven't had at least one relationship since we parted..we were just friends.." she muttered, obviously lying to both herself and him as she looked away, her hair covering her eyes.

"This is the closest thing to a relationship I've had since I moved," he told her honestly in a murmured voice. "Having a child with Stacey, I mean. I wish it wasn't Stacey. Anyone but her, my god. She drives me insane," he frowned. "What the hell was I thinking," he shook his head, knowing he couldn't change anything. He had to live with having a child with Stacey. He had to live with Marisa being held at arm's reach. It would hurt him to have her any further but she didn't want to come any closer. He sighed, his shoulders slumped slightly in defeat.

"What about you," he asked her after a long minute. "What have you been up to..?"

"Well..so long as you're there for that child then it doesn't matter who it's with.." Marisa replied, sighing. For a second, she had almost wished he hadn't done that. Still, she kept silent and continued to keep her gaze elsewhere. "Not much..just college, and trying to cope with the fact that I have no choice but to marry someone I..." that was where she lost her voice. She didn't know whether to say "didn't love" or "a completely different person than before". "Doesn't the guy usually have the choice of rejecting the girl chosen for him?" she asked, hopeful that maybe it rung true with his parents and it could be done.

"I either marry you, Stacey, or raise the child on my own. Those are my given choices," he told her, turning his back to her. She didn't want to marry him. She didn't love him. That stung... Ouch. "Stacey doesn't make a good mother. That child deserves at least a decent mom." He could lie to himself, couldn't he? Say he wanted to marry her so she'd be a good mom to his unplanned kid. Yeah. That seemed logical. Didn't it?

Marisa couldn't help but feel her heart squeeze tightly. The poor child did deserve a good mom, even if it wasn't their actual mom. Stacey didn't look like she was going to grow up anytime soon. "Your parents..they're messed up." she scoffed, shaking her head as a small tear made it's way down her cheek. "It wouldn't be so bad for things to just go back to how they were. I missed those years we spent apart...to be honest. Being here doesn't help all that pain that I feel right now..." she shuddered, feeling weak as she opened her heart up to him again.

"If you don't want to be here, then go home," he murmured, giving up. If she missed being away from him, why should he force her to stay? He wanted her to be happy, not upset. "Just because we're married doesn't mean we have to live together. There are plenty of couples like that already. "Just do what makes you happy, alright?"

Marisa sighed, rolling her eyes. "It's not that I don't want to be here, but it's been years. I can't just raise up old feelings out of a hat you know?" she said, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. She wasn't sad, but she definitely was angry. Things shouldn't have spiraled out of control like this.

"Well you don't have to be pissed, either," he said. "I had nothing to do with it."

"Not exactly like you tried to stay!" Marisa spat, standing up. Now she was pissed. Easily her parents would've made arrangements for him, hell, to stay in town and not have to leave. "We would've stayed in touch then!"

"I was only ten," he spat back. "Of course I threw up a fight about moving!"

"Then why is it that you didn't go to my parents as a last resort!? You knew then that they would've helped, my parents aren't as thick headed as yours!" Marisa yelled, glaring at him with resentment. She didn't hate him, but knowing what could've been burned her mind too much, it hurt her.

"Because they told me three days before and didn't let me leave the house after that! I tried sneaking out the window plenty of times but they hired a cop to sit outside my window after the first time so I couldn't do that anymore," he explained to her.

Marisa sighed, knowing it was childish of her to act this way. But of course, the little child in her from all those years ago still felt resentment from what happened. They didn't lost touch purposely. "I'm sorry...really. It's just hard..to swallow all of this. You know? You now going to have a child with someone that you don't even love..and then that we're going to get married because our parents want us to. Then your brother is back...it's all a big mixup." she muttered, wiping her tears on her sleeve.

"How do you think I feel," he asked, sighing softly. "None of this is your fault. You shouldn't be sorry. But with Stacey's attitude, which is likely to show it's ugly face with you here.... I'd rather be by the pool with a bottle of Jack," he admitted.