Dig up with some questions

Right after the movers left with Rachel's stuff, she drove off to the address Isaac gave her for his house. It wasn't that far from her old apartment and it was an easy drive. When she arrived, Isaac was waiting for her outside. He handed her a set of keys for the house and let her in.

It was quite obvious that the house was new, there were still no furniture around, instead there were some boxes. From what Isaac told her, he is just moving in at the house recently. Of course Rachel asked if he purchased the house for his marriage plans but he said he didn't. Isaac explained to her that he bought the house a few months ago and had it renovated. He wasn't even planning on marrying when he first bought it. According to him, he used to live in a condo and wanted to live in an actual house for a while. So he bought one and had it renovated to his taste.

The house wasn't as big as Rachel was expecting. Knowing that Isaac was rich, she expected a really big mansion with more than five bedrooms. This house however only has four bedrooms. It was still pretty big though. It was a four bedroom house with four and a half bathrooms and a den.

Isaac gave Rachel a tour of the house as soon as she entered. He also made her choose her own bedroom. There wasn't any furniture in there yet so Rachel has no where to sleep. Luckily, Isaac were able to pull some strings from the moving company and had them deliver her stuff immediately even after their usual hours. As they toured the house the movers were bringing her stuff inside the house.

Once the movers finished, they left the two. It was awkward at first. They were now alone in a house with only each other. No one dared to talk and they mostly kept themselves busy by arranging their stuff in their respective bedrooms. Isaac's stuff was only just delivered that day in the house as well so he still wasn't able to get settled in.

The rest of the day came by and it was eventually night time. Still not done arranging their stuff at the house, Isaac decided to order some food again for their dinner. As per Rachel's request, Isaac ordered some pizza. When it arrived, he called Rachel from her bedroom to eat. They still haven't arranged the furniture at the dining area so they sat on the floor of the living room surrounded by boxes. They ate silently, still surrounded by the awkward silence that floated around them ever since the movers left. It was Rachel who eventually broke the silence after they both finished eating.

"So... what's the plan now?"

Isaac looked at her. "About the furniture or?"

"No, about the marriage." Rachel sounded a bit annoyed.

"My parents are gonna have this dinner with me and my sister tomorrow night. I know they're gonna propose the arrange marriage that time so I'm planning to tell them about our marriage then." Isaac explains.

"Does that mean I have to come to this dinner thing then?" Rachel asks.

"Yeah."

"Alright, we need a game plan." Rachel straightens her sitting position.

Isaac raised an eyebrow at her, kind of surprised by her suggestion. "We do?"

"Yes. Do you really think I'm just gonna let us walk in that dinner without knowing what we're getting into? Of course not." Rachel answers and proceeds to rub her chin with a frown like a cartoon villain making an evil plan. Isaac just stares at her in disbelief.

"Okay, in order for them to believe that we really are married, I think we should at least know some stuff about each other." Rachel finally says after thinking.

"I guess you do have a point. So what, we just ask each other random questions?"

"Let's play 20 questions." Rachel proposes.

Isaac shakes his head and sighed, "Oh come on, we're not teenagers anymore."

"Okay, first of all, it's not only teenagers that play that game. It has no age limit Isaac. Secondly, it's the best way to know things about each other. Besides, there are a number of certain things that a couple should know about each other, especially a married one." Rachel defends her idea.

"Like what?" Isaac wonders.

"Does that mean I'll go first then?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Isaac raises his hands in defeat.

Rachel smiles at him proudly and asks a question, "What's your favorite color?"

"Blue." Isaac answers.

"Mine's purple and green." Rachels tells him. "Now you ask me a question."

Isaac gives her a small nod before asking a question himself, "What is your favorite movie?"

”Hmm,” Rachel thinks for a moment, "I have a lot actually, but gun to my head, I'm gonna say Little Women. What about you?"

“Every Star Wars film." Isaac answers.

"Seriously? All of it?"

"Yeah."

Rachel raises an eyebrow at him, still skeptical of his answer, "Even the prequel and sequel trilogy?"

"Well," Isaac tilts his head and uses his right hand to gesture, "Not as much as those, but the OG trilogy of course is the best. Wait have you watched Star Wars?"

"Yeah dude, of course." Rachel answers nonchalantly. "Alright my turn, when was your first kiss?"

"Wow really goin in for the personal questions huh?" Isaac gives her the side eye. Rachel just shrugs in response. Isaac thinks for some time before answering, "I think it was in seventh grade."

Rachel gasps, "Wait, you don't remember?"

"It was a long time ago," Isaac defends. "What about you? When was yours?"

"Twelfth grade." Rachel answers.

"And you remember every detail of it?" Isaac asks.

"Of course," Rachel responds confidently then immediately takes it back, "Well most of it. It was with my first boyfriend so it was special." Rachel smiles at the memory, then shakes her head to bring herself back.

"Wait, you had your first boyfriend when you were in twelfth grade?" Isaac wonders.

"Yeah."

"Why?" Isaac asks again.

"What do you mean why?"

"I don't know, I mean why wait until then? Most kids have relationships early, I know I did."

“Before I answer, that question is gonna cost you a turn,” Rachel warns Isaac who just gave her a shrug in response.

She takes a deep sigh before answering. "Well, my parents didn't really want me dating so early. They kind of wanted me to focus on my studies and for them, dating would just be a distraction. I mean I had no problem with that rule, I wasn't really into dating, but then he came." Rachel's eyes seemed reminiscent of the memory she is telling. Isaac stayed silent to listen to her.

"He transferred to our school in the twelfth grade. I didn’t even pay attention to him when he first came to class. My mind was focused on getting good grades, especially since it was senior year and I was aiming to get into top colleges. Then one day when I was about to go home, I walked near the football field, which is where he was playing, and then like every cliche story I got hit.” Rachel gave an emphasis on the past few words of her statement.

”You got hit by a ball?” Isaac asked.

”I got hit hit by a fucking football,” Rachel said in annoyance. Isaac couldn’t help but laugh out loud at her. His laugh filled the empty house. Rachel just rolled her eyes at him. “Hahaha, go ahead, laugh.” When Isaac still continued laughing after a few seconds, Rachel got kind of annoyed, “Are you gonna continue laughing or can I continue the story?”

Isaac tried to suppress his laughter and wiped some tears from his eyes, “Wait, wait, how did you not even see the ball?”

“I was distracted.” Rachel glared at him but responded to his question nonetheless.

“By what? The football player?” Isaac has now taken control of himself was able to stop his laughter.

“What? No! I wasn’t even looking at him,” Rachel defended. “If you must know, I was looking at my exam paper while I was walking. I got a rather lower score than I expected in an exam.” She looked away in embarrassment.

Isaac’s laugh returned but this time it wasn’t as loud as before. ”Wait what? What was the exam?”

“Calculus.” Rachel pouted.

Isaac continued laughing. Rachel then glares at him and once he realizes her look, he gestured with his hand to calm her down, “Alright, alright, I’m sorry.”

”Okay,” Rachel responded with a drip of annoyance, “We’re getting kind of off track here. Can we just go back to the story?” Isaac just gestured his hand at her, signaling for her to continue.

”Okay, so I got hit with a football,” Rachel glared at Isaac, threatening him in case he laughs again. He just responded by raising his hands in defense. She continued, “Then next thing I remember, I was already with the school nurse who was checking on my head. He said I didn’t have any injuries so he just sent me home. Jared, that was the name of my first boyfriend by the way, apologized and offered to take me home. He was the one that kicked the ball and was feeling guilty for hitting me. He drove me home and walked me to the door. My dad was actually the one that opened the door.”

”What did your dad say? I mean you mentioned that they were against you dating that time.” Isaac asked.

Rachel had a look of bewilderment in her face. She didn’t expect Isaac to listen and actually remember what she said a few seconds ago. Isaac confused of her reaction, returned the look. Rachel just shook it off and continued the story she was telling.

”He wasn’t thrilled of course, he thought Jared was my boyfriend. Well I guess he was, he will be. Oh you know what I mean. Before Dad could lecture me, Jared introduced himself and explained what happened. After that he excused himself and left. My dad just raised an eyebrow at me and let me in.”

“After that encounter Jared would occasionally greet me whenever we passed in the hallway and in the cafeteria. A lot of people actually thought we were dating because of it. My friend Todd actually grilled me to tell him details about my new ‘boyfriend’. I told him it was all just rumors and he did believe me of course.” Rachel used air quotes on the word boyfriend.

“Let me guess, Todd is the gay best friend?” Isaac interrupted.

”What? No! He is my best friend but he’s not gay.”

“I’m sorry for assuming, there was a lot of cliches already in the story to begin with so I kind of jumped into conclusions.” Isaac explained.

Rachel just rolled her eyes at him and continued telling the story, ”The rumor about Jared and me got worse when other students saw us in the library. I was studying that time and apparently he saw me. He sat beside me and asked me to help him in some subjects he was finding hard. I helped him. It became a regular thing actually, we would occasionally meet up to study and I would help him with some stuff. A few months later we fell in love and started dating.”

”Just like that? No other drama? What about your parents? Did they find out?” Isaac questioned.

Rachel frowned at him, “What more should there be? And for your information, my parents knew we were dating. Jared actually went to our house beforehand and asked my parents for their permission to date me. My mom wasn’t happy about it but my dad was able to convince her to let me date him. I mean he did warn Jared about hurting me, you know typical protective dad stuff, but he gave us his permission nonetheless.”

”Oh. But how did you break up then? It seems like you two had a good relationship.” Isaac wondered.

”Why are you so invested in this?”

Isaac just shrugged at her, “I don’t know, I’m just curious.”

Rachel raised her eyebrow at him, not sure if she should believe him or not. She didn’t think it mattered anyway so she just answered his question, “We broke up before going to college. He got a football scholarship in a different university. We were gonna be hundreds of miles away from each other so we figured we shouldn’t delay the heartbreak for later. We both agreed to break up right before we left for college.”

”Wow that was... a seemingly very healthy breakup.”

”Yeah I guess it was,” Rachel smiled at the memory. “Now what about you? Tell me the story of your first relationship.”

“Alright fine, it’s only fair I guess. I must warn you though, it wasn’t as interesting as your story of course.” Isaac stated. Rachel settled in a more comfortable sitting position and listened to Isaac.

”It was freshman year and we met at a party at my friend’s house.”

Rachel was waiting for more details. When some moments passed of Isaac not continuing to say anything she finally figured that that was the end of the story. “That’s it?!”

”I told you it wasn’t as interesting as yours.” Isaac tried to argue.

”Oh come on, add some more details at least. I told my story with a lot of details.” There was a mixture of annoyance and disappointment in Rachel’s voice.

”I don’t have any. I barely even remember any details.”

”Not even why you broke up?”

“That I remember clearly.”

Rachel’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Tell me.”

”No.” Isaac declined.

”Oh come on, I told you mine.” Rachel tried to convince him. But Isaac wasn’t having it. He shook his head. “How about this, I’ll give you another turn to ask a question if you tell me. Come on just tell me please.” Rachel shook his arm and pleaded, too curious to know why Isaac would now want to share the story. She figured it was probably something embarrassing because why else would he refuse to share it.

Isaac raised his hand in defeat, “Alright fine, stop. Stop and I’ll tell you.” Rachel, like a child being promised a treat, stopped to listened intently.

”After a few months dating, she told me that she wasn’t interested in men and broke up with me.” Isaac said in a rather monotonous voice.

It took a few seconds before Rachel burst out into a loud laughter. It was now Isaac’s turn to stare at her in annoyance. “You... mean... you were her beard?” Rachel was trying to say in between her laughter.

”Yes, yes I was.” Isaac sighed as Rachel held unto him as she continued laughing. It took her a moment to stop and during all that time Isaac was glaring at her in annoyance.

”Okay, I’m sorry for laughing. I mean good for her though, for realizing it.” Rachel said when she finally stopped.

”Yeah I guess.”

“Alright, as promised, you get another turn.” Rachel told him.

Isaac thought for a moment before asking, "Where did you grow up?"

"See, you're getting in on personal questions too," Rachel smiles at him. "I was born in the Philippines actually, but when I was eleven, our family moved here in the States."

"Was it hard though? Moving to another country?" Isaac asks again.

"Okay, that's cheating, one question at a time," Rachel raises her finger at Isaac as a warning.

"Oh come on, you're the one who said we needed to know more about each other." Isaac defends.

“But we established with the game that we should take turns,” Rachel explains.

”The result’s still the same, we’ll get to know each other better.”

Rachel wanted to argue more but she figured Isaac was right. Getting to know each other was the whole purpose of their game and asking follow up questions would also help the process.

“Fine,” Rachel pouted. “To answer your question, it was hard of course. It was like I had to start all over. It was a different environment and culture. The language was different too but luckily my English seemed to be good enough. There were a lot of adjusting that I had to do but it turned out okay. The best thing that came out of it was that we got to be a whole family again. My dad was an overseas worker here and after he got his citizenship, he petitioned to get the rest of us here.” As she answered, Rachel was instinctively smiling. Isaac had a small smile in his face as well while he stared at Rachel.

“Alright, your turn.” Rachel says as she looked back at Isaac. “Where did you grow up?”

”I was born here, I was raised here, I even went to college here,” Isaac shrugged.

Rachel clarified. “So basically, you’ve been here your whole life.”

”I’ve been to other places,” Isaac defended. “I just really like it here so I stayed.”

She didn’t try to argue with his answer anymore but instead just frowned at him. Rachel then thought of another question to ask. It didn’t take her long to formulate an interesting question that she has been curious about since they started this whole affair in the first place.

”Why are you so keen of escaping this arrange marriage that your parents are trying to set you up with?”

Rachel watched as Isaac’s expression and aura seemed to changed. His playfulness from their previous banters changed into what she can think of as a mixture of anger and panic. He looked like he was being interrogated for a murder, which in his point of view is what the question felt like.

“I know you said you didn’t want it, but why? You could’ve just married her and then got divorced. Why not just do that?” Rachel continued.

Isaac took a deep breath and his expression turned into an emotionless one. “No.”

“Oh come I was just curious,” Rachel tries to convince him again. “Please tell me...”

”No.” Isaac repeats his answer. Rachel was about to ask him another time but before she could do so, Isaac stood up from his spot. He cleaned up the pizza box and the spot they sat when they ate. Rachel was just left there as she processed his reaction.

After throwing the pizza box in the kitchen, Isaac walked towards the stairs which is near the spot on the floor they sat on before. Rachel tried to talk to him again as he passed by her, “Hey wait-“

She was cut off by Isaac saying, “Good night Rachel.”