Chapter 1

"You're ugly," said the guy who had his back facing me.

I winced as the girl's nervous expression turned into a hurt one. I could see her eyes getting red and watery, and soon tears just started falling down her face. Her mouth wavered and before she could break down into a hysterical cry, she turned to run.

Another confession, another heartbreak.

I felt so bad for the girls who fall for him. They just never give up. There would always be five broken hearts a day at Cateral High and they were all caused by that heartless, cold and arrogant jerk. I hated my luck for bumping into them on my way to class. It always reminded me of why I had always disliked him.

You must be wondering who that guy that I just bumped into was? Tyler Evans was his name. Honestly, I wasn't one to just dislike someone for no reason but this guy just gave me every reason to every single time. Just a week ago, a girl confessed to him and his reply was simply rude. Just like always. I mean, it's okay to be honest but he could at least try to express it in a nice way. Other than that, the girl that had just confessed to him wasn't even that ugly. What exactly was his problem?

Oh my, could he be gay?

I have to admit though, he was good-looking. He had a short, spiky brunette hair and his hazel eyes were usually what drawn girls to him. He's also around six feet tall, which had given him the title of perfection, according to what the other girls said. He didn't join any club that involved sports so I usually wonder how he was able to have the fittest body a guy could ever ask for.

I shook my head. Snapping out from my thoughts, I decided to just go to class and stop criticising or I'd be late again. I held my books tightly in my arms and started speed walking when I sensed Tyler turning around. Because I was just right behind him, a few meters away, our eyes met. It was true that he really had such cold eyes. After a second of staring, I just scowled at him and turned away.

I sighed in relief because it was just in time that the bell rang when I reached class and I was grateful that Mr. Hallow wasn't here yet. I saw Dianna West, my best friend, waving enthusiastically at me and I went over to take a seat at my usual place. Dianna had a long, blonde hair and she had an amazing body and truth be told, she knew that. Despite that, she wasn't some stuck-up person but instead, she was the kind of person that believed in love at first sight, soul mates and fate. I guess you can classify her as a hopeless romantic. She had always practically fell for any guy that was nice to her.

"What happened?" she asked as soon as I sat down beside her. "You're never this late."

"Nothing, I just woke up a little later than usual. I also saw something that's not meant to be seen again," I grumbled, with an annoyed look on my face. I placed the Maths textbook that we were going to be using on the table and I saw Dianna gave me a look that asked me to go on. I sighed and said, "Someone confessed to Tyler."

"Aww, sucks to be her." The tone of her voice turned from a curious into a pity one and asked, "Did she yell at him or cry?"

"She cried." Remembering how that girl's tears were trailing down her face and knowing how it was ten times worse that she was called ugly as a rejection, I could feel my face heating up. "You should have been there, Dianna. I felt so bad for her. I mean, he even went to the point of saying she's ugly!" My voice actually got kind of louder as I reached the last word. I could feel eyes on me and I looked around slowly. Everyone in class was staring at me. I smiled awkwardly at them and turned back to Dianna. "I just don't know why he has to treat girls like that."

***

It was school break and both Dianna and I was sitting at the corner of the cafeteria just like usual.

"You know, Claire, I'm curious about one thing," Dianna suddenly said after she plopped a grape into her mouth.

I looked at her with my eyebrows raised. "Oh yeah? Curious about what?" I asked and gave the drumstick I was holding a big bite.

"I wonder if Tyler has ever had a girlfriend before."

I gave her an incredulous look. "The thing you should be wondering about is whether he even likes girls," I said while smiling and trying not to laugh.

To no avail, I started laughing when Dianna was laughing non-stop. After awhile, she calmed down a little and said, "I'm serious, Claire. I mean, he's got to have a girlfriend before, or at least someone that he has ever liked."

"I don't know, Dianna. I don't have an interest in anything related to him," I said, taking a drink. "I actually feel sad for his girlfriend. I don't think he's capable of showing any emotion at--"

Suddenly the cafeteria got silent and I could see everyone staring at something behind me. I looked around and saw Tyler's face covered with water. There was a girl standing across him with a glass on her hand. I figured she might have threw it on his face. I sighed and turned around to eat again. Told you how there were many broken hearts here in Cateral High in just a day.

***

School ended and the gossip about Tyler being thrown with water on the face by some girl had also died down. Both Dianna and I decided to walk home, dropping by some restaurant along the way.

"Where do you want to go?" Dianna questioned, fixing her fringe while looking at her reflection on the window of a shoe shop.

I crossed my arms and thought of what I wanted to eat. Should I go for a pasta, burger or pizza? Well, I was craving for pasta yesterday, so pasta it was. "Let's go to Le' Pasta. It's right around the corner." I pointed at that small restaurant ahead of us.

She turned to me with a big smile on her face. "Oh, good! I wanted to eat spaghetti too." She looked at her reflection one last time before linking her arm on mine. I wanted to say that she looked pretty even if her hair was in a mess but I figured it wasn't the time to boost her ego.We entered the Italian restaurant and picked the table next to the window. I liked watching the streets and observing people that were passing by. It had always given me a good feeling so sitting beside the window was my usual place.

I saw a waiter heading towards us with menus on his hand. "Here's the menu," he informed us. Dianna decided to order a baked spaghetti with beef and rebina while I ordered a Fettucini Carbonara and coke. He wrote them down on a little sticky note and looked at us one last time. "Is there anything else you would like to order?"

"No, that's enough," I said. He took the menus and walked away.

After a few minutes, the waiter came with our drinks on both of his hands. Little did I know what was going to happen. A guy, who was in a rush, bumped onto the waiter after he had put down Dianna's drink, and I literally saw coke slowly splashing out of the glass.

It landed on my face. Yes, my face, not my clothes or anywhere else but my freaking face. I didn't know if I should be grateful that I had quick reflexes and squeezed my eyes shut before it got on my face. Soon Dianna asked if I was alright and both the waiter and that jerk who bumped onto him apologized.

And just because of that, I had a feeling that something was going to happen to me later that day.

***

I reached home, feeling exhausted. I dropped my bag on the couch and went to the kitchen to look for my mother. Then I realised that she was nowhere in sight. By now, she would have said something like, "Oh, honey. You're back. How was school?" but no, she wasn't there doing that so I decided to call out, "Mom!"

There was no reply so I ran up the stairs to my parents' room. Nope, she was not there. It was then that I heard noises in my room. I walked towards my room and saw my mother running through my closet.

"Mom, what are you doing?" I asked, giving her a why-are-you-looking-through-my-stuff look with my arms crossed.

She looked at me with a big smile on her face. "You're moving, honey!" She came up to me and gave me a hug. "I can't believe tomorrow's the day."

Okay, wait. What was she talking about?

"What? What do you mean I'm moving?" I gently pushed her so she could release me from the hug and gave her an incredulous look. "Did you mean we're moving?" I asked, emphasizing the we.

"No. It's just you, Claire Hayes. You're moving tomorrow," she said, her expression not changing one bit.

Was I missing something? I didn't get what she was saying at all. What did she mean by me moving? Are they sending me away? No! They couldn't have sold me to some stranger, could they? Anyone who was sane enough wouldn't buy me? One reason for that is because I eat in a way that would send people flying away, giving me disgusted looks. In other words, I eat monstrously. Who would buy me? Well, I wouldn't if he was me.

"Mom, I really don't get what you're saying. Can you just explain to me what's happening?" My hands were on my hips as I waited for her reply, tapping my feet.

"Honey, you know Aunt Sally, right?" I nodded. Aunt Sally was my mother's best friend. They had been friends since they were in middle school.

I sighed and dropped my arms before going to sit on my single size bed, "What about Aunt Sally?"

"She's the only closest friend I have and we made a promise about something. If the two of us had a son and a daughter.." She settled down beside me and took my hands in hers. "..we would have them married in the future."

It took me a few seconds before it hit me. Wait, what? Did they do an arranged marriage on us? What century was this already?

"What? Are you kidding me, Mom? 'Cause this really isn't funny at all!" I exclaimed, getting off from the bed in a speed of light, staring at her. This was really something out of the ordinary. "Did you really want to get married to Aunt Sally that much?" I asked, starting to get annoyed.

Okay, that sounded kind of wrong but I really didn't have anything else to say.

"Claire, it's just a promise that we had, but we thought it really would be nice if our children got married in the future." She was still grinning when she stood up and put her hands on my shoulders. I think I even heard a hint of teasing in her voice. Something told me that she liked my reaction. "Your father even liked the idea when I first told him."

"Dad even agreed?" I ran my fingers through my hair as I turned away. "Seriously, Mom, I can't believe that the both of you would do this to me!" I snapped. I could feel my face burned with anger.

"I know, hon, that's why you're moving there to meet Aunt Sally's son first. You both can decide if you really want to get married to each other when you reach eighteen."

I turned back to look at her. My jaw literally dropped onto the ground.

"So, I have a year to decide if I want to get married? Why can't I just say no now?" I asked, feeling really agitated. "Isn't it the same thing as saying no in a year? And why does it have to be next year? I'm only sixteen, Mom, sixteen!"

"Honey, we're not forcing you. We're just asking you to give it a try. You can say no to this next year but not now, okay? Other than that, for your last question, it's because we don't want to wait too long to become a family," she explained, clasping her hands in happiness at the last sentence. I could feel that she really was happy. Who exactly was this woman in front of me? "There's good news too. It seems like her son's studying in the same school as you."

I growled. I felt really helpless. I couldn't believe that I was going through all this just from a stupid promise my mother had with her middle school best friend. I can't even believe that them wanting to have a 'already' better bond had 'caused me this misfortune. Anyway, how was me knowing that Aunt Sally's son was in the same school as me good news?

***

"You're getting married?" screamed Dianna from the other end of the phone.

"Yes, Dianna. It's ridiculous, isn't it?" I was lying on the bed, just staring at the ceiling. My mind was in a mess. "I guess I actually knew something was going to happen after that incident at the restaurant."

She burst out laughing. "Yeah, Claire! You don't know how funny you looked just now." She was laughing even more at that moment. "There's one thing I'm really curious about though. Who's your groom-to-be?"

"I don't know. Now that I think about it, I've never met him before, seeing how often Aunt Sally meets up with my mother. But my mother did mention that he goes to the same school as us though." At that moment, all the guys that I knew from my school came flashing into my mind. What was Aunt Sally's middle name again? I could go ask my mother about it but I didn't feel like talking to her and my father at the moment. "Seems like I'll find out tomorrow."