Married to the Bad Boy (7 page)

As the weeks went by, Brandon and I kept our distance from one another while at home, but at school, he acted like this caring and cheerful husband, which shocked most of the student body. Only I, and Jasmine, it seemed, knew it was all fake. Even when Brandon would wrap his arm around me as we walked to class, she’d try to pull him away from me, but he never left my side. He’d simply lift his arm up and away from her hold and tell her to leave him alone now that he’s with me. When I heard him tell her that, it warmed my heart, knowing he was trying to keep his word about being faithful, but he didn’t know I knew he had already slipped up.

When we were at home though, Brandon changed from a loving husband to a compliant stranger. He would lock himself down in the game room and play video games all afternoon or sit in the living room and watch movies. After dinner, he’d go to his room and watch TV till he went to sleep, leaving me bored.

If I wasn’t doing my homework, I would be helping his mother with dinner and cleaning up. When I went to the room at night, he would never say anything to me. I would just go to the bathroom to change into the clothes his mother had picked up for me the day after I had married him. When I would walk back in the room, he wouldn’t speak to me, even as I got under the covers. I would feel him pull the covers to me, but would not say anything.

When Saturday came for us to get the paperwork, Brandon seemed more ecstatic that the marriage would be final and he could truly say I was his wife. After picking up all the paperwork, he said we needed to go out on a date to keep the image of being a couple. It wasn’t anything special, he just took me out for pizza where a lot of our classmates liked to hang out on Saturday afternoon. Then we went home and watched a movie and became strangers to one another again.

When the following Monday morning came and they still haven’t figured out that Jasmine was the person in the bathroom with me, I thought they just gave up on it. But Brandon didn’t forget and wanted to know each day and would ask me every now and then if it was this girl or that one when we walked down the hall. He never pointed to Jasmine, which I was thankful for because I was sure that if I stuttered for a second, he would know the truth.

Another Saturday came and the distance between us grew even further, and his mood swings were starting to really get to me.

“Brandon, wake up.” 

“Kami, it’s Saturday. There’s no need for me to wake up at the crack of dawn,” he said in his sleep and turned his back to me. “Go back to sleep or go help mom with breakfast, I don’t care. Just let me sleep.”

 “No. I need to talk to you,” I replied as I shook him awake. “Please, I need to talk to you. This is important.”

He turned back to face me with an annoyed look on his face. “What could be so important that it couldn’t wait till later when I’m more awake?”

“You and your mood swings,” I answered, sitting up and looking down at him. “It’s throwing me in a loop and it’s starting to depress me a little. I feel like you’re second guessing this marriage thing when we’re alone.”

He sat up and rubbed his eyes before yawning. “This is the reason you woke me up? To talk about the effect I’m having on you? Did you stop and think about the way you act around me and how I’m just doing what I think you want?”

“What effect am I having on you?” I asked him, feeling baffled about what it could be that I’ve done to make him act hot one moment and cold the next.

“Kami, every time I try to touch you, you flinch. People can tell you’re not used to being around me with how stiff you are when we walk down the hall. You don’t act like the loving wife or that you have any affection for me. You asked me to give you space and I have since that afternoon I told you about my past, but now it seems that’s not good enough. Please tell me what it is you want from me now,” he responded, sounding annoyed with me.

I was puzzled and didn’t know what to reply back to that. I never paid attention to what I was doing to him. “Never mind, sorry I said anything,” I told him as I lay back down, turning my back to him as tears started to fall. This was truly a mistake and I was ready for it to be over. I knew I couldn’t get over the fact that I was scared of being abused again, even if Brandon promised to never lay a hand on me.

I felt him move from behind me then said, “Kami, don’t be this way. I’m sorry. Please look at me.” When I didn’t, he continued. “It’s just taking a lot of adjustment being married. I’ve been so used to doing whatever I want, but now I have to stop and think about you.”

“Then don’t think about it. Just go do whatever you want to do. I’ll just stay here with your mom so there’s no need to worry about me,” I replied, trying to stop the tears from falling, feeling I had trapped him into this marriage.

He let out a loud sigh, as though frustrated with me. “Kami, we’re married. I have to think about you before doing anything. You’re my wife and I’m doing the best I can, to be the kind of husband people want me to be. It’s just hard.” He gently held my shoulder and made me face him. “Ever since that damn bathroom incident, you distanced yourself from me and I never understood why.”

Looking up to his face, I could see the hurt in his eyes. He knew I was keeping something from him.

I ended up telling him anyway. “You told that girl about the real reason why we got married. You told her about me being abused and how you only married me to keep me safe.”

“I never told anyone about you being abused, Kami,” he clarified. “Those who have asked, I simply told them it doesn’t concern them why we got married. Why would you believe them and not trust me?”

“Because she said you were together in the janitor closet right before it happened.” I might as well just let it all out in the open. “You were with another girl the same day you told your father you would be faithful, but that’s not why I’m upset. I could care less who you’re sleeping with. I’m just disappointed that you would tell them about my personal life.”  

His eyebrows met in concentration. “Kami, I haven’t been with anyone in about two weeks. If I have to do the math for you, that’s about four days before we got married. So yes, I have been faithful. Stop and think for a moment about the past week and a half and how I’ve yet to leave your side, aside from the times when you ran off without me. When you disappeared that day in the bathroom, I went looking for you. When my cousin April, Louis’ niece, showed up saying there was a girl unconscious in the bathroom, I ran in there and I saw you on the floor looking pale like the life had been drained from your body. I picked you up and took you to the nurse’s office and you know the rest from there.”

I just looked at him, thinking about how everything Jasmine had told me could be a lie. She was just trying to get the best of me, to put distance between me and Brandon. “I’m sorry. I should have talked to you about it first and not just assume you would tell someone.”

“It’s fine, but next time you need to talk to me about things. I can’t read minds, but sometimes I wish I could when it comes to what you’re thinking. It would make this marriage a lot easier.” He laughed, lying back down on the bed and looking up at the ceiling. “So much for sleeping in. What do you want to do today?”

Before I could answer, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Brandon said, looking at the door. His mother walked in holding a blue dress in her hand. “What do you need?”

“I need Kami. I want to help her get ready for Emily’s wedding this afternoon. Did you forget?” she asked him with a raised eyebrow. “She’s only your godmother and my dearest friend. Plus, it would be good showing Kami around to some of our family.”     

“Whatever, mom. You know I wouldn’t miss Aunt Emily’s wedding, but do we even know the man she’s marrying?” he asked, getting out of bed. “I’ve never met him.”

“No, I haven’t either. Every time we go out there to visit, he’s always away on some business trip, but I can tell she loves him when she talks about him,” she answered as she walked around the bed to stand at the foot of it. I felt embarrassed to still be lying on the bed. “Have you guys consummated the marriage yet?”

With that question, I flew out of the bed. Brandon and I have never spoken about doing anything like that. If I had problems with the kiss on the day we got married, then I knew I wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.

“Mom, please don’t ask questions like that,” Brandon said, slamming the bathroom door.

His mother only smiled. “Don’t worry, dear. It took Louis and me about three months to get used to one another till we finally consummated our marriage. Just give it some time.” She handed over the dress. “Come, I want to help you get ready so you can look lovely when you meet some of our closest family and friends.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I let her drag me out of the room to a side bathroom to get ready.

So here I was in this blue dress in a guest room of the Mitchell home getting ready. Don’t ask me why I shared a room with Brandon if they had a guest room. I remembered him saying before that they had a guestroom, but he would be able to sleep better if I was in the same room as him. Now that I thought back to the past week and a half, maybe it would have been best if I had stayed in this room.

“You look lovely, dear,” Melinda said. “The dress fits you perfectly, just like how I hoped it would.”

I just looked at myself in the mirror, feeling clueless about fixing my hair or even putting on any kind of makeup.

 “Thanks, but I’m not sure how to do my hair and stuff,” I replied, still looking at myself wondering what it was that Brandon saw in me.

“Don’t worry about that, dear. I can help you. Once Brandon sees you, he won’t be able to take his eyes off you.” She started fixing my hair with a curling iron that was plugged in next to me.

After she was done with it, she started adding some makeup. She told me that she became an expert at hiding bruises, that it still looked natural to everyone else. By the end, she had my hair half way up and out of my face, twisting it together in the back and the bottom of it was curled. She had covered the bruises that were still there, but you couldn’t see it clearly anymore. She also added some light blue eye shadow with a little black eyeliner to make my eyes pop. Looking back at myself, I was reminded me of the day I got married.

“Come. We have to get going. We’re running late,” I heard Mr. Mitchell say from out in the hall.

When we got outside, the Mitchell men were there holding the car doors open for us. I walked over to Brandon and raised an eyebrow at him. His normal black jeans and fitted top that always showed off his perfect body were traded in for a suit and tie.

I smiled at him as he closed the door for me and walked around to get in. As he opened his door, he yelled out, “Race you there!” and he didn’t waste any time as he started the car and sped off down the driveway and onto the main road.

I wasn’t a fan of racing so I was holding onto my seat for dear life as Brandon zipped through traffic. Was this necessary to go to a wedding?  I’m really starting to think he was trying to kill us when he turned and missed hitting a car by an inch.

When we pulled up to the country club next to a beach, I remembered my father bringing me here when I was little. What a simpler time that was for me, before the beatings and abuse, when I believed in myself and felt loved. 

“You ok?” I heard Brandon ask. I nodded my head, not wanting to tell him I was thinking about my past and how I was missing my dad. He sighed and got out of the car to go around and opened my door, holding out his hand for me. As he pulled me out, he wrapped his arm around my waist and whispered in my ear, “By the way, you look really gorgeous in that dress.”

I looked down at the strapless dress and saw how it hugged my chest, but flowed out and was loose the rest of the way down to my knees.

“Thanks. Where are your mom and dad?” I looked around and didn’t see them.

“Oh, I lost them a while back. Come on, let’s go in and find some seats before the wedding starts,” he said, pulling me inside the building. It was the same as all those years back, but before I could fully get a view of everything, Brandon tugged me to the side to where the wedding was being held.

The room had rows of seats with white flower petals running down the center aisle. Each seat had pink covers with white bows on them. At the altar, the minister was talking to the groom, whose back was turned to us. Brandon led us to the fourth row and sat down, pulling me down next to him, making me save the two seats next to me for his parents.

Soon after, Brandon’s dad came shouting in that his son cheated during the race. Really? Racing was dangerous, yet the elder Mitchell was complaining about his son’s cheating, not how dangerous it was. I could stop and think if there wasn’t some other ways these two could have raced against each other without me and Melinda being involved.

I shook my head at them and returned my attention to the front of the room, particularly to the groom, and my breath got caught in my throat. His sandy blond hair and clear blue eyes, the same eyes I have. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be seeing him again, and marrying another woman after leaving me to my mother and horrible stepfather.

I had to take my eyes away from him. I was scared of what would happen if he saw me. It’s been eight years since he walked away from me. All I wanted to do was get up and run away from him, like he did to me. I put my hands in my lap and looked down, hoping he wouldn’t see me here.