CHAPTER 10

By the time I had gotten to my room, I was furious and I don't mean your everyday I-stubbed-my-toe furious. I mean steam-blowing-out-of-my-ear, blood-boiling furious. I was so beyond delirious that I actually thought my skin was going to turn red.

I threw my suitcases on my bed while everyone gathered into my room. Well, just Blake and my dad. The ladies were shopping, the rest of the men were golfing, Jonas was probably out analyzing what he did wrong, and I sent Zach packing.

"Come on, Brooke. You have to be reasonable." My dad said as he blocked the entrance of the room.

"There is no reason to be reasonable, dad. I'm leaving and that's final." I said through clenched teeth, grabbing my brush and make-up bag off my drawer and stuffing them into my suitcase. Thank god I wasn't one for unpacking or this would have been dragged out even more.

He sighed. "What about what we talked about? You can't just leave that topic!"

"For the last time, dad. The only thing that is going to be 'arranged' is your face if you don't stop talking about it. It's ridiculous. Tell him it's ridiculous, Blake."

Blake nodded as he sat down on my bed. "It's retarded, dad. An arranged marriage?"

"It's not technically an arranged 'marriage'. It's more of a mutual agreement between his parents and us, promising you to him in exchange for family honor and a bit of money."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Way to be redundant, dad."

"Brooke!" My dad yelled, running his fingers through his hair. "He's a really nice guy and he's CEO of his dad's company. He'd give you a great life!"

In my world, CEO always translates to cynical, egotistical, old fart.

I looked up and narrowed my eyes. "Who is he?"

"You know Lance Miller." My dad mumbled, refusing to look in my eyes.

"You cannot be serious!" Blake said as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Lance Miller?" I exclaimed, my eyes widening. "The forty-year-old albino?"

My father sighed. "He's not albino. He's just very pale. Some could even call it pigment-ally challenged."

"Oh dad, that is low. That is low. Even for you." I growled, picking up my bags and heading towards the door. However, my dad was still blocking my way.

"You don't have to get married…yet. I'm just saying, you should give him a chance. You're twenty-five and single. What have you got to lose?"

I gasped, glaring at him with a fiery hatred. "I'm with Zach! Where have you been?"

It technically wasn't true but he really didn't have to know that.

"Oh come on, he doesn't want to get married!" Dad exclaimed with hands on his hips.

"Neither do I!"

Not exactly true either.

My dad's eyes bulged. "That's not acceptable! You can't do this to us!"

I rolled my eyes and pushed his arm away so I could get through the door. I walked down the hallway as they both followed me.

"Brooke!" My dad yelled, trying to catch up to me. "Just one date. For all you know, he could raise the bar."

"Mr. Lancelot? Raise the bar?" I scoffed, walking down the stairs. "Dad, he'd lower the bar. Hell, he would bury the bar."

I didn't understand why my dad was dragging the topic along. I mean, he knew that I was stubborn and changing my mind would undoubtedly be impossible. Plus, there was nothing he could do to blackmail into this marriage. What could he do? Hit me?

Please. My dad may be greedy but he's a greedy wuss. There was no chance in hell he would lay a finger on me. For goodness sakes, the man gets nervous when he's angry. All I'm saying is that he should thank his lucky stars he had mean brothers to back up the business.

Anyway, the most he could do was threaten to cut me out of the will. In that case, I still didn't care. It wasn't as if I needed them for money. When you make a steady living and have no one to take care except yourself, the money tends to pile up.

"Brooke's right, dad." Blake replied, patting my dad on the back. "Lance Miller might make you guys richer but he'd lower your social status. Ever think of that?"

My dad let the thought process for a while before he answered. "Who needs popularity when you've got riches?"

You know how the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree? Well, for some reason, I feel like this apple had fallen from the wrong tree.

"You're impossible." I said as I walked out to the driveway, seeing Zach pulling up in the car. He was pretty quick. I'm guessing he doesn't unpack either. "This discussion is over."

I gave Blake a hug and told him to give me a call before I put my bags in and got in the car myself. I rolled the windows down so my dad could see me kiss Zach on the cheek. I looked at him with a cocky smile.

"Bye daddy. Love ya!" I said with a bitter accent, waving my hand. Zach gave him an uncomfortable smile and rolled up the windows before he drove off.

I folded my arms across my chest and my face contorted in a frown after we left the house. I mean, how did I not see this coming? It should have been so obvious from the beginning. I should've known that they weren't going to let me off this easy but my judgement was apparently on the fritz. I felt such like such a failure.

A complete failure. My plan was ruined and there wasn't anything I could do about it either. I could just kick myself for being so dumb.

"Stop it." Zach said, interrupting my pitying thoughts.

"You stop it. I'm not doing anything." I uttered as I glanced out the window.

"You're feeling sorry for yourself." He said calmly like it was so obvious, which I might add it was so not. I like to think of myself as a hard to read person.

"I am not feeling sorry for myself. I'm just cranky."

"NO!" He replied sarcastically. "Really? From the way you carry yourself, I could hardly tell."

I didn't know if he was doing intentionally or not but he was really getting on my nerves. But I bet he was. He just likes to provoke me and I could tell. It's not like he was subtle about it.

I breathed deeply to calm myself down. "Shut up." I said and then added for no stupid reason, "Besides, it's your fault."

It just blurted out without me even thinking.

"What?" He asked incredulously, turning to look at me for a second. "How is this my fault?"

I bit my lip in response. To tell you the truth, I really didn't know how it was his fault and I had a really hard time racking my brain for a reason behind my accusation. "Never mind why it is your fault. It just is."

I almost groaned at how bad and childish my response was. Nice going, Brooke.

He laughed, obviously amused with the conversation. "Okay. Care to elaborate?"

"Not really." I uttered stubbornly.

"Brooke, don't take this the wrong way. You were really irrational about this. You could've handled it better."

What way was I supposed to take this? It wasn't right!

The nerve!

"I could've handled it better?" I exclaimed. "I think the fact that none of them are hurt as of this moment is an indication that I handled myself just fine."

"You ran out of there right away without telling the rest of your family!" He replied, a grin hovering over his lips.

I really couldn't comprehend why this was amusing to him.

"What is your point?"

He shook his head. "My point is that you could've handled it better."

I really wanted to smack him at that moment but considering the fact that he was driving, I decided that maybe that wasn't the best of plans. Reluctantly, I sighed and turned to face the window, muttering unintelligibly to myself. I felt that rather than wasting my breath and yelling at him, maybe I should just saying nothing to him. That way, he could take the hint and stop talking himself.

"You know," He said, a bemused hint in his voice "Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity."

Well, that didn't work.

I threw him a sideways glance. "You would know, wouldn't you?" I mumbled.

He chuckled. "What?"

"Bite me."

And so for the first time in the hour or so that we had been driving, there was peace and quiet. Until he spoke up again and continued to make my day even more miserable.

I can honestly say that the trip home wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean, Zach kept me entertained at times with his stupid stories. Although I told him so many times to shut up, he just kept talking so in response, I just shook my head and smiled.

After what seemed like a gazillion hours, we finally arrived home. I mumbled a goodbye before I got out. I walked up the stairs and opened the door to my apartment, only to see Carmen and Ross sprawled out on the couch, watching another Nicholas Sparks movie.

I rolled my eyes, slamming the door on the way in. "You guys are sad." I said as I went to sit between them. It was good to be home.

"Honey! You're back!" Ross yelled. I winced as they both pulled me into a human sandwich.

"Why are you back so early?" Carmen said as she pulled away.

I shrugged. "Things didn't work out." I then continued to spill everything from the trip from my parents to Jonas to my conversation with Zach in the car. To my surprise, they found it rather hilarious and started to laugh.

I blinked. "Why are you laughing at my misery?"

Ross patted me on the back and smiled. "It's funny. Duh! Did you say thank you to Zach?"

I bit my lip. I didn't even think to thank him until Ross brought it up. "No."

"Did he say anything about it?" Ross asked with an eyebrow raised.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "No but usually he would say some smart-ass comment. Like maybe a 'By the way, you're welcome.' How weird! After all, he did take a week off for me. I thought he would rub it in."

Carmen giggled. "You know why, right?"

I sighed, a little tired from the ride home. "Enlighten me." I said, resting my head on her shoulders.

"He likes you."

Huh?

My head whipped up so fast at the accusation. "What?" I yelled, jumping up from my seat to stand up and stare at the both of them.

Ross rolled his eyes. "Oh please, don't act like you don't know."

My jaw practically dropped down to the ground. "No, you don't know. He doesn't like me! And I'll explain how I know too! First, he always argues with me."

"Oh honey." He said with a grin. "That's not arguing. That's friendly banter, a sure sign of flirting."

"Well" I said defensively. "He always insults me."

"It falls into the same category as flirting but more in an elementary way."

"He chases off guys I like." I growled.

Ross smiled again. "So there would be no competition."

Damn it.

I scoffed and put my hand on my hips. He obviously did not know what he was talking about. "You're wrong. Carmen, tell him he's wrong."

She bit her lip to keep herself from giggling. "I thought you liked him too."

I gasped as my hand flew to my chest. "WHAT?!" I yelled, shocked out of my mind.

Seriously, was this Piss Brooke Off day or something? I couldn't believe she was actually saying this to me. The both of them actually.

They laughed at my response. "Honey, come on. You invited him on this trip and he accepted. I wouldn't even accept." Ross said matter-of-factly.

I pouted. "He owed me so I made him a part of the plan."

Ross glared at me in disbelief. "Maybe subconsciously, you do like him. After all, it was a stupid-ass plan."

I blinked. Did he just say subconsciously?

"First of all," I said, pointing my finger at him. "What did we say about encouraging Carmen? Second of all, it wasn't a stupid plan! Okay, yes, it didn't work but that was due to circumstances outside of my control. Third of all, I thought of the plan before I even thought of him."

Carmen frowned and folded her arms across her chest while Ross rolled his eyes. "Your original plan was to find a guy to meet your parents so they would get off your back. You changed your plan and made it something completely different to fit Zach." Ross said.

"I had to!"

"Listen Brooke." Carmen added. " Freud said we have three layers—the id, the ego, and the superego. But right now, we're going to focus on the id. The id tells you what you want. When a child is hungry, his id wants food and so he cries."

I raised an eyebrow and Carmen continued. "When you lack love, your id wants Zach, so you grasp any opportunity to get closer to him."

I nodded, not very pleased. "Ross, smack her across the head for me."

He laughed. "Brooke, she's right. Okay, you can deny that you don't like him but he likes you. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone on this little trip of yours. He might say he did it because he owed you a favor, but take it from a third party. He did it to get closer to you."

I ran my fingers through my hair, frustrated. Everybody was against me today. "If you guys knew this, then why didn't you tell me? It's been two years."

Carmen shrugged. "If we told you, you would get all spastic and stuff." She threw her hands up and looked at me. "Case in point."

"Besides," Ross added with a smirk. "It was fun watching you guys. You were really…entertaining."

I narrowed my eyes at the both of them. "I'm so glad I could be of some assistance to your amusement. And I'd hate to burst your bubbles guys, but you're so wrong it's not even funny." I turned around and stomped into my room, while the both of them were laughing.

They were wrong. Trust me, I have like a sixth sense about this kind of this stuff. He doesn't like me. I don't like him.

And that was that.

A/N: Yay, she knows and she's in denial. No point in dragging it out, right? So the next chapter begins the awkwardness. Moo-haha. Anyway, I'm going on vacation to Florida and Europe afterwards so I don't know how long it will be before I will update. Less than a month, I think. Hope you liked the chapter. I'd appreciate it if I see reviews when I come back from my vacation. After all, I'm giving you a chapter right before I'm leaving.

Oh, by the way, I love you guys. Thanks with a peach on top to: Isabelle8888, Lightning Storm, shams, LilithBree, gillybean, Never Knows Best, xmile, Renzie, Kat1989, Happy4, bianca, Mediator, queen-lala, Jynx Rose, Gnat10886, Nessa03, SomethingsAmiss, Cry Tears of Darkness, and Eboni.