“Oh, there you are, Ariel. I need you to come inside please.” Mom said, holding the door open as she waited for me to get out of the pool. I wondered what she could want, since she was getting me out of the pool it must be something important. I swam over to the ladder and pulled myself out of the warm water. I had forgotten a towel like usual, so I stood in front of her instead dripping wet.
“Ariel, Gru is here, he wants to speak with you.” Mom informed me, her eyebrows raising as she looked at the scowl on my face. “You be nice, I think he has something to ask you, if you know what I mean.” She told me, winking at me.
“Mom, I’m not even wearing clothes, I can’t go see him in my bikini. Tell him to give me a minute I have to go change.” I was disgusted with my mother more and more, she was really pushing Gru on me.
“No, he wants to talk to you NOW, get in there.” She grabbed me and pushed me into the kitchen.
“MOM!” I yelled as she pushed me, but it was too late Gru had already seen me. As bad as I wanted to go running the other way, I couldn’t. I had to just suck up my feelings and my anger at mom and get on with dealing with Gru.
“Wow, Ariel, you look exquisite. Those are some beautiful colors on you, you should really wear that more often.” Gru looked like he might pass out, this old man was disgusting. I couldn’t believe mom was making me do this, I was trying to drag this out as long as I could so Ali would be able to gather all the supplies he could for our house. I hated being with Gru, but for now, it was what I had to do.
“It’s like your not even here with me, Ariel, did you hear anything I said?” Gru startled me by ruffly grabbing my hands and shaking me a bit. I was really starting to hate this man.
“What, I’m sorry.” I tried to pull my hands away from him, but instead he pulled me close to him and pushed his grimy lips all over mine. As much as I wanted to push away from him I couldn’t, I knew I couldn’t or mom would kick me on the streets right now.
Roman let out a snarl at Gru as he was all over me, Roman was my good boy. I knew if it came down to it he would protect me, I loved my dogs.
The next thing I knew Gru was on his knee and had a huge rock of a ring cradled between his chubby fingers.
“Marry me, Ariel, I’ll make all your dreams come true.” He said, yeah right he’d make my dreams come true. He would completely take advantage of me, because he had all the money in the world. I stuck out my hand for him to put his huge rock on, tears threatened to fall from my eyes. The tears wanted to fall, not because I was so happy to be with this man and his money, but because I was losing Ali. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of marrying Gru, now that he had just put an engagement ring on my finger, I was running out of time.
As soon as Gru had gone I ran to my room, threw some clothes on and ran back outside. I had to find Ali, I had to tell him what had happened and that it was too late.
I found Ali out snorkeling and called him into the shore.
“Ali! I have to talk to you.” I yelled to him, trying to get him to see me.
“What’s wrong.” Ali asked, sensing there was something going on.
“I’m in trouble, we’ve run out of time.” My shoulders slumped, as I the tears started to fall I couldn’t hold them back anymore.
“Baby, what is it, what has he done to you? He didn’t hurt you, did he? I’ll kick his ass.” Ali was getting heated from my tears, I couldn’t imagine what he would do once he heard I was engaged. I slowly lifted up my left hand and put it in his. Realization dawned on his face and then came the rage. “I will not let him marry you, how could you say yes?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do. Help me!”
“Okay, stop, don’t panic. It’s ok don’t you worry about a thing I’m going to work it all out.”
“But, how? There’s no way I can go back on my word, I’m afraid of what my mother will do.”
“Here’s what we’re going to do.” Ali pulled me close and whispered into my ear what his plan was for us.
This was it, today was the day I was going to get married. All I could do was hope that I would be able to go through with Ali’s plan. Mom had bought me a beautiful dress with Gru’s money, of course. Everything was perfect, or so it would seem to someone on the outside. Inside, I was dying, dying to be with Ali, dying my mother was so terrible, dying my father wasn’t here to save me from this, dying that this plan might not work.
The scenery was amazing for a wedding, mom had decorated our pool area to look perfect for our wedding. She was standing a bit off to the side looking like the little princess she thought she was with her parasol above her head. While Gru was waiting by the make shift alter, it was a scary thing looking at him.
“Come here, beautiful.” Gru said, walking the distance to me and bringing me back over to the alter. “Shauna, if you would.” He said to my mom, as she began asking us to say “I do” When it came to my turn, I stuck to the plan Ali had for me.
“Ariel do you take Gru to be your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health, for greater or for poorer, as long as you both shall live?” I took my hands away from Gru and really looked at him, right in the eyes.
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