The Bride Meets The Groom

My name is Kadian Hayes. My father is the son of Cole Hayes, one of the part owners of Hayes and Holloway Private Security Inc. At this moment my father Ethan Hayes, my grandparents and I are sitting in my grandfather's business partner dining room with him and his wife Ms. Holloway. We were there for about ten minutes when a young man burst into the room with a couple that looked like his parents hot on his heels. He walked directly to Mr. Holloway and started yelling, “I won’t do it. There is no way I will marry a complete stranger, because of your archaic marriage pact you made. The reason no one does that craziness anymore was because it is a stupid barbaric custom. Being forced to marry someone you don’t know or even love would be the worst life punishment one can get. I have never even seen or talked to this girl and you think I am going to interrupt my life and marry her. You must be losing your mind grandpa. I have my own plans for my life and it sure as hell has nothing to do with me marrying your business partner granddaughter. She is probably fat and ugly with bad acne. That’s it isn’t it?”

The young man wasn’t done, “ now it makes sense, why else would she agree to something so stupid. She must be too fat and ugly to find a man on her own.” My father looked at me with a sad face, I guess he thought that the young man’s words were hurting my feelings. I didn’t really care about what he said, because I looked nothing like what he described. I actually found his outburst amusing. I Have great respect for anyone who speaks their mind, even though there are better ways to get one's point across. My grandfather looked upset, but grandma looked devastated by his shameful disgusting words. Up to this point he has yet to acknowledge that other people were in the room. “ I have a girlfriend and I will not break up with her for a fat ugly pig.” I have to give him credit he is shallow as hell, but he got balls.

After he finished his tantrum he turned around and left the room. I was sitting there looking and listening to everything he had to say, but I was indifferent to the whole thing. I do agree with a few of his statements, about arranged marriages being barbaric and archaic. I also don’t think this situation is fair to us, because we do have our own hopes and dreams we want to accomplish. Trying to force two young people that were born within the last twenty five years into an arranged marriage is a recipe for disaster. On the other hand I do think he is a shallow self centered person. He was so hung up on my looks, which I found disgusting. I have never been called a fat pig before, but as the saying goes “ there is a first time for everything”. I do hope that his little hissy fit will result in my father never mentioning arranged marriage again in my lifetime. I really don’t see him and I getting along, even if I believed in arranged marriages.

All the people in the room were still completely taken back by his outburst. After what felt like forever his parents started apologizing for his behavior, but his grandfather was not having it. He was so embarrassed, at least I thought he was, had literally turned bright red. I hope he is not sick in any way, because he might have a stroke if he doesn’t calm down soon. “ If you don’t get your rotten, disrespectful, ungrateful son back here now, I will disinherit all of you.” he bellowed at them. Okay he is not embarrassed, he is just mad as hell. “ Shit, there goes my hopes of never hearing those two stupid words ever again. Maybe I should pretend that my feelings were hurt by all the nasty things he just said. I could fake being scared of him and his temper, maybe that could get me out of this. My father and grandparents were visibly upset, It was all over their faces. I should definitely play the innocent scare girl thing. Even though I was really not planning on marrying anyone no matter what. But, I figured I would play along. Here goes nothing “ dad” Keep in mind I have never called this man dad since I have known him. I am hoping calling him dad with this pathetic hurt look on my face will end this meeting.

“ Please, can we leave now? I am not wanted here and I don’t want to be subjected to any more verbal abuse about my looks.” At this point I even had tears in my eyes, I was going out all with my act. I really hope it will work, because my family knows I am not easily intimidated. I have never backed down or agreed with anything they said since I turned seventeen. Shit I don’t think it's going to work grandfather is looking at me cross eyed, that old frat. I don’t think the joker is buying my act. Seriously, I will have a conversation with them when we get home. I should have told them no when dad first mentioned this madness to me last week. I really don’t need all this foolishness and stress in my life. Since neither of us want this marriage I don’t think they should continue with this discussion. I refuse to let anyone tell me who to marry and how to live my life. Forget waiting until we get home, I will have that talk now.

While I was pretending to be hurt by Justin's words his parents went to find him. “ Mr and Mrs Holloway, could you please give my family and I a few minutes of privacy?” I asked the couple. They still looked very embarrassed, while nodding their heads. They stood up from their chairs and left the room. I then looked at my father and his parents and said “ listen I was trying to be nice by coming here, because I don’t believe in any of this arranged marriage stuff. I don’t remember giving you guys permission to interfere in my personal life by setting up some backwards customs. I only came here with you guys out of curiosity. I Also know for a fact that I did not agree to be verbally abused by an arrogant spoiled rich kid.” Grandpa Cole opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my hand. “ I will not marry anyone in this family. It is not my responsibility to fulfill any arrangement or deals that were made by the members of the Hayes family.” My father, who hadn’t said a word so far, decided to open his mouth. I looked at him with interest on my face, dying to hear what he had to say. Sometimes I wondered what my mother saw in him that made her love him so much.