Now I panic?

"Kortney honey? It's time to wake up now..."

Mom shakes my shoulder gently. I groan, but sit up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. That's on thing i've learned from living with her. Wake up when you're told, or heck will follow. She'll go from nice, to venomous in five seconds.

"Time to go meet your fiance," she says sadly, avoiding my gaze.

I resist the urge to order her out on the spot, and stand up. The cold wood floor shocks me into awareness.

"Anything special I have to wear? A tailored pantsuit? A pencil skirt with one of the those hideous- girly- girl blouses?"

She smiles, giving me a hug before walking to the door.

"Just be yourself honey."

She leaves, closing the door behind her.

I take a quick shower and come out of the bathroom, steam floating past me, and head over to my closet.

Passing by the new things I bought yesterday, I pick out my black leggings to go under my Grey cutoff skirt, and grab the special shirt that I had made in New York last year.

It's light purple(my favorite color), and has a picture of Mark and the guys on it, with THE HANGNAILS written on it in black Gothic cursive. I slip on my purple and black sandals, and go over to my makeup corner.

I hate makeup. But just because I'm supposedly meeting my future husband, I make an exception. But only eyeliner and mascara, and dark lip gloss. I'll only wear more than this, if I decide I like him.

I stare at my hair while slipping my earrings in. What if he hates my dreads? I keep them clean and trimmed regularly, but some people still think of them as 'dirty'.

They just don't seem to get the fact that they're just as clean as their hair is(if not more so), and it's just hair.

I sigh, deciding to leave it. If he doesn't like it, he'll just have to deal.

Grabbing my purse, I quickly text Mark:

I'm getting MARRIED! Call me in an hour.

Mom and dad are waiting by the front door when I come downstairs. They both look shocked. I wince.

"Do I look that bad?"

They shake their heads, smiling.

"Not at all darling. In fact, you look very presentable. That's why we're surprised. We expected you to try and dress yourself down, so he'd call it off."

I smile softly, looking down at myself.

"I thought about it; and I'm still not happy about it... but what's done is done. I have to make a good impression though. If this all goes well, I'll want him to be able to look back and say that he couldn't take his eyes off me when we first met."

They beam at me.

We all step outside and the first thing I see is our limo, waiting in the doorway. I sigh. I've never liked limos. Oh well.

...................................................................................................

We pull up in front of a big, luxurious cafe, and exit the limo. I'm scared; there's no denying that.

The air is cool, and smells like coffee and pastries when we step inside. The theme this week is modeled after some sort of Anime cafe; filled with pretty, cute things. It's creepy.

Dad leads me over to a long white table, where we're greeted by... Josh?!

He stands up and comes over, shaking dad's hand and hugging mom, then stands in front of me.

"Kortney. I knew I'd see you soon. You look great." I just stare as he kisses the back of m hand.

"Um... thank you?"

He chuckles. "Yes, that was a compliment."

To tell the truth, he looks amazing too; his blond hair slicked back, a white button up(with most of the top buttons undone), and black jeans. Simple, but amazing on him.

Mom clears her throat, and I glance away from Josh, finally noticing another couple, his parents I guess, seated at the head of the table.

"Kortney dear, this is Mr and Mrs. Thomas, your mother and father in laws."

I smile, hesitant as to the right thing to do. Mrs Thomas holds out her arms to beckon me over.

"Come on, don't be shy. Let me get a look at you."

I go over to her, and she looks me over, a smile on her face. She turns to her husband.

"Isn't she the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? Absolutely gorgeous!" She turns back to me, and her eyes go to my hair. She reaches out touch it, running her fingers through it, a curious look on her face.

"You know dear, I've never cared much for this style before, but I think it quite suits you. You do wash it don't you?"

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "Yes ma' am. Every week."

She nods, then switches her attention to Josh. "Where is he? He should be back by now; it's very rude of him, keeping his guests waiting. His FIANCE more importantly."

My smile falters.

"Wait... it's not Josh? I thought.." I stop.

Josh chuckles. "Do I really look that young?"

Everyone else laughs too. I feel about ready to die of embarrassment.

Before that happens though, the bathroom door opens, and out walks...

"You," we say in unison.

This isn't happening. The jerk-wad I met on the plane is standing in front of me, a sneer on his face.

"No... this can't be happening to me." I start to feel dizzy, and suddenly I feel sick. I run to the bathroom, sobbing, and lock the door behind me.

I swallow the bile rising up my throat and lean over the sink, trying to calm the shivers running up and down my body.

Someone knocks on the door.

"Kortney honey? Are you alright?" Mom sounds worried, but all of my forgiveness vanishes.

"I hate you," I say just loud enough for her to hear. "I will never forgive you for this." I put as much hatred and hurt into my voice as I can muster up.

There's silence at her side, then she leaves.

A few minutes pass, then more knocks sound at the door.

"Please... just leave me alone. I don't want this!"

"Kortney it's Josh. Let me in; you can trust me."

I don't move, hoping he'll get the message. He does, but chooses to ignore it.

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me."

Knowing that he means it, I go over and open the door for him. He steps in, then locks it back, then turns to me.

There's no concern on his face; only a grim determination. He hands my a handkerchief, and I dab at my eyes, so as not to smudge my makeup any more than necessary.

"I really think you should give this a chance," he states plainly.

I don't answer.

"He... he's not really that rude. To us, he's nice all the time. He just puts on this act of rudeness whenever he meets people. I don't get it, but that's just how he is."

I shake my head. "I'm running away."

He smiles at this declaration, but goes serious soon after.

"I wont try to bribe you; I want you to do this by yourself. But I can tell you that Zach has been able to push everyone away his whole life. If you were able to push back, you might be surprised at what you find underneath his tough guy act."

"His name is Zach?"

He nods. "Zachary Thomas." He falls silent, looking at me, then turns to leave. "I'll leave you... to decide whether to run away or not."

When he's gone, I stand up, fix my eyeliner, and stand in front of the sink for a minute or two, collecting my thoughts. Finally, I take a deep breath, and walk out of the restroom, back to the table.

Josh smiles. The only seat left, is in front of Zach, and I try not to show my hatred for him as I sit down.

He stares at me for a while, before speaking.

"You okay?"

I look up. "Do you care?"

He shrugs. "No; but it'd be most embarrassing for my family and I if you were to throw up all over our table."

I smile fakely. "I'll try my best to hold it back."

He nods thoughtfully.

"You know... I was a bit excited about this arrangement. Until I saw you, that is."

I open my mouth to argue, but he's not finished.

"But I must say, you clean up nicely. By the way, do you know that you snore?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Was that a compliment?"

"I was simply stating a fact."

I nod, acting nonchalant, even thought that's the nicest thing he's ever said to me.

Mrs. Thomas claps her hands. "Let's all order something to eat."

She signals the waitress, who's dressed in the cutest anime outfit I've ever seen, straight out of Tokyo Mew Mew, and they all order. I don't. Josh looks at me.

"You're not ordering?"

"I'm not hungry."

My stomach rumbles, proving me wrong. Zach smirks, turning to the waitress. "Get her what I'm having."

He turns to me when the girl leaves.

"You hung up on me Monday night. That was rude."

My anger flares up again. "I don't like being called stupid."

He shrugs. "Well you are. I mean, you were using techniques like regular attacks. Why use up your power gauge on them? It makes no sense."

I glare at him. "I'm a Newman. They aren't good at short ranged attacks because of their low defense and low health, so they rely on techniques. And, I don't know if you realized it, but I did most of the work to beat the bosses."

"You did not! My firearms and short ranged attacks did way more damage than you techniques."

I fold my arms. "Maybe, but you were also the one who died every three attacks. It's better to wait out the attacks, then attack whenever you want. It takes more time that way, but at the end of the levels, I still had all my life points, and didn't have to buy more."

His face goes red, and I smile smugly at my victory. Josh laughs.

"Ahhh... I don't know what you guys were just talking about, but I'm glad you have each other to debate tactics for your nerd games."

"I'm not a nerd," Zach and I say in unison.

Our food arrives now, on silver trays. I guess I'd better get used to being rich again.

Turns out, Zach likes the same things as I do. There's salmon and some sort of colorful pasta. It looks delicious, and I dig in greedily.

Zach stares at me in disgust, his eyes icy cold.

"So not only are you stupid, but you eat like a pig as well. Could you possibly be any more unappealing?"

Mrs. Thomas and my mother gasp, Mr. Thomas and my dad glare, and Josh looks ready to kill him.

I slow down in chewing and lay down my fork. I push back my chair and stand up. "I'll be right back."

I make my way to the bathroom, this time to rub off all of my makeup. I can't believe I got all dressed up for such a jerk!

When I exit the bathroom, and see Zach, my eyes narrow. We'll see just how unappealing I am.

I walk over to stand right behind his chair, placing my hands gently on his shoulders. They slowly slide to the middle of his chest.

"Am I really that ugly," I say innocently. Everyone is smirking at his reaction. I'm sure the whole cafe is watching.

"I thought I was rather pretty. Everyone tells me that... including you, earlier. Maybe I heard you wrong. Did I?"

Helpless under my touch, he shakes his head no.

"Oh okay." My torturing complete, I go back to my seat, sipping my drink.

Zach's face is red, and he seems slightly pained.

Josh seems to understand. "You need to excuse yourself for a minute, Zach?

He nods and stands, going to the bathroom.

I look down, pushing away my plate, and my cell phone rings.

"Hello?"

"You're getting WHAT?!" All of the guys at home scream into the phone all at once. Everyone at the table can hear.

Mom drops her head in her hands. "You told them?"

I shrug. "I tell them everything."

Since everyone heard them anyway, I put them on speaker.

"Guys you're on speaker. Please use your inside voices, as we're in a public place." I sound like a mother lecturing her three year old.

"Hey guys," Josh says.

"Who's that," Liam asks.

"That's Josh, Liam."

"The producer?"

"Yes."

There's silence on the other end until something seems to click in their minds all at once.

"You're marrying our producer?! He's almost thirty!"

Everyone but me bursts out laughing. I close my eyes, breathing in deeply.

"No. I'm marrying his little brother."

As if on cue, Zach emerges from the bathroom, to stand behind his chair, a determined look on his face.

"Mother, Father."

They look at him. He looks right into my eyes.

"I refuse to marry this girl. Please have her sent back to her home."