Forbidden

"Janie," I heard a soft voice from out of nowhere, but I ignored it continue to walking on the fields of lilies.

"Janie," The sound repeated, becoming louder. It started sounding familiar, but I still wanted to walk in the beautiful field.

"Janie!" The voice repeated, getting very loud at this point. That voice that I recognized began to sound like Mom, but I didn't want her to interrupt me walking in this amazing view of the lily field.

"Janie!!!!!!!!!" Mom finally screamed, causing me to shoot my eyes open, waking up in my dark, non-lighted room. I was facing the window, when I felt my Mom sitting next to the bed, shaking me my the arms horrendously.

I groaned, while shifting my body to the other side, seeing her sitting right next to my face.

My room was so dark, that the only thing I could see was the shadow of her body and the small area of light that was shining through the slightly opened door with the help of the kitchen lights.

"May I help you?" I asked, sarcastically.

"You're gonna be late for school," She replied to me, with a creepy smirk on her face. I turned my face to look at the window, which was displaying a light blue color, which indicated it was still early in the morning. Then I turned back to my alarm clock, in which my phone was charged to, seeing it display "5:23" in the morning.

My attention went back towards Mom, as I stared at her with a disturbed look. She continued to give me that creepy smirk, then patted my legs.

"Mother. Have you completely lost your mind?" I replied back to her, "It is barely 5:30 in the morning and you expect me to get ready for school that starts at 7:30?"

She nodded, still smiling, so I pushed myself back into bed, landing on the nice, fluffy pillow.

"Come on, I'm giving you ten minutes!" She said, cheerfully, then walking out of my room, shutting the door.

I collapsed myself back into my comfortable bed, digging the back of my head onto my pillow, then grabbing my stuffed animal, stuffing it into my face.

As bad it is waking up early on Monday mornings...

Waking up earlier than 6:30 on Monday mornings was just way worse.



It is... 5:25 in the morning, on February Fourteen, Two Thousand Eleven. When I look back at this, I will probably ask myself, why the hell am I waking up at 5:20 in the morning on a Monday when school starts at 7:30.


I brushed my teeth, looking into my front camera, but continued to brush it in frustration because it was super early in the morning.


Well, when I woke up, I completely disregarded that it was Valentine's Day and Mother probably wanted to be the first person to give me a Valentine. She's always big on giving me gifts on Valentine's day.


I spit the water that was in my mouth, back into the sink, and tied my messy, long, brown hair into a bun.


Anyway, I wonder what Jackson will do for me this year. Since it's a Monday and I have school and all, but I still would like to wonder.

The only thing I know that today is our five year anniversary, and he will do the usual, which is giving a rose for every year that we have been dating. I explained this last Valentine's day when he gave me four roses for our fourth year anniversary. So today's gonna be five.



Before washing my face, I glanced at the clock, seeing that it was already 5:27 and I had to be down by 5:32, since she only gave me ten minutes.



The better question is... What is Michael getting for my Mother Samantha? Since he's a nice guy, he must be doing something special. I wish I was closer to him so I could understand his sincerity for Mom.

But I know he's a sincere guy. Mom doesn't go for guys this easily ever since Dad passed away. I'm pretty sure she chooses the right guy. I mean, Dad has been gone for how many years now? Like eight years. And Michael is the first guy she's ever been interested in.

Hmm, speaking of Dad, I haven't bought flowers for him yet. I gotta buy some carnations or tulips to put at his grave.

I do miss him and have a thought that Mom could never forget about him, but life does go on, right? Who knows if I'll ever be with Jackson forever? Or if we'll get married, then get a divorce. Life is full of surprises like Mom always said.

All you have to do is accept it, I guess.



I sighed once, washing my face quickly, then wiping the water off with my towel that was hanging on my bar stand.



Anyway, I gotta go.

I'm going to be late for school.

I'll take a video when I'm back at Dad's grave today. See ya!



Waving at the camera, I pushed the record button with my other hand to stop the video, then rubbed my eyes to help myself wake up a bit.

My thoughts went towards Michael, thinking about what he would do for Mom on this special day. Last year, I didn't see him, but I know he bought a bouquet of flowers for her.

My other thoughts went towards his son, who had the name of Nathan. I have never met him before, but if Mom and Michael get anymore serious, I honestly would be so excited to have a stepbrother.

I always wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister around the same age as me, and I always wanted someone to talk to.

Stuff that I can't tell my best friends, like Britney, or a great boyfriend, like Jackson.

Even though, I absolutely loved and adored my life, there are the times where I can get stressful.

Coming out of my bathroom, back into my room, I searched for my white sneakers that were in my walk-in closet. I turned on the light, seeing my white adidas sneakers placing them on my foot to go along with my striped short pajamas and overly large volleyball t-shirt.

I stretched one last time before opening the door that led into the hallway of the room, able to see that my entire downstairs was had very dim lit, but I continued walking down the stairs.

Once I reached the bottom of the stairs, the sight of a rose sitting on the floor stopped me, so I bent down, reaching my arm out to pick it up.

The was a sticker on the stem, that printed my name, "To Janie,"

"Hmm," I said to myself. "Mom decided to get romantic this year."

I held the rose in my hand, taking a two minute walk towards the living room...

If my house wasn't so big, this would make my life a lot easier.

I stopped at in the living room, staring upon the television screen, seeing Maria, our maid, standing next to it, smiling very cheerily.

Seeing the computer screen, I had realized it was not Mom who was doing this...

It was Jackson. Our widescreen television set had been connected to a familiar looking laptop, which was on a powerpoint slide, displaying "Happy Five Year Anniversary!"

I smirked at Maria, who pointed at me to go outside, so I rolled my eyes, turning left, heading to the opened space hallway that led to the front door. In the hallway, I saw four other roses, aligned on the floor at a distance from each other, so I bent down to pick it up on my way towards the front door.

Ah, that part of the Valentine's day is completed.

Five roses.

Just like I guessed.

Opening the front door, to my surprise, I saw Jackson, standing by his car, holding a huge white teddy bear attached with a heart on the hands.

I could feel my face being flustered by redness, so I bent down looking at my white sneakers.

I looked so bad right now, that this was terribly embarrassing.

He stood there smiling, so I walked up to him, wrapping my arms around his waist, giving him the biggest and warmest hug right now.

I was so happy to have him in my life.

Not only happy, but also lucky.

We pulled away from each other, him giving me a peck on the lips, then hugging again.

"You normally don't surprise me on Valentine's day," I started, as I pulled away from him.

He sighed, then shrugged, leaning against his car as he held onto my hand, "I don't know. I decided since it's our five year anniversary, I should have made it special. I wanted to make sure I would be your first valentine before my girlfriend gets any more flowers or bouquets for the day."

I raised my eyebrows at him, smirking at his comment, then kissing him on the cheek.

He looked at a farther direction, which made me turn my head around, seeing Maria and Mom standing by the front door. I pulled away from Jackson, smiling awkwardly at them, and waving.

I realized that the sky was getting lighter and lighter, which mean it had to be almost six at this point.

I looked back at Jackson, who was currently handing me the huge white teddy bear, when I realized that the heart the bear was holding had "J&J" imprinted on the heart. I babbled a little, joking, "Cute..."

"Yeah," He said, shyly. "Nice when our names both have the same initials, heh?"

"Sure..." I said, stretching my words a little.

He began to shake my hand around, wandering his eyes around a bit, then went on, "So I decided... The only thing we ever do for Valentine's day is eat out, watch a movie, go to a game room sometimes, and all that stuff. For our fifth year, I decided to..."

He stretched his words out, not completing his sentence, which made me even more curious.

"Which made you..."

"Which made me... Decide... I'm gonna cook for you this year,"

My eyes widened at him, letting go of his hand. "You're gonna cook?"

He nodded, cheerfully, which made me remember the last time he tried cooking me a meal...

The fire department had to come.

I stared at him blankly, as he continued, "No, no, no. I know what you're thinking and trust me, I've gotten much better."

"Really?"

"Yes," He said, smiling. "And I'm gonna use your house for tonight. So I can make a meal for you, your Mom and probably Mom's boyfriend... Michael, right?"

"My house?" I asked, considering if that was a good idea or not. "Jackson... I still love my house..."

He cracked up laughing, grabbing my hands again, "I'm serious! I'm honestly much better. I actually had to learn from my Mom last night on how to cook." He held up the teddy bear, pointing to the heart, "And requested this from Dad about two weeks ago. I went out for our fifth year."

I laughed at him, giving him one more hug.

Jackson's Mom, Natalie, was the owner of Mastro's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills, and his Dad owned a stuffed animal factory in an unfamiliar town, in which I forgot the name of.

So, Jackson learning to cook with his Mom and getting a huge stuffed teddy bear with our initials imprinted on it from his Dad, wasn't all that hard for him.

Him saying that he went out on our fifth year, makes me wonder how much he will go out on our tenth year...

If there's going to be one.

"So you letting me cook?" He asked again, in a whiney, pleading voice. "I can make you your favorite pasta carbonara..."

I inhaled for a few seconds, exhaling loudly, staring at his very blue eyes at this particular moment. He began giving me a puppy face look, so I lost it, and groaned, "Fine... Fine... Fine. But if the fire department comes this time, I swear, we're not celebrating Valentine's Day at all."

He smiled his amazing smile, then pressed his lips against mine once more.

Let's just hope this is good.



So after Jackson left at around 6:00, I began getting ready for school, choosing my white shirt to tuck into my light pink skirt along with my white flats.

I finished by 6:40, finishing up by putting dark blue eyeliner on the edges of my eye, then I smiled to myself in the mirror.

Perfect.

Walking out of the bathroom, I wandered around my Longchamp purse, finding it on slightly under my bed, and grabbed it to put my school books in.

Before I left the room, I had to kiss the teddy bear that Jackson gave to me, because it was just so adorable... (It also made me miss Jackson).

I ran down the stairs, in a happy mood, towards the kitchen, where I saw Mom drinking her coffee and reading her newspaper.

"Mother," I sang, to begin.

The room was extremely bright at this point, because the sky was actually a white-blue color, instead of that dark blue color that indicated it was only 5 in the morning. The sun was shining and the skies were so clear, that it made my mood lighten up so much.

I sat down diagonally across from mother, as she was sitting at the head of the table, as usual.

Maria immediately placed chocolate milk in front of me, while I looked up, seeing her wink at me.

"My Miss Janie looks happier than usual," She said, with a giggle.

I turned my head at her, giving her a disturbed look, indicating that I wanted my food.

She giggled again, pointing towards the kitchen, "I will go get your food. I made a special sandwich for you today, my dear Janie. Wait just two minutes."

I nodded, grinning at her, turning back around to see Mom staring at me, as she was holding the newspaper.

I wandered my eyes around, taking a sip of my milk, leaping my eyes to look at her again.

Placing the milk down, I began, "So... What are you and Michael up to today?"

She didn't answer me, taking a sip of her coffee, trying to make me disturbed. I rolled my eyes, smirking at her, "We've discussed this before. You're too old to deny this relationship, Mother."

"I love you too, honey."

I pushed her shoulder a little, then she finally replied, "He's coming over the house tonight. He'll having dinner with us and he can experiment Jackson cooking."

That made me excited even more for tonight, so I clapped my hands together, "Yay. I can finally meet him for more than ten minutes this time."

She rolled her eyes, so I nudged her with my elbow a little, "WIll his son be coming?"

She glared at me, so I scratched my head, "What?! I would like to see what my future stepbrother is going to look like."

"Oh, Janie," She sighed. "You're not gonna meet him anytime soon. He's a very busy and quiet guy, so I'm sure by the time you meet him, Michael and I would probably be living under the same roof."

"Really?" I asked, a little surprised.

What could a sixteen year old be so busy doing?

Just then Mom's phone rang, she immediately stood up, staring into her phone.

"Alrighty. I gotta get to the hotel, some problems about the account this morning. I will see you later tonight."

I waved at her, grinning, "See ya Mom."

Mother was the company owner of Beverly Hills Luxury Hotel ever since Dad passed away. He used to the owner, until the will stated that all of it would go to Mom, and if Mom ever passed away, the rest would go to me.

So that reason may be able to explain why our house is so big.

When Mom left, Maria put a hot panned sandwich right in front of my face and she smiled at me, "Eat up, Miss Janie."

She stood there smiling so cheerfully, so I couldn't help but understand that she thought I was super duper lucky to have Jackson.



As Britney was waiting in her car, I waved at her, walking towards the passenger seat. Before I opened the door, I noticed a stem sticking out from under her car, so I bent down to pick it up.

Pulling it out, it revealed a huge red rose that had nothing on it. No names, no stickers, no anything.

"What is it?" I heard Britney as her voice penetrated through the passenger window.

I stared at the rose, thinking maybe Jackson dropped it, so I held it in my hands as I climbed next to Britney in the car.

"What is it?" Britney repeated her question.

"Hmm," I said, with a smirk. "I already got the five roses from Jackson."

"You already got it? When? Five in the morning?"

I leaped my head over to her, and her mind clicked when I did look at her. She widened her eyes, "Are you serious? He went all out to give you five roses at five o' clock on Valentine's day?"

I nodded my head and she groaned, while driving forward to get out of my driveway, "Seriously. If you guys ever break up, I think the world will end or something."

I chuckled, continuing to stare at the rose.

Maybe he dropped it cause he wanted to give it to someone else?

No, don't think about Jackson like that. We've been together for five years now... I'm pretty sure he bought too much and just dropped it on his way out of my house.

As we were driving off my own road, Britney stared at me blankly, probably wondering why I am staring at an unfamiliar piece of rose. I laid the rose down on my lap and giggled, "I'm good... I'm good."



"Hello," I heard, as Jackson came from behind to kiss my cheek. I could feel his light brown hair ruffling on the sides of my face, then he came to sit down next to me.

I smiled, greeting back, "Hey you."

He settled himself, winking at Britney, who was across from us at the lunch table, then taking out his sandwich.

As he bit into his sandwich, I began searching through my bag for the rose that I found on my driveway earlier, seeing Britney look at me puzzled from the corner of my eye.

I pulled out the rose, handing it to Jackson, "I think you dropped this on your way out of my driveway." Giving him a suspicious look, I continued, "The person who would've gotten that must be pretty mad."

He grabbed it, studying it for a few seconds then chuckling, "This isn't mine,"

I continued to give him a suspicious look and he exclaimed, "Seriously?! It isn't mine! I got my Mom roses this morning, so I already gave everything to her. If I had an extra, I would give it to your Mom."

I narrowed my eyes at him, giving him a questioning look.

"Looks like you have a secret admirer, Janie,"

"I leave your house for only an hour and my girlfriend already gets her second gift, oye," Jackson joked.

He handed me back the rose, so I grabbed it looking at it.

Secret admirer...

Hmm.



At home, around five in the evening, I heard the doorbell ringing from my bathroom. I poked my head out of the bathroom, into my bedroom, hearing what was going on downstairs.

Mom wasn't supposed to be back home until 6:30 ish, so I got out of the bathroom, that led to my bedroom, then poked my head out the bedroom door.

I heard an unfamiliar guy's voice and Maria talking to him, so I put on my slippers to go along with my same outfit, starting to walk down the stairs.

The voice got louder and louder, until I went into the front door hallway, seeing Michael standing there talking to Maria.

"Michael!" I exclaimed.

He looked at me, smiling, and threw me a wave with his hands. I went up to him, shaking hands with him and I started, "Mom's not home until 6:30, did she not tell you?"

"Ah," He started. "But I think the person that I wanna see has the name of Janie Anderson. Sound familiar?"

I chuckled, "Huh? You wanted to see me?"

"We need to talk in private though," He said, leaning his face closer to me.

-->

"What?!" I exclaimed, after hearing what Michael wanted to do for her this Valentine's day.

He was just telling me that he was planning to propose to my Mother Samantha right after we all had dinner with each other.

He was going to take her into the backyard, in which we were standing at the moment, get down on one knee and propose to her.

This caught me by surprise because they've only been together for a year and I've only met him for the fourth time.

But honestly, I wasn't preventing anything. I would actually be excited walking down the aisle of Mother's wedding.

"I know, we've only been together for a year or so, but I really do love Samantha. She's the best thing that has ever happened to me ever since my wife, Laura, passed on. And I want to start a new life. Make no mistakes again."

I smiled at him with sympathy, understanding what kind of pain he had to go through losing his wife. It was the same pain Mom and I had to go through losing Dad.

He continued, "So, I wanted to get your permission first."

"My permission?"

"Yes," He said, smiling, making me realize he had such a sincere smile. I really liked this guy. "I, Michael Nicholas Johnson, want to get permission from the daughter of the woman who will supposedly be my wife in the near future. To, Janie Elizabeth Anderson, do I have your permission to propose to your Mother, Samantha Jane Anderson, tonight?"

I wandered my eyes around a little, giving him a smile, and crossing my arms.

I didn't answer for a full minute, giving him smirks and chuckles in the process.

He looked at me with pleading eyes, possibly knowing the answer I was going to give him. I hummed for a bit, looking around my backyard, then replying, "Well... If you promise never to break Mom's heart... I suppose I can let you get married to her."

He smiled, clapping his hands, catching me off guard by giving me a hug.

"Whoa," I manage to say, as his hug kept getting tighter and tighter.

He pulled away, letting go of me, sighing, "Sorry. I got excited."

"Yeah, I can tell,"

He stood there with his hands in his jeans, smiling awkwardly at me.

I concluded, "Welcome to the fam,"



"How is it?" Jackson asked, as he was sitting at the table next to me.

He made pasta carbonara for Mom, Michael and I, and let me be honest, it wasn't the best.

I glanced at Mom and Michael who were sitting across from us, glaring at them to answer it was good. Which was a complete lie.

"Great," I lied.

I shot him a smile, glaring at Mom and Michael again, to say the same thing.

"Oh, it's excellent, Jackson. Best work yet," Mom managed to lie. Michael chuckled a little, lying, "Best I've ever had."

Phew.

I ate slowly, because the crunchy pasta noodles, were kind of hard to chew. The sauce wasn't exactly cooked yet, because the egg was still scattered around the noodles.

He really should've told me to help, but he wouldn't let me.

So I sat there, having to eat his definition of what he calls "a good meal" and my definition, of "Worst meal yet". We seriously should have stuck to eating out for Valentine's Day like we usually do.

At least I don't have to go through it until our tenth year.

But hey...

I gotta give him effort for at least trying.

He took a bite of his pasta, coughing a little, so I couldn't manage to not contain my smile. I smiled widely at Mom, making sure that a laugh would not release from my body.

Jackson and I met eyes, and I slightly winked at him, continuing to eat the pasta.

"So Michael," I started. "Mom here, tells me you have a son, right?"

"Ah, yes. My old Nathan boy. He's exactly the same age as you, but he's so different from you."

"Really, how?"

"He's an extremely quiet person. If you ever meet him, don't think he's ignoring you. He's been a little quiet ever since his Mom passed away, so he tends not to let out his emotions."

I grinned a little, feeling a little bad for this Nathan guy, but I still wanted to meet him.

"Well," I said, smiling. "I hope I meet him soon. I always enjoy meeting new people, even if they're quiet or not."

Michael smiled, bending down to eat again, and Mom met eyes with me. Jackson then started, "Umm, Michael. When did you and your son actually move here? I haven't met you often, so I take it you haven't lived in the area long."

"We actually don't live in Beverly Hills," He replied. "It was around two years, where I wanted to move to California, and I was looking for houses. Was actually looking a house in this particular neighborhood but there wasn't any that interested us. We actually live near Los Angeles, but I have to come down here to see Samantha often."

"How cute," I replied, grinning widely.

Mom glared at me a bit, while I winked at her, biting into the pasta.

I thought about them living in Los Angeles at this particular point; they would have to move in with us because we couldn't throw our life away in Beverly Hills. We had to stay here, unless Michael and Nathan weren't going to live with us.

But that thought is for the particular future.

I glanced at the clock, seeing that it was already 7:52, so I nudged Jackson on his shirt, indicating that we had to leave the room.

Michael's proposal was going to start at 8:00, so I needed to hurry to get out of this room. Jackson gave me an odd look, so I glared at him, hoping he understood what I was saying through my eyes.

Mom looked down, so I nudged my head towards Mom and Michael, then shook my head saying that we had to get out of here.

It finally clicked and he smiled at me, nodding his head.

He wiped his mouth a little, then stood up, "Excuse me, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom."

He left the dining room, passed Maria, and I looked at him after exiting. I then stood up, wiping my mouth a little with my hands, and repeated, "I'm gonna go get my phone. I'll be back."

I nudged my eyes at Michael and he nodded, giving me a thank you look.

I left the room, smiling at Maria, then getting pulled by Jackson in the living room.

"Okay, what's going on?"

I shushed him, poking my head back into the dining room from the living room we were in and saw Michael talking to Mom.

I smiled, looking up at Jackson, who was above me peaking into that room like I was and started, "Oh, you're in for a surprise."