“Fine,” she sighs. “But just know, I’m keeping an eye out for you tonight.”
“How strange,” I snort. “Usually, you’re encouraging my insane ideas.”
“Apparently, I need to be more responsible.”
I frown, looking at her with confusion. “Who said that?”
“My parents.”
“You’ve never cared about what they said, though.”
“Yeah, well, things have changed.”
“What happened?”
“I’m engaged.”
Silence falls around us, and I struggle to process the words that came out of her mouth. I blink a few times, trying to grasp the severity and heaviness of her words, unable to believe my own ears.
“Pardon?”
“I’m engaged,” Grace sighs. “An arranged marriage.”
“Yes, I fucking figured,” I immediately sit next to her. “Who?How? When did all of this happen?”
“It happened over the summer.”
I gasp. “You waited over six whole months to tell me?! What the fuck, Grace?”
“That’s because I’ve been looking for a way out,” she admits. “And talking about it just made it seem too real.”
“Why are they doing this?”
“It’s not uncommon for people in our society, Soph,” she sighs, leaning back into the couch. “And they did it for connection.”
“Who’s the person you’re marrying?”
“Kenzo Raven.”
“Shut the fuck up,” my eyes almost fall out of the sockets. “No!”
“Uh-huh,” she chuckles with a soft groan. “Which is why, tonight, I’m getting fucking hammered.”
“We need to finish this conversation, Grace. This is serious! I can’t believe you agreed to this.”
“It was either agree to marry Kenzo or get disowned. And I think we both know what the better option is.”
“Fucking hell,” I bite the inside of my cheek. “How do you feel?”
“Like I want to shoot Kenzo, then shoot myself. He’s not been making this easy for me.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
“Alright, let’s go,” Grace sighs, then stands up. “I just wanted to tell someone, or else I would’ve ripped my own hair out.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I mimic her actions, rising to my feet and grabbing my little clutch. “We can talk more, fuck the party.”
Grace chuckles. “Thank you for the offer, but what I really need right now is to see the state of Sawyer and Astrid, laugh in theirfaces, and get drunk.”
