Married to the Bad Boy (6 page)

Before going to school, Brandon’s mom, Melinda, made us some breakfast. We were eating when I heard his father from outside, shouting on top of his lungs how he should call the cops on someone. It wasn’t till he walked into the dining area that I could see what made him so angry. His hair, that was nicely fixed yesterday, now resembled a bird’s nest. His clothes had some rips in them, but what really caught my eye was the bruise appearing on his cheek. 

“Dear God, Louis, what happened to you?” Melinda asked. Brandon had a murderous look in his eyes as he tried to figure out the same thing.

“I left this morning to go get Kami’s school things like I said I would last night. When I got to the house, that pathetic excuse for a human being opened the door. I asked him for her stuff and he punched me. It ended with me having to knock him out, but damn, I’m too old for this shit,” he lengthily explained, dropping my school bag to the ground.

To Brandon he said, “Next time you decide to save a girl and marry her, make sure you grab her school bag first.”

Brandon just laughed, shaking his head. “Will do,” he said before going back to his breakfast. 

Nothing else was said as we all finished eating. Brandon and I got up to leave when his father spoke again.

“Before you two run off, I want to talk to both of you.”

I eyed Brandon, thinking what it could be about. He looked down at the floor and I knew whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good.

We followed him to his office and were told to shut the door behind us. “Please sit,” he said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk as he sat on it. I took a seat as Brandon stood by the other empty chair. “I’m not going to sugar coat this. The way you two went about getting married is for all the wrong reasons, but I respect my son here for doing what he thought was best.”

Then he walked around the desk and sat down in the chair, still eyeing us. “As I told Brandon last night, now that you are married, you need to act like a married couple. That means my son here will have to treat you like a wife.”

“Sir, that’s not fair to him. Yes, we got married, but I don’t see why he needs to be faithful. We got married so he could protect me, not to fall in love.” I tried to reason with him, seeing now what made Brandon act the way he did yesterday. “We agreed that after graduation we’ll get a divorce. By then I would get my inheritance that my grandmother left me and I would be fine on my own.”

Mr. Mitchell nodded as he said, “Yes, Brandon told me this all and I’ll have my lawyers look into that for you, but I think this is the kind of thing Brandon needs to learn to be more grounded.”

“What do you mean, more grounded?” Brandon finally asked, looking at his father with a suspicious look.

“Son, your mother and I are at our wit’s end with your troublesome ways. My brother can only do so much down at the police station to keep your record clean, but it’s harder now that you’re of age,” his father answered. “We told you to stop misbehaving and I hope this marriage will help you see things in a different light.”

“Okay, is there anything else you need to tell us? Kami here wants to go to school,” Brandon said, sounding annoyed about all this. Maybe this marriage was already too much for him to handle and he was second guessing it.

“Yes, there’s more. To remind you that you are married to one another, I want you to wear these.” He pulled out two white-gold rings from his pocket. “These were the rings that your mother and I wore the night we got married and since it seems history is repeating itself, I think it’s only natural for you to wear them.” 

“What do you mean, history repeating itself?” I asked, looking down at the ring on the desk, thinking how Brandon had said that something happened sixteen years ago. Could this be a hint to that incident?

“That’s not for me to discuss with you. You will have to ask Brandon about that since he decided to do this without talking to us about it first,” Louis answered, holding up one the rings. “Now back to the rings, I need you both to stand up looking at one another.” We did as he asked and he handed Brandon one of the rings and said, “I Brandon Gab James Mitchell…”

Brandon’s face registered irritation and his eyes turned dark. He looked at his father, slamming his hand on the desk with the ring under it. “I will not repeat that name ever. That is not my name,” he yelled at him.

“Okay, sorry. Calm down, son,” his father said, holding his hands up to placate him. “I, Brandon Gab Mitchell, will protect Kami Van at all costs and treat her like a wife should be treated.”

As Brandon repeated the words, a smile appeared on his face just like it did yesterday after the minister said he could kiss me.  

“Kami.”

I turned to his father as he handed me the other ring. “Repeat after me. I, Kami Van, will treat Brandon Mitchell as a husband is meant to be treated and make this marriage work to the best of my ability.”

I repeated the words, thinking how this went against everything I had told Brandon of what I wanted the night before.

After all that was done, I looked down at the ring on my finger, thinking now how this ring symbolized the vow that we made to one another last night. Not only had I brought Brandon into my problems, I have now brought his family into it as well. It was all becoming too much and we should have figured out some other way to keep me safe.

“Come on, Kami, let’s go to school before he makes us kiss and we know how it went last time.” Brandon laughed, taking my hand and making me wonder why he was in such a good mood now. I found out fast this guy I married, had some serious mood swings and needed help.

Once we were in the car I knew it was time to ask him about his past again. “Brandon, what did your father mean about history repeating itself? Does it have to do with what happened sixteen years ago?”

“Yes, but right now is not the time to talk about it. It doesn’t matter what happened in the past for the outcome was the best thing to happen to that person. I just hope I can do the same with you, even if it is only until graduation.” He was gripping the steering wheel. “Please just drop the question about my past. When I’m ready, I will talk to you about it, but right now isn’t the time.” 

“Then we should talk about what to tell our classmates if they ask about the wedding rings,” I suggested, feeling the anxieties about what others would say as we pulled up into the parking lot.

“Don’t worry about it. If they have a problem with us being married, let them come and talk to me. You’re my wife now, they’ll just have to get over it,” he replied, shocking me a little that I shouldn’t care what others thought about him, when I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was fine when I was invisible, but now with Brandon shadowing my every move, someone was bound to notice the rings.

 “Are you ready?” I heard Brandon asking. I just looked out at the school, thinking how it was my safe haven from home. Now it was like the places have been switched overnight and I was about to walk into a battle field.

“Hey, it’s going to be fine. Just don’t think about what others are saying and everything will turn out fine,” he said in an effort to reason with me.

I sighed and got out of the car. As I walked away, the people who saw me get out of the car looked shocked that I was with Brandon, but I didn’t stop to see if he was following me. When I got to the door, I felt someone’s hand land on my shoulder, causing me to flinch.

“Here, you might need this,” Brandon said, holding up a hoodie. “You still have a bruise under your eye and I don’t want anyone questioning how you got it.” He sounded concerned. I smiled at him as I slipped it on and he brought the hood up to my head while bringing my hair forward to cover the bruises some more.

“Thanks,” I said, turning to walk inside. I went to my locker to get my books for the morning classes. As I opened the locker door, I heard some noise next to me to see him standing there eyeing the people who walked by. “What?”

“We need to go to the office and give them your new info,” he said.

“Why? I don’t think that’s smart,” I told him. “Look, I’ll take the ring off so no one will think differently than what you told them yesterday. No one has to know we got married.”

Unfortunately, one of his fan girls stopped in front of us, who seemed to hear the last bit of what I said and eyed the ring on my finger I was trying to take off. “You married her?” the girl screamed, causing a few others to stop and look over at us.

Brandon only laughed as he threw his arm around my shoulders. “Yep, we got married last night. Sorry about your bad luck.” He was acting like this was the most casual thing the way he was talking about it.

“Why her?” she questioned him. “You can have your pick from any girls in the school. Why would you marry her? She isn’t even pretty.”

“It doesn’t matter why I married her. That’s between me and her. All that you need to know is she is my wife, so you better leave her alone or you won’t like the outcome. Now get out of our faces, we’re talking here,” he rudely told her, moving his hand for her to move along. She just threw her brown hair over her shoulder and walked off.

“Brandon, she’s going to tell everyone. Why didn’t you just lie or something? Plus the lady at the chapel said it won’t be finalized till Saturday,” I told him, with the fear of his fan girls causing me more trouble than I already had crept up to me.

“Like I said, don’t think about it. They should know better than to cause you any problems. Now come on, we need to go to the office to tell them about us getting married. I have a copy of the paperwork for our marriage certificate to show them.” He took the books I had grabbed and intertwined our fingers and walked back down the hall to the office. As we walked, I noticed people talking about us and pointing at our hands. I looked down to the ground, not liking how fast the news had traveled in just a short time.    

When we walked into the office and faced the lady from yesterday, she looked up at us and grabbed the microphone and placed it far away from Brandon. “Can I help you two?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at us.

“Yes, we need to change some information on Kami’s records,” he told her, giving her a small smile.

“What kind of information do we need to change?” she asked as he pulled out some papers from his bag and handed it to her. She read through them and looked up at us in disbelief. “You got married?”

I had to bite my lip to stop from laughing at her facial expression.

“Yes, we did,” he said, letting go of my hand and wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me to him. I felt a little safer in his arms. I knew the school was talking about us, but as long as I had Brandon next to me, I was sure I could get through this just fine.

“Ok,” she said, still a little shocked. She typed something on the computer and told us it was all handled and to get going to class before it started.

With that, Brandon took the paperwork back in his bag and we walked back out to the hall with people clapping around us. At the end of the hall, I saw her, the queen of the school, Jasmine Curze, standing there with a not-so-pleasant look on her face.

By the middle of the school day, everything was running smoothly with people stopping to tell us congratulations or how we make such a cute couple. There were a few girls who seemed heartbroken and would come up to ask what he saw in me. He would simply say I wasn’t them and put his arm around me to walk to our next class.

By the time lunch came, though, I was in desperate need for some space. I wasn’t used to all this attention and I wanted to be left alone, so when the teacher asked Brandon to stay after class, I took my chance and ran off to the girls’ bathroom to get some breathing space from him till the next class.

I stood there looking at myself in the mirror and wondering what he had meant when he told the girl I wasn’t her. What could he mean by that? There was nothing special about me as far as I could tell, so why did it warm my heart when he said that?

This was something I needed to watch out for. I couldn’t let his smooth talking get the best of me. That was something I’ve seen bad boys do: smooth talk their way out of trouble and get away with some of the shitty things they’ve done.

I thought I was alone till I heard someone say, “You must think you’re someone special to have Brandon’s attention the way do. What, did he knock you up and had to marry you?”

I turned my head to see the person I tried to avoid since this morning, Jasmine. With her jet black hair and piercing blue eyes and model figure, it was no wonder why guys chase after her. I had heard rumors about her and Brandon having a fling, but I’ve never really seen them together.

“That’s not it,” I said, trying to reason with her as I stepped away from the mirror. “There’s more to the reason for us getting married than you will ever understand.”

It seemed to be humorous for her with the way she let out a laugh. “Oh, you poor lost soul. You know nothing about your so-called husband. He already told me the reason why he married you. Did you know he just had me up against the wall in the janitor closet? He doesn’t love you and really wished he didn’t marry you.”

It wasn’t her telling me that Brandon was with her in the janitor closet that hurt - it was that he told her the reason why. I didn’t ask him not to tell anyone about my home life, but I felt betrayed by this. Why would he tell her, of all people, something so personal, when he seemed so caring about my feelings yesterday?  

She stepped up to me with a smirk on her face. “You mean nothing to Brandon. The whole school knows you’re just a joke to him. Who would want a loser like you? You’re just this spike in the yearbook everyone looks over.”

As the tears of hurt fell down my cheeks, I was unable to answer her, for she was right. Why would I think Brandon or any guy would want someone like me? I was broken. I would always be this unloved girl that no one would ever care about.

“I suggest you stay away from Brandon before I step in and tell everyone the truth about why you got married,” she said, pushing me against the wall on her way out. “Remember this, sweetheart. He’s mine and no one will take him away from me.”

When she was gone, my world started to spin and I was left in a world of darkness, with only Jasmine’s laughter to hear.

When I finally woke up, the first thing I noticed was that I was lying on a cot in the nurse’s office with the light flickering above me. The second thing was someone yelling about how they better figure out who did this and if he found out before them, then they were going to pay. Third was hearing Jasmine’s voice in my head telling me that Brandon told her why we ended up getting married.

“Mr. Mitchell, I understand you’re upset, but you can’t just go on a rampage here. There is a system we go by and we are checking over the cameras now to see who went into the bathroom with Miss Van,” said another voice.

“I don’t care about your system,” Brandon yelled. “You better find out who did this before I do because when I find out, they’re going to have hell to pay. I promise to protect her and not even twenty-four hours later, she was unconscious in the girls’ bathroom.”

The woman was saying, “Sir, please calm down. Why don’t you go see if your girlfriend is awake now and then maybe we can get some answers? Are you aware of the bruise on her face?”

“Yes. Why do you think I promised to keep her safe?” Then he quickly added, “Oh, she’s not my girlfriend. She’s my wife. We’re married and now she’s a Mitchell, just so you know.”

That was the last thing I heard before I saw Brandon’s face pop up in the area where I was lying.

I studied his face to see the anger flashing through it as he saw me lying there looking up at him. When he walked in and sat down on the chair next to me and tried to grab my hand, I moved away feeling hurt that he told someone about my private life. I wanted nothing more than to just forget this ever happened and leave.

“Kami, who hurt you in the bathroom?” he asked as he tried to control his anger. “There were cops here asking questions about what happened to you after they saw the bruises on your face. They think I did it, but thankfully the lady at the front desk covered for me and said you had them yesterday morning.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I answered and turned away from him. “None of this matters anymore, so just leave me alone.”

“God, not again,” he groaned. “Why can’t you just tell who hurt you, so they can be punished?”

“Why can’t you tell me anything about your past?” I turned back to face him. “You’re so secretive about things from your past. I knew nothing about you, so why should I have to tell you anything?”

“Because I’m your husband,” he said while gritting his teeth, not making an effort to hide his anger. “How do you expect me to protect you when you’re not telling me who hurt you?”

“You being my husband means nothing. You’re just a bodyguard that I don’t want,” I said when I saw the nurse walk in with a female cop next to her.

“Sweetie, please can you tell us what happened?” the nurse asked in a calm voice, with the cop eyeing Brandon and probably waiting for him to do something out of conduct.

 I sat up, trying to avoid eye contact with him. “All I know is that it was some girl who wasn’t happy about Brandon and me being together. A few words were exchanged and I was pushed against the wall, causing me to black out. I don’t know which girl it was since there are so many girls in this school.”

“Do you remember what she looked like or what was said?” the cop asked, still looking between us.

“She looked like most the girls in this school, skinny with dark hair,” I said, trying not to give away too much on what Jasmine looked like because I knew if I said anything about her blue eyes, then Brandon would know. “The main thing that she said was she wanted me to stay away from Brandon, which I don’t see a problem doing, if it keeps her away from me.”

“Like hell,” Brandon suddenly exclaimed as he stood up. “I’m not going to have some crazy girl push you away from me. We’re married. She’s going to have to get over that.”

The woman cop spoke up. “Ok, it seems we’re not going anywhere with you two. Hopefully we can find out who it was from the cameras. You two are free to leave for the rest of the day. But, miss,” she said to me, handing me a card, “if he’s hurting you in any way, please don’t hesitate to call and let me know.”

Then she looked at Brandon pointedly. “This one has always been a troublesome person. Good thing his uncle works at the police station or he’d be behind bars by now.”

Brandon didn’t look intimidated. “Yeah, whatever. You’re just mad because my uncle doesn’t want to date you.” He then leaned and grabbed our bags that were at the end of the cot while the cop looked at him in shock. “Are you ready to go home, Kami?”

 I didn’t answer him as I got up and walked out of the nurse’s office to go to the parking lot, only to see Jasmine standing by the door with her arms across her chest, smirking at us.

“Brandon, baby, are you still coming over later tonight?”

I didn’t wait to hear his answer as I pushed the doors open and walked outside.

“Kami, stop,” Brandon called out to me. “The car’s this way.”

“It’s fine, I can walk. I don’t need anything from you,” I said over my shoulder, wrapping my arms over my chest when the wind picked up slightly.

“Stop being so damn stubborn,” he said as he got to me, spinning me around to face him. There was a look of surrender in his face. “Fine. You want answers about my messed up past? I’ll tell you, but only if you get in the car.”

Giving in, I turned and walked back to the car to see Jasmine standing there outside the doors looking at me with hate in her eyes as she watched me get into Brandon’s car. Her stare didn’t falter as we drove off, making me nervous about having to cross her path again.

Brandon didn’t speak as we drove and I waited patiently for him to tell me what it was that haunted his past that made him so angry. When we pulled up into his driveway, I was disappointed that he didn’t tell me and only tricked me into getting in the car.

Till he finally spoke. “Kami, what I’m about to tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone. This is one of my family’s biggest secrets and only a handful of people knew the truth.” His gazed forward not looking over at me, with his hands still on the steering wheel. I nodded my head in understanding, knowing I would be able to keep a secret even if he couldn’t.

“Let me start by saying Louis isn’t my real father. He adopted me when I was three, but my mother is my real mother.” He let out a deep sigh. “I don’t remember much about my younger years, but from what I was told my birth father was very abusive towards my mother. The night Louis came into our lives, he found me on the side of the road crying. When he took me back to my house, he found my mother unconscious and had taken her to the hospital and took me home with him. When my mother woke up three days later, he explained how he had been taking care of me and saw how attached I had gotten to him.” There were tears falling down his cheeks, showing me just how hard it was to tell me this part of his life.

Brandon continued though, still not breaking his gaze out of the windshield. “When she was released from the hospital, Louis took it upon himself to make sure my mother and I were safe. They ended up getting married so no one would ask questions why we were living with him. My mother tried everything in her power to get up on her feet, but she was too scared that my birth father would show up. Louis never pushed my mother into trying to move out on her own with me and said we were always welcome to stay. After some time, they fell in love and Louis filled out the papers for me to become his son.” 

“This is what he meant by history repeating itself?” I asked, just looking at him in shock. I now understood why he felt protective over me. He had also experienced the situation that I had been in.

“Yes, I couldn’t think of any other way besides what I have seen my own parents did. This is the reason why they’re not all that upset about me running off and marrying you since I was just following their example.” He turned to face me. “Now, can you please tell me who hurt you today?”

Jasmine’s hateful look came to mind, and I remembered her telling me how he told her the real reason why we got married.  “Like I told the cop, it was some girl who was obsessed with you.  And there’s too many girls in our class to know them all by name, sorry,” I lied, looking down at my hands.

“I don’t know if I fully believe you, but when you’re ready you can tell me then I’ll be here,” he responded. “Let’s go and relax. It’s been a stressful day.”

Without waiting for my reply, he stepped out of the car while I sat there thinking back on what Jasmine said about Brandon not happy being married to me. When my door opened, I found Brandon looking down at me with a drained look on his face. “Are you coming?”

I just smiled, stepped out of the car, thinking once again how this was all a mistake.