Chapter 6

Nate’s POV

Fuck.

I was so fucked.

First of all, what the actual fuck?

I did not need this to happen to me at a time like this, it was very obvious that I wasn’t doing all that well after what had happened between Jack and I, and how I had abruptly ended things between us.

Or in this case, should I say ‘Michael?’

Was his name even Jack to begin with, for fuck’s sake.

How was I supposed to go about the whole marriage thing when the woman who I was supposed to be getting married to, was Jack’s –or Michael– since it seemed like his actual name was Michael— younger sister.

How was I supposed to agree to the arranged marriage now that the woman whom I was supposed to get married to, was the younger sister of the man whom I had been hooking up with in secret– and was already starting to develop some unexpected feelings for, without even realizing it.

I had always had rotten luck since I could remember, but this took the cake.

How would I ever face any of them again? How would I stand before them and sign the necessary contracts with Jack standing in the same room?

Can I still even agree to the marriage arrangement thing at this point?

I suddenly felt like running away from everything that’s suddenly happening to me, and to elope the fuck out of here, leaving all these things behind, because at this point? It was getting too overwhelming for me head to properly process.

I am pretty sure faking your identity was illegal, if not I’d have contemplated trying to run away and starting a new life, family duties, inheritance and my stupid feelings be damned.

None of this was even adding up.

It was starting to feel like Jack knew whom I was all these while, to think I used to think he still had no idea about who I actually was, all those while.

But come to think about it, perhaps he knew who I was all those while, which was why he had probably given me a fake name, because it was obvious that his name was Michael, and not Jack.

And then here I was, thinking I was the asshole who abruptly broke things off with him without any kind of explanations, for a really good and reasonable reason obviously.

It was because I do not want to lose my inheritance.

There was no other question around that particular decision, that was just that. I had literally just met jack two weeks ago, and had started hooking up with him immediately. The feelings I had started to feel for him were weird because I had never experienced something like that before, and whether I had started to suddenly get closer to him than I expected or not, no one in their right mind would expect me to suddenly give up my inheritance just like that, for me to give up something I had been looking forward to since I was a little kid.

Come to think of it, it was a good thing I hadn’t even contemplated giving my inheritance off at first, seeing as the person whom I was starting to like for the first time, had obviously introduced himself to me with a fake name and hadn’t bother to tell me his real name all those times we’ve hanged out and fucked each other brains out.

Gosh, I feel like shit right now.

I squeezed around the steering wheel, feeling my heart which had been hammering hard against the side of my chest start to finally slow down, a really long time after I had driven out of the premises of my father’s company.

I dragged in a deep breath and filled up my empty lungs before starting to puff the breath out almost immediately.

I needed to talk to someone.

I looked for the nearest pit stop in my view and parked my car. I rested my head slightly on the staring and struggled against a breakdown.

I dragged in another deep breath and puffed it out once again, feeling my heart stutter a little as I repeated that motion again and again, trying to stop the incoming panic attack which I had already started to feel coming in, moments ago.

I was pathetic.

The universe must hate my guts at this point, or karma was just so against me and would do anything to make my life more and more miserable.

I mean, it wasn’t enough that I was born into a loveless family, where only money and fame matters to them, it also wasn’t enough that I had been the only child and grew up lonely as fuck, it also wasn’t enough that all their high expectations of me got placed on my shoulders before I even got into high school, and to make it all worst, the universe decided that, in order to make my parents more disappointed in me than they already was, since I obviously wasn’t the picture perfect son they’ve always hoped I’d grow up to become— I just had to be exclusively into guys, to top everything.

After what I think was several minutes, I put myself together and whipped out my phone, tapping the number of the only human being whom I trusted in my whole life and pressed the call button. I lifted the phone to my ear and waited as it rang.

“Avery, you there?” I spoke up as soon as the call got answered, and prayed he had picked up and that it wasn’t the shitty network around here which was messing with me.

“NATE, it has been a while. I wondered if you would ever drop a call for your best non-binary buddy. I am at the club right now, so you might be hearing some noises in the background.” His voice drifted into my ear after a few seconds and I felt my heart which felt like it had been sinking before, starting to slowly float almost immediately.

I had missed him.

“I- I am sorry I never call these days. I got so caught up with work.” I whispered into the phone after a moment had passed and I had been staring at my feet with a blank expression on my face.

“Are you okay? Your voice sounds hoarse. You sound like you are fighting back tears.” Avery pointed out, going straight to the point without hesitating, like he usually does.

“Did something wrong happen?” He asked after a second, sounding genuinely concerned and the moment the noise which I had been hearing echoing around him decreased drastically, I knew he had stepped outside the club almost immediately after he had accepted my call.

I swear to God, I have missed him so much.

I’d do anything to fall asleep to his small fingers running through my hair with me draped over his couch, or mine.

“Uhm. I am getting married, apparently.” I shakily replied after a while, breathing out those words and hating how my voice had obviously trembled.

“Ohhh, pre-wedding jitters, is that it? Who is the lucky guy?” He said, cutting into my confession.

I started to take my fingers through my hair and Avery started to speak before I could say a thing in reply to his question, “Wait, you are getting married?”

“Avery —” I started to mumble but was cut off by his voice almost immediately. “The fuck, man? Are you seriously planning your marriage without me? Wait, you accepted some dude’s proposal without calling me the very next minute to give me the complete deets.” Avery literally growled into the phone and I could just imagine him standing before me with his hands placed on his waist as he spewed out those words, his five foot eight height making him look like someone quiet and reserved, until he opened his mouth wide and start to speak.

“You were seeing someone seriously all those while and didn’t bother letting me know? Since when?” I heard him breath out and continued in the next instant.

“Since when did my best friend start to see a guy after they’ve fucked that night? Since when did you start to see someone more than once… and you didn’t bother to let me– your best friend know about it.”

“Avery, it’s not–” I started to say again but Avery’s voice cut into what I was about to say once again.

“I swear to God Nate, you’re dead meat. Also, I’m breaking up our best friendship right this instant.” He breathed out and I didn’t even realized when I had started to let out a laugh.

God, was he dramatic.

“You’re actually laughing right now, Nate. You have the audacity to laugh right now, after the betrayal which you just pulled on me. Like I said, our best friendship is over, I’m breaking things off with you.”

“Is that even a word? ‘Best friendship?’ Is that even a damn thing?” I managed to control my laughing fits to choke out those words, and I didn’t need to see his face to know that a scowl was currently over his face after what I had just asked.

“Well, it’s a word and it’s over between us.” He replied after a moment and I chuckled quietly, my best friend was such a dramatic mess.

“My God Avery, you’re so damn dramatic.” I breathed out and Avery started to reply to what I had said almost immediately. “Whatever. Fuck off my phone.” He mumbled.

“Relax man, I’d never ever dream of betraying you.” I started to say and didn’t allow him to get a word in when he started to speak, by raising my voice high so it rang louder than his and drained his words out.

“I am not getting married.”

“Well, technically, I am, you know, getting married, but not because –” I started to explain but Avery's voice managed to shut me up.

“What do you mean you’re not getting married but you’re also getting married.” Avery demanded and I started to speak once again.

“Well, you see…”