Defying Him

Chapter One: Maniac

Summer

My best friend once said; Dreams are just misconceptions until you make them real. Now, I know for a fact.

~

Myles is my dream, a fantasy I have no guts to color. And right now, on the dining table with my brother Brayden, no pain can compare to the torment wrenching every internal and external organ of my body.

The food is good; we didn't cook it. Brayden had ordered it from a fancy restaurant downtown. The aroma used to thrill me the couple of days I've been here, but at this moment, it was only making me nauseous.

Today Myles Cameron puts a ring on the blonde girl grinning across the table; she's twenty-two, probably working in those skyscrapers you can see from the glass walls from here. She is not even beautiful; I see nothing special in her that persuaded him to make her his fiancée all at once. Admittedly, she has a splendid set of teeth, but they're yellow. I mean, for a successive young woman; I expected better.

I didn't know about her until this morning when the boys were sprawling, half-paralyzed, on the couch after last night's disappointing game. They were full of booze. They told me to go babysit myself anytime I try to take away the bottles from their reach. During that moment, my brother asked his best friend about Autumn.

At first, I thought it was the weather he meant, but the more the conversation sank in between them, the more I learned Autumn is breathing and has blonde hair and the t**s that introduced themselves before one's face came through a door.

I wasn't that beautiful, but I know Chloe, my late best friend, would agree I could lure Myles better if I was here a bit earlier.

Back in Texas, in a town, not even the city, it was where I lived my entire seventeen years; I had watched my brother and his teammates playing basketball against the twenty-nine opposing teams every season for two years, and each game I had had my eyes on only one person, Myles Cameron, who's now showing on every sports channel including the CNN, that's not even a sports news network, I mean I can take ESPN, CBS Sports Network and Fox but CNN?

Well, dad works there, so we are required to watch the channel at least for an hour every day. And right now, they have reporters gushing about Myles's romantic engagement, which, up till now, I couldn't congratulate him on.

"So your name is Cali, like California?" Autumn asked in a fake fruity accent that has no category. I bet her parents named her that because they thought she was pretty like fall. But I hate to spoil the lies; she is nothing but a murderer from the Texas chainsaw m******e movie. That would be if she was from Texas, but she's from here.

However, she's still a murderer. She murdered every dream that I had dwelled in for two years and slaughtered all the expectations I naively imagined would come true while I packed up to spend the summer with my brother.

It was hard not to peer rudely at the woman bringing sauteed carrots to Myles's magical blood-colored lips before my eyes. I didn't respond to her question because it was the last thing processing in my head as I'm forced to the traumatizing scene occurring like a horror movie; which I couldn't stop watching. After all, this time, I am included in it.

"Calista. It's a beautiful name." Myles's flawless deep voice tells the woman who must have waited for my response, and I revived from the mental shock.

He thinks my name is beautiful. I knew it. I've only been here a couple of days, but I know I could have won him over if I had gotten more time.

"My bad, I just thought you were obsessed with here." She giggled, but fraud was the sound she was making.

My eye flies to the woman with a seasoned name. She sniggered and fake a hiccup, bringing the back of her index finger between her upper lip and pointed nose.

Oh, I didn't know she wasn't only ugly, but also a b***h.

My breath wasn't regular; no amount of water would cool the burns spreading from my throat to my lungs. I gulped down a whole cup before I mumble. "It's fairer compared to being with people with intellectual behavior. Wouldn't you call that person sneaky?"

She blinked dumbly.

"I am not sure I understand what you mean."

To be honest, I don't either. I've never been the kind to trade insults or contempt. It's among the tiny reason I am here. I am usually voiceless and when I try to fight back, my words always make no sense. I used to be laughed at.

Our parents thought it might be healthier for me to change the environment for some weeks sooner before my college phase starts.

My junior year had been brutal, just like the past years of my high school. I lost my best friend last year, or rather this year; It had been hard to recognize the exact time. But ever since then, I've been a loner.

Stepping into high school is the most significant challenge I'm going through. It is hell, in a short sentence.

"Of course, you won't. You thought you were that beautiful." And beauty without brains is just sad. "Is your name really Autumn, or did someone fool you by calling you that?" I smirked, and there was a sudden quiet in the room.

"What is that supposed to mean, Cali?" This time, Myles didn't sound very proud. He was looking at me with knitted brows like I was a stranger. Which, of course, I am to him. He had only put a face to my name last week, while I had been all over his pictures, jerseys, and interviews for years.

The disappointment he wore on his face made me feel small. I mumble, "Nothing." and look down at my fidgeting thumbs.

"Can you please apologize?"

He might have sounded polite, but it felt like he had stabbed me with a dagger in my heart.

I did nothing wrong. That demon he saw as his future wife had been mocking me some seconds ago, and no one asked her to apologize. So why me?

"Just because you found a b***h and suddenly feel like a man doesn't mean you get to control others," I yelled at him, and his expression shifted to shock.

Brayden embarrassingly laughed shortly and stood from the chair, tugging my arm along. He whispers in my ear, "It looks like you're done with dinner. Please go to your room and call mom; she said to call her; I will do the dishes."

You should see Autumn's face. She's all frightened under her extra concealer. I want to laugh because it gives me slight pleasure. But the way Myles is looking at me, as though I am a maniac, reminded me I had ruined everything.