Chapter 3
Change Of Plans

♡•♡•♡

Katelyn

"Remind me why we're asking this bastard for help?" I ask Zane.

"Because my dad is too fucking stupid to realize how bad of a person he's being, and so is Aphmau's dad." He replies.

"I'm right here..." Aaron grumbles.

I respond by flipping him off.

"Katelyn! Come on, we gotta figure out a plan before next Sunday!" Zane snaps, "We have a week before Aphmau gets forced into marrying my asshole of a brother!"

"Why are we doing this at our house again? What happens if Aphmau comes down the stairs?" I ask.

"We stuff Aaron under the couch and pretend he's not there." He replies.

"Too late. What the hell are you doing?" We all turn to the stairs. Aphmau is glaring at us from the bottom of them.

"Good question..." I mutter.

"Your supposed to be on my side!" Zane snaps.

"I'm not the one who invited the same guy who broke Aphmau's damn heart into this fucking house!" I retort.

"Both of you shut up!" Aphmau snaps, "What the hell is he doing here?! And why didn't you tell me he was coming?!"

"Uh... we wanted to... uh.. find out why he did what he did!" I say, thinking fast.

"And you didn't feel the need to include me in this because?..."

"Uh... well... we, uh... didn't want to stir up bad memories!" Zane says. Not a lie, but definitely stretching the truth.

"Ugh... fine, whatever. I'm going to work. He better not still be here when I'm back." She says, walking to the door. She exits the house, slamming the door behind her.

"Good to see she's moved on..." Aaron mutters.

"I wish..." I sigh, "Aphmau hasn't moved on one bit."

"Sure seems like she has." He replies.

"You don't live with her, therefore you can't hear her crying in her sleep. Anybody got any ideas?" Zane asks.

Nobody answers.

I raise my hand.

"Besides, ones that could possibly hurt Aphmau." Zane specifies.

I lower my hand.

So far, we've only had one idea, which is to... "kidnap" Aphmau. Obviously, this could potentially hurt her, and we are trying to avoid that.

"You know what? How about we start with making up. Aaron, what exactly happened that day?" Zane asks.

Aaron flinches, and looks down.

"I didn't mean it... I know it was wrong, and I regret it horribly..." he sighs.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I ask quietly.

"She hates me... I tried to explain multiple times throughout college, but she turned away every time... and... okay, maybe I was a little, scared of dying from you..." he explains.

"Eh, it's a rational fear. You have to tell her your sorry though." I say. He nods.

My phone rings. I pick it up.

Elizabeth

Goddamn it woman.

Elizabeth is my biological mother, Zack's wife, and the person in charge of the wedding.

"What do you want?" I growl, answering the call.

"Ah! Katelyn, dear. Is Aphmau there?" She asks.

"No. What do you want with her?" I ask.

"Oh, it's just that the date of the wedding has been changed. It's now today, at one this afternoon." She replies.

Oh.

Fuck.

No.

"WHAT?!" I exclaim.

"Yes, in fact I've just sent a group to pick her up." She says.

"What group?" I ask.

"You may have heard of them. A gang called Phoenix Flame." She replies.

I hang up, and throw my phone onto the ground, standing.

"Katelyn, what's wrong?" Zane asks, standing up.

"Elizabeth change the wedding time! It's at one PM! She just sent the Phoenix Flane gang to get Aphmau!" I exclaim.

"That's my mother's gang!" Aaron says, standing up.

"Well if we don't hurry, your mother is going to kidnap Aphmau!" I snap, "Let's go!"

We all rush outside, and start running as Zane pulls out his phone and calls Aphmau.

♡•♡•♡

Aphmau

My phone starts ringing as soon as my break starts. It's Zane.

"What's up Zane?" I ask, picking up while putting my coat on.

"Aphmau, you need to leave your workplace now!" He exclaims, sounding panicked.

"I'm already outside. What's going on?" I ask, as I walk outside and start down the street. There's an alleyway near the store I work at that's quiet and peaceful, and occasionally has some stray cats that like me.

"Just don't stay at your workplace. We're on our-" my phone starts buzzing, cutting him off.

"Aph... ...ming... ...tay... ...ere... ...re..." I make out bits and pieces of what he's saying, but I can't make sense of it.

"Zane? Zane, I can barely understand you." I say.

Then my phone shuts off.

I put it in my pocket, and continue on nervously.

When I enter the alleyway, someone grabs me from behind.

I scream, and more people enter while I start struggling.

One of them falls over, followed by another, and another.

"HIYAH!" Another falls over, accompanied by the sound of Katelyn yelling. The one holding me releases their grip, and I turn around to see them fall over.

Aaron smiles sheepishly, and looks away. I feel a blush creeping up to my face and look away too.

"Lovebirds." Zane whispers. He's really bad at whispering.

"You are horrible at whispering." Katelyn tells him.

"I'm better then you are." He retorts.

I suddenly remember that I'm supposed to be mad at Aaron and force a glare in his direction.

"What just happened?" I demand.

"Long story. Anybody got any idea where we can hide?" Zane asks, crossing his arms.

"Good question..." Aaron mutters.

"There's a forest outside of town we can drive to." Katelyn suggests.

"Eh, it's better then staying in town. Let's go." Zane says.

"I'm not going anywhere until someone explains what's going on." I say, crossing my arms.

"Too bad." Katelyn replies, picking me up and putting me over her shoulder.

"What the-?! Hey! Put me down!" I exclaim, kicking her. She grunts, but doesn't let go.

"Would you rather Aaron carry you? Cause that can be arranged." She retorts.

"I hate you." I grumble, stopping.

"Love you to Sis." She replies, putting me in the car. I strap in, as the others get in. Zane gets in the drivers seat, Katelyn rides shotgun. Leaving me and Aaron in the back.

"Explanation?" I prompt.

"Look, it's a really long story." Zane sighs.

"It's a 4 hour drive out of town and to the forest." I reply.

"I hate it when you use logic..." Katelyn mutters.

"I hate it when you hide things from me. You've been hiding something for 5 weeks now." I retort.

"That long?" Aaron asks.

"Yes Jackass." I grumble. He winces, and looks away. I lean against the side door.

"Okay okay. Katelyn will explain." Zane says.

"Why me?!" Katekyn exclaims.

"I'm driving." Zane says.

"Why not Aaron?!" She asks.

"You dragged me into this a week ago." Aaron replies.

"Ugh, fine..." she sighs. "Basically, Zane's parents and your dad are trying to force you to marry Garroth. Because it's a buisness deal and the heir must be married, blah blah blah... it was supposed to happen next week, and we were just informed like, 10 minutes ago, that the date and time was moved to today. Zane kept going to his parents, trying to get them to call it off, I kept yelling at Elizabeth to call it off, eventually things blew up for both of us, and we talked to Aaron."

"So you weren't actually pestering him to find out why he did it earlier." I say.

"It was a stretch of the truth. Same with why we didn't tell you. It was originally a lie, but we ended up asking anyway-"

"I asked anyway." Zane interrupts.

"Whatever. Zane asked, and then we got the call. We didn't tell you for the exact reason we gave you, plus we didn't want to give anything away." Katelyn says.

"Why didn't you tell me about the wedding in the first place?" I ask.

"Aphmau, life has been hard enough on you already. We didn't want to give you anything more to stress about then you already had."

I just nod, and glance at Aaron, and look down at my feet.

"Can I hear your explanation?" I ask.

"I didn't mean it... it was wrong, and I regret it horribly... I'm sorry..." he says quietly, avoiding looking at me.

I look up at him, and nod.

"Fine..." I mutter, yawning.

"Night." Katelyn yawns too, and then falls asleep.

Zane doesn't say anything, just rolls the divider between the seats up so we can't see or hear each other.

I yawn again.

"Tired?" Aaron asks, chuckling a little.

"N-no..." I reply, feeling a blush creeping up to my face.

He chuckles again, and I huff, looking away.

The car is quiet after that. Uncomfortably quiet.

I lean against the car door, and pull my hood up, falling asleep.