Elaine's POV;

After finishing the work at the office, I went drinking along with Claire, Tyler and Jackson.
I told them everything and kept on drinking. I never drank that much, and I rarely got drunk. But right now, I was in full mood to get drunk. I just kept on drinking and drinking.

"Elaine, stop it. You've had enough." Claire said as she took my glass from me

"No, just for once let me drown all my sorrows away by drinking." I said as I took the glass back from her and drank it all

"Are you sure that's the quote?" Tyler asked

"Who cares about that." Jackson said

"What are you going to do now? They are both going to ask you questions about it. They might even want to meet the guy." Claire asked with worry

"I think I'll run away from home." I said as I drank another glass. I was starting to feel a bit dizzy.

"Elaine! I'm serious here." Claire said as she took the glass from me. This time putting it away from me.

"Oh hello serious." I said as I giggled. She was being funny. Why did everything seem funny to me? I tried to get my glass back, but Jackson pulled the glass away.

"Please. Before I get slaughtered anymore, let me live my life." I said as I pleaded

"This is not the solution to your problem. You need to think about this seriously." Jackson said

"Elaine listen to me. You just lied to your parents about being engaged. You need to fix this." Tyler said

"But where will I find someone whom I'm engaged too?" I said as I took Claire's glass and drank from there

"Don't end up being hungover." Tyler said as he took the glass from me

"Don't worry. I won't." I replied as I drank water because now I was starting to feel dizzy. Maybe I had a little too much to drink.

"How about you ask someone to act as your fiancé?" Jackson asked

"Oh god no! I don't wanna ask someone. What if I end up getting married for real to that person?!" I replied. No way. That was not a possibility

"Then...how about you choose someone from the ones who sent you marriage proposals? Like you might as well choose someone from there. They won't have any problem with it as they want to get married to you anyway. Why else would they send you a proposal?" Claire said

"And think about it, this way you will end up choosing someone to marry like your mother wants to. And the other person will also have no objection." Tyler said

"But you will have to meet the guy before your father meets him. That way you both can decide on how you met and got engaged and all that story." Jackson said

I looked at all three of them. All of them were grinning. They looked like they were pretty proud of what they had come up with.
"You guys...." I said

"Yes, I know. We are the best. No need to tell us that." Jackson said as he smirked

"Are you guys stupid?! I think you've watched too many movies or read too many books like this. This doesn't happen in real life!" I said as suddenly my stomach started aching. My head had also been aching for a while now. Maybe I did have too much to drink.

"Are you okay?" Claire asked worriedly as I shook my head. I ran away looking for the bathroom. I was about to puke but I was trying my best to hold it in. Until finally, I reached my limit. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I needed to find a washroom, quick. I ran as Claire, Tyler and Jackson were following after me. Suddenly I bumped into someone.

"Hey, watch where you're going." He said annoyingly

I didn't look up to see who I bumped into, I didn't care who it was. Right now the only thing I cared about was not making myself embarrassed in front of everyone by puking in public. My stomach was aching so I knelt down, holding a hand in front of my mouth to stop me from puking.

"Oi, are you okay?" That same guy said whom I bumped into. Even though he asked that, I could still feel the annoyance in his voice. Where had I heard that voice before? And that was it....I couldn't hold it in any longer and I let it all out. I ended up vomiting. And not on the ground, but on someone's shoes.

"Hey! Urgh...gross!" That guy said

I looked up and saw that same guy as before. The one whom I always end up bumping into. Las or whatever the hell his name was.

"Oh it's you." He said as he looked at me with disgust. He was frowning.

Oh shit! I had vomited on his shoes. For some reason, I didn't feel all that bad. He deserved this for breaking my phone.

"Oh Atlas! What are you doing here?" Tyler said as Claire also said hello to him. Are these two friends? Well Tyler did have a few friends from his high school. Although I've never met them before.

"Oh hey Ty! I didn't expect to see you here." He said as he took off his shoes. His shoes were ruined. I kind of felt bad for the shoes.

"Your shoes, they are totally ruined!" Claire said

"Don't worry about it. Luckily I've got a spare in my car." Atlas replied as another person came holding shoes. That was fast. But before that, why was there a tag on his shoes? Did he lie about having spare shoes in the car? Well whatever. I don't care. My head still aches. I think I've had too much to drink. It's also starting to become so hot in here. Claire helped me stand, and took me to the washroom.

"Elaine, you need to pull yourself together." She said as I splashed my face with water

"Yeah yeah." I replied

"Elaine, I'm really worried for you. What are you going to do?" Claire asked

"I'm fine. I just had a stupid stomach ache. And I've only had a few drinks. You know I don't ever get drunk." I replied after I dried my face. Usually I'd put makeup on, but I didn't have anything with me.

"Are you going to stay? Tyler asked Atlas to join us. There are two of his friends too. I'm sure you've met them before at my wedding, Mike and Amelia." Claire said as we walked out of the washroom. There was now a high beat music in the club. Everyone was mostly dancing.

"Oh I remember those two. I have even kept in contact with Amelia. Although I haven't been able to meet her." I replied. Amelia was one of my friends. I met her at Claire's wedding and we immediately became friends. She was fun to be around with. We went to the table and I sat across that.....umm...Atlas guy. I think that was his name. Yeah, Atlas Gray. I remember now. Amelia was sitting besides me while Tyler and Claire went to dance and Mike had gone to get us drinks. And Jackson, well he disappeared. We didn't bother much about it, because it was his habit to disappear like this. Especially when we were in the club. He must be goofing around, flirting with some girl. Me and Amelia talked a lot. We caught up about everything that's been happening to us. I didn't tell her about my whole marriage trouble part. But still we decided to meet up along with Claire and hang out from time to time. While that guy just sat there quietly, typing something on his phone.

"I'm gonna go check on Mike. I wonder in which century he's gonna come back with our drinks." Amelia said as she got up and went to look for Mike

I was now bored. I looked around and found Claire and Tyler dancing. They were having so much fun laughing and giggling and whispering something to each other. Like when you see those people, you truly know that they are in love. I've always wanted to have that. A love story filled with happiness. You know how everyone has some kind of an ideal person set in their mind. And they also have some other things set up like their marriage and etc. After thinking about it, I realised with the way things are going, I'll never be able to get any of those things. It's not fair. I had enough of these thoughts so I decided to distract myself. I looked up to find that guy sitting there, still typing. What's he typing about? Speaking of which, he doesn't even recognise me. I really wanna ask him why he sent me a proposal. It's strange. Suddenly he stopped typing and then looks up. From the look on his face, he is surprised to find everyone gone.

"Where is everyone?" He asked in a low voice. I could tell he was talking to himself. But I was still able to hear him even with the loud music in the background. Oh so he speaks normally. I thought.

"Mike and Amelia have gone to get drinks, Claire and Tyler are dancing over there and Jackson is....well he is somewhere." I said.

He didn't even bother to look at me, and started looking around, trying to find his friends. Was I that unbelievable?

I was getting bored sitting with this mute person, who only looked at his phone. A few girls even came to talk to him, but he was so busy in typing that he didn't even notice them.
And now he wasn't even using his phone, he looked like he was deep in thoughts. This was getting awkward. Since I felt less drunk, I poured another drink in my glass and I was about to drink it when he said, "You shouldn't drink more."

I was kind of surprised. At first I didn't know who he was talking to, so I looked behind me to see if someone was there. And then I looked at him and said, "You're talking to me? Why do you care?"

"I don't. I just don't want someone puking on me again." He replied.

"Don't worry I won't. And about what happened to your shoes, you deserved it." I replied as I smirked. Sure a shoe wasn't a big deal as a phone. But it did felt good to get revenge.

"What?" He asked as he raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner. I think he didn't hear me due to the loud music.

"You broke my phone's screen when you bumped into me earlier." I answered as I took it out and showed him my phone

"So?" He said with indifference. And he again went back to using his phone. Urgh....rude.
I then went back to my drinking. A few minutes later Claire and Tyler came back and they stopped me from drinking. Amelia and Mike also came back. But then Atlas got up and said that he's got some work to do and leaves. Mike follows after him, but Atlas says it's fine and to enjoy. Hmm. That guy must work a lot causing him to be so busy. Well who cares.

I get home around 2. A bit drunk. Although I felt I wasn't drunk, but others kept saying I was, that's why Claire dropped me home. As soon as I entered, my parents were sitting, waiting for me. Okay now I was a bit scared and to be honest I did scream a bit as I was surprised to see them.

"Oh hello." I said as I smiled. I don't know why but everything was dizzy and still seemed funny to me.

"Were you with him?" My father asked. There was a bit of anger in his tone. Him? Who's him? Oh shit! Him! He's talking about what I said to them this morning! What do I say!

"Yes?" I replied. I wasn't sure if I was answering them or questioning them because I didn't even know what to say to them

"Who is he? What's his name? How long have you been dating him? Why haven't you told us before? Why did you keep it a secret?" Mom started asking questions

"Where's your ring? Is he even a good person? Do you even love him?" Dad also started asking me bunch of questions. It was all making my head ache.

I didn't know what to say. Some part of me wanted to tell them the truth. But I didn't want to marry John. Whoever I choose, I'm gonna be married to him for the rest of my life! This is a life changing decision they are asking me. How the hell did I end up in this situation?! I mentally screamed. I was biting my lower lip so hard that I'm sure it must've been bleeding. I was still thinking of answers when I looked at the table in front of mom and dad. The marriage proposals were there. I guess mom has been showing them to dad. I looked at the pictures and suddenly I saw his picture. I don't know what happened. I don't know what made me do it. Maybe because I've bumped into him a few times that I felt more familiar to him then the rest of the strangers, who knows. Maybe I lost my mind or I was really drunk or maybe it was because of what Claire and Tyler said earlier. I just did what they told me to do.

"His....umm...his name is...." I said. Oh god help me from what I am about to say next, "his name is Atlas Gray. He is 25 years old. He is Tyler's friend that's how I first knew him. He's the one who proposed to me a few days ago. Which I accepted. As far as where my ring goes.........he gave me one but I gave it back to him telling him to wait as first I had to talk to you guys. And he's also the one that sent that marriage proposal, you know that one, mom." I said quickly as I pointed at his picture.

"There, now you know. I'm going to sleep since I'm really tired. Good night!" I said as I started heading upstairs

"Wait.....Elaine. Stop right there!" Dad said but I ignored him. I went to my room and quickly locked the door. I couldn't handle anymore of his questions. God knows what else I'll end up lying about. I didn't even bother changing my clothes or taking my shoes off, and as soon as I laid on the bed, I slept.

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