THE CONTROL: An Arranged Marriage Romance by Elena Monroe (best big ereader txt) 📗

the lunchroom into a laughingstock. I knew I couldn’t leave Bowey behind without leaving some fear behind in my wake. No one knew I was leaving and possibly never coming back.

My mom had been alone for so long that I had forgotten what it was like for her to bring around a guy as often as she was now. His presence during our dinners, game nights, and weekends made it clear he was going to be permanent.

The week before school ended my mother sat me down alongside the new guy who was monopolizing my mom and ruining my life to give me the bad news: we were moving to Denmark, where he was from.

All my rage, tears, and impatience spat in the face of change when I stood up with tears streaming down my face, “Who will protect Bowey?!” I didn’t wait for a response because I knew no one would ever care for him like I did. His well-being rested on me—no one else.

The next day at school, I waited for Duke to make his stale jokes like clockwork about Bowey not eating the school lunch. We sat down in our usual spot with the rest of the guys he grew up with and a few random people I didn’t take the time to get to know.

Why would I? I had all I needed across from me.

“Watching your girlish figure?” Duke laughed, and I knew what needed to happen. I needed to stop him for good before he destroyed Bowey and me right along with him.

Even though we would be so far apart, I was convinced if anything happened to him, I would suffer too.

Taking my plastic knife with the small teeth lining one edge, I got up and pushed Duke until he fell, then crawled over him with the knife in my hand. Pressing it to his neck like we had seen in my favorite horror movies, I watched his toughness fade into fear right under me.

The fear was fueling me, “Eat shit, Duke. If you ever even talk to Bowey again I will cut your throat.”

Bowey bounced off the picnic table style bench dragging me off him, but not before the knife made a bright red line appear across his neck in the scuffle.

“Eve, what is wrong with you?!” his voice sounded like he thought I was crazy, and I wanted to tell him why I was acting this way, but I couldn’t. It was going to hurt too much.

“People like him need to be scared of you, Bowey. You can’t let people push you around forever.” I whisper shouted as he dragged me outside of the cafeteria.

“We have each other. I don’t care what other people say.”

“What if you don’t have me forever? What then?” The stream of my tears made it evident that change was coming, but all anyone else would think was that I was being a freak.

“Never going to happen.”

Exactly one week later, my packed suitcases went in the taxi and all three of us filed into the van on the way to the airport. I put off explaining for so long that I never got to at all before I was about to vanish from his life. Sitting in the taxi, realizing this was it, the wells in my eyes started to leak past my lashes. Making a break for it, I jumped out of the taxi still parked in front of our house.

I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye.

I took off running down the sidewalk, the same route I always took to Bowey’s house. I ran so fast my lungs felt as useful as paper trying to capture air.

Instead, I was a kite just blowing in the wind.

Pounding my fist against the thick wooden door, I screamed his nickname I gave him waiting for him to appear before my mom came after me. The door opened to the same man who always answered, but it wasn’t his mom or dad, I ran past him still shouting Bowey’s name.

“Bowey! Bowey!”

Running up the stairs, I made it down the hall and pushed the door open pouring into his room that I considered a second room of mine. He was sitting there with headphones on playing video games, and my shoulders fell down to their rightful place when I saw him.

Pushing off the headphones he asked me, “What’s wrong, Evey?”

“She’s making me leave. The new guy, they’re getting married, Bowey. The suitcases are in the taxi.” The tears were clouding all the better ways of breaking the news.

“Right now? Why didn’t you tell me? We can run away together.”

Without warning, my mom’s new boyfriend practically yanked my shirt off when he pulled me back so hard. Thrashing around I tried to get away when I saw Bowey crumbling and stilling at the same time.

“If I knew you’d be so much trouble I would have left you here,” his voice was thick with hate and it was mutual.

Bowey ran after me, grabbing the pocketknife he had for our adventures outside and camping trips in his backyard, out of sheer reason that it was dangerous. He liked danger in a way that was scary because no one should be comfortable with so much darkness, but he was.

He was made out of shadows and bad dreams. He was beautiful.

“Let her go, asshole! Eve!” The pocketknife in his hand sliced right through his ironed chinos, sliding against his thigh, only making his grip on me tighter.

Bowey ran after the taxi for miles as I tried to crawl my way out of the moving vehicle. My mom’s new boyfriend held onto me as she kept looking out the other window like nothing was happening.

The last sight I had of Bowey was him standing in the middle of the street with tears ruining his beautifully sharp features and