Chapter 12: Chapter 12

"We don't need you to drive us to the airport, Mom. All is well. And we already have a rental car." I'd say half are actually listening and the other half are packing up to leave at the last minute.

"Then we'll be there to meet you." I'm aware of it. She won't accept "no" for an answer. She called to ask where she should go.

"We?" I tell her to stop sounding like she's begging.

"Yes we. Everyone. Will, Will, Hannah, and I. We want to see you." She says this as if there was no question.

"At the wedding, we'll see each other. It's in 6 weeks. Plus, we saw each other just yesterday. You've been there? Swim, talk, and things like that." Now I'm not packing and I'm trying very hard to talk my mom out of coming to the airport to see us off.

Mark leaves the bathroom with his bag of toiletries. "Are you still getting ready?" He asks in a tone that says, "Wow, you're so slow."

"I'm talking to my mom on the phone!" My tongue. I hope he can tell by looking at me that I don't like the way he asked or how he asked it. I don't like many of the things he asks.

"Sorry." He says it, but he doesn't mean it.

I turned back to my mother, who was still talking incoherently about how she needs to see us to give us something. "Why don't you just send it by mail?" I hear her say over and over again how important it is. "Ok. Stop talking and let me pack, Mom, and I'll tell you where to meet us."

All she says is "Ok."

I waited a few seconds to make sure she wasn't going to change her mind. "Okay, our gate is 11, but we'll meet you at the main entrance. All right?" I ask this even though I couldn't change what I just said.

"Well, I was just thinking-" I stopped her.

"Bye mom. There you are." I hang up and sigh as I start to pack again.

"Was that a lot of work?" Mark asks, zipping his bag.

"Very." I sigh again. "I don't get why she just can't wait until the wedding. I'm sure that the other three can do it." I'm going to the bathroom to get my bag of toiletries.

"Didn't she say she wanted to give you something?" Mark yells. Too lazy to get up and come out of the bathroom to talk to me.

"Yeah, but as I said, why can't she just mail it?" I want to go back.

"She might want to just give it to you in person. Maybe it's easy to break. I'm not sure if she is your mother or not." He does this all the time. This is what I mean when I say, "Use sarcasm in three lines and almost shout the last one."

"That doesn't help." I yell at them with my teeth clenched.

"Shouldn't that be my job?" He gives me a shrug and a smirk.

"Who do you think you are?" I ask as I forcefully zip up my bag, which makes me angry.

"You got sides?" He asks. I nod and look at him like he's crazy. "Well, unless we're fighting, it's always yours."

I shake my head. "Thanks." I say, sarcastically if I may add.

"No problem." As I put my bag in the cart he brought up, I turn to glare at him. He just smirks his perfect smirk.

…

"Where do they live? In 10 minutes, we'll board. If they're not here by 5, we'll leave." I say walking around Mark.

"All right." He takes me by the shoulders. "Stop, you're making me dizzy. Second, we won't leave without saying farewell. They promised to be here."

"What if we don't make it on time?" I ask.

"We won't. Even if we do, changing flights won't be too hard." I can tell from his icy, light-blue eyes that he finds it funny how I'm freaking out.

I take a big sigh. He's put me at ease. Don't worry anymore. And so what? We'll take a different flight if we miss this one.

"There they are, look." Mark makes me shiver by turning me around and whispering in my ear.

As they walk over to us, I shake off that feeling. "We apologize for being late. Someone over here got lost." My mom says this while hugging me and pointing at Will.

"Hey. You were the one who told me what to do." Will defends.

"It's okay, we still have about 10 minutes." I say as I quickly hug everyone else.

We have 8 minutes and 45 seconds, to be exact. 44, 43, 42, 41... So on.

"So, tell me, what did you want to give Alyanna?" Mark asks. I didn't remember that.

"It's for both of you, really." My mom says. She takes a small box from her bag. "I thought maybe it was something old." I go to the box to open it. "No wait until you get home. I think you'll like it, but please don't return it."

"Ok?" I stop to look at each one. "So, we should leave. I love you all."

"I also love you. So much." Hannah says, hugging my legs.

I went and got her. "Han, I love you too. I'm so excited to see your dress!" She went over to Mark after I set her down.

Sophie walks slowly over to me. "Bye Alyanna."

I seize her and give her a tight hug. "I love you Sophie, so does mom. Always keep that in mind." I speak softly so that only she can hear.

"I will. I love you too. I'm looking forward to the wedding." We pull away from each other, and she gives me a smile.

"Me too. I'm so excited to see you all dressed up." I say walking back to Mark.

When Mark left, the girls gave him hugs, and Will gave him a firm handshake.

One last wave, and then Mark and I went to our gate.

When we got there, they were just starting to say that people could now board the plane. "I told you we weren't going to miss it." Mark smirks at me. He's done that a lot lately. It's starting to bother me.

I just rolled my eyes and looked at the box that my mom had given me. I want to open it, but they called us before I could.

…

I fall asleep on Mark's shoulder about half way through the flight. I turn to look at him. He's asleep. When he sleeps, he looks at ease. He doesn't have that look of being on guard. I think it's the one his dad put there. John acts like Mark isn't even his own son. Like he's a partner in a business.

To be honest, I'm not even sure John will get the company. To make sure he actually got the company, John would have to marry me and become his immediate relative. Mark will own half of the company, and I will own the other half. John will only be able to get the company if Mark gives it to him. I already said yes, so that's over, but Mark can call off this whole bet.

Mark is related to John, so their family does have a piece of the company that was promised.

I looked at the mistake John made while I was reading the contract. Instead of saying "When John Hernandez gets married, he gets the company," he said something like "When John Hernandez gets married, the Hernandez family gets the company" or something similar. Mark is a full-blooded Hernandez, and after we get married, so will I.

The only thing that is hard is trying to get Mark to turn on his father. I don't know why he still went along with this. Mark should notice that John doesn't treat him like a son. Mark's eyes tell me that if he breaks the deal, he'll feel bad about it. He shouldn't do that. Every time I see John, I think about it. He doesn't care about Mark at all, both as a son and as a business partner.

When Mark shakes me, he pulls me out of my thoughts. I had no idea he had woken up. I didn't even know we had landed. I guess time flies when you don't pay attention.

"You ok?" As he gets up, Mark asks. We are the only ones left on the plane.

"That's good." I really don't mean it. "A little bit tired." Even though I took a short nap at the start of the flight, I'm tired because I've been thinking a lot. And hungry.

My stomach is grumbling. "It looks like we need food." Mark says as we get off the plane and head to the place where you get your bags.

"Should we eat here or go somewhere else?" I ask.

"Any way you want. I don't like airport food, but I can eat anything else." Mark deadpans. He says it like it's no big deal. I just asked him if he wanted to grab something to eat at the airport.

"Do you have to be hard all the time?" I ask. Mark just looks at me, smirks, and moves on. He must have seen someone or something that made him react, because he put his arm around my shoulder.

I'm surprised and look up at him, but then I hear a high voice say, "Mark?" And that catches my eye.

Maybe that's why he did what he did. From the ground, he looks up. "Callie?" He makes an effort to smile. I know it's not real, but Callie or the woman doesn't seem to care.

Callie says, "It's been so long."

"Not enough time." Mark says things under his breath that I am the only one who can hear. I'm not sure if he meant for me to hear, but I did because his arm was around me and we were close.

"What did you say?" She wonders.

"Nothing. I just agreed with what you said." Mark brings me closer, I can feel it.

Callie seems to have finally noticed me. "Hi, my name is Callie and I used to date Mark." She puts her hand out.

"My name is Alyanna, nice to meet you." I say. I already don't like her. I hate that she was Mark's girlfriend because her voice is too high and her clothes are too tight. I mean, I'm sure Mark had girls he liked. I just didn't think I'd ever meet one.

"Okay, Callie, if you'll excuse us. We just got home and we'd like to get something to eat." Mark is trying to pull me away from him.

"Oh, where are you from?" She wonders. Again, she is only thinking about Mark. Not me. I have a feeling that she still likes Mark.

I say, "New York." Mark probably wouldn't have said anything, so I did it to be nice.

"What is there in New York?" She wonders. Why does she not have a place to ask?

"Clothes." Mark answers, but he doesn't bother to say anything more. I'd rather not talk about this, but I will anyway. If you don't answer with enough information, you'll be asked more questions.

"What dress is that?" She wonders. I predicted it.

I answer before Mark does. "My wedding dress."

"Oh." She seems shocked. "You're getting married?" She wonders. She sounds like such a snob. She acts like she can't believe I'm with Mark.

"We are, yes. Please excuse us now. We need to get our bags." Mark says, "Take me away from Callie," and he does.

We get away from her, but she finds us soon after at the baggage claim. Our bags come around so slowly, of course, that I feel like I have to talk to her.

I know she is standing close to us so we can talk again. I don't know if she has a bag to claim or not. Well, she isn't saying that Mark is hers, that's for sure. I also know for sure that he no longer likes her because of how he looks at Callie when she tries to talk to me.

"When did you meet Markmy, Alyanna?" Really? The name meant to make me feel bad. No, that won't work.

"We met in a coffee shop, though. I offered to pay for him because he forgot his wallet. Then he asked me what he could do to make it up to me. I told him a date, and here we are three years later." I say, giving way too many details. I'm so tired that it's a wonder I'm still nice. Probably because of this, I went into so much detail.

"Oh so cute." She says it, but she doesn't mean it. But it keeps her quiet until our bags come around.

"Well, I'm sorry to cut this short, but we have to leave." Mark says, grabbing our bags and starting to walk away.

I followed him because I didn't want to say goodbye. My politeness is going away. "Alyanna, it was nice to meet you. I hope to run into you again." I act like I don't hear her. It might make sense. We did hurry out of there, though.