My Best Mistake [#1][#WATTYS2016][COMPLETE]

fourteen*

[chloe]

"Marriage? I don't think—"

"Thinking never has been your strong point, John. I guess that's why I am the boss and you do as I tell you to do." My father could be a real asshole when he wanted to be and, while it was something which I was now accustomed to, it was a shock to hear him speak to his friend in such a manner. He had never used such a tone with John before, not even when he wanted to correct the many mistakes he had made, so that's how I knew that my father was pissed.

"Marriage isn't the right solution. If anything, it will only aggravate the situation further," John sighed. I was grateful that he understood what was going through my mind and that he could speak the words which I couldn't form, not when I was still realising that my father was actually considering throwing me into a marriage with Matthew.

I couldn't even stomach the thought of being in the same room as him right now. So I didn't even want to think about the prospect of spending the rest of my life with him in some loveless marriage which was only done for the sake of our child. It would only make things worse than they already were, and I didn't give a shit what my father said.

I wasn't going to marry Matthew Jenkins. I was only seventeen and I had my entire life ahead of me. I wasn't about to marry someone I would only grow to resent for the rest of my life. I didn't give a damn that he was the father of my child nor that John wanted to speak with Matthew beforehand, I only cared about what would happen to me if I was to go ahead with this ludicrous plan and entered into a marriage at the age of seventeen.

I would never have the chance to actually live my life. I would never have the chance to meet someone who could really be the one for me and to actually fall in love with someone. I would never have the chance to, just for once, be happy with my life and the people I had around me. Instead, I would have to commit myself to someone who didn't give a shit about me or the baby I was carrying, and I would have to pretend that I didn't want to stab his eyes out whenever we had company.

"Dad—"

"No, Chloe. Don't bother arguing with me because there is nothing to say." My father silenced me before I could even beg for him not to do this to me. Of all the things which he had done to me in the past, this is the one thing which I would never forgive him for, and this is the one thing which would make me walk away from both of my parents—I didn't need to tell my mother to know that she would agree with everything my father was saying and that she would be all for this wedding.

"There are laws against this. You can't force me into a marriage." I punched the back of my father's headrest, which wasn't the smartest thing I had ever done considering he was driving, but I was pissed off and he was being an even bigger asshole than usual. I was also a hormonal, pregnant teenager and agitating me wasn't the best plan my father had ever come up with. "I am not going to marry Matthew, just because he is the father of this baby."

"No one is going to stop this from happening. You know the power I have."

"Pete—"

"No. If your son will stick it where it doesn't belong, then he is going to have to live with the consequences of his actions." I couldn't actually remember the last time I had seen my father as angry as he was right now. But, if the anger is anything like the time Jason and I broke some vintage vase he brought back from America for our mother, then I knew that it was going to be explosive and it was best to run in the opposite direction as quickly as possible.

"Your daughter isn't totally blameless here. After all, it does take two to tango, and she had to give permission for it to have happened," John retorted.