I had just taken my bath and was heading downstairs when I heard some conversations going on between my parents and some visitors. I paused and listened.
"Ray is eighteen already and we are ready to give him to your daughter per our agreement." That was my mother speaking and she was talking about me.
"Then what are waiting for?" An unfamiliar male voice asked. It belonged to one of the visitors.
"Nothing exactly," my mother responded. "We are just waiting for him to finish with his last papers today and we'll send him over to your place later on."
'What!'
I yelled internally. They were talking about me but I could not understand a thing they were talking about.
"That is good, Mrs Steven," a female voice said. It was the wife of the man. "Our daughter can barely wait for the marriage."
'Hah!'
'Marriage? What marriage?'
I wanted so much to barge over there and confront them but then, I withdrew. I didn't want them to know I was still around.
I heard my mom's laughter. "Don't worry, Mrs Smith, we don't make promises that we can't keep," she said, earning a chuckle from the other woman.
"Alright, we will be going now. Our driver has already arrived," the woman said and they rose to their feet and left afterwards.
When they had all gone, my father who had been silent throughout the conversation spoke up.
"Rose, are you sure about this?" He asked her. "I am not in support of this."
"Shut up old man!" My mother barked. "I am doing this for the good of everyone in this house."
"But selling our son? Our only son?" My father asked her, unable to believe my mother's words.
My mother scoffed. "Which son? That one? He's eighteen years already but he looks like a sixteen years old girl. There's nothing on him to make him look like a man! If he had at least taken your features, I wouldn't be this frustrated but he instead chose to look like a girl. It's enough embarrassing that he doesn't look manly like his age mates but the fact that there is nothing he can achieve is what makes me sick. Letting him stay with us is pointless because he knows nothing except eating and excreting, nothing else at all!"
Hearing my mother speak bad about me made my heart to shatter. It wasn't the first time she was doing this but this time around, everything was bad. She wanted to get rid of me so quickly — this means that I am utterly useless.
"Rose, you don't have to talk like this about our son. He might be hearing us—"
"Let him hear us!" My mother yelled, not allowing my father to continue. "I want him to hear everything we are talking about so he'll be prepared for what is about to come. I can't continue to pretend like all is well when nothing is."
At that moment, I made my presence known to them. Seeing me, my mother was first taken by surprise but after a second or two, she frowned and continued.
"Oh, you are here," she said to me. "I hope you heard everything we talked about, this way, I won't have to start repeating myself again. When you are done with your papers today, come home so that we will prepare you for the wedding."
"What wedding?" I asked her, swallowing the lump in my throat. After listening to her, I realized that I was nothing to them — to my mother especially.
"Your wedding with Camila Smith," my mother replied.
"Why would you want me to marry someone I don't even know?" I asked her, staring both at her and my father.
My father, meeting my gaze, looked away in shame — I expected that from him.
"Do you have a choice?" My mother asked me. "You don't have any choice but to obey our orders. It's not like you're going to die from it."
"Mom," I said, voice heavy. "I know you hate me but I didn't expect it to be this much."
"You can say all you want to but my decision is final," my mother said and crossed her arms.
"Okay," I mumbled and then hung my bag. Without another word, I left the house. Behind me, I could hear my father telling my mother that she is taking things too far but I didn't care anymore. I shouldn't.
For years, I have been trying my best to be a good son — Obeying my mother's words, keeping her instructions, and trying not to go against her but not in this case. Not in this situation.
I am only eighteen, one paper and I'll be done with high school. I haven't even achieved anything in life and yet, my parents wants to marry me off. Isn't that absurd?
----
"Hahahahah." Erin laughed. "I can't believe your parents would actually do something like this," he said and continued laughing.
"This is not funny," I mumbled, sounding annoyed and frustrated at the same time.
"I'm sorry, it is not funny but it's laughable," Erin said, covering his mouth.
"Isn't that the same thing?" I mumbled, rolling my eyes at him.
"But honestly, your mother is something else," he said and stopped laughing. "Which mother would do something like that to their own child — Their son for that manner?" He asked.
"Mine," I replied. "She's the only that would think of something this stupid."
"Hmmm," he sighed. "I thought that something like this usually happens in novels or movies — although, the parents sell their daughters and not their sons."
"Mine are different," I replied to him. "But I don't care, I have made up my mind already."
"What have you decided to do?" He asked me.
"To run away, of course. I can't be their sacrificial lamb," I replied.