Strangers

Stephen was chasing Susan while calling out her name. Once he caught up to her, he grabbed her arm and forced her to stop running and face him. Again he was faced with her fierce, deep blue eyes making him speechless and making his heart squeeze tightly. Lucky for him the one who started speaking was Susan herself. "What?! Why did you run after me? Why didn't you stay with her. You two seemed to be hitting it off quite well." Susan hadn't lost her temper from her fighting days and gave him a hard time from the get go as she was having none of it. Seeing Stephen remain speechless she continued to press him. "Well? Who was that girl and why was she hugging you in the middle of the hallway?" Getting frustrated from Stephen's silence, who had chased her only to remain mute, Susan tried to break free so she could walk away, but Stephen pulled her back once more. "Wait! Wait... I'll tell you. I just need to gather my thoughts." Susan's expression turned glum as she said, "Don't bother. If it requires you to gather your thought in order to answer me, then it's too complicated in order to be anything good. All you should need to say is that she is nothing or a friend." With that Susan broke loose and headed to the roof so she could gather her thoughts, leaving Stephen behind helplessly. The same roof where Jason has spent many of his school days to do the same.

After figuring out what to say, Stephen went to the only place he could think of and there he found Susan sitting on the floor of the roof with her legs dangling through the openings of the fence. He sat down next to her and said, "I know you said I shouldn't bother, but I wanted to explain myself. You don't have to say anything, but I hope that you will listen." Regarding Susan's silence as an approval he continued, "You are right, I needed to gather my thoughts because it is more complicated then 'nothing' or 'friend'. She is my fiance. Though I don't love her, it doesn't change the fact that she is the girl I'm supposed to marry. It's a political engagement and she is someone my parents picked, but I agreed to it. This was all before I even met you. Before I fell in love. I didn't know what love was and I didn't think that I would ever be so lucky to experience it. So, if I was never to love someone, why not use my marriage as a tool to help my parents. I know it's not right that I dragged you into this. I should have told you about her existence from the beginning, but..., but somehow I couldn't bring myself to do so... Because I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that I was engaged, because I didn't want to give up what could be my only chance at love,...because I didn't want to lose you before I even had the chance to be with you."

After a few seconds of silence Susan turned to him and said, "Are you done?" Stephen nodded anxiously. "Well then I have done what you requested of me. Whatever your reasons may have been to hide your engagement from me, it doesn't change that you are in fact engaged. So, whatever what was between us has to stop. When you decide to stop this idiotic plan of yours to get married without love and are ready to do the right thing, to stop being a goody two shoes and stand up to your parents, then you can come find me. Until then, you and I are strangers." With that Susan got up and left, not allowing Stephen to say another word, not sparing him a glance.

The next day Stephen found out that Susan had changed classes. In the halls she would avoid him at all costs and whenever they did meet she would walk past him without looking at him even once. Showing Stephen that she had meant what she had said. At first he thought that it might be for the best, but slowly it started affecting everything in his life. He couldn't sleep, food had lost all taste and his everyday routine that he once went through with a sense of calm and numbness, had now become a source of unhappiness. Making him become self destructive in hopes of filling the void that Susan had left behind. In less than a month Susan's words and actions had broken him. Until one day he woke up with a newfound determination. From that day onward he worked and studied day and night so he could grow faster. Become better than anyone else. He figured if he found a way to come up with the funding they needed himself, then he could be eligible to inherit Westwood corporation without the need for a marriage, without the need for outside funding.

It took him three years to get to where he needed to be. And on his eighteenth birthday, when it was time for him to reveal the company he had started up, he went to his father and presented his proposal. His company had become big enough to replace the Jones family's funding and he was ready to break the engagement with Violet. After showing his plan and the numbers of his company, he pleaded with his father to let him break off his engagement. This being the first time his son had ever asked something from him, his father didn't reject him but instead became curious. He had witnessed the drastic changes his son had underwent four and three years ago, so he wanted to know the reason for this change, the reason for his sudden change of heart regarding the engagement he hadn't spoken about for years. So, Stephen told him all about the girl who had turned his life upside down and after a chuckle he got his father's approval. "It appears that the Westwood men have a thing for the feisty and unconventional. Your mother was quite something back in her day. If you are certain that this is what you want I won't stop you. Just know that there is no coming back from this." "I know father. Thank you." Now all that was left to have a talk with Violet, which was something he had to do himself.