CHAPTER ONE
HOPE
Boom.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Boom. Boom. The speakers blast with the hip hop beat that plays, sending my entire car into a fit of vibrations that seem to mix well with the constant beat I can’t help but hum to it, just can’t help it. The tunes travel through my body, warming me up with contentment and joy, like they always do when I listen to my music. It doesn’t matter what else is going on around me as long as I have my music. The sun is shining, I’m in my car with my boyfriend, the air is blasting a cold breeze against my face, but I can feel the heat from the sun as it blasts through the windscreen penetrating my skin.
It’s a perfect day and I’m so happy.
“Do we have to listen to this rubbish?”
I look over at the man I love, not quite believing that we have finally done it. He has his baggy pants on that hug his bum and crotch so well, I could just watch him forever in those things. A short white top covers his chest but in no way hides what is underneath, his biceps stretch the material and I just want to rip it off him. His shoulder-length black hair is tied up in a small pony-tail and those blue eyes of his stay focused on the road ahead of us. I loved him from the first moment I saw him when I was only eleven, I was so sure he only saw me as everyone else, but he soon put those thoughts away when he told me how much he liked me. We’ve been together ever since and started to plan this little adventure of ours over a year ago and finally we are doing it. I was surprised that my parents were happy for me to go, I really expected more of a fight but they surprised me. I lied a little, OK I lied a lot, but even so the reason was still the same way. I want to make my own way. I don’t want to be shackled by how famous my family are. I’ve always wanted to deserve my place in my family’s company, not because my last name is Bryant but because of me. ME. I want to deserve it and I want to show my daddy, my brothers, anyone who works at the business or knows about it and thinks I’m just a little rich girl. I want to show all of them that I should work there. All my life I have been the only daughter to Joshua and Isla Bryant, the only sister to three older brothers who adore me.
The whole world knows who I am, merely just a little rich girl who always gets what she wants.
I never had many friends growing up, girls and boys were too scared to come close to me because of who my family was, who my brothers were and the lies that were told about them.
“There goes Hope the Bryant.”
“Don’t go near her, don’t hurt her or her brothers will beat you up.”
Everyone was too scared to go anywhere near me and so school was a lonely existence. Until I met Mark. He was a year older than me but I was moved up a year so we were together constantly.
He was my only friend.
The only one to see the real me and not what the world wanted to see. A spoilt little rich girl who only wanted her own way. It made me so angry, that’s not what I am, I am so much more than that and it is time to show everyone. The whole world, my family expect me to work for my family business, to work for it as much as my twin brothers have and as much as I want to I want to earn it first. I want to learn the world of business somewhere where my name won’t be known and give me so many privileges.
I would spend lunch times just talking to Mark about how I wanted to earn what I could get from my family, he didn’t understand it at first, but eventually we came up with a plan. My parents knew nothing about Mark, I didn’t want them or my brothers to know as even I was unsure what they would do if I told them I had a boyfriend. I could tell my brothers’ wives though, that just seemed to come naturally and eventually I told my mom but never Dad or my brothers. They would have thrown a massive fit and my life would have been over if they got rid of the man I love.
I can tell Mark is just looking at me and I remember he’s just said something about my choice of music again. He’s never liked my music much.
“I like it.”
“It’s rubbish. You know that, right?” I can hear the giggle he tries to hide behind his serious face, oh God I love him so much.
“That is why you love me though.”
“Yes I love you.” He reaches forward and turns off the music, he doesn’t look at me while he says those words or as he turns off my music, but I can’t think of it as a car pulls out in front of me to go around another. His face looks out his side window and he’s so silent, as if he’s really thinking hard of something. I don’t say anything, just stay focused on the road ahead. I don’t like it when the air around us is this silent, it makes me think that something bad is just around the corner. I can see that Mark doesn’t like the silence either, but he does nothing to break it. We’ve been driving for a few days and we still have more to go, but this is freedom. Freedom to make my own mark, on my own and not with the help of my family- and I will do it. I know I will and I’ll be able to do it with the man I love by my side.