For the rest of the night I couldn’t sleep. I just sat in the living room, staring at the piece of paper. Questions swirled in my head as I tried to figure out how he would know that name. Not even my most die hard fans know that name, and trust me, they tried. Did my mother tell him? That would be the only explanation.

I didn’t sleep a wink. Instead I stayed in the dark kitchen and stared at that small piece of paper. Zaden didn’t even come into the kitchen to eat something before work. Instead I heard him come down the stairs and leave right away. It felt like he was now avoiding me after giving me that piece of paper. Part of me couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

Knowing fully well that I couldn’t just sit in the kitchen all day, I headed for the bedroom where my stuff was. My phone was blinking on the dresser, letting me know that I had a message waiting for me to read. Grabbing my phone, I went to see who it was. The faces of me and Jax together made me suddenly want to throw away my phone, but instead I ignored the message and changed the background.

The background was one of those default ones you got when you first got the phone. It was plain and I really needed to take a picture of something worth putting as my new background. Once the background was changed, I finally checked the message. It was from my mother wondering how my first night went. I sent her a cold message saying that everything went as well as you would expect being in a stranger’s house. I was still upset with her about the situation but I could also understand why she did it in the first place.

Deciding that I couldn’t stay mad at her forever, I dialed her number. She answered after the third ring, “I was just about to respond to your message.”

“I thought it would be faster this way,” I told her honestly, “Especially when we should be talking about the guy you set me up with.”

My mother didn’t even hesitate in her response, “He’s a good man. Far better than that good-for-nothing you called a boyfriend. Zaden will treat you the way you deserve.”

She sounded so sure of herself as she spoke those words. It kind of made me a little upset that she would try to talk up this complete stranger. What did she have to benefit from letting me marry him in the first place? What was her true motive?

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Is that why you told him about the elementary school?” I heard myself ask.

“Which elementary school?” my mother said, confused.

“The one I went to,” I answered.

“You went to three different elementary schools. Which one are you talking about?” she asked once again.

“Garden Grove Elementary,” I finally said to her, “it was the last school I went to before middle school.”

My mother was quiet for a little bit. She was probably trying to remember the school. It was a short part of my life. Garden Grove Elementary was a small school that not many kids went two because it was so out of the way. It was mainly a school for those that lived on farms and couldn’t get into the city for their education. Also it was a school where parents took their kids when there were too many problems at the other elementary schools.

I remember walking in those halls and hearing kids screaming and throwing things at the teachers. The teacher in charge of me would be so used to me holding on to them for dear life because I was so scared. My mother had placed me in the school not because I was a bad kid. It was because I was so scared of everything due to a childhood trauma that I couldn’t remember.

“I never told anyone about that school,” she finally said, “The only time I talk about that school is when I tell people about how anxious you used to be as a child and how that school helped you come out of your shell.”

My mother wasn’t wrong. That school did help me overcome so many fears, but that was because a kind young boy helped me. I remember being huddled in the classroom and he would come over and give me something. Sometimes it would be a toy he valued, that he would explain to me about. Other times it would be a small snack that he would ask his parents to give an extra one of so he can give it to his friend. But after elementary school, we went to middle school. That was when I lost sight of my friend.

In middle school I was a little more confident in myself and even built up the courage to try acting. That was the start to the career that I had now. I didn’t even attend high school traditionally due to all of the commercials and movies I was working in. Instead I attended online and got my high school diploma that way. I had my first fan signing as a graduation party.

“Why are you asking about Garden Grove all of a sudden?” my mother asked.

“You didn’t mention the name to him at all?” I asked my own question.

“No. Maybe you and Zaden went to the same school at some point,” she mentioned, “He didn’t tell me much about his childhood. Told me that it was behind him and he didn’t want to relive those memories.”

There was only one way to find out if Zaden and I had shared even a little bit of a past, “Mom? Can you send me the yearbook from the year I went to Garden Grove?”

“I’ll see if I can find it,” she answered before saying goodbye and hanging up the phone.