Words by Brandie Hines (best book club books TXT) 📕

I live in a very isolated town, trees cover it from other surrounding towns, but people do come here. They never say anything when they are alone, but they spread rumors like wildfires. And I can’t say that we as a society are a good society.
We as females are not allowed to talk, we are not allowed to work, or drive. Our job is to dress and look pretty like all of the others, we are the "trophies" of the town. We are supposed to be the sugar and wax dolls of the town. We start to wear fancy colored tape over our mouths to prove how rich we are. The only way we can break free from his curse is to have somebody say “I Love You”, then he is afterwards forced to marry you, that’s why that word was secretly forbidden in men culture. It really isn’t like I follow the rules, when I’m not around my family I do break rules. I never understood why all female lives were we put at a lower stance than men.
I walked the street down the road with a paper bag of bread in my hands, music hummed silently in my ears. I rocked my head along, dad was outside mowing lawn and mom was tending her garden. My two older brothers were playing football, and the youngest one was shooting hoops.
“Welcome back Hun.” Mom said patting her hands on the floor clearing the dirt from her fingers. I always wanted to say sorry to her for making her end up being in this curse. I waved a little and dad stopped the lawn mower.
“Good more bread, I was hoping we wouldn't have to eat your mothers making.” Mom stood up from pulling eggplants.
She then put her hands on her hips, “Well then, I’ll just have to take the raisin back to Millie then.” Dad smiled slyly and put two thumbs up.
“You’re my favorite,” He nods, “I mean you never defy me. You always follow rules and I can wait on that little sex talk with you.” He chuckles and pulls the bread into his own arms; my brothers then travel into the house. Mom calls me over to help her pull off some tomatoes.
She was always concerned with her weight; she never ate anything with more than three hundred calories. That included me too; she wanted me to be as slim as possible. I always secretly refused to obey her rules; I had a stash of chocolate somewhere where mom wouldn’t even put her hands near, I cook in the middle of the night like a somebody with a true eating problem, and I buy candies or extra chocolates when Dad gives me money.
“Have you heard…?” Mom said pulling tomatoes, she smiled sideways, “Amanda is getting married, your next door neighbor. I’m surprised I thought my daughter would be first, but you know a family could only hope to move out right. I had so many aspirations, only if you were born a son.” She yanked out a tomato, squishing it and acting like it was an accident. I wished that too, she would just never know.
I pat her back and left, mom opens her mouth but I didn’t want to hear it. She sighs deeply and turns back around.
“Honey, you wouldn’t be able to leave without me wanting to.” Dad says he pulls out a cigar, “And I’m quite fond of this place so we are not leaving no matter what.” Mom ignores Dad’s comment and I slam the screen door behind me.
I am old enough to leave, and be alone. Father wouldn’t let me leave; he says it’s against the rules of the Book. I always wondered if hitchhiking was still illegal. If I could hitchhike, I could leave my family and won’t get in trouble for being a runaway.
Mom started to argue silently, dad just laughed loudly. I remember dad saying that if you had a certain amount of boys you can leave with the boys, you earned the right. But if you had a girl, the girl is still stuck here to find true love and do the same thing, fall in love and try to have three boys in a row. And because it's pretty rare to see women have three boys in a row the population grew pretty big. There are some families that even have twenty kids. I think within next year they might give a limit to child bearing. But since the girls start having children at the age thirteen, they have all the time in the world. I didn't want to be one of them; I wanted to live a teen life. But the more I waited the more I wanted to get married and leave. The house was pretty empty, all my brothers already went off and married, mom bragged about them so much, and how their lives are perfect. It annoyed me badly how much she couldn’t just corporate and wait for me to be ready.
I was the silent and defiant one. My parents tried everything, finding a boyfriend, or straight up pushing me into an engagement. It wasn't really my fault, the men were disgusting, and they were needy. Something I didn't want to indulge myself in that stuff…
Mom barged in, "I found something else!" She jumped, "This time I'm going to make it work! Their holding a mingle at the church today for people who aren't married." I wanted to scream, Here We Go Again

. I turned around as mom babbled on, and slammed the door on his face, "Aubrey!" I pulled the mouth tape off my mouth, “Aubrey?” Mom poked her head out of the door.
“Shut-Up!” I screamed, Mom stepped back in astonishment. A car rolled by the door in the back opened and Mercy, my long-term friend stepped out, she waved my way. Always stunningly beautiful, she had long beautiful jet-black hair her eyes glowed grey and her lips were beautifully plump and pink. She had a small beauty mark under her eye.
“Aubrey!” She screamed, “You coming?”
A guy rolled down his window and put his elbow outside, "Aye." He said, I couldn't help to smile to his lack of manners. I ran towards the car, and mom started breathing heavily.
"Don't you speak? Aubrey, don't you dare!" Mom screamed the guy raised an eyebrow.
"So it's true you can't talk, I thought she was just lying." I wanted to break the rules, I wanted to get away, make Mom suffer

like she made me suffer.
I nodded my head, "But today I'm going to break the rules, just for fun." That caught the driver’s attention, Mom kept screaming my name; she turned around tripping over her two feet.
"Oh damn, a bad girl." The one behind the drivers seat said, he had green eyes, " I guess, we are heading to a party uptown, you want to leave with us for the day? I will bring you back." I nodded my head so quick, it felt good to say something, and it felt so free. The door unlocked and the door popped open, another girl was behind me.
“Wait I thought we were going to the grill uptown.” Everybody ignored Mercy’s thoughts.
“Forget coming back.” I said Mercy hopped in the back of the car as I followed behind, “Let’s never

come back!”
"Your hair is always beautiful." She reached out a combed her hands through my hair, she was great at changing subjects, "I Always wanted to try blonde hair, the girls in the magazine are just so pretty with blonde hair, I'm always envious." She smiles.
"Mercy, you look good the way you are." The guy behind the wheel says, and her face instantly burns red as she turned away from view.
"Mercy?" She looked up, "He's right! Your like a...like a...you're just very pretty." I laughed and itched the back of my head. Mercy laughed too, it was melodic.
"So how old are you?" The guy behind the driver seat asks.
"Nineteen." I say, "You guys?"
"Twenty-two." Driver guy says
"Twenty-three" Passenger guy says.
"Seventeen," Mercy Comments, although I already knew, "You guys need to say your name too."
"Sam," Driver guy says.
"Chris." Passenger guy says
"Aubrey," I say
"Am I the only one who thinks we are going to get in a heap of trouble?" I could tell Mercy was completely uncomfortable.
"Yes." We all said at the same time. She threw her hands in defeat and continued to look out the window. Chris flipped his phone and turned back to the both of us.
“Okay, no drinking any of you. And watch out for the creeps.”
I shrugged and Mercy kept looking out the window.

Sam parked far away from the small building, “Ready?” He opened the door stepping out.
“I’ll stay.” Mercy crossed her legs and looked out the window.
“Tonight is the night to break rules!” I screamed at her.
“Mercy, let’s go.” Sam whispered, Mercy uncrossed her legs and stepped out of the car.

Music played loud, this was the place for me to mingle instead of my small town of Penosipilla. I finished my fourth red cup and things started blurring up.
Mercy grabbed my arms, "You weren't supposed to drink!" I stumbled a little bit, "Aubrey!"
"I want another cup." I screamed over the loud music.
"This is why I didn't want to go here." She looked scared and pulled me close to her. I pulled my hands out of her grip.
"Loosen up." She backed away as I danced back into the crowd.
I hit into the a random dude who grabbed my waist I started to grind on him. The music bumped loudly and my head was