=Astrid's POV=
(Sunday, 6/16/19-3:00 pm)
(Berk, Archia Isle)
(Raven Point Park)
For the life of me, I still couldn't make heads or tails of what happened two weeks ago with Hector backing out of us having sex once home after prom. I've been running it over since and I don't understand why he stopped things and left my room. Hector didn't even give me a chance to really ask if anything was wrong either, he just said he couldn't do it, was sorry, and good night. More than that, Hector has been a little distant too. Hector has been quiet and it feels like any progress we made towards potentially trying to make things work again was now going backwards to when we only saw one another if we had to. I've tried to approach Hector, but he just tells me he's busy with work or trying to relax. Hector has told me to leave him alone sometimes too. We still acted in the public eye, but I know he tries to get encounters over with as soon as possible. Hector told me when I wanted to sit down and talk to him about trying things again to come to him when I was ready, and we'd discuss things. How am I supposed to do that when he's avoiding me as much as he can? Worse, I know he's still having hookups because he has blatantly sent me texts on some nights to let me know he wasn't coming straight home from work to meet up with someone. I don't know what to do and the part that really sucks is I didn't think things being this way would hurt so much, but it does.
Beyond prom night was graduation preparations; making sure everyone knew their place to stand in line, who would speak, that caps and gowns fit. Between all that and working, Hector has maintained his task of teaching me and our friends how to fly our dragons. If all went well, we'd be done by the end of June, and able to take our training and licensing exams in July. Hector will be taking over the company in July, it was pushed back so he could help us finish our training. Our fathers weren't thrilled but weren't on Hector about it and I think that was to avoid an argument. So, as of yesterday, Hector, me, and our friends are officially high school graduates. Everything went smoothly at the ceremony, and we spent our night with the family. Well, mine and Hector's was a combined family outing at a restaurant. Today, we were having a big party with friends and family. It was being held at the park and finally, everything was all set up. Most of us arrived at 2 pm to get started, but Hector wasn't here yet. I wasn't sure what he was doing, he hasn't been home since about 9:30 this morning. Like I said, majorly trying to avoid being around me; that's how it seemed.
"Astrid dear, where is your husband?" My mother inquired.
"I-I'm not sure," I admitted. What else was I supposed to say? I didn't know where Hector was. I could make something up, but it wouldn't do any good because if Hector's story didn't match mine; things would look off.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Spencer arched a brow. "You live with him,"
"I haven't seen him since this morning when he came out of his office to get coffee, then he went right back in. Around 9:30, he left with Toothless and said he'd see me later for this party." I shrugged. "He was awake before me and I got up at 8,"
"You've tried calling and texting him, right?" Heather offered.
I nodded. "Yeah, but no answer," I really did hate how much it bothered me that Hector and I were actually starting to get closer and now he's being this way. On a brighter note, my ribs were mostly healed. They are still a little sore if I hit my side on anything, or twist too fast. Hector and I never told anyone about what happened with Roseanna, we felt it would cause issues and our friends have left it alone, so I didn't see a need to bring it up either.
"When is the last time you called him?" Cassandra asked.
"Couple hours ago, right before I got ready to come here," I answered.
"Try again, Astrid," My mother in law suggested. I sighed softly and got out my phone, then tapped a few things and tried to redial Hector.
To my surprise, there was a pick-up on the fifth ring. "Hector, hi…" I started when he answered with a hello. "I was just wondering where you are. We're all at the park for the graduation party," I stated. Hector explained he was at work and had lost track of time. "It's okay, babe. Happens to us all," I told him. Hector informed that he would be there soon and to start without him. "Will do. See you soon. Bye," Hector ended the call first as I slipped my phone away.
"So…What did he say?" Drew wondered curiously.
"I, uh…I guess he was at work and lost track of time," I replied calmly.
"Work?" My dad and Spencer said together.
"That's what Hector said, that he was looking over some stuff in the office and got a call about there being a problem, so he went in and apparently lost track of time," I informed.
"Is he on his way?" Syrus questioned now.
"He said he was still working on a couple of things, but would be done soon and come right here. Hector insisted we start without him," I repeated what Hector had told me.
"I mean…I guess that's what we do then," Spencer looked at Marcus.
"The only thing I'm confused about is why Hector got called to handle a work issue instead of us. We pushed back Hector being in charge completely until July, didn't we?" Marcus inquired.
"Yes, at his request because he was still training his friends in dragon flying," Spencer nodded.
"We can ask Hector when he arrives," Angela stated. "I believe we can just be surprised that Hector didn't need to be directed to handle a situation at work on an off day,"
"That is true," Vivian agreed.
With there not much else to do, we got the celebration going. There was some music, drinks, and food. Most of this would just be standing around to talk, discussing future plans for us new graduates. The adults were likely going to chat amongst themselves too, maybe about their lives and catching up. We'd all known each other since we were kids basically. I was surprised that Hector went to work, willingly, to handle some problem when he wasn't even the CEO yet. He had the training but had been guided and directed in everything since his birthday by our fathers. This was the first time Hector had done something on his own. I was curious about why our fathers weren't contacted either, but I guess that had to wait until Hector showed up to find out. For now, all I could do was take part in the party with my friends.
. . .
(4:45 pm)
It's been an hour and thirty minutes since I called Hector to find out where he was, and he said at work and would join us soon. I assumed that meant fifteen to twenty minutes, not over an hour. We had tried calling and texting him again, just to make sure everything was okay, but Hector wasn't answering. Spencer even tried calling the office but was told that Hector was busy and couldn't answer the phone. That was a bit shocking, even though Hector wasn't the official CEO yet, he was being treated like one among the employees who refused both Spencer and my father's requests to tell them where Hector was or what he was doing. I found it a little funny that our dads were upset that as the owners, they were being denied information. Regardless, things at the party were fine and mostly fun. It was still light out and warm, so we all just enjoyed the time together.
"So Astrid…" Madison got my attention. "How're things going with Hector?"
I wasn't sure how to answer. We were civil, but as far as things going with him, I'd say awful. "It's…Alright, I guess," I said. What else could I tell them? I didn't know how Hector and I were right now because he refuses to talk to me.
"Is he coming around at all to maybe giving things another try between you two?" Alexa hoped. "Well, like an actual married couple instead of acting in public but roommates at home?"
"I thought he was. We were doing good, but feels like that's going backward now," I admitted to my friends. The adults were too far away to intercept our conversation, so I wasn't worried about them learning Hector and I treat one another as roommates at the apartment and only act happily married for the image.
"Did something happen? Maybe a fight or disagreement that wasn't resolved?" Cassandra questioned.
"I don't know," I shrugged a little. "There's been a lot of up and down situations; I just don't know how to take it all. There are times we're great, others are bad, and some are just…Confusing."
"Well, talk to us…Maybe we can help?" Heather tried. "Sometimes you need a different perspective, but the good thing is that we all know each other and have a good understanding of how another operates."
"Maybe…" I considered. I didn't know if I should tell them about things; Hector was really mad the day he found out that I told our friends about the arrangement. Hector could be fine and perhaps didn't want to have sex with me since we never talked about anything about us sleeping together. We'd left it at I was on a sex break to focus on myself, but it was okay if he continued to sleep with others after the Tristan thing and again when Roseanna showed up. I have been telling Hector to keep hooking up and he's done it because I insisted. It's only theory, of course. I have no idea what's wrong and there was a chance my friends could help me figure things out.
"Come on. What's been happening?" Heather pushed.
I took a breath, prepared to explain things from the last point they knew. They were my friends, I'm sure it would be okay. As I prepared to begin the event with Tristan, since they all left for Hector and me to talk; we heard the beating of wings and looked to find Toothless coming in and finally, landing. Hector climbed off and rubbed his Night Fury's head a little, earning a content warble. Hector wasn't in a full suit, but he was wearing a nice pair of black jeans, and sneakers. Hector also wore a long red sleeve button-down shirt that was tucked into the pants, which were held on with a black belt. He looked good, even his hair had been a little tamed.
"Thanks, bud," Hector smiled a little. Toothless nuzzled his cheek a bit, crooning and then licking the side of Hector's face before trotting off to join the other dragons.
"There you are," Drew chuckled.
"Sorry," Hector sighed. "I didn't even realize how late it was until Astrid called,"
"I called you a few times before that too," I stated.
"I had the phone on silent and in my office on the desk," Hector informed. "I was in a meeting,"
"Hector, what were you doing at the office?" Spencer walked up with Marcus.
"Working, what else?" Hector replied.
"Hector…I don't need the sarcasm. Now, for the second time…What were you doing at the office?" Spencer sighed.
"I think your old man means, lad, what were you working on since this is supposed to be your day off and you don't typically get told when to go in on a weekend unless Marcus or your father tell you to." Glenn reiterated, stepping forward and pulling Spencer back with a firm stare of warning him not to get on his son's case.
"Well, since you put it so nicely…" Hector began calmly. "You two were needed for something and no one could get ahold of you," Hector motioned to Marcus and Spencer. "So they called me and I went there to straighten it out," He informed.
"We never got any calls…" Marcus looked at Spencer.
"Hey, I don't know. I got a call at 9 am saying there was some kind of issue and they couldn't reach you, so I got dressed, grabbed Toothless, and rushed over to take care of it. Then while there, took care of a few other things too," Hector remarked.
"Good on you, lad. Taking charge of things," Glenn smiled as Hector shrugged.
"What needed to be handled, Hector?" Marcus asked.
"Don't worry about it, the company is no longer your concern as I'm leading it." Hector retorted.
"You're not the CEO yet, and therefore unauthorized to make any changes without mine or Marcus's consent, son…" Spencer sighed.
"That's actually not the case," Hector folded his arms over one another. Marcus and Spencer blinked a few times and the rest of us stared. What was Hector talking about? "And the fault is your own for pre-signing all those transfer documents in anticipation of me taking over immediately after graduation," He added. "I wasn't called to fix the problem they were having, I was called to get in contact with one of you two. However, since neither of you bothered to answer my messages by 9:15 am, I called in to say I would come in to deal with the situation. I was reminded I couldn't make those decisions unless I was the CEO and told them to get things ready anyway for when I arrived. While in route to the building, I contacted the lawyer to have him meet me there so I could sign in my spot. My assistant was the witness, and since you went and already had it notarized when my signature was on the documents; it was legal even if it hasn't been filed yet. That will be handled tomorrow…But as it stands right now…You two no longer have any say because the transfer is complete." He enlightened.
Okay, wow. I was not expecting Hector to just step up to the plate like that. The company he never wanted to be a part of had some kind of major issue and when they couldn't get ahold of my dad and Spencer, they called Hector in hopes he could reach them. But when that failed, Hector went ahead and made a legal move that would allow him to take care of the situation himself. And now, Hector is legally the CEO of the company, two weeks early. I wondered what that meant for me and the friends with our flight training.
"This can't be right, we never got any calls," Marcus argued.
"That's not my problem, Mr. Hofferson. Might I suggest you take your devices to the store and get them checked over, or stop using ancient ass technology such as a flip-phone and you wouldn't have missed the notifications," Hector said. "Again, the fault is not on me that you were not aware. The employees followed standard protocol and went through the chain of command and proper channels to try and get things fixed. When all else failed, the owners were contacted and when you couldn't be reached, they panicked. My assistant, thankfully, knew there was someone else aside from you two that could be called, and that happened to be me," He explained. "Now, you are more than welcome to hash this out with the company's legal team if you so desire to, but all you're going to find is that everything was done legally and there is nothing you can do. Dreki-Viking Enterprise belongs to me as of today at 10:00 am."
"Wait, wait…Hold on." Spencer went over something mentally for a few moments. "What do you mean the company belongs to you?"
I just realized that Hector said that. Hector didn't say he was the CEO, he said the transfer was legally completed and the company belonged to him. "Hector…I thought you said you were just supposed to take over as CEO, run the place but our fathers would continue to own it," I decided to say.
"That is what it is," Angela interjected. "Hector is merely CEO, not the owner. I'm sure he just misused the terms he was trying to convey to us," She smiled.
Hector shook his head. "No, I assure you, Mrs. Hofferson that I spoke exactly as I meant to." He informed, still calm and arms folded over one another. "Yes, I am the CEO…But I am also the owner," Hector stared. "That was another mistake of you two made, signing everything before you read over the terms of the transfer documents. The lawyer did express that he tried to sit down with both and explain that you were signing over more than just the position of CEO to me, but also the company itself," He said. Marcus and Spencer's faces went to shock, much like their wives and a few of us. "We tried to contact you again from 9:35 to 10 am, but with no response and the problem only worsening…There was no more waiting and a decision needed to be made to let the problem continue and potentially ruin everything, or someone steps in and solves the issue. I confirmed with the lawyer and full company legal team that all I had to do was sign and it would put me in charge as CEO and make me the new owner, and then I signed." Hector told everyone around him.
"Hector, wait…This isn't how things were supposed to go. I thank you for stepping up and handling the problem, but tomorrow, we will need to sit down with the legal team and get this fixed," Marcus stated.
"Yes, we'll get it sorted tom-," Spencer nodded.
"No." Hector cut his father off in a stern tone.
"Excuse me?" Marcus and Spencer said together, surprised.
"I did not stutter. I spoke my answer to your statement clearly and I'll repeat it only one time for you to understand. No." Hector looked at them, I'd never seen such a serious look in his eyes. I've seen anger, worry, even happiness. But not this. And I couldn't believe he was telling our fathers no to getting the positions fixed. "I will not waste time in a conference room with you two and the lawyers to fix your mistake. I am going to be immensely busy and shouldn't have to put anything on hold while things are sorted out because you two couldn't calm down in all your plans about the merge to actually make sure it was going to go the way you wanted." Hector remarked. "Consider this a punishment for your choices to just let the legal team draw things up and you'll sign when it's done." He stared unforgivingly. "Losing ownership of the company is now your consequence for negligence. All the work you put in for a successful merge and in the end you screwed up because of your desire to rush things."
"We didn't rush anything…It has all been carefully planned since June last year," Marcus informed.
"You're being unreasonable, Hector…You can't do this," Spencer said firmly.
"You seem to still misunderstand what I'm telling you…So let me break it down…" Hector paused. "I haven't done anything. From the beginning, as you claim, I haven't had a say." He mentioned as Spencer and Marcus's eyes widened a little. "I came home last year on my last day of junior year and got pulled into final negotiations meeting about the merge. On the pretenses, I should be there to learn how a partnering meeting should go. That night ended with you and Marcus deciding what to secure the merger with, which took place just two months later. You immediately jumped into all the planning for the central hub's design. When I turned eighteen, I was told to come into work to learn how to run the newly merged business. It was all you two handling the legal side of me taking over in June after graduation." Hector remarked. "You said you two had it under control, so I just sat back and did what I was expected to do. Your mistake was telling the lawyers to draw up transfer documents without defining your terms that it was to only be for me taking over as CEO. You were given the drawn up papers to go over and see if anything needed to be changed, but you two were so sure it was all going smoothly, that you signed it right away and told the team to have it notarized and when I graduated, it only needed my signature. You were advised several times to sit down and go over the documents by the team and you refused and assumed it was fine."
Marcus and Spencer looked at one another, guilt on their faces. "So while I'm sure we could all go to the office tomorrow and sit down with the legal team to have new paperwork drawn up to make the correct changes…I refuse to sign anything back over to you two. Call it punishment, consequence, or whatever else you want. Do you want to know what I call all this?" Hector paused. "A wonderful, exciting opportunity to watch you four," Hector motioned to Marcus, Angela, Spencer, and Vivian. "Since you were all in on things, get smacked hard by good old-fashioned Karma." He kept an even face. I and all the friends were just beside ourselves at Hector's reveal of Marcus and Spencer's mistake, and his choice of words regarding what he called this situation. "In case you need a refresher, Karma is what you get for your choices, good or bad. So…If we're trying to figure out if this is good or bad Karma…Let's run over things since last year,"
Hector took a breath. "Your merge negotiations were built on a unifying contract where you both sold your seventeen-year-old children and forced them to get married. Because for some reason you forget we live in the twenty-first goddamn century and think this is Viking times when families or tribes would ally themselves through marriage contracts, placing the entire union or alliance on the shoulders of the two people being arranged to marry. Forcing them to carry the burden of a failed marriage results in contracts breaking and war," Hector paused. "Oh, you forced Astrid and me to have sex as the legally binding piece of your merge contract. You forced me into becoming the CEO when I didn't want any part of it. Astrid wasn't forced to take part in the business, why the hell was I? Let's see, I was worked to exhaustion trying to support myself and Astrid in an apartment when she lost her job, trying to also keep my grades up, and train to take over YOUR merged company. So it seems to me that all your rushed decisions are why this has happened. Where you have lost the company because of your choices and actions only being about what you wanted…So let me ask you now if you got what you wanted? Were all your plans worth you making such a careless mistake where you no longer own the company you merged together with stolen lives and futures of your own kids?"
"Hector…Come on, ease up…I think they get it," I tried gently, moving beside him with a hand on his shoulder.
Hector turned his hard stare on me and shrugged my hand off as I gasped, a little hurt by his actions. "If they got it, Astrid, it wouldn't have taken them a year to finally feel bad about what they did. I've been saying it since we got married…That they didn't care about what their own kids wanted. It was all for them and none of what we've gone through as the children carrying the weight of their decisions mattered. So if you ask me…" Hector retorted coldly. "It's bad Karma. And for our beloved parents, Milady, Karma came in and made them realize that their actions caused them to lose the thing they built up around all those choices they made about other people's lives that they had no right to control or take away…" He paused. "I was dead serious when I said I would never forget or give what they've done. Parents or not. The part about all this that's great is Karma hit them with something they can't change. No amount of redeeming will make this change. It's a permanent punishment for their inconsiderate and selfish actions and choices. All in all, as I've always believed regarding Karma; you only get what you fucking deserve."
