I was Sold to My Dead Brother's Best Friend

Ten Years Later

“Annie,” I heard someone say as they poked me in the shoulder.

"Annie." The tapping on my shoulder increased. I was suddenly brought back to the present, now ten years later, on my eighteenth birthday.

"What?" I responded to my best friend Macy, who was still tapping on my shoulder while staring at me. Her hair was in a bun and it looked like she had been up for a while.

"Joel is waiting; he said to be there at six. You only have three minutes. Annie you have to go, and don't blame your lateness on me." She laughed as I gathered my stuff and headed out of her bedroom.

"Oh I will, can't have him mad at me on my special day." We both laughed, and she rolled her eyes at me.

"I'll meet up with you later at the bar, okay?" By the time the words have left her mouth, I was already down the stairs, waving goodbye to her parents and rushing out the door to my car.

In truth I was daydreaming about what Joel had planned for me today. He was always so secretive when it came to giving me gifts. Joel has been my boyfriend since freshman year, and I knew I loved him more than the way fish needed water. He had replaced the whole "my brother left me" feeling years ago with passion that I never knew I held inside of me. If I'm being honest, I was no longer a virgin anymore either, losing it to Joel after junior prom. It was wonderful. But I won’t want to go into details.

My phone rang and I saw a message from Joel.

Baby, you’re late as usual, hurry up & get here. Please, I can’t wait any longer.

This brought a smile to my face. I couldn’t wait to see him and be greeted with a kiss from him. I arrived at his house where he was waiting for me on the front porch. He wore a nice looking black button down shirt and dark blue jeans: his normal attire.

There he was, leaning against the railing with a sexy smirk on that wonderful face of his. His sandy blonde hair was kind of messy as if he just woke up and was way too cool for a comb. It made me want to run my fingers through it. I melted into his arms. He leaned down and pulled me into a closer into a closer embrace as he kissed me.

"Finally, I've waited all day for my kiss." He stole one more kiss, short and sweet. I smiled.

"So what is the surprise that you are hiding from me?" I asked while succumbed to the urge to run my fingers through his messy hair, making it look as though he got shocked by a light socket. His eyes brightened and motioned with his head to follow him.

"It's inside, so come along, my family is waiting." He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to the front door.

"Is your family's here?" I was a little let down that I wasn’t going to get my personal alone time with him, if you know what I mean.

"Yeah they wanted to be here for this."

"What for?" I ask as we walked in, his mother and father stood at the kitchen's doorway, his little sister sat on the couch playing on her phone.

They were all dressed nice like him, which made me start to feel like I was a little under-dressed; he never told me to wear something formal. We stopped in the center of the room as he spun around, hugged me firmly and pulled back.

"I love so you much Annie." I smiled at this.

                "I love you too Joel." He kissed me and then suddenly got down on one knee.

"Annie, I love you a lot and I have no idea what I'd do without you." Joel pulled out a little black box from his pocket and as he opened it I couldn't help but gasp.

"Annie, please, grant me my greatest wish and become my wife?" He was holding a simple but beautiful diamond ring as he stared into my eyes, biting the corner of his lip, waiting for me to respond.