Sweet Thing

No More

Quan

Life was finally returning to the grass and the leaves as me and Lupe walked in the park together, accompanied by Kembe and her gang of cousins. They sprinted to the jungle gym and soon conquered the entire playground, from slide to swing and everything in between. Me and Lupe just strolled in circles in view of them under the trees that made the fence between the woods and the park.

"You know, I been thinking, princess," I began, "we been together for a little minute, right?"

"Since February and it's April now, so about two months give or take a week," she replied.

"Yeah, that's what I meant," I agreed.

"Okay? What about it?"

I cleared my throat and brought her hand up to kiss the back of it. She giggled and watched me curiously, but I wasn't ready to tell her what I was attempting to say just a moment before. First, I wanted her to remember why she was with me in the first place. I stopped us under the oak tree and sat down.

"If the grasp of our hands is true and honest," I started, gazing into her eyes and refusing to let her even glance away, lifting our clasp to my lips once again, "let hearts do what hands do and interlock for all time. For if you would be so inclined toward a love that transcends dimensions, space, and time, I am the embodiment of such for all eternity."

"Quan," she whispered after a few moments of silence, "you read my journal again, didn't you?"

"Maybe," I grinned. "I made up all the stuff I said, though, and it was all original. Your journal said that you liked Romeo and Juliet for the style and the way they expressed their infatuation, so I thought I'd give you that."

She leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Well, thank you very much, handsome. I love that new haircut on you, by the way."

With that little ego boost, I was ready to get down to the heart of the matter and ask the question that I was s'posed to ask Lupe weeks ago. I made a mental note to myself not to wait so long next year.

I continued, "So if you do so make an oath to our union of souls, minds, and eventually bodies, I implore you to henceforth pledge to me one last indulgence, the most urgent and most dear of all favors I may ever ask of you, sweet princess of the Castillo kingdom."

She laughed heartily, but nodded for me to finish.

"Would you, benevolent goddess to whom I pray, so bless me with your presence at prom this year?"

Lupe's laughter stopped so suddenly that I thought the answer was no. Reyna had practically given me the play-by-play last weekend of everything Lupe had said about prom in the past two months that we'd been together. Reyna was going with Nathan, Michelle with Jackson, and Lupe with me if she'd just answer. Was the delivery wrong maybe?

"Princess, do you wanna go to prom with me or nah?"

"Yeah," she eventually replied. "I would love to go. Thank you so much for asking." She embraced me tight and buried her face into my shoulder, squeezing harder than she usually did.

"'Course I asked, Lupe, you're my girlfriend, aren't you?" I retrieved her face from our hug and examined her quickly. She had tears streaming from both eyes that covered her brown cheeks and I panicked at the sight. I questioned her frantically, "Did I do something? Is something wrong?"

She wiped her eyes some and kissed me. "Nothing's wrong, I'm just so happy that you really asked. I'm happy you really wanna go with me."

"Why wouldn't I wanna go with you, princess?"