You & I: Autumn Cupid

Chapter 14: Everything is Buried in Peanuts

The next day, the guys had me help carry in packing peanuts to fill the house. Yes, we filled the entire house with packing peanuts. No, I don't wanna know how much it cost. All I know is we spent multiple days filling the entire first floor with packing peanuts. We filmed so many so far, from a video showing what we did to hide and seek, and now, our third video of the day, is is hiding presents in the peanuts. While Nathan was in the smaller living room hiding presents for Gabe to find, Gabe, James, and I were trying to see who could get buried the deepest in peanuts.

"I win!" James declared, his shoulders and head sticking out of the peanuts.

"No you don't!" Gabe said, peanuts  burying him up to his neck.

"Wanna bet?" I yelled back as I wiggled my way down until I was fully buried in peanuts.

"Ok, ok, you win!" Gabe shouts and I stick my head up again. I spit out a peanut that somehow got I to my mouth, and make the two boys laugh. I chuckle until we hear Nathan coming in. I bury myself again and get ready to scare him. When he gets closer, I grab his ankle. He jumps onto the counter  top, scared out of his mind. The guys and I start dying of laughter.

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny. Gabe! You're up first to find your presents!"

"Alright!" Gabe yells and frantically runs off through the peanuts, nearly tripping multiple times. We follow at a slower pace and see Gabe and Jordan standing on the outside edge of the upstairs balcony.

"Are you sure you're gonna be ok" I call up. That's a long drop!"

"The floor is literally covered in stuff designed to keep stuff safe. I'll be fine."

"Just don't hit bottom!" James yells up just before the guys start recording.

"Alright Gabe, you're out first contestant," Nathan starts. "If you can find all the presents in the room , you keep them."

"Ok," Gabe half laughs from the bridge.

I look over at James and see him goofing off with the peanuts. I cover my mouth and silently laugh at his antics.

"You got two minutes. You ready?" Nathan asks up. After getting confirmation from Gabe, he starts a countdown before setting off an air horn.

At the noise, Gabe screams and jumps down, immediately followed by Jordan.

He starts frantically moving through the peanuts, pausing only to tell us he can't touch the floor. In total, he finds two presents. While he was looking, James and Gabe are laughing at him and commenting on his strategy of headbutting the peanuts while I can barely stand up due to laughter. It never gets less funny seeing a grown man flop around in a room full of packing peanuts like a fish out of water. We move to a smaller room where it is now Nathan's turn to search. The boys and I fill what used to be the dining room with presents and wait for Nathan to come inside.

"Are you ready?" Gabe asks once Nathan is in the room with us.

"I'm ready," Nathan replies, already in a position to start running.

"Ok, let me start the horn, let me start the horn!" Gabe frantically yells as he tries to get the air horn to go off.

He finds only one present before the two minutes are up. He starts complaining that he can't find the rest because its too difficult. Meanwhile, I know where Gabe hid a present and reach inside the cabinet to grab it out. It's going in my stack at the end. I wink at James as I hide it where I'll remember it. He silently laughs and shakes his head.

Next up is James's turn to seek. We move into the kitchen where we all take turns hiding them. I make sure to bury one the whole way down to the floor directly underneath the island counter. No one is going to find this. We let James in and immediately start bouncing on the island.

"Are you ready?" Gabe and Nathan say, one right after the other. Poor James just looks confused.

"When I jump, when I land, you have two minutes," Nathan says before jumping down.

The air horn goes off, and James finds a present in the first ten seconds. That is immediately followed, however, by him hitting a counter hidden underneath the peanuts. They might help keep your packages safe in a confined box, but free flowing in a room does nothing to stop someone from getting hurt. In total, he has four presents. Now it's Cedrick and Jordan's turns to go. 

We hide them in the living room that's attached to the kitchen. Though, the boys act shocked that our cameramen are not here, yet we're still being filmed. In reality, it's Noah, another cameraman we got recently. We bury all the presents all over the living room, even hiding one under the trampoline in the middle of the room. We bring in them in, and let the mayhem begin. In total, Jordan ends up with 2 presents and Cedrick has 0 presents.

It's my time to run this circus. I have to find them by the front door and steps, basically the entryway. I wait upstairs until the call comes. As soon as I leave the room I was in, I jump over the banister and fall to the floor below. As soon as I land, the air horn goes off and the search is on. I waste no time and find three presents. Unfortunately, after that, my time is up. I stop searching and join the five guys on the upstairs balcony once again for a final ten minute search of the house.

After the chaotic ten minutes, we all get back together to see all our presents. The boys all stay in the kitchen while James and I make our way to the living room. There, we stand in the peanuts and open our presents. When I get to a particularly small one, I pause.

"I don't remember finding this one."

"You must have, it's in your stack." James shrugs the whole thing off while I tear open the wrapping paper. Inside is a small box. When I remove the lid, I see my promise ring on a necklace chain.

"James? What's this?" I ask, confused and more than a little bit freaked out.

"Your promise ring. I found it on the floor of the kitchen a few days ago. Why would you lie to me and tell me you lost it?"

"I didn't want you to be disappointed in me. We've been dating for two years and I lost the one gift you gave me that was the most important thing I've ever had in my life. I didn't want you to be mad at me when you found out. I didn't want you to break up with me because I lost it."

"Oh, Babe, I could never be mad at you for this," James says while wiping my tears away with his thumb. "I am upset you didn't tell me you lost it, but I would never break up with you because of this. Here, let me help you put it on."

He pulls the chain out while I turn around and pull my hair out of the way. He reaches his arms around my neck until the necklace is securely clasped behind my neck. I let my hair fall when a thought dawns on me.

"Why is my promise ring on a necklace and not on my hand?"

In answer, he starts to bend down, only to be hindered by the peanuts. "These stupid peanuts," he grumbles until I'm sure he's trying to get down on one knee. "(Y/n) (L/n), you make me the happiest guy in the whole world. I could never do any of this without you. Every second of every day that we are together is the best moment of my life. So, I would like to make it permanent. Will you be with me, through thick and thin, through the ups and downs, through all the craziness we get up to? (Y/n), will you marry me?"

I'm crying like crazy now, but I can't stop smiling.

"Yes, James, yes I will marry you."

He stands up and spins me around into a kiss. When we do, I realize that there is no one else in the world I would rather be with. He sets me down to slide the ring on my left hand. I smile at the diamond in the center, being held by a gold band with two initials carved into the yellow metal. James's and my first initials. We're finally going to become a family.

"Congratulations you two!" Gabe yells as they walk back into the room.

"So, when's the big day?" Cedrick asks with a smile.

"No idea yet," I say as I rest my left hand on James's chest. "No idea yet."