Shut Up And Kiss Me (gxg)

51. Don't F*cking Leave

     "WILL YOU GO TO PROM WITH ME?" 

     I was pretty sure I would need stitches from smiling this hard. "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes!"

     Monroe stood from her kneeling position and grabbed my hips, swinging me around her. Breathless and dizzy, I clutched tight onto the lapels of her leather jacket. The sun warmed my face, or maybe that was a blush from the way Monroe was looking at me now. 

     Skylar cheered from somewhere behind us. I saw Aaron's phone flash━he was probably recording this on video.

     "I am so in love with you," Monroe whispered against my lips. "And . . . how was that for a promposal?"

     I grinned. May's goal was: The best promposal ever. Monroe had written on a poster, in beautiful cursive letters, a simple sentence: You have bewitched me body and soul. When I saw her at the end of the school day, she was waiting on the seat of her motorcycle, the poster on her lap. I'd broken into a run, and she'd knelt before me. 

     "You forgot one part," I murmured now.

     "Which one?"

     "The end of the quote. What Mr. Darcy says after that."

     Monroe smiled, a wicked curve to her lips, and I knew she'd been waiting for me to ask. I couldn't help it. Even though it had been around three months since we'd begun dating again, I never got tired of hearing the words.

     Especially when it came to her.

    "You have bewitched me body and soul," Monroe said. In a soft, relinquished voice,  she continued, "And I love, I love, I love you."

    "And?"

    The sun in her eyes made them glow, and the dark of her hair was haloed by the gold light. "I never wish to be parted from you from this day on."

    "I'd be swooning right now if I was a maiden in the nineteenth century."

    Monroe hoisted me onto her hips, my legs wrapping around her. "If you're not swooning right now, then I haven't done my job right."

    "Oh?" I teased. "What are you going to do about it?"

   She set me onto the back of her motorcycle, letting me slide my arms around her as she gunned the engine. With a glance back in my direction, she smirked and said, "Whatever it takes."

    I waved goodbye to Skylar, Cody and Aaron━who had been avidly observing━and Monroe took off from the school parking lot. 

    When we arrived at the destination, I said, "But this is━"

    "Home?" Monroe unclipped her helmet, and then mine. "I know. There's something I want to show you, though."

    "If it's your bed, I've already seen that. In thorough detail."

    Monroe leaned the motorcycle on its side, took my hand, and hurried me into Mr. Andersen's house. She didn't stop until we were up the stairs and in her room. When she finally let go of me, it was to turn on her computer and pull up the website for an apartment building.

    She was smiling now, but I still didn't get it. "Look," she urged me. "Look at what it says."

    "One-bedroom apartment, sold?"

    "It's mine." Patiently, she raised an eyebrow. "Look at it, if you want. That's where I'll be staying next year."

    The thought of Monroe at NYU filled me with dread, although I knew she'd be happy there. It was just that she was so far. A two-hour drive away, and what if she had too much schoolwork to come back for weekends? I'd only end up seeing her a couple of times a month, and I'd just . . . I'd miss her. So much. Too much.