No More Wasting Time

Chapter 38

Diego's POV:

"That's cheating!"

"No, it's not!"

I laughed and playfully shoved Hector away so he wouldn't grab my play gun and purposely make me miss my targets. He laughed and began to play by the rules again, trying his best to beat my score, but he needed a miracle to pass me. He was surprisingly awful at the game, but I wasn't complaining since I was winning. He groaned when the game came to an end, and the screen displayed that he had lost terribly, might I add. He grabbed my hand when we put the guns back and walked us to another game. I thought we would get bored of being here, but surprisingly, we were having a lot of fun, and I wasn't losing at every game as I had expected.

"We gotta go soon; their movie should almost be over," Hector said when we finished yet another game. "Plus, I'm getting tired of losing."

I chuckled and looked down in my bag to see how many tickets I had won. My bag had only a few more tickets than Hector's, so he didn't do as bad as he was making it out to be. He was just being dramatic. We walked up to the counter to turn in our tickets and get prizes. There were many little plastic toy options for a lower number of tickets, and the bigger prizes that were worth more tickets hung on the wall. If we were to combine our tickets, we were able to get matching pizza plushies, and one glance towards Hector confirmed that he was also eyeing those plushies.

"What can I get for you guys?" the guy at the counter asked.

"The pizza plushies," Hector said and handed the guy both of our bags.

The guy began the long process of counting the tickets to make sure we had enough, and we actually had a few extra tickets in the end. We chose some candy but were mainly happy with our pizza plushies. The man wished us a good day, and we walked out with our plushies and candy. Hector grabbed our candy and stashed it away in his pockets so we'd have a free hand available, and he immediately connected our hands after. 

"I don't see anyone walking out of the theater. Can we take a walk?"

"Of course, love," he said with a happy smile, the plushy tucked under his arm. "Anywhere you want to go?"

"There's a park area just around the corner, I think."

He nodded with a smile, and we slowly began our way to the park. I was feeling a little nervous, but I was confident that he'd understand what I needed to say. I really took into consideration what Caden said, and I wanted Hector to know that he doesn't need to be strong for both of us. I didn't want him to go home and feel obligated to come back to me all because of the ring. I felt like the ring would be a burden, and I wanted him to enjoy his time there. I, obviously, wanted him to come back, but I wanted and needed him to understand that we were going to be okay. We didn't need a ring to symbolize that. Not right now when we are so young.

"Is everything okay?"

"Hector, can we talk? About us?"

He froze in his steps just for a second, but that second was enough for me to see it. He gave me a small smile, though, and nodded his head. I pushed down the nervous feeling and sat down at a nearby bench, Hector sitting next to me a second after. I grabbed the necklace from around my neck and took it off, gently grabbing Hector's hand and putting it in his grasp.

"What are you-?"

"Hector, I love you. I do, which is why I want you to understand that you don't have to feel obligated to give me this ring as a symbol of you coming back. You're going to spend some time away, and I am confident we'll be okay. I love the gesture; I do. But I don't need you to put a tough guy front for me. If you're worried, it's okay to tell me."