I Will
A few months have passed and still no answer from my mom. I was starting to think she had died or hopefully just moved somewhere else, away from my father. I woke up this morning, thirty pounds lighter from the time I had Claire. I was bare-chested, facing the bed. My hair fell over my back, almost all the way down to my waist.
Darren laid next to me, him too, bare. (Let's just say Claire slept upstairs for the night!) I woke up to Darren's face looking at mine. We were at the same level, our bodies both laying flat, away from the pillows, on the feather mattress.
Suddenly, he held up a necklace. "Happy Birthday," he whispered. (It was July 13th.)
The necklace had a silver chain and the pendant was a circular moon stone hanging from it.
I smiled, and then he did, too. I sat up, putting the white sheet over my chest. I held the pendant and he let the chain fall. It swung back and forth as I held it.
"Wow," I said. His smile was bigger, his lips curling, his teeth showing, pearly and white.
He took it back and put it over my head and around my neck. It hung to my chest, the part that the sheet was over. I looked down to it.
"You didn't have to get me anything, Darren," I said.
"I wanted to," he said, looking up to me.
"What if I didn't want you to?" I joked. I moved to rest my chin on his chest.
"It's too late for that," he laughed. He kissed me.
I got up, facing my back-side to him. I put on the shirt on the ground, of his and then my under-dressings. Darren got up and put the underwear and sweat pants on, that were on the ground. I walked into the bathroom in front of the bed, maybe fifteen or seventeen feet away.
After I came out, Darren was in front of the door on one knee.
"Jo?" He smiled, "I know I have only known you for a few months but--"
"Darren," I said. I was stunned. I felt so happy I couldn't move. I went and stood on my knees, so I would be looking up to him. I sat on my legs and he moved so his legs were crossed, sitting on the ground.
He held the ring in his right hand. The thin band was silver and the stone was round and looked of glass. Moonstone. The flat surface of the moonstone was rough and untouched.
"Darren--"
"Jo, will you marry me?" He asked, smiling.
I took in a deep breath. "I'm sixteen, your twenty-three," I said.
I didnt want to let him down. His face was more serious.
"Does it matter?" He asked.
He was right. I wasn't going anywhere. We had the money, now. And I had to give him my present to him; asking him to be Claire's father.
He took my hand. "Please?" He asked.
I smiled.
He held my hand and then put the ring on my finger. I looked down to it.
Wow, I thought, it's beautiful. I looked up to him again and reached to rap my arms around him. He leaned forward and lifted me into his arms.
"I will," I whispered.
