Under the Rainbow

Part 37

          “Hey.” I smiled and pulled Riley in for a hug.

            She chuckled. “Hello there. What’re you up to? You’ve been weird all week.” She kissed my cheek.

            She was right, I’d been different for the past couple days. It had been two days since I got that ring, and I could feel it bouncing around my jacket pocket or see the velvet box in the closet. It was taunting me. But tonight was the night I fixed that. I was finally going to ask her.

            “Sorry.” I smiled a little more. “Ready to go? We’re going to walk down to the lake tonight. I love the weeping willows at night.”

            She chuckled and shook her head a little. “You act like I don’t know this. Is something going on? Am I missing something?”

            I took her hand in mine and just grinned a little wider. “Let’s go, okay? I’m tired of waiting.”

            “You’re acting really weird, but alright.” She shook her head once more and followed me out into the hall and down the stairs.

            We didn’t grab my bike today; I thought it would ruin the moment. Besides, the lake wasn’t too far away, and I wanted to talk. I wanted to talk to her for the rest of my life.

            There was a thin, claw-like moon out above us tonight, which barely illuminated the dark park tonight. Which was nice. It was more private. The streetlamp across the street did give a little bit of light though, just enough light to show what I was doing later.

            We found a spot at the edge of the water and sat down, just looking out on the eerily calm pond. It was a warm night, but I still wore the jacket with the ring in it. My heart was beating a mile a minute and my palms were starting to sweat. I kept trying to think of what I would say, but I couldn’t think of anything that sounded good. Danielle and I had tried planning something out, but it became quite apparent I wasn’t good at that.

            Riley and I were sitting together in silence for a few minutes before I moved. I stood up and held my hand out to her to help her up. She knit her eyebrows together, but stood up anyways. And then, I got down on a knee. I acted like I was tying my shoe to buy some time, but eventually I had to do it.

            I stuck my hand in my pocket and looked up at her. Her hair was hanging in her striking green eyes slightly and she was looking down at me with curiosity. And then the words just came to me.

            “Riley, I can’t tell you how much I love you and need you. You’re more than my best friend, you’re more than my lover, you’re more than everything to me. And I realized that, without you, I’m not happy. Not at all. When you’re gone, I’m miserable. I want to wake up and look over and see you still sleeping. I want the first thing I hear in the morning is you growling in anger at that damn alarm clock. When I go to bed, I want the last thing I see to be you fighting to stay awake and finish watching whatever movie is on TV. I want to hear you tell me you love me everyday. I want to go to stupid parties with you. I want to go to the ice rink just so I can help you up when you fall down. I want to be there for you because I love you Riley.”

            Riley blinked twice and said, “What are you trying to say, Sam?"

            I swallowed hard and pulled out the small black box. I flipped it open and said quietly, “Will you marry me?”

It's a short part today, but I wanted to leave off at this part specifically 'cause I wanted to see if anyone would say anything about how I left off. I don't think you guys will say anything, you'll probably just wait to see what happens, but whatever.