The Punk and the Princess (A Dave Grohl Fanfiction)

Ch. 43 - Promise Not To Stop When I Say When

"Dave where are you going? The way home from the store isn't this way, it's the other way" You say, perplexedly looking at him as he makes a left where he should've made a right.

"I'm going to an alternate route, we don't spend enough time appreciating Virginia, lets take a ride through this suburban wasteland" He says sarcastically and you laugh in spite of your self, still confused.

After ten more minutes in the car you start getting even more wary of what Dave was doing, "Dave what the hell? We're gonna be in the next county soon" You say as you look at the street signs.

"Oh princess, lighten up! Don't you want to see as much of lovely Virginia as you can while you're here, take it in" He reprimands with a mischievous grin.

Just then out the window you pass a familiar building, "Hey look, its Annandale High" You exclaim, pointing at it.

"Site of our first meeting" Dave says without looking away from the road.

"Do you wanna stop in for a minute?" He adds and without waiting for an answer he makes a sharp turn into the parking lot.

"Dave!" You squeal, too surprised to say anything else at first, "What are you doing? Kids are probably here you're gonna creep them out!"

"Its Saturday Julia" He says raising his eyebrows at you as he pulls into a parking space, "Come on, lets get out and look, see if anything has changed since 1986"

He gets out of the car and you follow him calling out, "Dave, we cannot do this, its so creepy. We'll get arrested"

He doesn't react to your concern with the exception of a small laugh; instead he walks straight up the front door, "Should we try to look inside?" He asks in a calm tone, as though what he was doing was completely normal.

"Dave no, its obviously going to be locked, first of all its Saturday—" You begin but you're taken by surprise when he opens the door easily, it doesn't seem like it was locked at all.

"Huh, I guess its fine. Jules its like they want us in here" He says with a laugh, before taking your hand and leading you down the main hallway, towards where your locker used to be.

"Dave oh my god this is such a bad idea, I was joking before about us getting arrested but now I'm kind of serious" You say nervously as he walks you further into the building, "This is literally breaking and entering"

"Where is your sense of adventure princess? Remember when I turned you into a rebel punk rocker? Tap into that, just for like five minutes" He chastises and you roll your eyes but follow him without another word.

He finally stops in a hallway that seems slightly random to you at first.

"Do you know where we are?" He asks and you look around for any evidence.

"Uh...no" You say honestly and he pouts at you for a second.

"We're in the math wing, right outside room 606, this is where my buddy spilled coffee on you my first day of school," He says mimicking the commotion by banging slightly on a locker.

"The exact place we first met." You both say together and you look around wide-eyed, suddenly realizing your location.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't realize" You whisper, forgetting for a moment how nervous you were about breaking into the local high school.

Suddenly to your surprise you hear music come from the speakers that usually projected the bells and homeroom announcements. You're absolutely terrified for a second before you realize its Dave's voice coming through the speakers. Its him singing "Everlong", a song he'd previously told you he wrote about you, except this version was much mellower—it seemed to be acoustic.

"What the fuck is going on?" You whisper and Dave smiles at you, the tell tale twinkle in his eye showing you he had something up his sleeve. Before you know it he was reaching into his pocket and producing a small, velvet box.

"Oh my god" You whimper, hands flying to your face.

He kneels down onto the linoleum floor and you feel tears spring to your eyes almost immediately.

"Dave, oh my god" You murmur.

"Julia Jean Maxwell, I know it probably seems like I've proposed to you countless times by now" He teases and at this point you're full on sobbing, "But this is the first time I've done it the right way, at the right time, in honestly the perfect place—though in my defense I think on the beach in Hawaii was pretty perfect as well" He adds and you laugh gently though the tears.

"I love you so much Jules and I have known that since the first second I saw you, almost exactly 13 years ago in this exact hallway. From then on there has been no other girl I could ever picture spending my life with and no other girl I would ever want to. You make me more than happy Julia, you make me complete, I am not myself when I'm not with you. No matter what it takes I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I want to raise children with you, I want to sit on a porch with you when we're old, I want to write a million more songs about you with the lifetime we'll have together" He says and you want to fall to your knees yourself, you're so overwhelmed with emotion and love.

"Please, Jules, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" He asks and you nod through the tears, too stunned to even speak.

"Yes" You squeal and for the second time that day he takes you into his arms and twirls you around.

Once he puts you down he slips the ring onto your finger, you immediately recognize it.

"When did you get this? I didn't even know she still had it" You say in a astonished voice, recognizing your mother's engagement ring from when she had been married to your father.

"I went to her after I dropped you off, on the morning of Annie and Jim's wedding. I knew then, sitting on that car with you by the docks that this would be it. We were meant to be and needed to marry you, once and for all. Fuck timing Jules, even if things weren't working themselves out, I couldn't be without you anymore." He says and his words make you start crying again.

"Fuck what is up with all these tears? Is it the hormones?" You joke and he laughs, wiping them away for you.

"How did you plan all this? How did your song start playing while that was happening?" You ask, in awe of the planning that had to have gone into this.

"Well I knew this is where I wanted to propose, where it all began" He begins, "And my mom still works here so I had her get in touch with the custodian. I told him my plan and he was down for it, he told me he'd unlock it and set up the speaker I just had to tell him when and with everything going down, now seemed like as good a time as any—I called him while you were in the bathroom, and that time I banged on the locker as we were walking in, that was his cue to start the music" Dave continues with a shrug and you were blown away by his planning ability.

"So you've been planning this since before you found out I might be pregnant?" You ask and he nods.

"Julia, were you not listening? I've been planning this shit since the minute I met you" He coos and you still are moved by his cheesiness, even after all these years.

"Lets get you home, its been a long day, and we have a lot to tell our relatives." He says and you wrap your arms around him, holding him as you walk down the hallway, the place you first met, the place it all began.