Leaving Home (New)

Chapter 1

"Will you marry me?"

It felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest as I watched the scene in front of me. It was a perfect moment in a perfect setting. Both of our families were in attendance as well as our friends. White Christmas lights were strung up in the trees and there were mason jars filled with candles hanging from the branches. The sun was setting so the sky was that beautiful shade of pink and purple and orange and any other color you can imagine. It was beautiful and perfect.

Strong arms wrapped around my shoulders as I watched my older brother Asher propose to his girlfriend Aubree. Looking up briefly, I saw the arm belonged to Austin Greyson, Asher's best friend. I wrapped my arm around his waist and hugged him as I turned back to the scene in front of me, a brilliant smile spread across my face. Aubree had her hands covering her mouth and tears in her eyes as she started nodding enthusiastically.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Of course I'll marry you!" she practically screamed as she thrust her hand in Asher's face so he could slip the ring on her finger.

After securing the ring on her hand, Asher jumped up and gathered his fiancée in his arms and spun her around as he hugged her to him. He slowly lowered her to the ground and captured her lips in a kiss as the rest of us cheered and started surging forward to congratulate the newly engaged couple. I stayed where I was with my arm wrapped around Austin and his wrapped around me.

"You don't want to congratulate them?" Austin inquired, turning slightly so he was facing me instead of standing next to me.

"I will. I'm waiting for Mom and Aunt Tegan to calm down a little bit so I don't accidentally get elbowed in the face," I responded.

Next to me, Austin started laughing as we both remembered when Aubree and I graduated high school and Mom and Aubree's mom, Tegan, were so excited they started jumping around and I ended up getting elbowed in the eye by both of them. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, they both managed to hit me in the right eye so I had one black eye instead of two. We had a week long graduation party and I kept having to explain to everyone how I got the black eye.

I waited a few more minutes before making my way to the couple. My smile hadn't left my face and I could honestly say I had never been happier. Aubree had been my best friend since before we even knew the meaning of the word. She and Asher had been together for eight years and they were the best couple I knew. They had been through a lot together and always came out stronger. I knew if Asher had had his way they would have been married years ago but Aubree wanted to wait until she was done with college. She didn't want to start her married life by being stressed out with school. Since she and I had graduated the week before, we all knew it was only a matter of time before Asher popped the question.

"Congratulations! I'm so happy for you!" I exclaimed as I threw my arms around my best friend.

"Thank you! Now we really will be sisters," she responded as she hugged me tightly, tears still in her eyes.

Aubree and I had considered ourselves sisters all our lives. Our parents were best friends and had been since they were children so we had grown up together. With our birthdays being only two days apart, we couldn't be closer. With her now getting married to my brother, we would finally legally be sisters.

After I extracted myself from Aubree, I turned to my brother. I had never seen him look so happy. His green eyes, the same as mine, were shining and I could see the tiniest hint of unshed tears. His smile stretched across his face to the point it looked painful, but he didn't seem to care. All he seemed to care about was the woman by his side.