The Accent

Ch 25 - I'm Willing to Risk it if You Are

Chapter 25 - I'm Willing to Risk it if You Are

"He did what!" Ruby demands shrilly.

"You promised you wouldn't shout!" I whisper harshly, borderline shouting myself.

"Well, fucking hell. Sorry for being slightly surprised that my best friend got proposed to by some dude she hardly knows! Who by the way, isn't even his girlfriend," Ruby says through her high pitched laughter with sarcasm thickening her tone, "and oh yeah the best part of it is, is that's she's actually considering saying yes to him. What the hell is wrong with you!" She screams as she finishes her speech, eyes bulging with disbelief.

"Okay, it does sound kinda bad when you say it like that." I wince.

"Oh," She says loudly, as if she's just remembered another point, I sigh and wait for her to say her bit. "Not to mention that the whole thing would be totally illegal, because you know, she's only doing it to stay in the country!" Ruby takes no notice of me and continues her rant of why this is a totally terrible idea - all things I've said to myself since Rhys -sort of- proposed a few days ago at his parents house under the tree.

"Get off your fat bloody high horse," I snort, "since when have you ever been bothered about what's legal and what's illegal?" I say loudly to be overheard by her muttering, starting to feel my annoyance grow I stand up and stop Ruby from her pacing.

"Since its my goody-two shoes best friend doing it and not me!" She yells back into my face.

"So it's okay for you to go shove whatever up your nose and pop so many pills that you practically rattle! Talk about double fucking standards!" I huff, feeling hurt blossom in my chest that she called me a goody-two shoes.

She stops her pacing and watches me closely, almost eerily. "Why are we fighting again?"

"Uh, because I'm thinking of marrying Rhys to stay in the country so I'm not deported?" I question slowly in exasperation. It is all or nothing with this girl, totally one extreme to the other - her mood swings are enough to make my head hurt. Two seconds ago we were in the middle of a screaming match and now it's quiet and calm.

"Oh yeah, so, I might have overreacted." She says sheepishly, "I panicked because marriage and commitment are yucky but then I remembered it's you whose committing so I'm over it and will support you with whatever you wanna do." She smiles widely as if we should forget the whole thing and move on, "Actually, now that I think about it, its probably not a bad idea." She adds as an afterthought.

I sigh and feel the annoyance and hurt drain away, "Fuck sake, you are so intolerable sometimes." I huff before sitting back down on my bed, all traces of our bickering forgotten about.

"That's why you love me." She grins and dives on the bed next to me. "So when did all this happen and how come you haven't told me sooner?"

"It happened at the weekend when we were away for Thanksgiving, when we went outside to make up." I sigh and close my eyes, remembering the shock that zinged through my body when he said to marry him.

"What did you tell him?"

"I said that I'd need time to think, which he was fine with but made me feel all kinds of awkward around him for the rest of the weekend." I twist my face in regret as shame blooms over my cheeks as I remember sitting at the table eating dinner with his whole family, being unable to even look at Rhys or talk to him for the duration as I just didn't know what to do with myself.

"Huh, is that why you were being weird at dinner?" She asks as if the thought had just occurred to her now.

"Obviously, why what did you think was wrong with me?" I angle my face to hers and open an eye to see her reaction.