Epilogue:
Today’s the day. John Penton sat with his arm around the shoulders of his soon to be fiancé. She was still watching the T.V, an after laughter grin plastered on her face as she watched Adam Sadler run amok in his latest movie Grown Up’s. He fiddled with the ends of her hair nervously and kept on shooting glances at her from the corner of his eyes. His unoccupied hand was drumming an anxious beat on the arm rest beside him and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. It wasn’t the summer weather that caused him to sweat at this moment, although it was partially the reason.
Sally had finally revealed her lazy Sunday appearance in front of John. Gone was her squeamish, insecure thoughts of him seeing her less of a women if she wore the dreaded jogger pants and large tee. Instead, there was a sense of pride and happiness that she could finally sit comfortably with the man she loved. She had been doing so for a month now, as has John.
Beside Sally sat Carly, she was completely oblivious to the turmoil within John, mainly because it was the first time that she was actually enjoying an Adam Sadler movie. She knew that he wanted to propose to Sally, she just didn’t know when he was going to do it. It was the main reason why she allowed what was going to happen next, to happen.
“Hey Penton’s!” The shout called throughout the house after the door opened and closed. Three sets of footsteps led from the hallway and into the living room, their voices raising amongst each other as they entered the room. Callum, Liam and Jasper gave nodded greetings in a distracted manner, as they continued to argue.
“There is no way that Superman would lose in a fight against Batman!” Callum cried, “Batman has no powers, Superman can fry his ass with his eye laser beam thing.”
Laim sighed in exasperation, “Okay first ‘Eye laser beam thing’? What are you a child? It’s called heat vision you dip shit. Second of all, Superman’s ultimate weakness is kryptonite, Batman only needs to keep a shit load of that on him and Superman wouldn’t be able to come near him or use his powers. Heck, Batman could give him a hug and he would keel over!”
Carly, Sally and John watched the exchange with a blank look. Jasper was among them in just watching. This was because he hadn’t been able to get in a comment since the two of them had started the conversation, he had given up half an hour into it – they had been arguing for four hours.
“Guys!” Carly shouted, “Can you not see that we are watching something? Can you take your little conversation somewhere else, where I will join you later and argue how Batman would definitely kick Superman’s ass?”
“I told you!” Callum shook his head in disbelief, “I will not go down without a fight.” He and Liam slumped onto the ground at their feet, Jasper having already bagged the only place left on the couch between Sally and Carly. Sally wordlessly passed the buttered popcorn towards Jasper, who took a handful with a grateful nod. He didn’t bother to brush the few popcorns – which had slipped out of his fingers – out of Liam’s hair.
They were silent for a while, all of them watching the screen, seemingly unaware of John’s increasing worry. Don’t get me wrong, I love Carly’s friends. It’s just that they couldn’t have chosen a worst opportunity to come over. Oh who am I kidding? The three of them are always here; they have their own key for God’s sake! I should have seen this coming and prepared.
All I really wanna understand is. When. You...Talk dirty to me...
What ensued was Carly desperately trying to pull her phone from her skinny jeans, accidently kicking Callum in her haste to get her phone. Liam burst out laughing, the clutching-my-stomach-with-tears-in-my-eyes kind of laughter. Callum had his back arched and was sending a glare towards Carly, who in turn was sending a glare towards Liam. Jasper continued to munch on his popcorn.
“Hey Samantha, what’s up?” Carly grumbled out.
“Jeez, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed? What’s with the sad tone kiddo?” She asked, although Carly could hear the underlining amusement in her words.
“Liam’s just being an annoying ass as usual,” She answered, aiming a pillow at his still chuckling form. “So what’s up?” She repeated.
“Oh, the girls and I are really bored and we wanted to do something. Do you and the guys maybe want to come out with us?” Carly debated the proposal but turned it down. She felt far too lazy to actually get up and put on decent clothes. “Why don’t you come over to my house? We’re watching a movie and I don’t think we’re going to be moving from our spot any time soon. Dad is that alright with you?” John – realizing that the question was directed at him – nodded mutely. He couldn’t bring himself to decline his daughter from inviting her friends, mainly because it’s been since middle school that she had new friends.
Carly relayed her address to her friends and fifteen minutes later they heard the doorbell ring. She stood and made her way to the door, knowing that no one else would be bothered to do it. She swung it open to be greeted with the three girls standing rather awkwardly on her doorstep. It was understandable, it was the first time them coming to her house. They had spent the beginning of their summer vacation going out or meeting up at others houses.
“Hey, uh we brought candy,” Samantha shook the plastic bag in her hand.
“Cool, come on in,” She opened the door wider and shut it behind them. She abandoned them in the hallway, as they took their shoes off, and went back into the living room. They stood in the doorway of the room for a while before growing the balls of shuffling into the room and sitting beside Callum and Liam. Carly didn’t notice Jasper had taken her phone for the five minutes it took for them to settle down, before moving it on the back rest, right next to her ear.
“Oh cool you brought candy,” Liam praised as he opened the bag and took out a box of Twizzlers. Dylan slapped his hand and caught the dropped box, “These are mine Liam.”
“You could have just told me that,” He grumbled, reaching into the bag again but this time clutching a Hershey’s bar instead.
“Hey guys, who would win in a fight Batman or Superman?” Callum asked.
“Batman,” Samantha said at the same time that Dylan muttered Superman.
“Now you’ve done it,” Lillian moaned, as she leaned back against the coach, her butt positioned comfortably on a cushion. Carly and Jasper ignored the argument that occurred below them and focused on the movie. However, it soon became near impossible to hear the movie when their voices grew in tandem. They did however here the song that blasted from Carly’s phone. My milkshakes brings all the boys to the yard! The fact that it was the rock and boy version made it easy to reach the ears of everyone in the room.
Carly yelped and fell off of the couch as she desperately tried to move away from the loud music. She clutched her right ear and stared up at her traitorous phone, standing and snatching it from its high and mighty position on the couch.
“Hello?” She may or may not have shouted the question into the phone.
“Whoa, is this a bad time? I can call back later-” Carly cut off Elliot’s words with a softer tone, “Its fine Elliot, what’s up?”
“Oh I’m really bored and I wanted to do something, do you want to go out somewhere?” He asked and she knew without being there that he was running his hand through his hair, making it stand on end.
“Whoa,” Carly chuckled, “Déjà-vu.”
There was a silence on the other end of the phone and then, “Potatoes.”
Carly frowned, “What?”
“Alabaster Scrooge,” He continued.
“Elliot what-”
“Do you still have déjà-vu?” He asked.
“No,” She drew out.
Another silence, “You’re welcome.”
Carly blinked and then blinked again and then blinked some more. “For some abnormal reason this makes me like you even more.”
Elliot laughed and said, “So how about it? Do you want to go out?”
“Erm, I can’t its Sunday. I always stay at home with Dad on a Sunday because he’s always out for work.” Carly didn’t know that she had just caused John immense pride. Yeah take that kid, she chooses me over you. Ha! In your face.
“Why don’t you come over to the house? We’re just watching movies and chilling out and everyone else is here too so...how about it?” She asked. John deflated his chest, his head drooping a little, so much for choosing me over him.
She mumbled a few okay’s and alright’s before hanging up the phone. “So I assume Elliot is coming over?” Her Dad asked. She mumbled a distracted yeah as she scrolled through her phone. John stood, pulling up his pants and pulling his shirt down, smirking when he heard Sally whine in discomfort. “I’ll be back in a second.”
It was ten minutes later that the doorbell rang for a second time that day. It wasn’t the first time that Elliot had come to the house; he was too polite not to ring it. Whereas Carly was sure that when Lillian, Samantha and Dylan were used to it they would just stroll in, like her male friends do every day.
“Hey,” She smiled at him and he smiled right back. They stayed like that for a bit until Sally called from the living room, “Are you two love birds going to come in?”
Carly glared at the doorway leading into the room her voice drifted from, “Yeah come on Carly we want to watch a horror movie!” Samantha shouted.
Carly shrugged at Elliot, both of them turning towards the door. However, they were stopped by John who was standing in front of them. He had changed his white shirt into a dark blue one. In bold white lettering it said Rules for Dating my Daughter. Carly face palmed, “Dad you need to stop doing this every time he comes over.”
“But his reaction is always so funny,” He argued, grinning in glee at Elliot’s round eyes and pale face.
“Dad,” She whined covering her face, “Please stop this. You’re-”
“I promise I won’t ever break your daughter’s heart. However, if there comes a time where I’m being an asshole and I make her cry, I will allow you to beat me up as much as you want,” Elliot said and although his face had grown paler and his finger nails bit into his flesh, you could still see the honesty that brimmed in his eyes.
Carly blushed furiously and John raised an eyebrow. A slow smile stretched his lips and he laughed, “I’m holding you onto that one kiddo.” He walked into the living room, jerking his head in a way that said ‘come on’.
“You just got his blessing,” Carly whispered.
“I did?” Elliot asked with a jump, his head swivelling from Carly to John.
“Yeah,” She said. She took his hand and squeezed it before tugging on it so that they could enter the room together.
By now Jasper had moved to the ground between Dylan and Liam, not liking the empty space next to him on the couch. He wanted a lot of people around him when he watched this movie, Woman in Black. It had been out for quite a while now but the friends hadn’t really gotten a chance to watch it until now. Elliot sat with his back against the couch and Carly sitting between his legs, her back pressing against his chest, his arms around her. Dylan had her shoulder leaning against Jasper, Liam was against Jasper’s other. Lillian and Samantha took the space on the couch.
Callum put the DVD in and sat on the other side of Dylan. Nobody, except for Dylan, noticed Jasper raise his pillow so that it was just below his eyes as the movie started.
*********************
“Okay she freaked me out in the end,” Liam was the first to admit after the long silence that had occurred when the credits rolled up.
Chorused agreements followed his statement, except for Jasper. While the others relived the scariest moments of the movie Dylan nudged Jasper, chuckling when he jumped. “You okay?”
He nodded silently, his hands still in a death grip, which had lasted throughout the whole movie, on the pillow. Dylan, concerned now, bent down so that she could see his face, “Hey it’s not real, you do know that right?”
At Jasper’s silence, she reached up and ruffled his hair, missing the blush on his face as she turned towards the rest. “Hey guys I really want to watch Pirates of the Caribbean,” She said loudly over their excited chatter, “I haven’t seen it in ages and I really want to watch my favourite actor act like a drunken pirate.”
There was silence and then mumbled agreements, all of them moving onto the topic of Johnny Depp. For the first time, since the movie started, Jasper put the pillow that was covering his face down and stared at an oblivious Dylan. She was currently rummaging through the bag again, looking for anymore appeasing boxes of candy. It was with this distraction that she didn’t catch the smile that crossed his lips as he stared at her, it was a happy smile.
Sally munched on the popcorn, the bowl was balanced on her raised knees and her head was resting on John’s shoulder. She wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t felt the realized the strange shape of it. In fact she probably would have distractedly chewed on it if she hadn’t noticed that detail. It was round with a hole through it, it was small and it had smooth surfaces as well as hard. She held it in front of her face and gasped.
“John,” To her it sounded like she whispered it but to everyone else it was more of a shout.
Everyone turned to her holding something in her hand. Their mouths dropped open and their eyes bugged out, as they took in the small yet beautiful diamond ring held between her thumb and forefinger. “John,” she repeated, louder so that it was a definite shout.
John stood and took the ring from her fingers, “I was going to do this with just Carly, you and me but it seems that that will never happen, what with Carly adding to the family. So I guess it’ll have to be now.”
He bent down on one knee, which caused multiple reactions with Carly and her friends. Samantha had screeched loudly as soon as he bent down and had wrapped her arms around Lillian. Lillian had held onto the arms as if they were her lifeline. Liam was clutching his hair and was rocking back and forth in an excited manner. Callum had all of a sudden stood up, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly parted. Elliot and Carly were nonchalant as they knew this was going to happen. Dylan was sat upright on her knees with her arms wrapped around Jasper’s head. Jasper allowed it to happen as he remained in his cross legged position; the only thing that changed was where he was facing.
“Sally I know that you hate fancy proposals, I read your diary I’m sorry. I’m not sorry that I read that you liked the way my butt looks but that’s a topic we’ll discuss later. I love you Sally and I know that I won’t love you any less if fifteen years were to go by and I was old and grey. However, I want to ask you now, I want to ask you...will you marry me Sally Benson?”
There were shrieks of excitement from everyone, except Jasper who instead made a piercing whistle. “Wait she hasn’t said yes yet!” Carly laughed.
Everyone immediately quietened down and took in Sally who was hiding her crying face behind her hands. Her knees were still raised, when she did remove her hands from on top of them to whisper a yes she was bright red. Everyone was standing now so that they could crowd around the couple as John placed the ring on her finger. More screams and happy exclamations sounded, all of them not being able to stop their excitement from leaking out.
An elderly couple walking past the house paused when they heard the screams. They peered curiously through the window to see people hugging each other. A woman in the middle was having a ring on her finger admired, her face was red and there were tears streaming down their face.
“Ah do you remember the time we were engaged?” The old man said to his wife.
The woman scoffed, “Of course I do,” She pulled him with her, “You threw the ring at me and said ‘hear wear this’.”
The man chuckled, wrapping his arm around her. “Do you blame me? I was so nervous on that day I just wanted to get you to wear the ring.”
The woman poked him in the ribs; yet, when their eyes met she couldn’t help but match the stupid grin that was plastered on his face.
The couple walked hand in hand, leaving the warm glow of the family in the house, who were still hugging the engaged couples and laughing to their hearts content.
To be continued...