"Cassie babe, trust me when I say you are not wanting to have a small ghost design on your nails." Staci pleaded with me as I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Okay? I thought it was cute last year." I mumbled out as Staci sighed in relief.
"Thank God." I heard her mumble as she quickly got on her phone, texting away again.
"You have been on your phone all day, what's up with you?" I asked confused as her eyes widened.
"Daniel! He has a serious case." She said hurriedly as I gasped.
"What? Case of what? What do you mean?" I asked confused with my mouth agape.
"He has... genital warts. Yeah... all over." She said shaking her head as I stared at her in disgust.
"Okay, no more. I don't want to hear anymore." I said shaking my head in disgust. As I went back to looking at the nail colors to choose from.
"Here, get this. Just a solid color." She said quickly handing me the color and ushered me to the seats.
"You are acting so strange today." I mumbled to Staci as I handed the nail polish to the nail tech and began conversing with her.
"Do you know what you're going to wear?" Staci asked me as she looked up from her phone.
"No Stace, he's my boyfriend of four years. I'm not too terrified about wearing an ugly outfit. I mean he put up with me wearing that god awful Bella uniform before we even dated." I told her with a shrug as she grimaced at the reminder.
"Well you still have to look good, let me help pick something out." She said as she handed the nail tech her color, "Can I get little ghosts on mine please?"
"What? Why are you getting ghosts?" I scoffed as she shrugged with a grin.
***
"No. No. Oh ew, Cass. No. No. No. Maybe. No." Staci said going through my packed up boxes as she looked for me to wear something.
"Okay. Pause. What is up with you?" I asked shutting the lid to the box as she turned to look back up at me.
"What?" She asked with raised eyebrows.
"You've been extremely picky about me going on this date with Donald. What's up with you?" I said confused as she just stared at me.
"Oh my gosh!" I gasped, her eyes going wide.
"What?" She asked panicked.
"Are you upset with him? Do you not want me to go out with him anymore?" I asked noticing Staci visibly relax.
"What? No, that's insane. I mean the half of me that thinks about how amazing it would be if we you and I were totally gay and into each other would say yes" Staci said trying to keep a straight face as I chuckled, "But, but, no. I think you guys are perfect. I just want you to have a great night, I know how stressed you are about school ending."
"Here wear this would you?" Staci said handing me a gorgeous outfit as I grinned quickly changing into it.
"You always have the best taste." I said grinning as I looked into the mirror.
"I can't believe that you've been by my side the entire time." I said grinning in the mirror as she smiled back and put her chin on my shoulder.
"Some people are lucky enough to have a best friend, but I'm even luckier. I've got a Staci." I said turning around and pulling her into a hug.
"You're going to make me cry." Staci said as she chuckled into the hug, "C'mon lets do your make up."
***
Staci finished my eye make up as the door to our room opened.
"Woah, what went on in here?" Donald asked as he took in the sight of my clothes thrown everywhere.
"Staci." I said with a grin as he continued looking around in disbelief and nodded.
"Wait one minute, is this my 'I heart my GF' sweater? You said it got stained? There's no stains on it." Donald said holding up the god awful hoodie.
"Donald I did you a favor, you weren't even wearing it ironically. It's horrendous." I said grabbing it out of his hands and chucking it across the room.
"Well excuse me for trying to show my love and appreciation." Donald said teasingly as he grabbed my hand to spin me around.
"Absolutely breath taking as always Cass." He grinned as I blushed.
"Flattery, hm?" I said teasingly as he chuckled.
"So what are we doing tonight?" I asked Donald as we began making our way outside, shouting a quick bye to Staci.
"Figured I'd take us down memory lane, seeing as it's our last week on campus." Donald grinned opening my door for me as I slid inside.
***
We managed to go eat at Zippy's and going to a movie before I realized Donald was driving us somewhere else other than back to campus.
"Where else are we going?" I asked looking around at the familiar scenery.
"Remember this place." Donald said putting the car in park as I looked around. I grinned as I recognized as the place he brought me to on our very first date.
"How could I forget it." I said with a smile as I hopped out of the car to sit on the hood.
"We had our very first kiss here." I smiled at the memory as Donald grinned.
"Wait we're missing something." I gasped, getting up as I opened the door, hooking up my phone before making my way back onto the hood of the car. Donald staring at me in confusion before breaking out into a laugh as the song began playing.
Road shimmer wigglin' the vision. Heat, heat waves, I'm swimmin' in a mirror
"I love you Cassie." He said with a large grin as he grabbed my face and pulled me into a passionate kiss.
"I wouldn't change a single thing about these last four years." He said out of breath as we pulled away from each other.
Sometimes, all I think about is you. Late nights in the middle of June
***
"What are we doing?" I said confused as Donald parked in a random lot on campus rather than by our houses.
"I figured we could walk around campus one last time, you know just for old times sake." Donald said grabbing my hand as we walked around, the campus only visible due to the lamps surrounding the sidewalks.
"I'm going to miss this place." I said with a grin as he nodded in agreement, "Where everything started for us."
"Who knows maybe our kids will come here." Donald said with a faint grin as I saw his hands nervously fiddle around in his pocket.
"Kids? At least propose to me first." I teased him as he blushed with his eyes catching mine.
"Look." I said with a gasp as I dragged him over to the empty pool that we always held the riff offs in. Unbeknownst to me, Donald grinning ear from ear as I dragged him over.
"C'mon." Donald said grabbing my hand as he took me over to the stairs to step in it.
"Do you remember the first time we were here together?" Donald asked as he walked around the empty pool.
"Gosh, how could I forget? Four years and they've still never filled it." I said with a shake of my head. "It feels like we cheated since we only got to attend some lame rip off version of a riff off at that strange guys house."
"You still got to come watch us this year." Donald said as wrapped an arm around me.
"That's not the same." I said with a shove as I chuckled.
"Cass, can I tell you something?" Donald asked grabbing my hands and turning me around to face him. I nodded with my eyebrows raised as he took a deep breath.
"Cassie when we first met I was infatuated with you, probably even to a concerning degree. You've made my life feel so much more
Sitting in each others dorms, going on walks around campus, eating together, sleeping together. Hell, you're the only person I would sit and chat about the shade of a cloud with. It sounds boring but you make it unparalleled and I don't even know how you do it." Donald confessed as he held my hands closely.
"Looking at our lives together, thinking about the future of our lives together makes me almost tear up even. I love it Cassie, I love us. I promise you that as long as I'm here I will never not notice you Cassie." I felt myself tearing up almost as he continued confessing his feelings to me. As I went to talk the lights surrounding the pool completely went out, the pitch black night quickly enwraping us.
"Whoa?" I said grabbing Donald's hand as the lights went out, before one flicked back on that solely focused on us.
"What was that?" I whispered to Donald as he grabbed my hand. Another light turned on focusing on Greg as he appeared on the ledge of the pool.
"It's a beautiful night. We're looking for something dumb to do. Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you." Greg sang as my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Is it the look in your eyes or is it this dancing juice? Who cares baby, I think I wanna marry you." Jesse and Benji sang as the light got larger and shone on them both.
"Well I know this little chapel on the boulevard we can go oh, oh, oh. No one will know oh, oh, oh. Oh, come on, girl." A voice came from behind me as my jaw dropped seeing Bumper walking down the stairs and into the empty pool.
"Who cares if we're trashed got a pocket full of cash we can blow oh oh oh. Shots of patron
and it's on, girl." Hat sang as he followed Bumper down the stairs.
"Don't say no, no, no, no-no. Just say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah and we'll go, go, go, go-go. If you're ready, like I'm ready." Another light shone on three people I haven't seen in forever as they made their way down the steps as well. Steven, Brian, and Uni.
"Cause it's a beautiful night. We're looking for something dumb to do. Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you." Donald sang softly to me as I turned to look at hime with shock written all over my face.
"Is it the look in your eyes or is it this dancing juice? Who cares baby, I think I wanna marry you." All of the OG trebles sang together as the light shone on all of them.
"I'll go get a ring let the choir bells sing like oooh. So what you wanna do? Let's just run girl." The newer trebles from the past three years joined in singing as they sat around the pool ledge.
"Don't say no, no, no, no-no." I watched as a light flicked on in a different direction and all of the Bella's stood, Staci stood in front of them as she sang.
"Just say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah." The Bella's all stepping forward to join Staci in singing. The pool now completely lit as every stood or sat on the ledge singing.
"And we'll go, go, go, go-go. If you're ready, like I'm ready." Everyone sang as the pool was now completely lit up with every new and old Bella and Treble singing together.
"Cause it's a beautiful night. We're looking for something dumb to do. Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you. Is it the look in your eyes or is it this dancing juice? Who cares baby, I think I wanna marry you." They all sang as I turned to look at Donald who was now behind me on one knee.
"Cassie Howard, will you marry me?" He asked me with a smile as he opened the ring box.
"Yes! Yes, Donald!" I said in shock as I watched him stand up and quickly tackled him into a kiss.
"Just say I doooooo. Tell me right now baby. Tell me right now baby, baby. Just say I doooooo. Tell me right now baby. Tell me right now baby, baby." I watched as all of the Barden a cappella groups joined in singing as they sat on the ledge of the pool.
"This is the most beautiful proposal ever Donald. I'm trying not too cry right now." I said as a few tears fell down my face anyways.
"I figured it was the only fitting way to propose." Donald said wiping my tears with his thumbs as he cupped my face.
Oh, it's a beautiful night. We're looking for something dumb to do. Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you.
"This is perfect." I whispered as he grinned and pulled my face into another kiss.
"Is it the look in your eyes or is it this dancing juice? Who cares baby, I think I wanna marry you." The song wrapped up and they all fell into loud cheers and applause.