SERENITY PAYTON
"I love you..."
Donte's words went straight through my ears and right into my heart. I ain't ever feel my heart rate pick up so fast until this moment.
Should I even be doing this? Is this even right?
Is this even real? Am I imagining things?
I needed to say something. And quick, because Donte was looking at me like he was waiting for a smile, a hug, a response—ANYTHING but me being silent.
I love Donte. Everyone knew this. But did he know this? I don't know.
To him, I had always been able to move on and just...well...move forward. But sometimes, I didn't even want to. It was just my way of coping.
But in his eyes, it might have looked like I was completely okay with leaving him behind without a care in the world, when in actuality, it would eat me up inside every single day.
So, my biggest issue was this: Do I be honest and tell him the truth—that I do, in fact, love him? Or, do I respect the relationship between Jaren and I (even though he is in Memphis not respecting our relationship).
I didn't want it to seem like or look like I was just trying to use him as a distraction from Jaren and the things I had just found out...so I was just conflicted right now.
But, I knew what to do..
"I love you, too..." I admitted.
A wide smile spread across Donte's face and his hands moved to the small of my back as the water surrounded us.
It was oddly quiet. Like the whole world went silent just for us.
That or everyone was trying to be nosey and listen to what was going on with us since we hadn't come back onto the boat yet.
"You do?" He asked in a hopeful manner.
I grinned, nodding my head. "I do. I really do. And I'm sorry that while you and I had our ups and downs that I never made it seem that way, like I was always walking away or pushing you away. You didn't deserve that."
Donte smiled and shook his head, tucking his finger underneath my chin, tilting my chin up. "Rini, I already forgave you for it. I put you through shit, too. We're both at fault."
"I just hope that...when the time is right for us that we...that we actually get it right." I said, suddenly feeling nervous.
Donte nodded. "Me too," he confessed. "I know that...that I lost you once, but I don't think I could lose you again..."
That. That right there...that was how I knew.
"I can't lose you either."
I don't know what happened. It was like a magnet was pulling us or something...all I know was that, my eyes were drawn to his lips and I just wanted to kiss him. I could tell he felt the same because his gaze fell on my lips as well.
Just as we were about to kiss, Jordan's loud voice sounded through the air, breaking the moment and the energy between Donte and I.
On top of that, it scared me so bad that I jumped, accidentally releasing my hold from Donte and slipped underwater.
Quickly, Donte grabbed me and pulled me back up, causing me to cling to him, my arms wrapped around his neck, our faces once again, inches away from each other, causing for us to smile shyly.
"PLEASE TELL ME Y'ALL AIN'T DEAD," Jordan whined, putting his glasses on. His eyes focused and widened when he saw Donte and I, then a dumb grin formed on his face. "Well, well, well..."
"Jordan, don't start." Donte chuckled.
Jordan grinned. "I ain't starting nothing. But I know what I'm seeing. This time I got my glasses on."
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Jordan just let the damn ladder down!"
"Okay, love birds." Jordan chuckled, letting the ladder down.
Donte and I swam over to the ladder, and he allowed me to go first, making sure I was up far enough for him to follow after me, while making sure I was okay.
Once we got back on board, I quickly dried myself off with this dumb smile on my face and couldn't stop meeting Donte's eye.
If I wasn't fully sure about things with he and I, I definitely was now. I knew the right thing to do and I also knew what I wanted to do.
What I needed to do.
"You wanna tell me what happened out there? And why you and Donte are smiling like two little kids that just got some candy?" Moody asked me in a hushed tone.
I shrugged, not able to wipe this smile off of my face and pushed my wet hair out my face. "Nothing."
Kidd scoffed. "Yeah right. Lie again."
"Lie again and Im'a toss you off this boat." Maria threatened.
"Jordan would not be acting like that if he didn't see something," Angel added. "And you can't blame seeing things on him because he had his glasses on."
She's right about that.
Amour nodded in agreement, her eyes were watching Les intently, but she was all into our conversation.
"Agreed," she said. "So what happened? I wanna know full details."
I smiled, shrugging once more. "Nothing. Literally. He just...He told me he loved me—."
"SHUT UP!" they all exclaimed in unison.
"What did you say?!" Maria exclaimed in shock, refilling her glass.
"I told him I loved him too." I admitted.
Kidd's eyes widened. "Holy shit. Are you for real right now?!"
I nodded, the smile on my face growing wider. "Yep. And I meant it. I am in love with him...I always will be. I just..I just know that he's it for me."
"Okay, I know I hate him and all," Maria said, setting her glass down. "But, what about Jaren? I mean, y'all are still together."
Amour nodded. "True," she said. "This is considered uhh...what do they call it? Emotional cheating?"
"Well, I mean he did cheat on her today so..." Asia pointed out.
"That doesn't make it right though," Angel replied, taking a sip of her lemonade. "Can't fix a wrong with a wrong."
Kidd shook his head. "We don't have time to debate this. Rin, what are you gonna do about this? Are you gonna explain to Donte that you two can't even act on your emotions right now because you're in a relationship?"
"No."
They all turned to me, looking at me like I was insane, their eyes wide as saucers. "NO?!"
"So you're gonna lead Donte on and cheat on Jaren? Girl I could slap you." Maria said, side eying me.
I shook my head. "Girl. No."
"Then what are you saying, Serenity?" Asia asked.
"Im gonna leave Jaren."
~~
DONTE DIVINCENZO
The smile on my face was stuck on my face as I walked into the small room where my bag was so I could change clothes since it was a chill in the air, especially since I had just gotten out of the water.
I still couldn't believe that Serenity still loved me after all this time.
A part of me knew, but I also wasn't sure. We both had put each other through a lot, and I didn't know if that had tainted anything between us. Plus, she's pretty serious with Jaren and I don't know how long that's gonna be a thing.
I just kept wondering if I was wrong for telling her that since she was in a relationship. Would this be considered messing with her head? Because that's the last thing that I wanted to do.
Opening my bag, I pulled out a simple white compression shirt and my gray Nike sweatpants and quickly changed out of my wet clothes and into the dry ones.
I decided to take a small moment to myself and opened my phone and went into my camera roll and scrolled within my Favorites album until I found the video I was looking for.
Last year. December 12th. I knew this video like the back of my hand. It was the day I told Rini that I loved her with one of her favorite childhood songs 4 Letter Word by Diggy Simmons.
As I watched the video, I kind of got emotional just seeing the wide smiles on our faces and how happy we were. Hearing her laugh and covering her face from being shy and her excitement when I told her.
Sometimes I wished I could go back in time.
Just when I was about to swipe to the next video, my phone began ringing, and my eyes widened in shock at the Caller ID.
JAREN
ACCEPT | DECLINE
Confused, I answered the phone and put it to my ear. I was silent for a few moments, but before I could speak, Jaren had said "Hello".
"What's up?" I said, still confused. "Did you mean to call Rini or something?"
"Nah, I meant to call you," Jaren said. "One, she's not answering her phone. I know she saw that shit, but that shit is old. I swear to God it is. Karin just trying to start shit."
"Okay..." I mumbled. "What this gotta do with me?"
Jaren sighed. "I needed to ask you something. Something important that I've been thinking of for a while, and I figured you're the first person to come to..."
Getting annoyed, I rolled my eyes and sighed, crossing my arms. "Okay."
"I wanna ask Rini to marry me..."
~~
END OF CH. 05
What did y'all think??
What y'all think Donte is gonna say??