(A/N: For the next five or six chapters [right now I'm guessing six] the plot will be pretty much sped up towards the end - so basically a few months or so between parts. At the beginning of each chapter or part, there will be a time that indicates when the part takes place.)
March 2016
I stared out the window of Dad's car, watching my surroundings go by in a blur. Some classic rock song faintly played on the radio and I zoned out trying to pay attention to it. All of it looked so strange after getting used to being in the hospital for the last week. I spent the first half of it in a coma, but I'm glad I didn't have to spend it all alone. The cast on my broken leg began to itch and made me uncomfortable. I can't wait to get it off in two months.
I was silent, but at the same time I was horribly nervous. Across the seat from me, in the middle of my moment, I felt another hand snake into mine and stopped it from shaking. I looked over to see Steven staring at me intently. "Are you feeling okay, Anthony?" he asked, a familiar twinkle in his eyes.
I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess." To be honest, I was a little jittery being in a car again. Something kept telling me that there was going to be another accident, and this time it would be the end. I sighed and leaned back, giving him a reassuring smile. "I'm glad to be coming home."
"We're glad too," he responded, earning nods from Dad and Cielo in the front. My release time was right after school got out, so when he picked her up from school Steven decided to come along. The guys are coming over later so we can have the sleepover that we had scheduled for last week. "But there's something else. You look so scared, why?"
I choked up, not sure what to tell him. "I'm a little nervous about being here right now."
"I know you're still shaken and all, but don't worry. We're almost home."
Home. This is my first time seeing home in a week. Being away from it really made me miss it, and when I thought that I'd never see it again it didn't help at all. I can't wait to be back in my own room to get some rest.
A couple minutes later we pulled into the driveway. "Welcome home, Anthony," Dad greeted as he put it in park. While I collected my stuff in the back seat, Steven jumped out and ran to my side. He opened the door for me and grabbed my hands, trying to help me out.
"Stevie," I whined. "You don't have to wait on me hand and foot, you know?"
"I know, I just wanna make sure my love's taken care of." I stood up slowly and leaned against him for support while I fixed my crutches. When I gained my balance, I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him in for a kiss. Of course, like always... Cielo.
"I know what you're gonna say," I started.
"Actually," she shook her head. "This is your first time home in a while... Carry on."
She followed Dad inside and left me and Steven alone. "Hm," I hummed, taking his hand in mine. "That's a first." I kissed him a couple more times, then she came back out a minute later.
"Hey, are you two gonna make out here or are you gonna come inside and see what's waiting?"
"I wouldn't mind a little session," I heard Steven mumble as he followed me inside, offering to carry my stuff. I tried to hide my blush and pretend that I didn't hear what he said. I followed Cielo inside to see almost a dozen gifts and roses, as well as a clear box full of sticky notes.
My jaw dropped and I tightened my grip on Steven's hand, but loosened it when I heard him yelp. "W-where did a-all this come from?" I asked, stuttering.
"I know one of these came from Mr. Joseph and his wife, then most of these are from your friends' parents, and a couple are from our neighbors. And these are all the sticky notes that everyone wrote to you this week."
"Wow," I muttered. As I opened the box and read through some of the notes, a smile crept onto my face. From the looks of it, a lot of people were missing me. "This is... awesome. But, what about you, Stevie? I don't wanna get all the attention."
Steven wrapped his arms around me and gave me another kiss. "It's okay, mine's all at home. This is all for you."
Dad patted me and Cielo on the shoulder. "I'm heading back to work. Call if you need me."
We both nodded and Cielo took a seat on the couch. I read through some of the notes while Steven grabbed us something to drink. 443. We counted them and 443 people left me a message.
"Do you want me to take your bags upstairs for you?" Steven asked, standing up from the table.
"Can you help me move all of this up? I'm ready to go to my room." He threw my bags over his shoulders and took the clear box in his hands. He caught his balance before falling over.
Cielo looked back at us while her game was loading. "You know, I can carry something if you need."
Steven shook his head quickly, making his way to the stairs. "I got this, I swear." He crawled up the stairs but eventually made it to the top. On the other hand, I was still stuck at the bottom trying to figure out how to climb them with my crutches. Cielo came up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.
"Are you sure you don't need any help, Anthony? Remember, I've done this before." I thought about the time Cielo was 12 and hurt her foot playing soccer.
I nodded. "Yeah, how'd you do this?" Eventually, with her help, I was able to reach the top and wrap my arms around Steven. "Thanks, Ci-Ci!"
"No problem," she shouted before we went into my room and closed the door. I fell onto my bed, already tired of having to use crutches. I closed my eyes and rolled over, but then I felt a pair of hands and some weight on my side.
Steven laid down beside me and wrapped his arms around my waist, burying his head in my side. I chuckled and turned over to face him.
"Tired?"
I hummed and nodded. "I'm just glad to be home, and I have you with me so that's pretty cool too." I sat up and leaned against the wall so he could lean back against me. I rested my chin on his curly hair and breathed in his scent. "I love you, so much, and sometimes I don't feel like I say it enough. And after all that I just put you guys through, you deserve to hear it more."
"Anthony," he started, leaning up to face me. "You didn't 'put us through' anything. Nothing that happened to you was your fault. I didn't mind waiting for you, and neither did your dad, your sister, or any of our friends. That's what we're here for, remember?"
"In sickness and in health."
He laughed and tapped my arm playfully. "Hey, you say that like we're married."
"I mean, I wouldn't mind if we were." We both stopped talking and stared into each other's eyes. I knew he was thinking about what I just said.
"You... you mean that, Anthony?"
I nodded, then took his hands in mine. "Yeah. Of course, we'd have to finish high school and college, but I can see myself being with you for the rest of my life. I really do."
"How about we set a goal? If we're still together by the time we're 25, let's get married. That'll give us enough time to graduate, have good jobs, and be able to plan the greatest wedding we can think of."
"On one condition..."
He cocked his head to the side. "And what might that be, babe?"
I pulled him close and planted a kiss on him. "Can I be the one to pop the question?"
I kissed him again and he smiled into it. "I'd be okay with that. Do whatever you want with it."
"So, it's set." I got up and grabbed my phone to text Cielo. Hey, do you have a ring pop sitting around somewhere?
Yeah? Why?
No reason, can you bring it to me?
I guess, as long as you're not using it for weird stuff.
What? No. Why would you even think that?
... I dunno... I'll be up in a minute.
I put my phone down and smiled devilishly at my unsuspecting boyfriend. "What?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Nothing." Cielo knocked on the door a couple seconds later and I insisted on answering it. "Thanks, Ci-Ci. I owe you one."
"Once again, no problem."
I closed the door and unwrapped the ring pop, hopping back over to my bed. I crawled back beside him and dropped to my knees. "Steven Royale, will you marry me in a few years?"
He smiled from ear to ear. "Anthony this is so sudden. Of course, you noodle!" I slipped the ring pop on his finger and pulled him onto my lap.
I laughed when I remembered what Dad told me the morning of the talent show. "Hey, I never told you about what happened last Friday morning. So, I came downstairs for breakfast and saw that Dad made croissants, saying that I needed a hot breakfast for a special day. I told him it was a talent show and not my wedding, so I guess we'll be having croissants for breakfast on our wedding day."
"Really? I love croissants." He buried his face in my chest and breathed heavily. "I'm already excited, you have no idea."
"I think I do, Stevie. I'm excited too." He sat up from his position on my chest so I could take off my top shirt. I slid down and threw a blanket over the both of us. As soon as I laid back down, he returned to his spot and bawled a handful of my tank top in his hands. A couple minutes later I heard him snoring lightly and I twisted some of his curls with my finger, closing my eyes. Finally, after spending a week in a busy hospital, I get to have some nice sleep, and I have my amazing boyfriend by my side the entire time.
~~~
Several hours pass before a hand pushed me awake. "Anthony? Steven?" Dad's voice whispered.
I was the first to wake up. "Hm?" I hummed sleepily.
"Your friends are here, time to get up." I looked at the clock on my desk, 7:30 pm. Steven and I slept for a little over four hours. I nodded and Dad left the room so I could wake up Steven too.
"Five more minutes," he mumbled when I tapped his shoulder.
"Wake up, silly. It's 7:30 and everyone's here." I sat up and he woke up too, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The ring pop I gave him before we fell asleep was still there, and I was surprised that it wasn't covered in ants. We left the room and Steven walked slowly to help me downstairs.
"It's about time you two woke up!" Cielo shouted, sitting between Smarty and Tom on the couch. "I went in there a couple hours ago but you two were so cute together."
"You little peeper," I joked, earning a playful eye roll. "Hey, guys. How long have you been here?"
"A couple minutes," Smarty responded. Steven sat down on the love seat beside GaLm and I took a seat on his lap.
"Wow, you two really are attached at the hip," Tom blurted out, making everyone laugh.
I flashed him an a-okay. "Sure, whatever you say, Jo."
Tom scoffed. "We're not that bad... are we?"
Everyone, even Cielo, nodded. Smarty reached over Cielo's head and poked him on the cheek. "Dude, you're blushing right now."
He bawled up his hands in his hoodie sleeves and pushed them against his cheeks. "Okay, maybe a little." We all awww'd, then GaLm noticed the ring pop on Steven's finger.
"Hey Ze, where'd that come from?"
Steven held up his hand in a Beyonce "Single Ladies" style. "Anthony put a ring on it."
Everyone laughed. "Well," I started. "Not quite. More like a 'promise to put a ring on it' deal." I looked over and saw Cielo stifling a laugh. "And no, it wasn't for whatever reason she was thinking."
"My bad, bro. It was something random to ask for, y'know?"
"Anyway," Smarty interrupted, knowing where our conversation was heading. "We brought some food so we should get it before it gets cold."
Cielo hopped up quickly and ran to the table, while I needed Steven's help to push me off. "Hey, no fair!" I whined. "You know I can't run right now. Besides, I stopped trying."
She smirked and pulled out a burger, earning weird looks from everyone. Out of all of us, Steven's the only one who knows about mine and Cielo's dinner tradition. "Oh yeah, every night at dinner we have a race to see who can get to the food faster and she" - I point dramatically - "always wins."
"Well excuuuusssee me, mister!"
Smarty shook his head and handed Steven the veggie burger. "And I thought me and my sister were weird." We all sat down at the table for our food and talked about the games we're going to play tonight.
[Time skip to later in the evening]
"Welp, I'm dead," GaLm mumbled after night 3 of our fourth round of Town of Salem. We were all over my room with our laptops; I was laying on my bed because of my leg, Steven was at the end of my bed, Tom sat in my desk chair, GaLm was in the bean bag, and Smarty was on his pillow on the floor. Tom's Spotify was playing a random Metallica song on his computer. The day rose and there were three deaths overnight, GaLm being one of them.
"How'd you die?" Steven asked, making Smarty chuckle.
"The serial killer got me... Smarty?" GaLm's moment of realization only made him laugh harder. "Smarty?! Smarty!" As the game told us that his role was the jailor, GaLm jumped out of his seat and pinned Smarty down on the floor.
"I'm sorry, Glammy," he tried to apologize, but couldn't because of how hard he was laughing.
"No you're not, you asshole, you wouldn't be laughing if you were!" We all watched as the two wrestled, GaLm sitting on Smarty who was bawled up on his pillow.
"Boss battle!" Tom shouted as he turned up the volume on his laptop as fight music. "Who will win? Place your bets, boys."
Smarty reached out to me and Steven right beside him. "Help? Anyone?"
We shook our heads. "Sorry, Smarty. You're just gonna have to fight this battle on your own."
Cielo poked her head in the door with a confused look. "Uh... Dad and I can hear you guys downstairs and he wanted me to make sure you're not beating each other up. What's going on?" She looked down and saw the mess that was right under her. "Okay, so you are beating each other up."
"Kinda," I answered.
She left the room and GaLm crawled off of him in time to start the next night. In the end it turned out to be a serial killer win and Smarty jumped up to do a dance for winning. "Fear the Smarticus!" he shouted victoriously.
"Not in my house, son," I responded, but then I remembered that we actually were in my house. Smarty finally sat down so we could start a game of Cards Against Humanity. We stayed up until almost 3 in morning playing games, watching movies, and just hanging out, and it really felt like I was home.
After the lights had gone out and everyone was ready to sleep - of course we couldn't because of Smarty and Tom talking about parallel universes and the possible existence of aliens - I thought about my mom and what she told me when I was in my coma. She told me that these guys were keepers, and right now I wasn't doubting her at all. They have gotten me through a lot these last few days, and these months since we moved all the way out here to start a new life. I couldn't be happier to know them, and I know that things can only get better from here.
(A/N: I know this chapter had its 'meh' moments but I hope you guys still liked it. It's been over a week since I last updated and I was kinda running low on ideas for this part. But as sad as I am about wrapping this up soon, I'm pretty excited about what I have in mind for the next four chapters.
Also, I got my first real job working at Starbucks on my university campus today! But never fear, I won't be starting for another couple weeks and the new semester starts right after that, so I'll try to have this done before then. Anyway... ramble time over... see you in the next one, internet!)