So sorry I haven't uploaded on this in forever! I just had a few different ideas of what way I wanted to go with the story. Now I have a good idea. I probably wrote and rewrote this chapter ten or fifteen times! Hope you enjoy(: comments, fans, and votes are much appreciated! <3
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Breaking the silence in the room, I gasped for air and coughed continually. “Oh my god,” I wept, hugging onto whoever was sitting next to me. The sweet and familiar scent of AJ filled my nostrils. I breathed it in over and over. “What happened?” I whispered, a bit out of breath. For the first time since I had gained consciousness, I opened my eyes slightly. My mother was sitting in a chair across from the couch, worried about me, but I could tell that she looks a bit more relaxed than she probably was a minute ago.
The next person I noticed sitting on a chair next to my mom was Brady: that’s when everything came back. Why I started drowning. Why I was so disoriented. “You,” I whispered squinting at Brady. AJ skipped a breath when I said that and Brady looked taken aback.
Brady looked around himself and pointed to his chest. “Me?” He questioned. I flew off the couch, coughing and wheezing. “Yes, you,” I said. “I need to have a word,” I demanded, stomping into my bedroom hoping Brady followed. He hesitated, but finally followed my lead.
Shutting the door behind us, I pointed to the bed, telling Brady to take a seat. “How could you?” I questioned him, tears welling up. “You promised you’d never leave me! You promised! No calls from you? Not even a text? I haven’t seen you in like three weeks!” Brady didn’t say a word; he just stared at the floor.
“Well, are you going to try to say something to help you in this case?” My voice broke slightly. The silence was bugging me. Brady should already have an excuse; he’s the king of excuses and schmoozing. What’s wrong with him?
He ran his fingers through his hair and then covered his face. “I’m sorry, okay? That’s all I can say! I’m sorry! Amber, I’m going through…” Before completing his sentence he covered his face again. I just stood there like an idiot: waiting for his explanation. I was beyond pissed at this moment I couldn’t even talk anymore.
“So, what, you leave me. Then you decide to come back right when AJ appears and decide to startle me bad enough to almost drown me?” I shot back. My face was heating up, my eyes were swelling, and I was even starting to sweat a little. This was getting to me, when it really shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
“I thought I could trust you when you said you’d never leave. But I guess you’re just like every other guy out there. Always say and never do?” I ran into my closet and pulled out the shirt Brady got for me a long while back. The one I always slept in.
“Here, I don’t want this anymore.” I threw the shirt at him. It landed right in his lap. He never removed his hands from his face. “Just go home, Brady. I’m not worth your time anymore and you’re not worth mine.” I said coolly and opened the door to let myself out: not even bothering to escort Brady out.
AJ’s comforting arms invited me in willingly as I burst into tears. My life had just broken down. I was at the lowest point I could be without going suicidal. How does my life always manage to drastically change from extremely high to extremely low?
I heard my mom stand up and wander into my bedroom. Then two sets of footsteps traveled to our back door leading to the beach. My crying increased twenty folds when I heard that. Brady hurt me so badly, and honestly, I had no idea why. He ignored me, yes. He almost drowned me, kind of. But why was I so upset with him? I don’t know. All I knew was I did not want to see his face around here for a while. My heart throbbed. It felt like someone took a steak and shoved it threw my chest: lifeless, dead, and gone.
The next three days went by super slow. I barely moved off the couch. AJ was an angel the whole time, making me meal after meal, constantly asking if I need anything, never leaving my side. Finally, AJ convinced me to go out to eat at this beautiful restaurant out across town with him. After a lot of begging, I finally agreed to going. I hadn’t gotten to see the outside world in a while. Plus, I guess Jordan and Monica had flown down to see how AJ and I were doing and wanted to go out to eat.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we reserved a table outside on the deck. Jordan and Monica were already there when we showed up. I was dressed in a cute little summer dress, but I looked awful. Well, that tends to be the case when you’ve been practically been in a mini coma for a couple days.
“Oh my god, Amber, it seems like it’s been forever!” Monica squealed and gave me a big fat hug. I smiled back. It was good to see Monica and Jordan. I had almost forgot how much I missed them. “It’s so good to see you guys,” I replied, giving Jordan a big hug.
We sat down at our table and the waitress came around to us. “Hello, welcome to The Bungalow, can I take your order yet, or are you guys still deciding?” The waitress said. “Nope, I think we’re fine. I’ll have the steak well done, with a side of fries. For a drink I’ll take a Bud Light.” Jordan said, smiling back to the waitress and handing her his menu. “I’ll take the prawns, lightly salted, with a Caesar salad. A margarita would be nice for a drink.” Monica told the waitress.
She quietly jotted down all the orders. “Alright, and you two,” My mind couldn’t decide what I wanted. This menu literally had like everything on it! “Do you know what you want yet?” AJ whispered to me. I shook my head in response. “No, go ahead and order. I’ll be ready in a second.” I was thinking of going with the subtle salad with ranch dressing, but at the same time that seems a bit boring. “Okay, well I’ll have the BLT sandwich with JoJo’s on the side. Oh, and just a Bud Light for the drink,” Crap, it was now my turn and I still didn’t know what I wanted. I looked to the side menu and quickly saw chicken as a choice. “I’ll have the grilled chicken, with a salad on the side. Make sure to add ranch on that salad. And for the drink…I’ll just stick with red wine.”
Since we were all mostly twenty, me being nineteen for a little while longer, it was legal for us to drink here in the Bahamas. The age was eighteen. “Okay, I’ll be back with your drinks in a second.” The waitress smiled and left us.
“So, how are you two? Doing all right I hope. Or is AJ giving you any troubles yet, Amber?” Jordan teased. My eyes rolled and I found myself grabbing onto AJ’s hand. “Everything’s just fine between us.” I said in the most cheerful tone I could pull off. I felt AJ sigh a little, like he knew I was still not broken out of my complete disgust and anger towards Brady.
“Well that wasn’t very convincing, is something actually wrong?” Monica said. I always forget how Monica can read me better than anyone else I know, almost even better than my mom. “No, absolutely not, there’s nothing wrong with AJ and I, it’s just…” I trailed off, not knowing if I should ruin my night bringing up Brady. I could feel myself already getting worked up. I took a deep breath to clear my head. “Nothing, never mind, I’ll tell you guys later.” I said as the waitress came around the corner with our drinks.
“Thank you, and could I have a glass of water as well please?” I asked. Monica gave me one last look, but then dropped it. I could tell she knew that I didn’t want to talk about it, but I could also tell that she would corner me later.
“So, there’s a carnival down here tonight too. There’s supposed to be fireworks, Farris wheels, rides, and a whole bunch of games there. I was wondering if you guys wanted to go with Monica and me.” Jordan laughed, putting his arm around Monica, who sat her hand on his leg. “Of course, that sounds like a bunch of fun!” AJ said, and then looked down at me. “Well, only if you want to go.” He said with his begging, puppy dog eyes. “Sure, sure,” I sighed a little. “We’ll go.”
We all finish our meal and held small talk the rest of the time. Afterwards, we drove down to the carnival. The place was bustling and busy. There weren’t any small kids around though, since it was so late. AJ and I grabbed each other’s hands and went to find Jordan and Monica. They were already in line for a ride. It was called the Drop of Death. It was one of those rides where you sit in those seats and then you get creep up slowly and then drop down at unexpected times.
“AJ, over here,” Jordan called to us from the line. AJ towed me over to where they were at. “Dude, you have to go on this ride with me. Monica refuses. She’s afraid of heights and doesn’t want to go on this ride.” Jordan said with a slight irritation to his voice. Monica went and stood by me. “Well, I’m sorry that I hate heights, Jordan. I’m not going.” She kept put. I smiled and put my arms around Monica. “I’ll stay here with Monica; you guys go on the ride. We’re going to go check out the tamer areas.” I cracked a slight smile and we turned away from the boys.
“Text us when you’re done!” I shouted back to them. I heard them chuckle behind us. “Alright, Monica, what shall we do?” I said, looking around the carnival. We ended up going on a few of the roller coasters they had, mostly the big ones. Monica can’t stand heights, but loves roller coasters. The boys caught up with us a while later since they wanted to go on a few more of the rides in their area of the carnival, like the upside down and spinning ones.
Once we all decided to start settling down, we all caught up with each other and got in line for the Farris wheel. AJ wrapped his arms around me and I held onto them securely. Jordan grabbed Monica’s hand and kissed her. We waited patiently until it was AJ and my turn.
We stepped into the enclosed, two-person seat. Monica and Jordan were in the seat right under us. I laughed as we waved to them, and then I snuggled up to AJ. “Can I say something?” I said. “Anything,” AJ mumbled back. My ego was now diminishing because of the great day I had, so I thought it was time to admit. “I’m glad you forced me to come today. I needed this.” I said. AJ chuckled and ran his fingers through my hair. “I know. That’s why I forced you.” He said calmly.
The last person boarded and now we were going in a continuous circle. We sat in silence the whole time, but it wasn’t an intense silence or an awkward silence. It was just comfortable. It was soothing. When we got off the Farris wheel I had then almost completely forgotten about my incident with Brady until something popped into my head. I had chosen, and no matter how much I hated myself before for knowing this, I knew it now. It was AJ. It’s always been AJ. He’s the one. He’s the one I want to spend the rest of my life with and he’s the one I want more than any other guy on the planet.
A big smile spread across my face and I cuddled up into him as we stood there and waited for Monica and Jordan to come off the ride. We didn’t do very much after that; we did play a few carnival games though. AJ won me a stuffed Panda Bear, my favorite animal, and Jordan won a Koala for Monica.
At the end of the night, AJ, my new, huge, stuffed animal, and I all climbed into AJ’s car. “I had so much fun tonight, what should I name my Panda? Should it be Perry? No, not Perry, well first of all should it be a boy or a girl? I think a boy. It looks like a boy.” I kept rambling on our way home.
When we actually arrived at my house, it was close to two in the morning. My mom was fast asleep and my father was too. AJ set up on the couch, like he did every night, and I went into my bedroom. I set my new Panda Bear, Trey, down on a bamboo chair I had sitting in my bedroom. I thought that was rather fitting.
I was sitting in my room when a thought hit me. I looked over at a skimpy pair of pajamas I had. They were very showy and I had never worn them before in my life. I took a deep breath. Amber, what are you thinking? You’re not even married to the guy. But one thing is for sure, I do love him: so much. Without another thought I stripped down and put on those pajamas. I forgot how I had even gotten these pajamas, but I knew for sure that I did not buy them. Neither did my mother. I blame Janice.
I took one more breath of courage before I opened my bedroom door. AJ, shirtless, was still setting up his bed/couch. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of me and did a double take. “Amber?” He asked curiously. His eyebrows raised, and his smile cheeky. I rested my arm against my doorframe; trying my hardest to look as sexy and irresistible as possible. “I just was wondering if maybe…you didn’t want to sleep on the couch tonight.” I said, probably more awkwardly than I intended to sound.
AJ chuckled lowly and sighed. “Ah….Amber, you kill me sometimes, you know that?” He chuckled awkwardly as well. He threw his pillow onto the couch. “But I don’t know…”He trailed off, playing with the blanket he held. I dropped my arms and gave AJ a frustrated look. “Come on, can we just try it please? Just once won’t do anything.” I said, trying to sound convincing.
AJ shrugged. “I don’t know Amber; I don’t want anything to happen…” He sighed. I walked over to him and threw my arms around his neck, kissing him over and over again. My heart raced and I felt butterflies explode in my stomach. My blood veins pumped like a livewire. “Please.” I breathed. “Just once,”
He inhaled deeply, clearly that kiss did some damage. “On one condition,” He said and sat me on the couch. My brain was racing. What could he possibly be talking about? Was he going to make me confront Brady or something? What could he possibly want the condition to be?
He rummaged through his bag for a moment until he took out a tiny black box. Nothing clicked yet. I was still off in outer space until he got down on one knee. I jumped up onto my feet and gasped at this moment. My legs almost buckled down from underneath me. My hands trembled and my face must have been a thousand degrees.
“Amber Theresa Heather Ashturn,” He began. “Would you give me the complete honor of marrying me?” Before he even finished, I jumped into his arms and kissed every square inch of his face. AJ knew this is what I wanted. He knew this is what I was waiting for. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, a million times yes!” I exclaimed.
AJ got back up to his feet and put the exquisite ring on my finger. Diamonds embedded every square inch of the ring, and a beautiful moon design was on it. “Oh my god, AJ, its beautiful!” I gasped. I was literally on cloud 9. This was the best moment of my life, one that I would remember forever and ever and tell our kids about. AJ smiled. “You know I wasn’t keen on the whole ‘marriage’ thing, but I know one thing’s for sure. I want to be with you forever, Amber. You’re the only girl I ever want in my life and you’re the only girl I ever need. So if we’re going to do this tonight, I don’t want to have to feel the guilt of proposal if something does happen. I know we’re technically supposed to be married before this but,” At that point, I cut him off with a kiss smack on his lips. “Everything’s going to be fine. It’s perfect.” I smiled like a kid in a candy shop.
AJ sighed, obviously relieved that the proposal part was over. “I was going to propose to you on the Farris wheel, but it was just so perfect at that moment that I didn’t want to ruin it if you said no.” AJ breathed. I hopped up and wrapped my legs around AJ’s waist. “I would have said yes either way.” I whispered into his ear. With that said, AJ and I walked into my bedroom, shutting the door behind us on the way.