Everly had her life all planned out. She was going to marry Brad, her best friend since second grade, her high school sweetheart, and soulmate. He was a baseball prodigy and planned to play for the New York Yankees one day, which was perfect because...
He was right. This did feel crazy, but Everly didn't have a doubt in her mind that he was the one she was meant to be with and the thought of spending the rest of her life with him made her smile. She blinked away her tears and sniffled, choking out the word "Yes," and nodding her head. Keaton sprang up from his kneeling position in front of her, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her up out of her chair into his arms, covering her mouth with his.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back as the three people that were eating Thanksgiving dinner with them started clapping and cheering. The girl from Korea was crying uncontrollably with big tears streaming down her face because she was so happy for them, two people she only just met.
Everly pulled back from the kiss and looked into Keaton's eyes with a huge smile and said, "I love you so much."
"I love you too," he said, smiling back at her, giving her another soft kiss before looking down and pulling the ring out of the ring box and slipping it onto her finger.
"Wow, it's so beautiful," she said in awe, admiring the large, sparkling diamond on her finger and then placing her hand over her chest and looking back up into his eyes, feeling her heart melt. "I love it Keaton."
She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head against his chest, giving him a hug with the biggest smile plastered across her face. She felt all warm and fuzzy inside and she couldn't believe this was real. Keaton Ashcroft, the guy with a major commitment phobia, really asked her to marry him.
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After Thanksgiving Break was over, there were only three weeks of classes left before Christmas break. As it got closer Everly was getting more and more nervous about spending Christmas with Keaton's Dad. They had decided to tell him in person about their engagement and she was terrified because he had made it abundantly clear he didn't like her. She just hoped they wouldn't have as much trouble with him as they had with her Dad.
There was another person she needed to tell too and she was dreading it just as much. She wanted Brad to hear about their engagement directly from her, because she knew she would want him to do the same if the roles were reversed. She was worried about how he was going to take it.
She hadn't seen or heard from him since they got back from Thanksgiving Break two weeks ago. Not a call, text, nothing. Complete radio silence which was really unusual and she couldn't help but wonder what was up with him. She finally decided to reach out first and sent him a text.
Everly: 'Hey Stranger'
Brad: 'Hey'
Everly: 'What's going on with you? I haven't heard from you in two weeks. You just dropped off the face of the earth all of a sudden.'
Brad: 'Well you chose Keaton over spending Thanksgiving with me and your family so I decided not to talk to you.'
Everly: 'Are you serious? You're mad at me for leaving? My Dad was being horrible to Keaton and he wanted to leave so I went with him. That's what a good girlfriend does.'
