Be Mine Forever

Chapter Eight

Briana:

Monday, May 13th

"So you gonna tell us why you corralled us all here?" I ask Alec, who's standing in front of us popping his knuckles over and over again like he's trying to break them. He looks between me, Andrea, and Lucky biting his lip and not stopping with the fucking knuckle cracking. This better be important; I hate Central Park in the spring. The benches are always as cold as fuck even though it's supposed to warm right now and there are always tourists wandering around like they've never seen trees before. "Well uh, I was hoping to talk to you about something..."

"Then spit it out, this bench is numbing my ass," Andrea huffs with an eye roll and her frown like she ate something sour really starting to set in. At least I'm not the only one who hates the benches here. It's like whoever designed them made them so they cut off circulation to your legs after five seconds. Alec finally stops popping his knuckles and then takes in a quick deep breath, probably getting ready to tell us why the hell we're here. "I was thinking about proposing to Remi," he admits in a rush with his eyes glued to his hands.

"What?!" Andrea, Lucky, and me shout in unison, loud enough to make a few people around us stare. Alec has never talked about them getting married, like never, but now he wants to?! This is fucking huge! "You want to marry Remi?!" I pop off of the bench and grab the front of his pink sweater vest that looks like it belongs to Aurora. "You have to tell us everything. Everything!" I yell at him, giving his vest a hard pull for emphasis. I have to know everything; date, place, what he's going to wear, his speech, everything! I've been shipping these two since college and they absolutely have to have a happy ending.

"Fine, but do you mind letting go of my sweater vest? It's my favorite one," he groans with the biggest, stupidest smile on his face. I let go of his ridiculously pink vest and then grab his wrist and pull him down onto the bench next to me. "Okay, now tell us everything," I demand as Andrea and Lucky scoot as close as they can get to him. "Yeah like when did you decide that you wanted to marry him? Do you think he'll say yes? How will you propose to him? Are you going to do it soon? Do you have a ring yet? What about-"

"Jesus Lucky, give him a chance to think before you smother him with all your questions," Andrea snaps at them, though they look like they're ready to explode from excitement despite that. They turn to her and stick out their tongue at her, not losing their smile the whole time somehow, and then looks back over to Alec. His big, stupid grin is starting to falter and get replaced with his worried expression; that kind you get when you get halfway to work and then realize you forgot your phone in the bathroom. So pretty worried.

"Uuuh..." he mumbles with his expression getting worse by the second. Goddammit Lucky, you made him short circuit! This is why we don't let them be the information gatherer in situations like this. "Okay so ignore Lucky's rapid-fire questions," I give them a quick glare just for good measure," and just tell us what you're thinking of for this." I hate the way my voice sounds right now, so motherly, but it's the only way that Alec's brain won't initiate a meltdown. He glances between me, Andrea, and Lucky whose expression doesn't exactly scream 'happy' anymore.

"Yeah, okay." He runs his hand through his hair and then over his face like he's trying to wipe the worry off. "Well, Remi and me are doing really well right now. And I've just been thinking about our relationship and what... I want us to be? I really love him and I want to be with him forever and he's like the love of my life, so..." He trails off and stares at a squirrel running across the sidewalk in front of us, now trying to eat his lip. "There are more reasons you want to marry him right?" Andrea asks with not-so-hidden criticism.