The End is Never the End

Chapter 4

Weeks went by and Cleatus would stop by every now and then but, for the most part it was just Ren and I, I'd grown attached to them, something I never thought I'd be able to say about anyone. They made me happy, they were my safe space. Even when I was having a really bad mental day, they would hold me and tell me it was going to be ok, and well they were right. Even when I almost relapsed, they helped me and they knew everything about me at this point. They often stayed in my room to the point where the nurses let them have their own bed in my room though they didn't use it much because they were always snuggled in mine. I woke up with the familiar snoring of Ren in my ear which made me giggle a bit. They're such a dork. I slowly got up and got ready for the day while Ren was still sleeping. But this day, Ren ended up waking up halfway through me getting ready so we got ready together. Once we both got dressed for the day and we're doing our hair Ren turned to me almost hesitantly which made me wonder if something was wrong. "Hey Z, we've been great friends for a bit and like I don't wanna ruin that but there's this fall festival downtown and it's really cool. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me like a-" Ren paused a sec looking away from me. I knew what they wanted but I waited for them to finish. "A date? You don't have to if you don't want to, its all good; its probably stupid, sorry. " They rambled slightly but then stopped when I put a hand on their shoulder. "I'd love to" I said with a smile and then continued to do my hair while they stood there smiling like a little kid on Christmas. When it came to night time, we got ready for the fall festival and walked in that direction hand in hand. I could tell Ren was nervous by the way they were talking. They tend to speed talk. Then, I think they caught on and stopped talking. I gave them a reassuring nod and they smiled. We reached the festival soon and played all the games. At the end, we got ice cream where I ended up getting it all over my face from laughing, which made Ren laugh, and soon both of our faces were covered in melted ice cream. When we got home, we went and laid in bed talking about that night and from then on we went on more dates and officially started dating and well it was nice. I finally loved someone and someone loved me. This strange butterfly and fuzzy feeling filled my blood while I was with Ren and well that's when I knew I wanted to spend my whole life with them. I never wanted this feeling to ever go away. I'd go through everything I've gone through 10x over again, if I knew it'd lead right to Ren.
It's been a while since we officially got together and well look at this. I still wanna spend my life with them. In fact the feeling has grown more. We ended up moving out of the rehab center and got a little apartment with our puppy named Pop. I think today was the day I was going to make spending our lives together official. Ren was in the kitchen cooking us dinner. It was our 1 year anniversary. Music filled the house and the warm scent of garlic bread and pesto stuffed ravioli filled my nose. I walked into the kitchen wrapping my arms around their waist swaying to the music, resting my head on their shoulder while they giggled and stirred the pasta. Once the pasta was done, I helped them set the table and we laughed about random things while pop ran around in circles. When we were almost done with our food, I decided it would be a good time to finally ask them. Setting down my fork, I looked up hesitantly "Hey hun?" I ask with a hint of anxiety in my voice. Ren seemingly noticed and gave me their full attention as they saw it was something obviously important. "So we've been together for quite some time and you've always been there for me through thick or thin. Hell, you were there the first day I went to the help clinic and you've shown me so much compassion and love and made me feel love again. Something I thought was long gone, but you brought it back. You make me happy, and I don't ever wanna lose you. In fact I wanna spend my life with you." I fumble in my pocket while Ren looks at me, tears filling the brims of their eyes when I pull out the small oak wood box with a silver ring that had a ruby intertwined in the silver. Ren enthusiastically gets up pulling me into a hug, tears falling lightly on my shoulder while all they can do is nod and giggle softly. Which was shortly interrupted as Pop jumped up on the chair and tried to finish the rest of our food.
After that day Ren immediately wanted to start planning. We wanted something small and kinda quiet. Once we decided what it was going to look like and everything, the only thing left was to get the invitations ready. We both sat down pulling out the stationary. It was fairly easy to get the list of people we wanted to come. It was mainly friends and Ren invited some extended family and then all of a sudden they paused, their entire mood shifting. I turn to them with a hint of worry "what's wrong hun?" Ren paused and stared at the wooden table in front of us. "M-my dad, he won't walk me down the aisle." I paused, realizing neither of our parents would come. "Hey, he might not come but that's his fault, he lost a beautiful, nice, outstanding person, ok?" I put a hand on their shoulder as reassurance and they nodded sniffling. "Yeah, yeah you're right." I gave them a soft smile and we continued writing our invitations. It was a long couple of months but we finally made it. It was the day.