Forever Yours

chapter eighteen

I'm standing in front of my full-length mirror, adjusting my black, floral midi dress.

I curled my hair for once, burning myself only a few times. My usual makeup is on, dark eyes, dark lips. I put on my combat boots to give the look a little more of a me touch. But I add some dangly gold heart earrings to girl it up a bit. A black jean jacket finishes the look.

It's Joel and my one-year anniversary. I cannot believe I have spent an entire year with that boy. I get all giddy just thinking about him. I get a text from Joel, signaling that he is here.

I make my way downstairs and start heading for the door. Dad's sitting on the couch watching the Discovery Channel, as usual. "Where are you going all gussied-up honey?" I turn and look at him and he has a scowl on his face.

I stutter my words as I try to make up a lie. I did not think of this ahead of time. "Um, it's Mia and my friendship anniversary. Eight years of friendship is something to celebrate. We thought we'd get dressed up and have dinner."
His scowl disappears into a smile. "That's awesome honey! Have fun. Love you."

"Love you too, Dad. See you later!" I say and head out the front door. Joel still has to park a way down the street so as not get caught by Dad.

I get into Joel's jeep and give him a kiss on the lips. "Happy one year my love."

"Happy one year Lo. Best year of my life," he says and kisses me on the nose. I giggle.

"So where are you taking me?" I ask.

"It's a surprise."

I don't say anything else as we drive into downtown Portland. He parks on the street in front of the most fancy and expensive restaurant in town.

"Joel... no! We cannot go here. It's too expensive."

"Don't worry Lo, I've been helping Mom around the house and at her work, so I've got a little extra cash." I give in and we head inside.

The restaurant is decorated really fancy as I expected. It's a small, Italian restaurant that only fits six tables. We are escorted by the hostess to a table in the corner. The room is dimly lit. Black and white photos of Italy are hung up on the walls. The ceiling is covered in fake vines with thick leaves and twinkling lights. The table we are sat at has a very fancy, red tablecloth with a lacy trim. Gold silverware covers the table along with a real lit candle. The booth has red velvet seats.

The hostess asks us if we would like to try tonight's wine special, but we decline. Does she not notice how young we are? Maybe she doesn't care.

The waitress comes and takes our orders. I order a peach iced tea and chicken parmesan. Joel orders water and the mushroom ravioli. She comes back with our drinks and sets down a basket of garlic bread as well. We dig right in.

"Oh my god," I say with a mouth full of bread. "This has got to be the best garlic bread I've ever had." I have another piece and another until I'm almost full, but I stop myself because I need to make room for my entrée.

Our food arrives, then Joel lifts his glass in a toast manner. "A toast, to us." I give a wide smile and clink my glass with his.

"To us," I say.

We enjoy our meals while we talk about the new school year. We have three classes together. Fourth year French, Government, and I forced him to take Painting with me. The school year has been good so far. It's senior year! No one has been mean to me, not even Brooke. I think she has taken it upon herself to back off after she realized that she does not bother me anymore. Joel and Ryan are civil with each other, and Jack is no longer the assistant coach for the school's football team. I do not know what happened to him nor do I care. Good riddance.

Hank has started hanging out with Joel, Mia, and me. He sits with us at lunch and hangs out with us at the library doing homework. Mia has still yet to make a move. She says she's nervous because she doesn't want to be turned down, but I think she's more afraid to find out that he's gay. Either way, she has not said anything to him yet about her feelings.

We finish dinner and head back to my house. The car ride home is fairly silent as we listen to our favorite songs that remind us of us. We never talked about getting gifts, but I made him something special anyway. I'm just nervous for him to see it. I hope he likes it.

We park down the street again. I start to get out of the car when he asks what I'm doing. I don't know what has come over me, but I want him to come to the house with me.

"I know we're a secret from my dad, but I want us to go sit out on the porch swing out front. It's a nice night and all the lights are off in the house, so he is probably asleep. But even if he catches us, I do not care. I'm not afraid of him and his boy wrath anymore. I love you and I want to show you off and if he can't accept that, well, then that sucks for him."

Joel gives a small laugh at my speech, but I tell him I'm serious. I don't care if my dad sees us together, but a small part of me still hopes he doesn't.

We make it to the front porch and sit in the old, rickety swing. We sit there for a while in silence, enjoying each other's company. I rest my head on his shoulder, and he kisses it.

He finally breaks the silence by saying, "Willow, I have something for you."

My eyes light up and I get excited. He tells me to turn and close my eyes, so I do. I feel something lay down on my chest.

"Okay, open," Joel tells me.

I look down at what Joel put around my neck. It's a heart outlined shaped necklace with beautiful, white stones. He instructs me to turn it over. On the back of the outline, it says 'Forever Yours, Joel'.

"Oh my god, Joel. It's beautiful."

"So, you like it?" He seems all nervous.

"I love it!" I give him a kiss. "You want your gift now?"

He smiles at me, but says, "You didn't have to get me anything."

I shush him and pull out my phone. I pull up a video of compilation pictures and videos of us. Stereo Hearts plays over the video; the song I sang to Joel in the car the first time we hung out just the two of us. I look over at him as he watches in delight. I made the video with Mia, she's a lot better at this kind of stuff than I am. She made the video perfect. At the end of the video reads, 'Joel and Willow, Happy One Year.'

"That was amazing Willow," Joel says after the video ends.

"You really like it?"

"I love it," he mimics my earlier words.

"Well, I love you."

"And I love you," he ends his statement with a kiss. And I somehow love him even more.