The Nightmare Of Life

Chapter-21: Extended Cruise

I have been standing at the ships helipad for what feels like three hours now, I haven't been to mad about it because I have been just admiring the view and yes its just the ocean but its absolutely beautiful especially because I am at the very top of the ship so I have the view of the whole ocean. A few more moments go by and I see a helicopter in the distance. Before I know it its directly above me. I make sure I am out of the way as it slowly lands on the helipad. The door opens and Natasha walks out her long hair going crazy in the wind, She smiles when she sees me. She runs up and pulls me into a hug. "Lets get you inside" I say in a sweet tone. The helicopter leaves as we walk away. "So I secretly booked a room for you so as of right now Ali has no clue you are here" she smiles at my words. "Good, two surprises are better then one surprise" she follows me all the way to her room. I hand her the keys "so how long are you staying?" she looks up at me wit sadness in her eyes. "The helicopter is supposed to pick me up tonight at around 10isn. The chief said that he only let me do this because of how important it was to me. Please tell me that will be a good time?" I give her a wide smile. "That's perfect, now get some sleep I'll see you later today and maybe next time we want to do this helicopter entrance maybe don't have me wait until three in the morning" she playfully shoves me "goodnight Jake" she laughs just before walking into her room. I can't help but smile to myself as I make my way back to my room. I slowly open the door to Alicia still sound asleep in the bed. Slowly I enter the room and quietly get underneath the covers and snuggle Alicia. I feel someone shaking me, at first I don't want to wake up. "Jake seriously you suck wake up" Natasha's voice echoes in my ear. After a while I open my eyes to Natasha looking at me. "what?" I sit up in bed and rub my eyes. Natasha sits on the bed. "You're lucky that Em is good at distracting Ali. She woke her up way earlier and practically dragged her out of the room, I bet right now they are on the other side of the ship." I smile and check the time and my eyes go wide at what time it is. "Jesus its 1pm?!" she chuckles and gives me a nod. "Good thing you scheduled this to be a night thing huh" she stands up and smiles "Well I am going to fulfill my part of the plan that that's just to show up out of nowhere and keep Alicia distracted all day. Make sure you do your part and not sleep all day" I jokingly flip her off and she does the same as she leaves the room. I take a moment to make sure I am awake. I push myself out of the bed and walk to the bathroom. It takes me a few minutes to get myself ready. Once I am all ready to go I grab my phone shove it in my pocket and make my way to the door. I open the door to Emerald standing outside. "Where's Ali?" she smiles and points down the hall, I look and see Alicia and Natasha spending time together. "See dad everything is going just as planned. Ready to go set up our part" we give each other a high five and away we go.

I pace back and fourth waiting for Tiffany to come back to the room. I feel that what I am about to do is necessary to save our friendship. I texted her a few minutes ago and told her that we need to talk. I keep pacing until suddenly the door swings open and she walks in with a smile. She goes to kiss me but I pull back. Her face falls. "babe?" she cries. I let put a weary sigh "we need to break up. I thought I was ready for a female relationship but it turns out I'm really not and I know this is unfair to you and I know that you are probably hurt and I know that--" she throws up her hand which stops me in my tracks. "Its okay Serena. I understand. Dating a women is a tough task especially if you haven't explored it before. Am I upset sure. but honestly Serena you are my rock. If you aren't ready now but could be in the future then I have no problem waiting for you." she steps closer to me "what if I will never be ready?" she gives me a weak smile then places a soft kiss on my cheek then looks me in the eyes. "Well, we will cross that bridge if we ever get there." I can't believe she is taking this break up so well when just last night she was absolutely pissed at me for not giving her affection. "I love you Serena." before I could respond she presses a soft kiss on my lips and what makes this situation fucked up is I kiss her back and I really enjoy it. Once we pull away, she backs away. "well I will see you at Jake's thing right?" I nod my head. "Okay." with that she leaves. I feel so horrible about that and the look in her eyes tell a different story then the words coming out of her mouth. She is hurt and I know that she can hide her feelings extremely well. Di I run after her and make her tell me how she is really feeling or do I just let it go. I feel like I should. Just as i was about to leave my phone dings. I check it and it's Jake "Hey! The plan is going well as planned lol, Can you do me a favor and get together with Derek and go over the set one more time, Em will be with you shortly, Love you S" I can't help but smile as I reply "You're such a worry wort, I'm on it and love you too dork." I shove the phone in my pocket and dash out of the door. Once I get to the area where the stage is set up Derek and Theo greet me. 'Alright boys we have just under three hours to make this all work. Jake wants this to be perfect! Do we know the song" they both nod just as in the corner of my eye Emerald is skipping up towards us. "There she is!" she gives me a wide smile before jumping up on to the stage and sitting down dangling her feet off the edge. The stage is located at the very back of the boat with a beautiful view of the ocean behind it, It is already set up with everything a band would need to perform including a piano in the middle for what I'm assuming is for our performance. "Okay kiddo how are your nerves? I mean this is basically your first ever performance according to your dad" she jokingly rolls her eyes. "well now I'm super nervous, why did he tell you that?" she laughs and then gives me a stern look. "honestly all jokes aside I am super nervous but what we are doing today is for a great cause, we are performing for Alicia one of the best people I know. I'm confident that I will be just fine" I smile at her. "Wow you really are a special little girl" she blushes and looks away embarrassed. "stop it, can we just go over everything now" she laughs, we all share a small laugh before going over the plans for the song tonight.

Natasha has been by my side all day and I have really enjoyed being with her, This is the most we have spent together since she started working, we have practically done everything this ship has to offer when it comes to entertainment and rides. I haven't seen Jake all day and I am starting to think something is up but I haven't really thought about it. Right now the time is 7:55 and Natasha is practically pulling me towards the back of the boat, while not telling me what's going on. She has this huge smile on her face as we are very close to the stage where a decent size crowd is around the stage, the view is so pretty, Suddenly Jake, Emerald, Derek, and Serena take the stage. Emerald takes the mic "Will everyone please make room for my mom to get to the front" the crown all turns towards me and they all move to the side and slowly I walk to the front with Natasha following close behind me. "Nat what's going on?" she doesn't say anything all she does is smile as the crowd reforms behind us. "Mom, this song is for you curtesy of dad." She takes the mic and sits on the piano, My heart begins to pound as I don't know what's going on or why this is happening. She slowly begins playing the piano. "Every time our eyes meet, This feeling inside me, Is almost more than I can take, Baby, when you touch me, I can feel how much ya love me, And it just blows me away, I've never been this close to anyone or anything, I can hear your thoughts, I can see your dreams, I don't know how you do what you do, I'm so in love with you, It just keeps gettin' better, I wanna spend the rest of my life with you by my side, Forever and ever, Every little thing that you do, Baby, I'm amazed by you, The smell of your skin, The taste of your kiss, The way you whisper in the dark, Your hair all around me, Baby, you surround me, You touch every place in my heart, Oh, it feels like the first time every time, I wanna spend the whole night in your eyes, I don't know how you do what you do, I'm so in love with you, It just keeps gettin' better, I wanna spend the rest of my life with you by my side, Forever and ever, Every little thing that you do, Baby, I'm amazed by you, Every little thing that you do, I'm so in love with you, It just keeps gettin' better, I wanna spend the rest of my life with you by my side, Forever and ever, Every little thing that you do, oh, Every little thing that you do, Baby, I'm amazed by you" Throughout the song the band played exceptionally well and Emerald sang the song beautifully, its almost like she was a veteran singer and had all the confidence in the world up on that stage. As soon as the song ends Emerald continues to play the piano as Jake begins to walk towards me as my eyes are already watering and my heart is feeling so warm. He stops in front of me and to my shock he slowly gets on one knee, I put my hands over my mouth as he pulls out a blue ring box of his pocket and when he opens it reveals a beautiful diamond ring sparkling in the night. I feel my tears rolling down my cheeks and my heart begin to fluster, Jake gives me a warm smile. "Alicia, since we were just kids I have had a crush on you, fast forward to so many years later and here we are finally a couple and I know we have only been official for a couple months now but I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I know that I want to wake up next to you every morning and go to bed with you every night, I know that I want you to be by my side through anything life throws at us and last but most certainly not least you are the only girl that I want to be the mother of my little girl Emerald. So with all of that said, will you marry me?" The tears keep on rolling as for a moment I can't contain any of my emotions. "yes" I cry. He proceeds to put the ring on my finger and we pull each other into a warm hug to an eruption of claps surrounding us. I can't describe how I feel as my heart is aching in a good way and for the first time in a long time I feel security. I open my eyes to Natasha smiling at me as Jake and I break the hug. Natasha walks up to me and pulls me into a hug and that's when I realize that Serena, Tiffany, Zyra, Taylor, Derek, and Theo are also surrounding me. "you're a little shit you know that" I say in her ear she just laughs as we let go of one an other. "hey now, when Jake came to me a couple weeks ago about this idea you know I had to be here for it." I blush as Emerald runs up and pulls me into a hug "I'm so glad you said yes mom, I love you so much" I hold her tights and close my eyes soaking up this wholesome moment. "Me too kiddo!