Arabella - Toxicity

Epilogue

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A very sweaty Alex came off the stage and hugged me immediately. I squirmed to try and get out of his sweaty grasp, not wanting to smell when we go to the bar. He gave me a big kiss on my lips and I giggled into it. If you didn't know him you'd probably think he was high or drunk, but I knew he wasn't. The quiff that normally sat perfectly over his forehead was ruined and his hair was messy, the way I liked it the most.

"I'm paying tonight" He said sternly before smiling and kissing me once more. Since I had opened my hair salon - which had become very successful - I had been wanting to pay for every single thing, and Alex being the proud gentleman he was, hated it.

"No way! I got a huge tip yesterday; I'm paying" I argued as he placed his arms around my shoulders. All 8 of us were walking out of the venue ready to get to a bar and get pissed. I placed my head on his shoulder with a huge smile.

"You paid the last three times, I'm paying, and that's final" I let out a sigh at his words and walked faster. Alex was tagging Along the best he could, but he wasn't all that good at walking fast so he was falling behind. I crossed my arms to act mad in a hope of him giving in and letting me pay.

"Love, I'm paying; my 'fragile ego' can't handle you paying" He mimicked my voice when he said fragile ego. The first time I had wanted to pay for us he was reluctant but let me. The second time we got into a discussion, which I won, where I said something like: it's not my fault your fragile ego can't handle it. The third time he was too drunk to realize I was paying, so I had paid.

"Arabella, wasn't the reason you're dating him that he has a lot of money" Kelly came up to me and I slowed my pace so my pregnant sister in law could follow.

"Oh, yeah, totally forgot" I joked as I placed my hand in hers. I could hear the others laugh behind us, probably cause Alex had an over the top reaction.

"You can pay when we get married" He was clearly frustrated that we were joking about with him.

"So never?" I pouted jokingly as he walked up beside me. To be honest, I didn't think we'd even last a month, but now we're here at a year today going strong. I didn't think that romance was Alex's thing, but in the past year he's been acting like I'm the only person in the world, which I absolutely loved. I wanted to marry him, so bad, but deep down I knew he wasn't the person that got married.

He rolled his eyes at me and caught up. He wrapped his right arm around me once again and kiss the top of my head stopping me from moving. He moved his arm and placed both my hands in his. He looked at me with adoration and went down on one knee. Was this really happening?

"Arabella O'Malley?" I nodded quickly at his words. I could feel tears forming in my eyes and the smile on my lips got as big as it possibly could.

"Your shoes are untied" He laughed and began tying my Doctor Martins. My smile immediately faded and the others began laughing. I dried the tears that had formed in my eyes, then crossed my arms.

"I hate you" I mumbled as he stood up. He was laughing himself, and I really wanted to wipe that stupid smirk off his face.

"And I love you" He replied and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

We walked a few more minutes then came to a small pub. It was like the one in Sheffield, just more modern.

"I'm gonna open a tab, what do you want, baby?" He said once we had all found a place to sit.

"A ring on my finger" I mumbled making him laugh. He went off since he had a good guess at what I wanted. I had been obsessed with Martini's lately, so he was probably getting one of those.

"A Martini for the next prettiest lady in here" He handed me my martini and sat beside me. My eyebrows raised from being caught off guard by his compliment.

"Who's the prettiest?" I placed my legs up on the booth soda as he placed a hand on my leg.

"Nick of course" He said before taking a sip of his sex on the beach. He had been drinking those since we had sex on the beach at night, cause he said the name reminded him of it, but I think it's because I get flustered every time I think about it, and he knows that.

"Going after my brother I see?" He laughed at my comment and kissed me. I could taste the peach on his tongue which made me subconsciously smile.

My life was perfect, though I did miss Sara every now and then, but it was probably best if I didn't see her since I'm not her mom and Dean has a new girlfriend. After my break up with Dean and a long talk with everyone in the group I had realized that he was toxic and manipulative, which now I have no clue how I couldn't see.

Nick's friends were now mine, which I must admit is weird, and I'll probably never be nearly as close with them as Nick is, but I'm okay with that. I have my own friends, both in Sheffield and in LA, who all love Alex.

I had moved into Alex's place after everything with Dean, and he's an absolute sweetheart when it comes to giving me room. He lets me have time alone, and is very good at noticing when I need that. He also had almost nothing other than music related things and clothes so there was a lot of space for me. And most importantly; he had changed from that coward that would break my heart to a man that will get me anything I want or need.

"Wanna go out for a smoke with me?" He whispered into my ear. That was either code for 'wanna make out with me outside' or he actually wanted to smoke with me. Either way I was happy to, so I, of course, said yes.

We had come outside and he hadn't gotten his cigarettes out of his pocket yet. He had begun smoking organic ones after I told him those were the only ones I liked, so we were sharing packs now, which I loved cause that meant I didn't have to carry them around. He moved closer to me with a hand in his pocket.

"What's that?" He pointed behind me and I immediately looked. If you were to describe me in one word it would be curious; I needed to know every thing and everyone. When I saw nothing but street lamps and the occasional car on the road I turned around to see Alex on one knee.

"I'm not falling for that again" I crossed my arms. It had worked once, there was no way in hell it was gonna work twice, how dumb did he think I was?

"I've done many things I shouldn't have done, but I haven't stopped loving you since our first kiss. And now the word love doesn't describe my feelings for you anymore, nothing other than actions does. Arabella O'Malley, will you marry me?" It was first when he pulled a beautiful diamond ring out of his jacket that I believed this moment. I wanted to scream, I wanted to let the whole world know that he was mine and that I was his.

"What the fuck" I said like this was the weirdest thing ever and that I didn't want to. He had joked with me about this, so I wanted to get him back.

I could see his smile falling and my heart ached upon seeing that.

"Yes" I replied quickly so he didn't have to feel sad, or even unloved. The way his face lit up and he placed the ring on my finger fluttered me. He quickly stood up and kissed me more passionately than he ever has before.

"How about we get out of here?" He paused as his brown eyes looked into mine. "Fiancée" he added before taking my hand and pulling me with him. We were both in a fit of laughter as we ran down the streets of LA.