FIRE & BLOOD • EVAN 'BUCK' BUCKLEY / 9-1-1

73.

The sound of champagne bottles popping filled the air. Laughter rang out throughout my living room as we all shouted with excitement.

"WE PASSED OUR FUCKING BOARDS!!!" Mazzey pours herself a glass of champagne, the contents spilling out of the bottle too fast. She shoots me a sorry look as some of it gets on my carpet but I could care less. It will come out or it will give me an excuse to buy a new rug. Amanda raised the bottle into the air with one hand and her hall full flute glass in the other.

"We are no longer interns!"

"Amen to that" Gigi raises her own flute, glass clinking against each other. I held my empty flute up in the air, earning myself a confused look from Amanda and Mazzey. I haven't told the girls the news about my pregnancy just yet.

"Oh, I forgot your drink in the kitchen" Gigi rushes into the kitchen, grabbing the pitcher of a mock tail mojito she made for me to make me feel like I was drinking along with them. She did a good job of tricking my brain into believing it was consuming alcohol. Gigi grabs my empty glass and fills it halfway, handing it back to me.

"A mock tail for the soon to be bride!!!" Gigi sets the pitcher down on one of my endtables, spinning around to look at the other girls as I lift my left hand that now had the most beautiful engagement ring I have ever seen on my ring finger. Evan had proposed to me the night of New Years Eve and I obviously said yes. Well, more like I choked on a couple tears while trying to answer him. The proposal was intimate. He took me to the same beach where we had our first date. No words can describe the way I felt that night. I was going to spend the rest of my days with the love of my life. I planned to do that anyways with or without a ring. A ring never mattered to me but I know this meant everything to Evan because the ring is a family heirloom that he had retouched by Eddie's jeweler. My mother let Evan have my grandmothers ring and it couldn't have been more perfect as he opened the box, revealing the stunning oval shaped diamond with a double band and halo. My eyes swelled the moment I recognized who the ring once belonged to.

Mazzey and Amanda gawked at the ring, their jaws dropping to the floor. "Oh. my. god" Mazzey jumps up and down with excitement. "This is so exciting!"

"I am so happy for you, Stel" Amanda breaks out into a cry. She has been crying since the start of the night but that's normal for her. She was the biggest crier but it is one of the things I love about her, the way she feels so deeply and cries over the smallest of things. It definitely put her as the most emotional one of the group because the rest of us were kind of not so emotional. Or we just didn't show it as much as Amanda does.

"There is one more thing I have to tell you guys" I set my glass down on the endtable next to the pitcher. Gigi gives me the widest smile as I look to our best friends, my nerves getting the best of me as I am about to drop the P word. Amanda and Mazzey look to one another, then to Gigi.

"What is it?" Amanda asks, her eyes widening as the seconds pass. "Gigi, you're not engaged too are you? Because man that means we really need to get our love lives together" she says to Mazzey who in turn bursts out in laughter.

"Oh honey, that department is all fine for me I just haven't brought him around yet" She casually says as well gawk at her. Everyone's mouth falls open as Mazzey casually drops the fact that she has been seeing someone. "What? I want to make sure he is worth meeting my friends and I think he might be. We'll see but anyways" she waves her hands dismissively, "what's the news?"

"We are so going to talk about this secret lover of yours later" I point a finger at Mazzey. She shrugs a shoulder, a smile playing across her face.

"Stella you're killing me, what do you have to tell us?" Amanda looks at me impatiently.