manage me, i'm a mess // a.g

22. "at least you didn't write it on a pizza box."

~ ERIKA ~

"No peeking," I exclaimed, laughing at Alex. I currently covered his eyes with my hands and led him to our rendezvous, in this case, the nearby park. I had prepared a picnic, even though it wasn't even 7 in the morning yet. 

"I know this city so well," he said smugly, "I can tell where we are just by the direction of the wind." 

I looked around the cloudless sky and stationary trees. "Alex, there is no wind." 

"Oh."

"Okay, you can look now!" I announced, and when he opened his eyes, my face was right in front of his. 

"I was expecting something a little less blond, but you'll do."

"Appreciate it," I said. "You know, the guy's usually the one who makes the picnic for the girl, not the other way round."

"Clearly you wear the pants, then," he winked. 

"Clearly. Your breakfast, Monsieur." I handed him his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, as well as the warm bottle of tea and the tray with the eggs and bacon. 

"This looks amazing," he replied. 

"Eat up, then," I encouraged him as I ate my own breakfast. 

"You know what I love?" he said after a while, with his mouth full of scrambled chicken fetuses. 

I made a mental note to never eat eggs again. "What?" 

"The fact that we're finally free to do whatever we want to do. No hospitalizations, no long distances, no possible deaths..."

I laughed halfheartedly at the last part. "How many times can I say I'm sorry?" 

"Think about it this way, if you'd never felt suicidal, I'd never have gotten to see you again after that concert." 

"I would've been just another fan..." 

"That's not what I meant," he blurted out. "I didn't like you because I felt sorry for you. I liked you because of the way you could quote Peter Pan word for word, the way you were probably the most attractive girl there, the way you hooked up with a random in the crowd just to get our attention, the way you were able to keep a conversation with me without fainting..." 

"I was on the verge of fainting... I had a huge crush on you back then," I admitted. "My room had your face plastered all over it."

"I don't blame you. Anyway, I'm not done."

"Okay, Alexander. Go on, flatter me some more." 

"I also liked you because of how you were, and still are, the Sass Queen. And sassiness goes a long way with the Gaskarths. Speaking of which, I want you to meet the parents soon. If you're willing, of course." 

"Alex, I-" 

"I know you think it'll be awkward, but-" 

"No, it's just that, how are you going to introduce me. 'Hey mum, 'sup dad, this is Erika, that chick who tried to kill herself a while back, but I saved her in time'? I'm not really anything else, you know." 

"Well shit," he sighed. "I guess I got too caught up in your beauty that I forgot the most important part of today." 

"And what would that be?" 

"I got these for the occasion," he exclaimed, handing me an open packet of the heart-shaped candy with messages on each piece. I notice he'd kept half the packet to himself, and was putting all of his hearts on the picnic blanket in front of him. I did the same with mine, still not knowing where this was going. 

He handed me one of his and as I took a closer look, I realized it said 'heat wave'. This made me laugh, and I replied with 'sweet talk'. We then ate those two. 

He then gave me one that said 'chill out', and I gave him 'be kind'. Then one that said 'let's kiss', and I replied with 'kiss me', but instead of giving it to him, I cheekily put it in between my teeth and got up, making him chase me around. 

"I'll get you," he yelled as I ran around with the piece of candy still in my mouth. Unfortunately, after a lot of running and panting and giggling, he caught up to me and tackled me onto the grass right near the pond. He pinned me down and gently used his teeth to pull the candy out of my mouth, biting my lip in the process. I grinned at him. 

"You did that to me a while back," he reminisced. "You were drunk, so you probably d-" 

"I remember," I smiled, leaning up and once again being the one to close the distance between us. I tried to fight off the familiar fuzzy feeling that kissing him always gave me, but my stomach was not having it. 

God damn you, butterflies. 

I waited until he was at his weakest point to roll him over and hover over him. "As nice as this is, we should get back to our candy before the birds beat us to it." 

"Help me up?" He said childishly. I used all my strength to pull him onto his feet, and we walked over to the picnic blanket, only to find that most of our candy had gone missing. I looked at what I had left, and I found a 'love me', a 'cloud nine', and a 'wild life'. 

"Seems the birds beat us to it," Alex shrugged. He pulled out a red pen from his pocket and wrote on the back of one of his leftover ones. As he handed it to me, I realized it read 'Wendy'. I grabbed the pen and wrote 'that's cheating!' on the back of one of mine. 

It was now his turn to take the pen and write something else. As I looked at the next one he had to give me, I realized it read 'be mine'. It was an original one too - he hadn't written it. I took my second last one and wrote 'what do you mean?' on it. 

"Flip it," he said. I did as he said, and the back of it said 'will u b my gf?', because that was the only way to make it fit in the tiny little space he had. I laughed out loud at the way he wrote it, but a single tear of happiness escaped my eye when I realized exactly what he was asking me. I held the pen to my last piece, not knowing how to reply, and Alex noticed this. 

"I believe this is what you're looking for," he said, handing me one that apparently looked blank. I turned it over and it read 'yes dear'. I laughed again, wrote something on the back of it, and handed it to him. 

"I'm not cheesy!" He pouted. 

"It's okay," I smirked, edging closer to him. "At least you didn't write it on a pizza box." 

And once again, I was the one to first connect my lips to his. Because, as the sweets had kindly put it, I was now his, and at the time, that was all I could possibly want.