I didn't know what to say. or think for that matter. Was he just asking me because of the newspapers?? Or did he actually want me to be his.. girlfriend?? I needed to know the truth before I gave an answer.
"Ross, you're not just asking because of the magazines, and newspaper, and stuff, right?" I questioned.
He grabbed my hands, and pulled them to his chest. "I promise you Jennifer, I'm asking this because I want to. Not for any other reason. So, what do you say?" He lifted my hands up to his mouth, and rested his lips on them.
I pulled my hands out of his, then quickly threw them arounde his neck, and held him tightly. "Yes,yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I'd love to be your girlfriend." I pulled my head back from where it had been laying on his shoulder, and kissed him. Passionately.
He wrapped his arms around my waist, and held me even closer to him, kissing me back so hard I knew that my lips were going to feel bruised later. He picked me up, and swung me around in a circle. Never breaking the kiss.
After a few minutes, we broke apart, gasping. "We should... probably...go back.... to.." Ross started, gesturing in the direction of the waiting area, where everyone was, well, waiting for us. Guess the room was well named...
I smiled at him, "Probably... but we should probably.. catch our breath... first..."
He nodded, and just pulled me in for a hug while we got our breath back. Finally, we made our way back to the group. My mom immediately gave me a hug that pushed all the air out of my body. "Can't..... breathe...." i managed to squeak out.
She let go, "Sorry honey, I was just so worried. My baby almost drowned, oh.." and she hugged me again, thankfully not as tightly this time.
Snickers broke out from behind us, I looked at Riker, "What are you laughing about?" He pointed at Ross, "He has lipstick on his face!" Everyone else started laughing too. Except for Ross and myself. We turned beet red. I groaned, "Riker do you have anything better to do, than picking on Ross?"
He stopped laughing right away. Interesting. "Actually, yeah I do. I have a very imoortant announcement to make." We all stopped whatever we were doing, and stared at him. He pulled Cora over to his side, "Cora is officially my girlfriend. She said yes when I asked her, right after laser tag." Kelly and I looked at him, and shrugged.
The guys on the other hand... Riker was recieving a bunch of "Congrats dude," and "Nice!" and stuff like that. Cora was getting "Aw, good luck Cora," and "Well, I guess we've lost you now, huh?"
I shook my head, and turned to one of the newspapers. My mind wandered as I read through the article. It didn't say anything about how Ross and i had met. Or laser tag. Itwas just a little exposé on who Ross was, who I was, and how we were now dating, according to their sources.
"How did they find out?" Kelly's voice came from beside me. I bit my lip, good question. Looking at her, I remembered everyone's reactions, and how only her and Ellington had seemed calm about it.... because everyone else had thought that this would be the beginning of the end...
I knew who it was. But, before I forgot, i asked Kelly a question, "Why didn't you and Ell freak out when Cora pointed out the article? Everyone else acted like it was so horrible.."
She smiled, "We weren't worried because we knew there was nothing to be worried about. We went through the same thing. If your love is strong enough, you can get through anything. and your love with Ross, well it's incredible. and definately strong enough to deal with this."
"Yeah, we are. and at least we only have one problem." I smiled at her.
"No, I had to remind you of this, but what about Sheila." she gave me a worried look.
"Like i said, one problem. Sheila is the one that told the media."
She gaped at me, as did everyone else, who had suddenly tuned into our conversation.
"What? It makes sense. She's the only one outside of the group that knew about it. and no one in the group would ever say anything. So it has to be Sheila. It's her first attack on me. Her first effort to seperating Ross and me."
Everyone went silent. After a few seconds, my mom out her arm around my shoulder, "Lets go home honey." So we did. We all piled back into the cars, and went back to my house,
