A Love Like Ours || m.f.

33

I turned to Signe and her face lit up in excitement.

"You're that girl, Ven."

Me? I made quick eye contact with Mark and shook my head in disbelief. The noises of the crowd reduced to rambling as they tried to find whom Mark was speaking about.

"There's this girl, and she's the light of my life." Mark repeated

We never talked about this. He never said today would be the day he introduced me -as his girlfriend- to everyone at PAX.

Everyone's head turned to Jack who was now jogging towards me. Signe stood up and motioned for me to do so as well.

At least it isn't a proposal, just a friendly introduction.

Mark kept his glistening eyes on mine as Jack, Signe, and I all made our way up to the stage. Jack was kind enough to hold my arm as I ascended the stairs. I definitely would've fallen without him.

Mark nervously tugged at the bottom of his shirt, the mic still locked in his hands.

"You told me you didn't want a sappy speech, but you're getting one anyway." He chuckled, holding a free hand out to grasp onto mine.

There were some awes from the audience as I peered into the blinding spotlight that shined down on us.

"About a year and a half ago, I arrived at a small airport in a town by the name of Omaha, Nebraska." He started, his eyes now locked on mine.

I could sense the presence of Sean and Signe standing behind me. I shuddered in my spot. What is he doing?

"I wasn't supposed to stay in that town for more than two days, I was simply passing through on my way to Cincinnati."

I looked at him absolutely dumbfounded. If he was just passing through, why was he searching for a house? And why didn't this come up earlier?

"I had a buddy who lived in Omaha, and I was there to catch up with him. In my friends area, there was a house for rent. I had no intention on renting a house in Omaha let alone anywhere."

Then why did he?

"Last summer I toured said house out of pure curiosity. Pure boredom of being stuck inside of my friends house while he was at work." he stopped and chuckled before continuing. "Because of this girl I rented that house."

I felt feelings begin to overwhelm my system. I smiled, giggled a little at his statement, and clutched tightly onto his hand. He squeezed back and looked down at me.

"Then I hit a rough patch. Made the biggest mistake of my life- but ah we're past that aren't we?" He looked down at me with a small smirk.

The many people seated in the room moved their eyes from Mark to me.

"Don't get cocky." I whispered with a smile. "But yes."

"Good. That'll make this a whole of a lot easier then." He turned completely to face me, and lowered himself down onto one knee.

The audience went absolutely nuts. I'm sure I heard a few boos in there as well.

"Mark Edward Fisch-" I started in disbelief.

Jack interrupted me by handing me his microphone. "You might need this." he whispered, patting me on the shoulder.

This was not happening.

I dipped my head away from the microphone and held my hand over my mouth. He looked so calm, while on the inside my mind was throwing fits. Here I was. After around a year and a half, I was standing onstage at PAX while the love of my life kneeled in front of me. I was losing my mind. I needed to wake up. This wasn't really happening. Right? I looked back down again and subtly pinched the underside of my arm. Nope. It's happening. Every memory of us flooded my head like I was mentally flipping through a scrapbook. I crinkled my nose and felt my eyes well with water.

"Don't cry yet. You'll make me cry." He smiled, weaving his fingers together with mine.

"I'm not crying." I choked back with a small grin.

He looked at the ground and shook his head with a laugh.

"Last summer I was sitting on a swing contemplating what I wanted to do with my life. I couldn't picture myself anywhere but YouTube and even though I absolutely love my job, it scared me. I was so deep in my thoughts I didn't even realize that you had happily perched yourself on the swing next to mine. That day you changed everything for me."

I felt a hot tear slip down my cheek at his simple words. The single tear fell from my cheek onto the wood of the stage floor.

"Now, no matter how hard I try, I can not picture my life without you, and I'm not sure that I want to. I want to stay up late and listen to you talk about your theory of life. I want to record videos in the other room knowing I have someone to come to when I'm finished. I want to crank the volume up in the car and sing knowing that you'll sing with me. But mostly, I want you in my life, for the rest of my life. "

I sniffled and smiled weakly down at him whilst wiping at my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt. He took this time to pull a small velvet box out of his pocket. The box was navy blue with a gold trim that lined the opening.

"(Your full name), Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?" He opened the box and I didn't even have to look at the ring to know.

I didn't care what it looked like. I didn't care what the other people thought of my tear stained faced. In that moment all I cared about was Mark.

I held the microphone away from my face so that everyone in the whole building didn't have to hear my quiet sniffling. He was all that I wanted.

I tried to speak but I couldn't. His eyes bored into mine with an uncertain shimmer to them. I held my sleeved hand over my nose and nodded, hopefully he'd get the hint.

Of course he did, he knew me better than anyone. The ring must've not mattered that much to him either because instead of slipping it on my finger, he closed the box and threw it to Jack, who caught it with open hands. He immediately set his hand behind my ear and before he could pull me towards him, I threw my arms around his neck and plunged into the kiss he was already ready for. I could hear a slight rumble in his throat, the sound of a chuckle that couldn't escape. I fell away from the kiss and rested my head on his chest.

"Yes Mark. Yes always. Yes forever. Yes until the end of time."