Even After Ever After

EVEN AFTER EVER AFTER:

Kal grabbed my hand and pulled me into his apartment. He quickly shut the door behind me and pinned my back to it, his large hands on either side of my head. "Guess what?" he asked, his blue eyes gleaming. I smiled at how excited he looked.

"What?" I whispered, studying his face. How had I managed to snag such a cute guy? He grinned at me and kissed my lips. He tasted like sugar; sweet sweet sugar. He pulled away abruptly, and all too soon.

"I want to marry you." he said, breathlessly.

"What?" I repeated, this time out of total shock and not curiosity. I had wanted to marry Kal too, but only after I got out of college. I had planned it all out, the day Kal said he loved me.

Call me crazy.

Anyway, my plan was that we were both going to finish college, he would marry me, we would have two kids and a dog, and live happily ever after. My parents would hate these plans, however, because they didn't like Kal at all. To put it in short, they thought he was reckless and assumed he wasn't right for me. I, personally, think it's because Kal wasn't as settled as they wanted him to be.

He did things spontaneously. He got tattoos, bought a motorcycle, bungee jumped off a bridge; and all the while he didn't think about the consequences. He would always say, "One day I'm going to look back on my life and remember all of the awesome shit I did. And whether it turned out bad or not, I'll smile. I'll smile, because it happened. I'll smile, because I actually did something I wanted to do instead of listening to what everyone else had to say. I'll smile because I lived my life to the fullest. And what more could I want?"

"C'mon, Em." he said, now, softly. "We can run away. We can get married. We can never see this town again." he murmured into my neck.

"Kal..." I sighed, lightly pushing him away. He looked up at me, hurt dancing in his eyes. "I don't know. We haven't thought this through at all. What am I going to do about college? What are you going to do about college? What am I supposed to tell my parents? What are they going to think?" I questioned, blankly staring at him.

"This isn't about your parents, Em. This is about you and me." Kal huffed. He took my face in his rough hands. "Do you love me?" he asked, only inches away from my face.

"Kal..."

"Do you love me, Emily Paige Whittmore?" he asked again, a little more demanding. I sighed, and nodded. "Then run away with me." he kissed me again. "Please." He leaned his forehead against mine and closed his eyes.

I wanted nothing more than to make Kal happy. After all, he had spent the last four years making me happy, the least I could do was return the favour. But I couldn't bring myself to say it. What if something went wrong? What if Kal and I got into a fight and I went crawling back to my parents only for them to say "I told you so"?

"Let me sleep on it." I stated, now. Knowing Kal for over four years, I knew he would agree; and he did. He nodded and let my face go. He stepped away, and looked to the ground, but then looked back up at me, all hurt disappearing from his eyes.

"Let's go to our spot." he beamed, excitedly.

I giggled and nodded, as he took my hand again and led me downstairs to his beaten up light blue pick-up truck. On the way down, we saw Wesley. He was a little boy, about the age of eleven, who liked to draw on the sidewalk with various colors of chalk. He was sweet and kind, and Kal and I always talked about how some day, he'd grow up to be a famous artist. It was getting dark out, and he was now gathering up his chalk about to go back inside.

Kal stopped pulling me along, and stooped down to help the boy collect his chalk into a pail. "Hey, Wes." Kal chimed, smiling down at him.

"Hi, Kal. Hi Emily." Wes greeted us. "Where are you guys going?"