Undercover

9. Will You Marry Me?

We had already been together for three years. It was clear in my mind that I loved him, and I was sure that he loved me. It was like the perfect happy ending to a fairy tale, except that I was just beginning mine.

We had celebrated Nathan's birthday two days before. I had also just graduated a few weeks earlier. So there was nothing too crazy going on in our lives.

Ingrid had already started with that habit of getting a boyfriend and not getting too invested in it, while the guy in the relationship was the one who ended up with a broken heart. I had told her that it was not the right thing to do. I understood why she was doing it. But if anyone understood what it was to get their heart broken, it was her. She'd been a mess, and I thought that experience would help her understand that she was in the wrong. But of course, that was never the case. No matter what I tried to do, her opinion of the matter would not change. I couldn't do anything about it and neither could Cayden. The only thing Cayden was missing was the backstory. The only good thing was that she didn't give Shane a second chance. But maybe the fact that I had told her she shouldn't was one of the reasons that she had started that trend in the first place.

Nathan had spent his birthday with me, which I thought was crazy, because I knew that he had wanted to go with his friends. I really wouldn't have minded if he had gone. I knew that he had his own life, and that there was much more to his life than just this relationship. In a way, I thought that him spending time with me instead of others was hindering him. But when he told me that he was genuinely happy that he had spent it with me, I saw that he meant it. And I don't know why that made me love him even more. And I didn't even think that was possible. But here I was.

His birthday was June 20th; mine was two days later on the 22nd. And it turned out that today was the 22nd. Nathan planned this whole lunch meal. Currently, my siblings and I were in Nathan's house. His parents had dropped in to tell me happy birthday and to apologize that they couldn't stay. I understood. They didn't have to apologize. They were busy people. I wouldn't hold that against them.

I was sitting next to Nathan, like we usually did. I was already eighteen. Officially. So this meant that I had a bunch of responsibilities now. All of the decisions that needed to be made could be made by me. Cayden, however, still had his random outings and the response from him whenever I asked him where he was going was always the same: Out. I was worried about him but I couldn't help him if he wouldn't tell me what was going on. I just didn't want him to get hurt.

"So...how does it feel to finally be a high school graduate?" Cayden asked me.

"It's nice," I said. "It ensures that I will be able to get a decent job even if I don't go to college, you know?"

"But you will go to college, right?" this was Nathan speaking now. I had told him that the plan was for me to go to college and get my degree. Maybe that would get me a brighter future and something that would help me help him if we ever got married.

I nodded, and I could feel Cayden and Ingrid's eyes on me. I had never really discussed college with them. Especially since I saw how Cayden and Ingrid were busting their asses to get food on the table and all of the basic necessities since Mom and Dad died. It wasn't supposed to be in the plans but I couldn't just let it go like that. College was also a part of my plans, a part of my future. And sure it would cost a lot of money and I would eventually end up with loans, but the way I saw it was as an investment. All of that money would be able to be paid off in the end. At least that was supposed to be what the result of it was.

I avoided looking at them for a while after that, because I didn't want to look up and see anger or disappointment or even worry on their faces. So instead of looking at them and speaking with them about it now...I would wait until we were inside our house. There was so much that we needed to talk about, I think. And maybe I would even move in with Nathan. But we still needed to talk about that while everyone was present and I didn't think this was a good time to talk about it.