Accidentally on Purpose

Chapter Nineteen

I couldn't stop staring at the ring on my finger. And each time I did look at it, I would immediately grin so wide my face would probably break into two.

Then I thought; I was so screwed. If I kept on doing this—glancing at the ring and then smiling and then glancing at the ring again and smiling again and so on and so forth—people would totally start thinking that something was completely wrong with me and my head. Well, I mean, I knew something was wrong with me—wrong enough that I'd decided to fake-hate my crush—but people didn't need to know that.

BUT THIS RING.

How was I supposed to look at it without remembering what had happened yesterday and feeling giddy all over again?

How was I supposed to be back to normal again after this?

Also, after what had happened with the whole proposal, I started to wonder if he had softened on me.

Well I mean, he must not hate me that much if he put so much effort into the proposal, right? I get that it was all for the project, but there were other ways he could've gone with the proposal that would still be nice enough in Mr. Herberg's eyes but not so cute that it would've flattered me. I meant, even I almost went with a half-assed proposal for him. And yet, he chose to make the proposal as, how did they say it, whimsical, magically romantic as possible.

Well, I wouldn't really say romantic since it was Jonah after all—and it wasn't all that romantic to be honest—but that was exactly the point. It was Jonah. And in Jonah's world, what he had done was equal to Peter Parker professing his love for Gwen Stacy by writing "I Love You" on a bridge with his webs.

Exactly.

I still couldn't believe that yesterday really happened and that there was this cute little ring on my left hand.

When Gina saw me and my obviously brightened face the next morning, she narrowed her eyes at me.

"What's with the face?"

Without a word, I held up my left hand, and she gasped. We both squealed in unison.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god," she gushed, while I nodded as if to say, "I know, right? Right?" She held up my hand so she could look at the ring better. "That's so cute," she said in awe. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I grinned at her sheepishly. "I might have forgotten to call you since I spent the whole night giggling to myself in my room."

She laughed. "That's not surprising." She dropped my hand and a huge teasing grin was on her face. "How was it?"

I leaned against the locker next to her and sighed dreamily. "It was amazing. Gina, it was unbelievably amazing."

"When did he propose?"

"After school, he..." and I told her the whole story in ten minutes, and we both sighed and squealed and giggled at the story.

Gina shook her head in disbelief. "I didn't know he could pull off something like that."

"Right?" I agreed. "I can't believe this, Gina. I'm just so... so... happy right now."

"Well, I'm glad that you do," she said with a wink. "You looked like you were about to cry yesterday."

I rolled my eyes. "That was totally his fault."

"Did he tell you why he skipped school?"

"Nope," I said, shaking my head. "But I don't really care. I'm an engaged woman!"

"Fake engaged. But still, congratulations!" Gina laughed and shoved me in the shoulder.

-

The hardest thing I had ever, ever, ever done was to keep myself from smiling when I sat next to Jonah in Mr. Herberg's class.

After collecting the video to our teacher, Jonah came back and sat down next to me. He didn't attempt to make a conversation, so I didn't, even though I really wanted to. We just sat and anticipated what Mr. Herberg's next task for us would be.

Jonah did, though, glance at me, and then down to the ring I was wearing. I didn't see if he gave any kind of reaction to the fact that the ring was still there and not thrown away, but the weight of his eyes on me, as usual, made me feel like something inside my stomach was flipping.

Then suddenly, "I've finished the story."

I turned to Jonah in confusion. "Huh?"

He shrugged. "I've completed it. So it would make sense why I proposed to you in the garden with the cat and the coffee and stuff like that."

I was too stunned to talk, so I just blinked.

He took a breath and angled his chair so he was facing me. "After I was done with the whole, like you said, moping around thing, I grew enough balls and contacted you. You didn't answer at first, but you finally gave in and we talked on the phone and whatever. You finally accepted the fact that I was really a Hollywood actor and that I liked you even though you were just an English teacher and let's just throw in some cheesy moment in that."

I couldn't hold the chuckle.

"So we started dating, but we kept it down low because all the attention from the media was too overwhelming to you. Somehow we made it work, and after a few months, you finally said that you wouldn't mind the media so much anymore as long as we were together."

Oh my god, where did this cheesy romantic Jonah Gibbs come from? I openly gaped in front of him.

"By that time, I was already thinking about proposing to you. But I was still afraid that I would freak you out if the proposal went public. So I went to the school you work at, gave you a damn cat you'd been wanting to adopt so bad, gave you a drink that you had when we first met in person, and..." he trailed off and shrugged.

I sent him an amused smile, and his cheeks reddened a little bit. "Where did the idea come from?"

"Might have asked my sappy little sister," he waved it off. "I've written the whole story down and I just gave it to Herberg."

I raised my eyebrows. "You did?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, wow," I breathed. "Thanks, I guess. It doesn't sound too bad."

He nodded awkwardly, and then turned his chair again. Then we just sat there in silence, next to each other, and for the first time, the silence didn't feel heated but not too comfortable either.

It was awkward.

Because there was noticeable blush on his face, and in turn, I was blushing too.

Well, that's a first.