Endless Summer/ ✔️

In Too Deep

The past week had been far too amazing. Daniel and I had taken a vacation to an island just outside of Florida and the only thing we had done was swim, eat and sleep. "Do you think we need to do something other than..."

"Each other?" Daniel laughed. I felt myself blush instantly.

"That's not what I meant. I enjoy that," I laughed. "I mean we could go explore the island or something. Go climb a mountain." Daniel looked at me. Slowly, he raised an eyebrow and broke out into a smile.

"You seriously think we could climb a mountain? Are you cut out for that?"

I sat up, slightly alarmed. "Are you calling me fat?" I asked. Daniel's mouth quickly contorted into a shocked state.

"N-no...I was just saying, the most athletic thing I had ever seen you do was chase Corbyn around the house after he smashed a cupcake into your face. Well that, and other private things," he winked. I took the seconds to think about it. He was right, however. Lauren works out every day and I had worked out maybe once since we moved here. If you count Daniel, then I'd worked out many more times that just once. "Well why don't we get started?"

Three hours later, I had fallen and cut myself more than I ever had in my life. "You better walk faster if you want to reach the top by night fall," Daniel warned. Looking up from the ground in front of me, I realized he was right. The sun was beginning to retire for the day and we were only halfway of halfway.

"If you hadn't have decided to camp up there, then-" I cut myself off as my feet slipped from underneath me. "Damn it!" I cursed. Daniel laughed in front of me as I picked myself up.

"What were you going to say now?" He asked, still walking.

Wiping the blood from a fresh cut on my leg, I sighed and walked past him. "Shut up," I glared. As I reached for the top of a cliff, Daniel put his hands under my bottom and heaved. As soon as I was on the top, Daniel threw himself over. "Need some help?" I asked, squatting down. He had one leg thrown over to top while he struggled to get the other one to follow suit.

"Help would be nice," he said through clenched teeth. Pretending to think about it, I held out my hand.

"Remember when you laughed at me for falling? Now you can help yourself," I smirked. Daniel rolled his eyes before lifting himself onto the top. As I stared out to the scene before me, I felt Daniel's hands around my waist. "Isn't this amazing? We have the entire island to ourselves and we can do anything we want."

"Our vacation is almost over and I don't understand why we didn't do this sooner," Daniel smiled. The trees littered the forest ground and just after they ended, you could see nothing but blue, sparkling water.

Sighing, I slapped Daniel's shoulder and headed for the pack. It took us nearly twenty minutes to get the tent put up and a fire started. "I didn't realize how bad you're body was earlier but, love," Daniel whispered. "You're legs look so terrible!" He began to laugh.  I looked down at my legs and twisted them in the light of the campfire. Cuts, bruises and dried blood covered the majority of my knee and my calf.

"How is that I look like I was put through a shredder and you don't? You were wearing shorts too," I groaned. Daniel laughed and bit his lip before he threw an arm around my shoulders.

As we both sat and watched the campfire slowly burn, I thought back on the last year of my life.

In the last year, I had ended a relationship with an abusive boyfriend. I almost ruined two boys friendships. I was going to be an aunt and I had a sister that I didn't even know about. Not to mention the loss of my mother.

Lauren was so close to popping, she could have the baby at any time she wanted. Everyone in the house was excited but Zach was the most out of all. Every morning at breakfast, he would talk to Lauren's belly and prompt the baby to come out.

Jonah and Daniel had been closer than ever, especially since Anna was being so good to Jonah. Him and I got along well together too.

"You okay?" Daniel asked. Quickly, I replied with a smile and shook my head slightly. "Can I fell you something?"

"Of course, Dani. Always."

Daniel sighed heavily before he put his water bottle down and turned towards me. "These last eight months have been way crazy. We went from meeting in a coffee shop, to sneaking around, to dating and almost ruining lives."

"That is highly the truth, Daniel. It's been insane."

"That's my point, Maya. Lauren and Zach are starting a family, Jonah is completely in love with my sister, and Corbyn and Jack are extremely happy with their significant others. I feel like we are missing something..." He trailed off. I cocked an eyebrow and asked him to repeat the last sentence.

"What could we possibly be missing? Eight months and we have everything we need," I shrugged. Daniel smiled lightly before turning to reach into his backpack

"I know but there is just one more thing we need to do." I almost fell off of the log when I saw what was in his hands. The little black box seemed too small of his hands when I looked down. "Don't panic," he smiled as he scooted closer.

"Daniel, what are you do-" Daniel put a finger to my lips.

"These last eight months have been literal hell. We've had a little downs and a lot of ups but there is one thing missing. You and me. Together." Slowly, he opened the box to reveal a band that had two diamond hearts connected. "This is just a promise, so breathe." He laughed. Finally, I let the pent up air out and laughed nervously.

"Until I can marry you, for real, I want you to wear this for me. To match mine," he winked. I opened my mouth to speak before he lifted his hand and wiggles his finger. There, sat a silver band with the words Forever engraved on the front. "I want to promise you that I won't love anyone else other than you. And I want to marry you one day when the time is more than right."

"Oh, Daniel. I wish you wouldn't have done that," I said. Daniel's smile dropped instantly. Quickly, I reached into my backpack and pulled out a similar box. I picked up my hand and wiggled my ring finger. "I had the same exact idea."

Daniel's mouth hung open in awe as he began to giggle. "Well I guess we can put these on other fingers. How did you know what size I wore?" He laughed. Daniel grabbed my hand and slowly slid the ring onto the middle finger.

"You have a gay best friend for a reason," I giggled. Daniel rolled his eyes at the mention of Jack and his stylish opinions. "I'm gonna guess you didn't ask Lauren because you're stubborn and wanted to take a wild guess?" I asked. Daniel shrugged his shoulders as he blushed. The rings on my fingers and the ones on his own, seemed to automatically have all of our history packed into them. This was something that would mean a lot to me for as long as I could remember.

Just as I leaned in to meet Daniel's lips, my phone began to ring in the backpack. "Who could be calling us while we were on top of a mountain?" I joked. Pulling out the phone, I felt my heart slightly drop.

"Maya? Are you okay?" Daniel asked, moving closer. "Hello?"

"What? Yeah. I'm fine. It's just Lauren."

"Well why don't you just answer her? You're staring at the phone like its gonna come to life and eat you," Daniel giggled. I watched the first phone call go to voicemail as Daniel got the hint that I wasn't going to laugh along. "Maya? Wha-"

"We decided she wouldn't call us unless she was going into labor," I admitted. Daniel gasped and stood up. Quickly, I held a finger up. "Let me see your phone." Reaching into the back of his pocket, he had a worried look on his face.

"One call to my phone from her and one call to yours from Zach means it's time. It's a thing we made up in order to get the message in case she couldn't text us," I explained. Daniel stood, watching his phone that I gripped in my hands. As soon as the phone let out the first ring, I knew it was from Zach. "Daniel..." I smiled.

"It's time?" He guessed.

"It's time, love. We'd better get going," I smiled.