Dear Payton,

Chapter 6

12:04p.m, Payton begins to cry and shake uncontrollably. I get up and run over to her and asked her what was wrong. Payton smiled and said "nothing baby it's just," Payton looks down at the black box and laughs a little. "Sam, I've been waiting for a while to ask you this. But every time I'm afraid of what you'll say. These past 3 years have been the most beautiful years of my life. It's been an extraordinary journey with laughs and tears and I'm more then honored to have shared it with you. I don't know what my future holds and honestly it doesn't matter as long as I'm with you." Payton smiled and got down on one knee right in front of me. My heart sank to the pit of my stomach and I put my hands on my mouth in utter shock. Payton's lips tingle and her voice cracks between each and every word that follows. "Sam, will you marry me?" I cry one single tear and I know with one word my entire future could be changed forever, "Yes!" I said crying more and more while the happiness and shock took over my body. Payton slipped the beautiful diamond ring on my finger and jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around my hips. She kissed me hard and pushed me onto the bed. She straddled my waist and kissed me once more, "you have made me the happiest girl on the planet Sam Wright." Payton whispered while looking at me and smiling. I've never seen Payton smile like that before and the way she looked at me with her gorgeous blue eyes. She looked at me as if I was everything she's been searching for. I smiled back and said, "Payton Marie Smith and Samantha Lyann Smith. I like it, it has a good tone to it." "Now, there's only one more thing we have to decide." Payton says while rolling onto the bed and laying beside me. "Hm, what's that my love?" I asked. She laughed and said, "who's gonna be the bride and who's gonna be the groom?" She looked at me with a curious look, Payton was always the girl who liked to dress up and look fancy and chic. I was always the type of girl to just be comfortable and just make it from home to college in one piece. I decided that I'd be the groom, I would have absolutely no problem wearing a tux and we always said if this happened then we would have a traditional wedding. Except we always wanted our wedding at my lake house in Illinois, it's where we spent most of our vacations and that's where we're happiest. I told Payton about how I'd like to be the groom and all she could do was smile. I looked at my ring and it was absolutely beautiful. It had a big diamond in the middle, surrounded by 10 small diamonds, and it has S.L.S engraved inside because Payton had the exact same one since we both love diamonds.

It's 12:42p.m, Payton and I called all of our friends telling them about the big news. We called all of Payton's friends first and then we called all of mine. All of our friends were more excited then we expected. Half of them were going to be in the wedding as well but that's something we still need to discuss. We saved the families for last and, of course, we called mine first. My family was ecstatic and wanted to help with everything, Payton's family was a little more laid back. They agreed to come to the wedding and help as much as they could. Payton cried tears of joy when she heard that her family accepted her choice and was willing to be part of it. Payton decided to call her brother on his cell phone. He answered and all you could hear was Payton holding back the sudden tears of happiness while talking to her brother. "Justin, guess what? I'm getting married!" You could hear Justin's excitement on the other end of the phone. He began asking all the questions I've been thinking about myself. I could tell Payton has been planning this for a while and the more I imagine it, the more tears fall to my cheek as I realize how amazing this really is. I can't believe I'm getting married, not only that but to the girl I'm absolutely in love with. Payton continued to explain all the details to Justin considering they don't talk much. "Yeah, she said yes! We don't know all the details yet but I think it'll probably be after she graduates. I don't know, I think she graduates early this year cause of all the summer work she's done." I went over to Payton and wrapped my arms around her from behind as she began to smile and kiss me softly. I motioned her to give me the phone and she wouldn't stop talking so I grabbed the phone from her hand and asked her brother to be my best man. "Justin, I have a quick question for you. I know you're only like 16 but we've decided that she's going to be the bride and I'm gonna be the groom. I know it's kind of sudden but it would mean a lot to me if you were the best man at the wedding." Justin hesitated and you could hear the happiness in his voice when he replied with, "Yes! Of course! I'd be honored to!" I smiled and Payton began to cry as well. "That's great! I'll call you soon and we can get together and talk about things, okay? Alright babe. We love you too! Bye." I hung up the phone and Payton cried more and more. I knew that would mean the world to her, her brother is her hero. He's been there for her through pretty much everything. He was the first person Payton came out to and that created a special bond not even I could ever understand.

It's 5:06p.m, Payton and I decided to keep packing since 20 days isn't a long period of time to move. We put some of our favorite clothes in a box so we'd have something to wear for the last 20 days in Rhode Island; and we packed the rest up in suit cases and boxes. After that, we went to the last closet of the apartment. It was our storage closet, we haven't really opened it since we moved in a year and a half ago. We opened it and 4 things fell out already and shattered. 3 pictures frames fell out and a glass candle holder. I bent down and picked up all the glass and threw it away while Payton admired all the pictures from the frames. "Sam, do you remember this?" Payton asked while holding up a homecoming photo from 2012. I was in a light black and glitter dress and Payton was in a baby blue two piece that looked like a dress. I smiled and looked at the photo, "Yeah, It was at the homecoming game of my sophomore year of college." She smiled and picked up more and more photos of us. There were tons from the lake house, my college campus, and her studio. I sit on my knees next to Payton, we laughed and talked for hours about all the photos we found. Whenever we replaced picture frames, we always just put the new photos in front of the old ones. These just never got hung up cause we were lacking space for future things. Payton picks up a $350 camera off the floor, her dad gave it to her when she got her first job. She says, "well since we've found so many old memories, how about we create some new ones." I smile and hold up my ring and Payton takes a picture of me. I crawl over and sit next to her and we scroll through the old pictures saved onto the camera of all the holidays we spent together. I kissed her once more and I knew this was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.