Move On

Move On : The Proposal

FOUR

Seven months and eleven days earlier...

It was in the middle of December (December 12th to be exact) and a snowy white winter in LA at that time.

Katie and I were in our sophomore year at LA High.

She was LA High’s cheerleading captain and I was the MVP of our school’s basketball team, aptly named The Eagles.

She was the love of my life, and she in turn, considered me one of her very important people- well her VIP, I guess.

We had been best friends for more than a decade at that time, and had been an official couple for three years and quite a bit.

All our friends pretty much identified us as one individual, rather than two, and we were practically inseparable.

We were even voted sweetest couple of LA High, in our school magazine.

I hadn’t thought much about all of that, but one thing I knew for sure was I couldn’t think of life without Katie in it.

Katie had been in my life for as long as I could remember.

All I knew was that I really, really liked and loved and cherished this girl and I wanted to marry her and make her my wife.

That was what I had in mind, which was I planned out a surprise for Katie.

On that cold winter’s night, I went out on a walk with Katie with a beautiful intention in mind.

I playfully adjusted Katie’s bright pink beanie on her blonde head, and laughed at how wearing the beanie made her look so adorable and childish at the same time.

“I’m glad you’re my girlfriend” I whispered sweetly into Katie’s ears as she looked up at me from those gorgeous olive-green eyes of hers.

But I hope you’ll be my wife soon, I thought to myself happily.

She snuggled closer to me as we walked down the street, hand in hand.

Katie kept me warm, staying close to me the entire time.

We didn’t say much to each other, just content with each other’s company.

After walking down West Pico Boulevard for all but fifteen minutes, I stopped us in front of a big jewelry store.

“What are we doing here?” Katie asked, visibly surprised.

She looked hard at me, trying to read into my thoughts while we stood there for the longest second, crisp white snowflakes falling on top of both of our heads.

I refused to answer her, only smiling sheepishly, as I led her into the bright jewelry store.

There wasn’t anyone else in the store at that time, which would’ve seemed pretty weird, seeing since it was a Friday night after all – a busy time for most stores in LA.

However, I wasn’t left wondering even the slightest bit, as I had planned for tonight’s event, three weeks before.

“What are we doing here, Ty?” Katie asked again, her eyes showed that she really wanted to know the reason why I’ve brought her here.

I could tell that she knew I was going to surprise her but she just didn’t know how I was going to do it.

“Trust me on this one” I said, snapping my fingers together.

Immediately, the bright lights went off and we were left in complete pitch black darkness, in that huge store.

Katie started laughing when I led her towards the jewelry counter.

She gripped me tight in mock fear.

“Alright, Tyler Ryan. I’ll trust you on this one” Katie told me.

I snapped my fingers again, and this time the lights came back on.

I cleared my throat and got down on one knee, with a childish grin plastered onto my face.

Katie’s expression changed as she muttered to herself, “Oh, Tyler!”

Tears started welling up in her eyes and I even teared up a little bit because I was pretty nervous at that time.

“I didn’t get any speech prepared or anything, so here goes...” I stammered.

With the staff of the jewelry store as our witnesses, and probably the whole of LA watching us from outside the store, through the see-through full-length glass window, I finally found the courage to tell a crying Katie what was buried deep in my chest.

I took in a deep breath and said, “You were the only one who borrow crayons from me and never gave them back. You always ate up all my chewy chocolate chip cookies. You always came over to my place uninvited. You lied to me that you liked my music. You snore real loud and your feet smell like rotten fish when you take your sneakers off. You snort when you laugh. You...”Katie interrupted me even before I got a chance to finish off my long sentence.

“Tyler! I almost thought you were going to propose to me! Are you just going to mock me while everyone laughs at me?” Katie said her eyes wide with shock.

I laughed, seeing how adorable she looked despite how I’ve supposedly embarrassed her.

In the midst of her sheer bewilderment, I snapped my fingers once more and a lady walked up to me, producing a small red box.

“But there’s one thing I love about you, Katie Oliver”, I said, taking the box from the lady.

“Yeah? What’s that?” Katie mocked sarcasm, but I could see that a smile was forming from the corner of her lips.

“I love that you sing out of tune, you bake the best burnt cakes in LA, you dance around in your room to no music at all, you laugh at all the weirdest jokes, you have an addiction to rocky road ice cream, just like I do. But best of all, you love me for everything that I am and you never want me to be anything that I’m not” I said.

Then, I paused dramatically and uttered the magic words: “Katie Oliver, I love you. Will you... marry me?”

Tears spilled down Katie’s face and she waited for a few seconds, wanting to comprehend what had just happened.

Those few seconds felt like forever as I patiently waited for her answer.

Katie finally nodded her agreement to my proposal and loud claps and cheers filled the atmosphere, courtesy of our audience both inside and outside of the jewelry store.

I stood up and opened the red ring box with the shiny diamond ring inside, which I promptly slipped onto Katie’s ring finger.

“I do” she said to me, amidst the continuous clapping and cheering outside.

Then as I held Katie in a long embrace, she whispered sheepishly into my ears, “Besides... You know way too much about me, Ty”.

I winked and gave Katie a kiss on the forehead.

Both of us walked out of the store and met our new ‘fans’, being newly engaged and happily stuck to each other for life.

Or so I had thought.

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