All Your Little Things

Chapter 20- Coming Home

Harry

"Harry, this is Taylor, Mark's girlfriend."

"Hi, Harry, Ali has said such good things about you."

"Good to meet you as well." I said. She introduced me to her cousins, aunts, and uncles. She had quite a big family, but they were all so nice and supportive of me and Ali.

She brought me to another boy, who I assumed was her other brother.

"Harry, this is Jacob, my oldest brother, his wife Emmaline, and their son, Ethan."

I shook both of their hands, and then knelt down to Ethan's level.

"Hey, Ethan. How are you?"

"Good." He said shyly.

"Alright!" I high-fived him.

"God damn it!" Ali's dad exclaimed.

"Dad! Language!" Jacob screamed, only for Ethan's sake.

"Sorry, but I was supposed to pick up my friend, Alex, at Sammy's down at Legacy. He was coming to eat with us."

"Oh, crap." Ali said. This was all so fakely done. "Well, why don't Taylor and I run to get him? Harry can come with us"

"That'd be awesome, sweetheart." Her dad said. We got in the car and drove to Sammy's, a restaurant about twenty minutes away.

Once we got inside, Ali turned to Taylor. "Hey, I'm going to get the lights. Just wait here."

"Alright." She said, and we parted ways.

"Lights! It's dark in here!" I said.

"We're not getting lights, we're getting Mark. He's in the back."

She went to the back of the empty restaurant, and Mark came out from behind a counter. She smiled wide, a few tears running down her face as she ran up to her older brother. He hugged her and brought her up in a hug.

"Mark, this is Harry." She said, rubbing away the tears.

"Hello, Harry. I'm a marine."

"Yes, I've noticed. Don't worry, I'll be good with her." I shook his hand.

'Alright, let's go meet Taylor." He said. We parted, and Ali began playing a song.

I heard the song Wake Me Up by Ed Sheeran come through the speakers.

"Taylor, isn't this your's and Mark's song?" Ali shouted out to her.

"Yea." She looked down in sadness.

"Taylor, I think I've got the lights!" Ali turned on all the lights. I was standing behind her, and saw what she saw. Mark was standing in the middle of the room in dress blues and dozens and dozens of tulips were surrounding him.

She ran and crashed into Mark, and you could her sobbing into the shoulder of his Marines uniform. He had the biggest smile on his face as they kissed, and the whole family appeared from behind, including that of Taylor's.

Ali hugged me and gave me a quick kiss, smiling.

"Hey, I missed you. I love you." Mark told Taylor.

"I love you, too." Mark held Taylor at arm's length, getting a good look at her.

"Taylor, for almost five years now, you've been the center of my world. You've helped me through thick and thin, and you're probably the most wonderful girl any guy could ever have. You make me smile everyday, and I hope I do the same to you. Now, if you'll allow me."

Mark revealed a beautiful diamond as he got down on one knee. "Oh my god!" Taylor gasped.

"Taylor, would you please do me the great honor of marrying me?"

"Yes! Yes! YES!" Taylor said as he slipped the ring on and we applauded as they kissed.

Ali threw her hands up in the air. "Wooooo!" She clapped, and I smiled. I hope we'd get married one day.

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Later, Ali's father let her come back to my hotel for a few hours. I ordered two glasses of wine downstairs, and brought them to the room. Ali had changed into yoga pants and my purple Jack Wills sweatshirt. Her hair was in a bun on top of her head, her makeup still intact perfectly.

She sipped on her illegal wine, and stared at the covers on the bed, her eyes fixated on nothing and everything at the same time.

"When's the last time you saw him?" I asked. She looked up and her eyes widened, she had been lost in thought. "When's the last time you say Mark?" I repeated.

"Oh, beginning of December. Last year."

"You seemed to really miss him."

"Yea, I'm really close with him. Mostly because Jacob is so much older than me. Both of the boys are amazing older brothers. I couldn't ask for better. You should've seen it when Jacob came home."

"What?"

"I was 14, in eighth grade, and Jacob was 25. He came and surprised me. He knocked on the classroom door and asked, "Do we have any princesses in this room?" "

"Princesses?"

"Yea, it was a thing between me and him. He used to call me his little princess, as I was so young when he left for the army, and we loved watching Disney movies together. Anyway, he knocked and said that, came in. I just gasped, saying 'Oh my god'. I screamed, and I could feel myself crying. I had not seen him in a year. I ran up to him and he gave me the biggest hug out there."

She smiled, thinking back. "It was literally one of the best memories of my childhood."

"I love your family."

"Yea, I love yours, too. I love my family, they've been with me through everything."

"I know." I kissed her on her forehead. She looked really sad. "What's wrong, love?" I asked. She kept staring down, but then she looked up. Tears had welled in her eyes, but she was smiling through them.

"She was such a beautiful, kind lady. Everyone loved her, and she was an amazing mother to the boys. They know how to treat women, and me, and others, because of her. I know I never met her, but I know all this. I know, and Harry, she wasn't there for Jacob's marriage, or Ethan, or either of them becoming marines, or Mark getting engaged, or my graduaton. She's not here, and IT HURTS! IT HURTS LIKE HELL!"

She was full-on crying now, sobbing into my chest as I tried to calm her. "I just want to feel her heart against mine." She whispered.

"I love you, Ali, and your mum hasn't left you. Whenever you felt like you were walking alone, when there were only one set of footsteps in the sand, when you survived through every hardship in life, that's when she carried you."

"Harry, you're too perfect." I kissed her forehead.

"Perfection is found in you, love. And I will never be able to let go of you, as long as I live. You've given me everything, literally. Everything."

"I've never felt more a part of something than when I'm with you, like I finally belong, like I finally am accepted by everyone and everything."

"I only want you to be happy." I said.

We sat for another hour, listening to Ed Sheeran and chatting, and it was perfect. Just sitting with the love of my life, just talking, was so perfect, and this told me that for sure, even if I already knew, that this love was perfect.