Fixing Us || l.h

Chapter Forty-Eight*

I stand there, dumbstruck, processing what he just said. He just proposed. He got down on his knee and proposed. To me. I'm being proposed to. By Luke. I open my mouth, but I have no idea what to say. Luke is proposing to me and I look like a fucking fish out of water. I look out at the silent crowd, all of them watching hopeful. Luke's smile begins to falter, a nervous chatter going through the crowd as the seconds turn to minutes.

I bolt from the stage, mortified. People call out to me as I run out the back door of the arena, leaning against one of the walls. I try to calm myself down but between the crying and freaking out, I can barely breathe. I sink down to the ground, gasping for air as I cry, pulling my knees up to my chest. The door opens, Luke coming out.

He stands there, not saying anything. He just looks down at me, his features sad. "Luke, I-" I pause, still unsure what to say. "I was so positive you'd say yes." He mumbles, beginning to pace back and forth in front of me. "Luke..." He looks down at me, stopping. I open and close my mouth like I had on stage, still unsure what to say to Luke. I ran off from his proposal and no one was expecting that.

He slowly sits down in front of me, watching me. "Tell me why you ran off." He says, his face stoic. "I, um. Luke..." I stare at him, wishing he'd show some type of emotion. "I was thinking about breaking up with you after tour..." I finally say, looking down. "Why would you do that?" "Because you're going one way and I'm going the other and we aren't going to have a lot of time to talk. That's when things started going south last time. I don't want to go through that again. I can't go through that again."

Luke shakes his head, looking at me. "Dylan, I will always make time to talk to you. I don't care if that means staying up till three or setting an alarm, I will make time to talk to you." "What if you finally realize how screwed up I am?" I ask after a moment of silence. I look up at him, watching a small smile form. "You are not screwed up Dylan. To me you're absolutely perfect and I really hope one day you're able to see that."

I wrap my arms around my legs, not looking at Luke. "Dylan-" "We're so young, Luke. So many people are going to say we are too young for this. I just turned twenty, for crying out loud. I'm barely an adult." "We don't have to get married right away, Dylan. We can get through these tours, then maybe start planning everything."

"Luke..." "You're the one I want to marry, Dylan. No one else." He tells me in all seriousness. "I want to call you mine forever. I want to wake up next to you and one day have our kids run in and jump on our bed. I want to have a dog with you. I want to have our own house together where we can raise our kids and dog. I want you."

I laugh a little, a blubbery, I'm still crying a little but I'm laughing, kind of laugh. "I want you, Dylan, and nothing is going to change that. I love you so much and I want us to be a family."

I wipe my eyes, looking at Luke. "I want to marry you, Dylan." He repeats, his shoulders sagging and he looks like he's beginning to deflate. Like he's losing hope on this. On us. "Okay." I whisper, staring at Luke. He looks at me, confused. "Okay what?" "I wanna marry you, Luke." A smile overcomes his face and he pulls me toward him, wrapping me in a hug. "I love you, Dylan." He says, hugging me tight. "I love you too, Luke." I laugh, wrapping my arms around his neck. He pulls away and connects our lips, his hands cupping my face.

Luke suddenly pulls away, digging into his pocket. "I almost forgot." He laughs, pulling out the ring. I laugh, watching him slide it on my ring finger. It is beautiful, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. "It's beautiful." I mumble, examining it. The diamond sparkled and the silver band holding the large diamond had a few smaller diamonds on it. This has to be one of a kind.

"I had it specially made for you. There's no other like it and I'm going to get it engraved with our wedding date." I smile, looking back up at Luke. "Really?" He nods and I pull him in for another hug.

-

I unlock the hotel room door, walking in with Luke. Michael, Calum and Ashton are sitting on the couch talking, all of them turning to look at us as we walk in. "So?" Calum asks, looking between us. "You walked in together and no ones crying..." He drifts off and I hold up my hand, unable to hide my excitement. They all sigh, their bodies relaxing from tension and they smile.

"I'm glad you guys worked it all out." Ashton says, walking over. Calum and Michael follow, all of them giving us hugs. "Congratulations!" Michael says, grinning down at me. I smile, shaking my head at him. "Thanks." I tell him, looking around. "Dylan, I have another thing to tell you." Luke says, making me turn to face him.

"I had booked us on Ellen to discuss everything and that's tomorrow... Are you okay with that?" "Yeah. We should probably explain to the world what happened..." I say, letting out a sigh. "We can wait..." "No, I wanna tell everyone as soon as possible." I shake my head.

"Speaking of telling people, should we call my parents?" "How about in the morning... It's a little late here." I laugh, Luke looking at the time and nodding. "Morning. Got it. What about your family?" "They're probably all sleeping right now. It's like seven in the morning over there, we can call them after we talk to your family." Okay, sounds good." Luke nods, wrapping me in a hug.

"Well, we are heading to bed." Ashton says, giving us a smile. "Congrats." He says before heading to his room. "Congratulations, guys." Cal says, giving us a hug before going to bed. "Congratulations, again." Michael says with a grin before going to his room.

"Bed?" Luke asks, looking down at me. "Yeah." I nod, following him to our room. I change and take off my makeup, Luke pulling me close after I crawl in bed. "I'm really sorry for running. You probably weren't expecting that..." "I wasn't, but I'm glad you did. It gave us a chance to talk about things that needed to be talked about." I nod, letting out a yawn. "Love you, Luke." "Love you too, Dylan."