The 7 Nights of Halloween

Bonus Chapter 2

Bonus Chapter 2

~Ray~

       The room was a mess, almost as if a tornado had come in and completely ruined it. Clothes, paper, books were strewn all over the floor, making it hard to walk through. I continued to search through the room, though it was a bit difficult to see with the tears clouding my eyes.

       I lifted my glasses to wipe the tears away, but it didn't work. I was still very upset, so the tears hadn't quite stopped. Everything was supposed to be perfect. If I didn't find it soon, then my whole plan was going to be a mess.

       The bedroom door opened. "You ready to--" Archer caught himself off when he took a look around the room. "What happened in here?"

       "N-Nothing," I said. 

       Archer walked over and crouched down beside me. "Hey, what's wrong?"

       "Nothing," I repeated. "I just... I'm trying to find something and I could have sworn I knew where I placed it but it's not there and I looked all over the room and--"

       "Ray," Archer interrupted. "Just take a deep breath." I nodded, taking a deep breath to try to relax. I couldn't, though. Not until I found it. "You can look for it when we come back?"

       "N-No. If I don't find it now, I'll probably never find it. I'm sorry. I know we have plans to go to dinner..."

       "It's okay. We don't have to make a reservation at the restaurant we're going to, so we can leave later if you want. Just keep looking for whatever it is and I'll... probably start cleaning all this up."

       I nodded, wiping my tears away again before I started to search again. I was certain that I put it in my shirt drawer of my dresser, but when I went to get it, it wasn't there. And if I didn't find it now, I was probably going to breakdown.

       Not that I wasn't already breaking down.

       All the searching was in vain because I just couldn't find it, no matter how hard I looked and no matter where I looked. 

       Archer was folding all the clothes to put back in my drawer, and I was worried he was a bit upset that we haven't left for dinner yet. "I'm sorry," I said.

       "For what?" Archer asked.

       "Making us late. I bet you would rather be at dinner than helping me clean the mess I made."

       "It's okay. I wouldn't want to take you out when you're--" Archer trailed off, seemingly distracted by something.

       I looked over, seeing that Archer was holding exactly what I was looking for; the velvet box with the engagement ring inside. He didn't move at all. He was just staring at the box.

       "Y-You weren't supposed to find that," I said, feeling the tears stinging my eyes again. "I was supposed to find it before we headed off to dinner. Now everything's ruined. I just... I wanted... It's our four year anniversary and it was supposed to be perfect but it's not and..."

       Archer moved back to me, crouching down. "Ray." He handed me the box. "Perfect is overrated anyway."

       "O-Okay, so..." I began slowly, feeling extremely nervous even though I barely got nervous, even before an extremely important baseball game. "I love you, Archie. A lot. You make really happy. The time when we were broken up was something I don't ever want to go through again so..." I opened the box, showing Archer the ring. "Will you marry me?"