R.E.M

seventeen

GREYSON'S POV

Flashback to almost two years ago:

"I think I'm gonna do it," I told my parents, while they both were in the kitchen, presumably making lunch. After the words escaped my lips, both of them stopped what they were doing, sharing looks with each other as I went to sit down, unsure of what they were going to say. "I bought the ring two months ago when we were in Washington with her family, and I think... I think I'm ready. I love her and I know she loves me, we've been moved in together for about a year, so why not take the next step? I know I want her in my life forever, I can't picture it without her, so why wait?"

It was an early morning in Melbourne, a day when I didn't have any filming to do, so I was about to be on my way to Vancouver. My parents were only here for an extra day since they came to see my set. My flight was about 19 hours and I wanted to be there in time for when the season finale of her show aired, so I had to leave tonight before my parents to make it in time.

"Do you guys think I'm making the right choice?" I said, keeping my hands in my pocket as I held the box that rested inside.

"Greyson, I love Madelaine," Mom was the first to say, "Your dad and I got married young and a lot of people didn't think we'd make it this far, but as you can see, they were wrong. I think he just knew he wanted to marry me, didn't think twice about it, and just did it."

"So, what are you saying?" I asked, as both of my parents just laughed, shaking their heads.

Dad walked over to me, wrapping his arm around me, and leading me to the door. "What she's saying is, just do it."

"How much is Nike paying you?" I teased, just as he playfully shoved me out of the door, making sure to lock it as he and mom stood by the windows, making faces at me as I went to get in my car.

I rolled my eyes, only pretending to be annoyed, even though I wanted a marriage that was just like theirs.

I didn't land in Vancouver until around 6pm, the next day. Izaak and Jordan were with me, so the first thing we did was find a hotel near her set so that I could freshen up before I went to see her. I was nervous as hell, taking longer than I needed to in the shower.

On the ride there, I couldn't keep my hands off the ring box. I never prepared a speech, figuring that I could just come up with the words as I spoke, so it was more natural.

When I explained the plan to Kj, Cole. Camila, Lili, and Vanessa, they were over the moon about it, more than happy to secretly record the proposal as if they were just filming the finale release party. From what they had been texting me, everything seemed to be going well, yet I was everything but calm.

I had been with the redhead for four years, after meeting her on set of a movie. I didn't expect for us to click so fast, considering she was shy, and it was hard for me to even get a chance to speak to her because she was much more reserved than the rest of the cast. After we'd do a couple scenes, she immediately went back to her trailer to study lines and I wouldn't see her again until they called us for another scene. Our characters played best friends, who were purely just friends, but our audience shipped the two together since they didn't like Madelaine's onscreen boyfriend.

It wasn't until I knocked on her trailer door one day, looking for my missing script that we finally talked. I wasn't able to find it there with her, but she offered to share hers so we could go over the scene together. Even though we initially planned to just do a read-through, we kept straying away from the script, finding ourselves getting to know each other better.