Braver Than I Used to Be

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The paperwork was brought to us by a lawyer, one that said he has known my Dad for many years and that he did the best thing for us. We signed where he told us to and he told us that my Dad made sure the house was paid off and so were the cars before he left. Everything now belonged to us.

We went back to school on Tuesday and when I looked around, I had this superior feeling over all the other students. One I have never had before. I have come further in my life in the last year, then any of these people have come in the last seventeen years.

I went from a shy, closed up, pent up little girl to someone who has taught themselves to overcome their pain every step of the way. Now, I was eighteen-years-old and I had no choice but to be an adult because I had no adults left to do it for me. I just had Ray, Matthew and Victor.

I didn't care about being Valedictorian, but my Dad cared, so I worked extra hard this school year to do one last thing for him and for me.

For Matthew's eighteenth birthday, the month after mine, I bought him a ring too. But mine was a gesture, one guys usually gave to girls, but I gave him my own promise ring. There were no diamonds or anything crazy, just a white gold band with our names engraved inside. A little corny, but Matthew seemed to appreciate it.

That night after dinner, I came home to a completely dark house, or at least it seemed dark when we pulled up. When I opened the front door there were candles lit along the floor and rose petals making a walk way to the living room.

I turned back to look at Matthew and he had a huge smile on his face.

"You first." he said gesturing his hand in the direction of the rose petals.

I followed the roses into the living room and at the end I saw Ray, Victor and Marie standing there. I pointed and turned to ask why the heck Marie was there, then I saw Matthew behind me on one knee with an open ring box in his hand.

I gasped, then realized why Marie was there, she was taking pictures.

"Rita Allen, I know I said I would wait until after graduation, but I wanted you to know now, in front of the people that we love that I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I don't ever want to leave. From that first moment I sat next to you in that movie theater, I knew. There is no one that I would rather spend my life with than you. And with everything going on in your life, I want you to know that you have someone that will never leave you and I promise to do everything in my power to make you happy every single day that we spend together. Will you marry me?"

Marie clicked away as I stood there stunned with tears and a hand over my mouth.

"Yes." I whispered, trying not to choke up.

He pulled my hand into his and slid off the ring he gave me for my birthday and placed it on my middle finger. Then he took the diamond ring from the box and slid it on to my ring finger. He then stood up and kissed me as we wrapped our arms around each other.

"Let me get a picture of you holding the ring up." Marie said.

I put my hand up covering our kissing lips, the next place was going to have to be the bedroom because I couldn't keep my lips off of him. I could tell he felt the same, but since there were people present, we had to pull away. Marie took pictures of the four of us together.

Ray had gotten cake, one was a smiley face cake in case I said yes and the other was a sad face cake in case I said no. Before we cut into the smiley face cake Marie took pictures of both of them.

"Did you think I would say no?" I said to Ray.

"No, but just in case, I got both."

"Well we can't eat the sad face cake, it's bad luck." I told him.