AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But tonight, Jonah, June and I were only thinking about one thing. One thing that was finally happening. A plan that Jonah had been developing since the fucking seventh grade.
Kai was off to a photo shoot, and we had the apartment to ourselves to plot. We purchased an atrocious amount of McDonald’s and spread it across the coffee table between the couch and the TV. We dimmed the lights, set up a camera to record, and took our positions.
Jonah, for once in his life, couldn’t stop smiling. Neither could I. Nor June.
He leaned against the arm of the couch waiting as June and I crouched in the hallway, peeking through the doorway into the living room. Kai’s keys jingled in the door, and she pushed it open, immediately rushing up to Jonah when she saw him sitting there. He received her with two hands around her waist, and they began to kiss as if they might never tire.
“They had to put makeup on my ass,” Kai said, hardly taking a moment to breathe.
“Because?” By Jonah’s tone, I guessed he already knew the reason.
“It’s bruised from how many times you’ve slapped it.”
He chuckled. I really wished I hadn’t heard that.
“Did you have fun, my beautiful girl?”
“Mhm.” Her mouth was too full of his tongue to respond properly. They fell backward onto the couch.
These two would just never fucking stop, would they? At least we weren’t still trapped with them on the tour bus. That was really something. I don’t know who was worse, Kai and Jonah or June and I. Tiff and Noah had long since mastered the art of subtlety. I suppose that’s what happens when you start hooking up at fifteen and there are parents around.
My forehead fell to my hand as I watched our friends. June snickered, and I flicked the side of her head.
“You’ve set something up,” I heard Kai say, finally lifting herself from their kiss.
“Ignore it.” Jonah pulled her face back to his eagerly.
June lifted her hand to her mouth to muffle her quiet laughs which were only growing. I shoved her shoulder with my palm and stood, walking to the kitchen to grab a drink for no other reason than to get my friends to stop and return to what we had so carefully prepared. “You know, Jonah, you left your camera out here on the counter.”
A single middle finger shot up from the other side of the couch.
“So, what are you guys doing? Besides being disgusting in a common space,” I continued, taking a sip from my newly poured cup. “Eating dinner?” I heard a groan before both of their heads popped up over the back of the couch.
“Oli, man,” Jonah said as if those two words told me everything he was thinking.
“I just think you might want to start eating.” I took another sip and walked toward the hallway to join June once again. “Before it gets cold.”
Jonah groaned again and sat up next to Kai, both facing the food in front of them and finally allowing our plan to unfurl. Kai asked why he’d set it up, and he played it off as loving her and wanting to hang out with her. But it was much more than that, and it was perfect.
Honestly, he would’ve plucked every last star from the sky just to start what he was about to do, but Kai wouldn’t have wanted that, and he’d been dreaming of obliging her in this particular way for over a decade.
She reached for a sauce packet—her favorite kind, placed strategically in front of her so she’d pick it up first—and something knocked inside the plastic as she lifted it. Her eyes jumped to Jonah with such wariness it was as if she believed someone had poisoned their food. He just smiled, his lips melting across his face as he watched her, as he watched his life unfold before his very eyes.
She peeled back the top of the sauce packet and slapped the cover on the coffee table, eyes brimming with silver as she peered in. June and I held each other’s hands tightly, watching our incredible friends.
“I know you haven’t always known, but I have,” Jonah said, his voice breaking as his tears began to well. “I used to dream about being able to get you a nice engagement ring.”
She began sobbing. “Jojo, I… When… How’d you…” She sucked up an ugly sniffle and paused for a moment to calm herself down. “How’d you get the cover back on the packet?”
June and I giggled silently. Kai would ask that. Jonah chuckled as well, pushing a tear from his cheek with a flat palm. “Clear nail polish.”
She wailed, throwing herself over him. “You’re so smart!”
They held each other so tightly, it was as if they were each other’s lifeline, as if they hadn’t seen each other in centuries though it had only been a couple hours. I knew the feeling, and I whispered to June to let her know that my proposal was going to be far more annoying.
For the record, I’m going to take her to her favorite restaurant, get her riled up with some historical debate I haven’t decided on yet, and yell at her to marry me until she snatches the ring from my fingers. Then, I’m going to drag her to the bathroom, sit her on the counter, and kiss her everywhere until she’s no longer upset with me. But that’s a story for another day.
Our teary-eyed friends pulled away from their embrace, keeping their noses close. Jonah cupped Kai’s cheek and finally, after all these years, said those fucking words to her. “Will you marry me, Kai?”
