25
Angelo
O
h my God, she’s amazing, I thought happily to myself as I curled my fingers around the edge of my chair. She’s freaking nailing it! Okay, so I hadn’t ever seen a performance of Romeo and Juliet before and I didn’t know much about it, but I could tell that Faye was someone else on stage. She came to life, and everyone kept laughing appreciatively at her which suggested that she was amazing.
I turned to look at her friends next to me; Tia, Rhiannon, and Dan, and they were all grinning with shining pride in their eyes. She was lucky to have them, as was I these days. It had taken a while for them to accept me, but we were there now. Then on the other side of me, Sierra gave a similar look towards the stage. Mind you, that could’ve been at her boyfriend, Iain, but I took it as a good sign all the same. I’d heard her laughing at a few of Faye’s jokes, so that was awesome.
“She’s so good,” Sierra hissed as she saw me looking at her. “They all are, aren’t they?”
“Sure are!” I was glad that I’d pushed Faye into this, she was a natural. Even if it wasn’t ever something that she pursued, it was good for her to have this experience. She’d spent too much time hiding behind the camera, it was good to see her in the spotlight, where she’d wanted to be from a very young age. I hope it showed her how worthy she was. Even if she kept it as a hobby.
But that wasn’t the only thing that had me excited. Of course I felt very pleased for Faye, I was probably more nervous than her when it came to opening night – not that I needed to be, as I could see now – but there was more. I had some news of my own and I couldn’t wait to share it with her.
I thought about the secret meeting that I’d had today and the paper work that I’d signed at the end of it and it made my heart flutter with excitement. Thank goodness I’d started taking my future seriously when I did, it gave me options, and allowed me to pick the choice that was best for me all round. Not only would it lead to an amazing career, it meant I could keep the rest of my life as well.
I wasn’t sure when I managed to get so lucky, but I was so glad for it. Maybe it was meeting Faye that had turned things around for me. That chance meeting in the library had changed it all. I wasn’t ready for it, I certainly wasn’t ready for her, but she’d come for me all the same.
Someone squeezed my shoulder from behind and I turned to see Maddie and Polly grinning wildly at the stage. They’d jumped at the chance to come and support Faye, and I already knew that Polly wanted to officially invite her to her wedding as my plus one. We’d really been accepted into one another’s lives… the next step would be meeting the parents, but I didn’t think that either of us were in a mad hurry to do that. That could come whenever it happened.
I guess the only thing that had been a thorn in our sides for a while was Kevin. He didn’t like anything that had happened on that night, the worst and best night of my life, so he tried his hardest to cause trouble. Unfortunately, because I’d punched him in the face, he almost did. No college would accept violence no matter what the circumstances, and since there wasn’t any evidence of what he’d done to Faye it was a real ‘he said she said’ situation. It didn’t help that Faye was my girlfriend by the point because some people assumed she’d say anything to keep me from getting booted out.
I thought I was going to lose everything for a moment, and it was terrifying.
I wasn’t sure what Dimitri did, but in the end it all went away. I wasn’t sure how the problem got solved, but it did. Kevin transferred to a different college and the matter was completely dropped. I guess in the end he knew that he’d done wrong and there was nothing more to it. I never wanted him to go, I didn’t want it to come to that, even after everything that he’d done, but I couldn’t control what had happened. It was done now, and we’d all moved on.
Faye was glad to be done with the YouTube stuff, she’d covered all the players and resigned her position. It’d been one hell of an experience for her, and got her some exposure, and of course it had led her to me but I could understand why she was relieved to be done. It hadn’t been the easiest time. It gave her a whole lot of unnecessary stress that she didn’t need on top of her studies.
As the performance came to an end, everyone jumped up and cheered the cast, but none of them as hard as me. I banged my hands together so hard that they felt red raw and I screamed until I practically lost my voice. I hadn’t ever been prouder of anyone before, my girlfriend was incredible.
My girlfriend… it wasn’t always easy to get used to those words.
Th cast bowed and eventually went off the stage to get changed. I didn’t wait for everyone else to exit the auditorium, I felt far too impatient for that, so I pushed my way out not caring if I was being rude and I waited outside the changing rooms for her to finally come out to see me. I couldn’t wait now, I was so excited to tell her, it almost burst free from my chest.
Every time someone came out, my heart lifted in my chest, but it wasn’t her over and over again. I wondered if Faye knew how desperate I was to see her and she was only doing it to torture me. Maybe she was punishing me for something I didn’t know that I’d done. She wasn’t usually like that, but I suppose it could have been the case today…
“Hey, handsome.” Unexpectedly I felt her lips on the back of my neck because she’d come from a different angle than I was expecting. “Did you enjoy it?”
I scooped her up in my arms and kissed all over her face. “You were so good,” I told her in between kisses. “So amazing, I was absolutely impressed. I haven’t ever seen such good acting in my life.”
“Oh stop.” Her cheeks flamed a funny shade of red. My compliments embarrassed her which was adorable. She was so modest and sweet. “I don’t think I was that good…”
“You were. Honestly, you were amazing. I’m not just saying that because I love you…”
All of a sudden I trailed off. I’d been feeling love for a while now, definite one hundred percent love, but I hadn’t said it and I wasn’t sure why. I guess I’d been waiting for the right moment and it just came out. I sucked in a panicked breath and waited for Faye to respond.
“You… love me?” she asked with water in her eyes. “Are you serious?”
I chuckled, glad that she hadn’t totally freaked out. “Yeah, I do love you. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, of course that’s okay.” Her arms snaked around my waist. “I love you too.”
She pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and she pressed her lips up against mine. As always, when we kissed the rest of the world melted away and it became only her and me. Faye had this magical way of melting the world away. I only cared about her, nothing else mattered.
“I have something to tell you,” I admitted as we finally parted. “Something very exciting.”
“You do?” She knitted her eyebrows together and stared at me expectantly. “And what’s that.”
“I had a meeting today.” Ooh even recalling the events had my heart fluttering with excitement. “And I signed myself down to a brand new career path.” I could see Faye stiffen as I said those words. She wasn’t dumb, this was something that she’d been waiting for. I needed to put her out of her misery quickly. “And I got signed to the local football team. The one I had a try out with recently…”
“You… you got a job?” she gasped out. “You’re going to be a professional player?”
“I am.” I nodded slowly. “But that’s not the best part. I’m going to be sticking around here, I’m not going to be moving anywhere. Sure, I’ll be travelling a bit during the season but most of the time I’m going to be here… with you if you want me to be?” I had to check with her. I hoped she wanted me, especially now that we were in love, but I needed to be sure. “We could get a place together?”
She clapped her hands to her mouth in shock, but thankfully she seemed to be happy surprised. “Oh my goodness, are you sure? I’ve been trying to prepare myself for you wanting to break things off with me because you’re going to move somewhere else, and I knew that I really didn’t want to hear it but I was going to be all brave and stuff…” She choked back a sob. “But now you love me and you’re going to stay with me. It’s the best news ever. I don’t even know what to think, it’s insane.”
I dragged her back to me and held her tight. “Faye, I don’t think you realize how much I would do anything for you. Of course I’m going to stay here and be with you, I love you.”
“I love you too,” she murmured happily against me. “You have no idea how much.”
And there it was, the start of my real story, the beginning of my happy ever after. I didn’t expect it, I didn’t even want it, but now I couldn’t live without it. Maybe I was too young to find the love of my life according to my old rules, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened. I just knew that Faye was the one. One day, we would get married and have children, one day we would have it all, and we’d look back on the chance meeting in the library as something that kick started our lives together.
The best days of my life were still to come…