“Not funny,” I scolded, though his stupid, smug, childish grin eventually managed to strike the same on my face.
We sat in the apartment, just minutes away from getting the go ahead from Bell. Julia– God bless her– was still distracting Alannah hours later. As soon as everything was ready, Sam was gonna head off to the H.Q., and I was going to meet Alannah outside the restaurant, per Bell’s orders.
“So, Jason…” Sam said. I knew where this was going. Some form or another of “the talk.”
“You’re going to be my best man,” I replied, finishing his thoughts. He looked at me… confusedly.
“Oh… okay,” he said. Um… what?
“I… what?” I said.
“No I mean, that’s awesome dude, thank you, but that’s not what I meant,” Sam explained. Oh… okay.
“What did you want to say?” I asked.
“I just… I know this is a big deal, and I don’t want to throw anything more on you, but I was just thinking a lot about what you and I talked about the other night,” Sam said. “And I just… What if something– God forbid– ever did happen to one of our people? What if someone like Alex, or Julia, or even Alannah got into some kind of trouble? Human trouble? You would step in then, wouldn’t you?”
“I… what?” I asked. And I was pretty damn confused a just moments before. “What are you talking about, dude?”
“I mean I’m not being cryptic; you know what I’m saying,” Sam replied.
“Well Sam, obviously I’d do something about it then,” I answered, “but that’s… it’s a different thing, you know? Totally different.”
Sam just looked spacely past me, out the window to our left, but he didn’t really give much more of a response than a grunt of approval.
“Why do you ask…?” I continued. I could feel a sort of weight on the couch. Like, literally, a weight increase; or I guess pressure. Sam was putting more and more pressure down in his seat– kind of like his whole body was tensing up.
He looked down, and then back to me, relaxing a bit, and exhaling heavily.
“I don’t know, it was just… on my mind, I guess…” he said.
I stared at him, and for a few seconds we just sat there looking at each other, but something was off. I mean, it’s not like Sam and I regularly stare deeply into each other’s eyes, but this felt far more tense than usual. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know exactly what. That’s what made me so unsettled.
I was about to pursue this weird-ass conversation further, but just then my phone went off, because you know, fate and time really hate me. It was Julia: “Bell says everything’s ready. We’re on our way to Mamma Maria now.”
“Alright, go time,” I said, jumping up from the couch, albeit a little too excitedly to leave. Sam got up too, and a more normal expression returned to his face.
“Right, I’ll head to the H.Q. now,” Sam said, then moving in for a hug, which I gladly reciprocated. “Good luck, buddy. This is gonna go great, I know it.”
“God I hope so,” I nervously laughed, then anxiously pulling away from the embrace. I was shaking– like, shaking shaking. I never shake.
“You’re shaking. You never shake,” Sam noticed. See, told you.
“Yeah, well… never proposed before,” I explained. He just smiled a little, and put his hand on my shoulder.
“You’ll do just fine. Maybe keep up the shaking thing the whole time; I bet she’d really dig it,” he suggested.
“Dig it?” I mocked. “Jesus Christ man, how old are you?”
“Older than you,” he said.
“By a week,” I argued.
“Still older!” he insisted, making his way to the terrace, getting ready to take off. “You got this Jase, don’t worry about it! I’ll see you in a little bit!”
“Yeah, see you then…” I muttered; by then he was long gone from the terrace.
I stayed in the apartment for a beat, just to clear my head on what just happened. Because after all, what the hell did just happen?
Sam clearly hadn’t let go of the whole “saving people from people” idea as much as I thought he did, which would have been fine, but this seemed… different. And the way he was replying to me too? It was way more snark-filled than usual, even for his sarcastic self.
I don’t think he’d ever try and force something like that to happen, even a little bit, but clearly this meant that he was still trying to find some kind of a reason to get me to see his side of things. I just really hoped it wouldn’t consume him, because I knew where I stood, and that was never going to change.
Anyhow, after that moment or so of worrisome contemplation, it was off to Mamma Maria’s for me, where even more gut-wrenching, and much more realistic fear awaited me.
It took me a few minutes to get there, as I wanted to take some time to try and calm myself the hell down– which didn’t work, for those interested– and by the time I got there, Alannah was waiting outside with Julia.
I landed in the same nearby alleyway as before, and clicked my suit off. It quickly retracted into the chestplate, and I readjusted my tie; I was never very good at tying a tie, to be honest.
Taking a deep breath, I walked as confidently as I could toward the front entrance, where Alannah was patiently, beautifully waiting for me. Her hair was curled, just slightly, and she was in a beautiful maroon dress, semi-formal look. She killed it.
Every step felt like my foot was being pulled down by the earth itself, and I could feel every single drop of sweat rolling from my head, hands, and armpits; gross, but true all the same. I think she sort of noticed, because she was looking at me like there was something wrong. Get it together, man! Don’t ruin this!
“Hey babe, you alright?” she asked. Alright, now was the time to come up with something good. Some kind of proposal-deterrent.
“Yeah, Sam and I were just racing around… the world,” I lied. Not a terrible lie actually, but the execution could’ve used some work.
“Oh,” she remarked. “How fast were you going? You don’t normally sweat that much.”
“Do I not…?” I asked. “Must’ve just been a bad day for me I guess. Too many calories.” I looked over at Julia, and made a half-smile. She just looked back at me with a very you’ve got to be kidding me expression. Fair enough.
“Right, well I’m gonna head home now; you two have fun!” she said, pulling out her keys, and hugging Alannah goodbye. Then she made her way over to me and hugged me tight. “Calm down, Rhodes. You are not ruining this for her, or yourself,” she whispered.
“Yes ma’am,” I replied, smiling softly. She let go, and smiled back excitedly, trying to mask just how happy she really was.
Julia waved to both of us once more, and made her way to her car. We turned, and slowly made our way inside. We made our way to our seat, and sat down. Alannah sat down and looked around rather confusedly, noticing the lack of people in the restaurant. God damn it, Bell…
“There’s really not many people here tonight, huh?” she said to me. I just looked around as though I was equally as surprised, and then nodded back to her.
“Yeah, that’s… it’s kinda weird,” I commented. She stared at me, and I looked back at her, trying my best to just smile back nonchalantly. She laughed a little, and shook her head.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked, giggling.
“What?” I responded, also chuckling a little. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“You seem all… tense,” she persisted. Then she took my hand into hers. “Your hands are shaking; you never shake. What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, and gazed out the window to my left. Damn you brain, think!
“I’m just… nervous, I guess.” I said. This did not seem like a good excuse thus far. “Last time we tried this, things… didn’t go so well.” Okay, that wasn’t bad. Alannah squeezed my hand a bit harder.
“Nothing’s going to happen. After all, Sam can handle it if it does, right? He’s been training a lot, hasn�
�t he?” she said.
“Apparently. Yeah, maybe… It’ll be fine, I know that. I just want to give you the dinner you deserve.”
Just then, I heard a guitar start to strum gently a ways away from us. I jumped out of my skin at it, I’ll be honest. We both looked off to the corner of the room we were in, and there he was. He was sitting on the other end of the room. Peter. Damn. Frampton.
My eyes bulged out of my head, and my jaw dropped a little. I can’t believe Bentley actually got him! Alannah laughed in disbelief, and turned to me with a huge smile on her face.
“Is that Peter Frampton!?” she asked excitedly. I nodded a best I could, and she just laughed like she couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it, forget her!
He started playing Baby, I Love Your Way, and gave me a subtle nod. Good lord, I felt like I was ready to die right there and then, let me tell you. That’s an item off the bucket list.
“Well… looks like we’ve got our own little concert tonight,” I marvelled, smiling at Alannah. She smiled back, and even though I was freaking out, like that, I was just so happy.
We proceeded to have an incredibly peaceful, enjoyable, relaxing dinner, which I felt we hadn’t really had in ages, and talked for a good hour or so about all the little things going on in our lives. For once, no talk on powers, or problems of mass-proportions, just a simple conversation between a boyfriend and girlfriend about their everyday relationships, highs, and lows.
Eventually, we finished up at Mamma Maria’s, and we headed outside, but just before we got to the front door, I stopped, and turned Alannah to me. I had a new idea.
“Hey,” I said, her looking at me with those big, beautiful brown eyes, “I have an idea.”
“Yeah?” she said with a smile. “What is it?”
“Let’s just go through the back tonight,” I suggested.
“I… what?” she asked. “Is that like a euphemism or something? Because Jason, I–”
“Oh my God, what?” I interrupted, mortified. “No! I wouldn’t– no! I meant like literally the back entrance of the restaurant. Do you want to leave through there?”
“Oh, why?” she continued to question. I rolled my eyes.
“Because life is short, Ana, and we should switch things up every now and again.” She laughed, and shoved me a little. “So, you in?”
“Yeah, okay,” Alannah said. “Whatever you say, weirdo.”
I grabbed her hand, and began to run through the restaurant, making our way to the back. It just lead to some dumpsters and the backs of surrounding buildings, but I didn’t care. I just grabbed her tight, to which she instinctively responded by gripping back onto me tightly, and I took off.
“Jason!” she yelped. She was still laughing though, so I was just gonna roll with it.
I took us to her house, and I dropped just outside of her backyard, in the woods. She walked out, and turned back to look at me. I just looked back with a stupid smile stuck on my face.
“One sec,” I said, holding my finger up. I bolted away, and made my way to the H.Q. as fast as I could. It only took me a minute, and when I got there I immediately landed on the roof, and spotted the ring.
Weirdly, there was a bouquet of Lilacs sitting next to it. Maybe Bell assumed there was no such thing as too many flowers. Without thinking, I grabbed them, as well as the ring, and took back off into the sky, making my way back to Alannah’s house.
I can’t explain why, but I just had this odd impulsive feeling. Something in my heart that told me exactly what it was I needed to do, no further assistance required. Hopefully Bell wouldn’t be too upset.
I had the ring in my pocket, and covered the flowers as best I could with my jacket. Once I landed, I pulled them out and they were in… moderate condition. Could be better, but at least most of them were still there, and relatively in one or so piece.
Alannah glanced at the flowers, and then to me, and blushed a little. I just smiled wide, and walked over, handing them to her.
“Where’d you just get these?” she asked, holding them and smelling their sweet scent. She then punched me, and looked me in the eyes sternly. “You didn’t just steal these, did you?”
“Of course not!” I replied, a little hurt to be honest. Then again though, it’s not like I paid for them. “Don’t worry about it. Just enjoy the moment.” She smiled, and grabbed onto my tie.
“Then why don’t you come a little closer?” she cooed softly. Damn… I– Damn…
We kissed, and I gently– yet firmly– held onto her waist, floating us to the roof of her house. When I dropped us onto it, she opened her eyes, and looked around, somewhat surprised.
I just sat down, and motioned for her to sit down next to me. She reciprocated, and leant her head on my shoulder, still holding the lilacs all the while. We looked out at the slowly setting sun, and I let out a heavy, but all the same ecstatic breath.
“I really love you, you know that?” I said to her. She giggled a little, and held onto my arm with hers.
“Yeah, you’re pretty cool,” she said. I laughed at that, and leant my head onto hers.
“You remember when we were up here the first time, four years ago?” I remembered. I felt her nod. “I was just learning about all these powers, and more than anyone else, you were the one who believed in me; without a second thought, or any hesitation. You were convinced I’d be the hero.”
“And was I wrong?” she pointed out.
“Well, for the world, I don’t know, but for you– for all our people– I…I guess not, no,” I said, smiling a little.
“Well, I can only speak for myself really, but you’ve always been my hero, Jason,” she said. “Maybe that’s enough.”
“Believe me, it is,” I said, turning to face her, and scooting away a little so we could see each other better. “Alannah, believe me, I…” I stopped, and tried to compose myself as best I could. “I know sometimes I can ramble, and not get to the point quick enough, but I hope you believe me when I say: You are my hero. You’re my world; you are my whole world, and you’re all I’ll ever need.”
She smiled again, and we kissed… again. We did that for a couple of pretty awesome minutes if I may be so bold, and then I pulled away, standing up, and getting her to carefully do the same.
“I got you one more anniversary gift,” I said. She looked at me slightly confused, but I could tell in her eyes, there was a part of her that already knew.
“Okay…” she said slowly. Her face kept seeming like it was trying to decide whether to be happy, sad, or scared. It just made me want to smile more and more by the second.
“Okay, turn around,” I directed. She listened, and was kind of shakily standing there. Yeah, she knew. This was so awesome.
“Jason…” she said, her voice unsteadily coming apart.
“Okay, ready?” I continued, getting down on one knee.
“Jason… I…” she kept trying to say something, but she just couldn’t. It was adorable.
“Turn around,” I said softly. She slowly turned, dropping the lilacs, and holding her hands up to her face. Her eyes were already pouring tears out, and seeing me with the ring in my hand only made it worse. Better? I don’t know, whatever the appropriate word was for the moment, it was happening. “Alannah Daniels, will you marry me?” I asked.
Speaking as a person who has actually had time frozen around him several times before, that feeling where everything seems like it slows down, or that time actually stops for you? It’s a way more powerful feeling than the real thing. I could just feel every second passing by, and it seemed like an eternity, even though it was like three. Three of the most horrifying, heart-stopping, incredible seconds of my life.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Yeah?” I asked, laughing in disbelief.
“Yeah,” she repeated, laughing and crying like a madwoman. I leapt up and grabbed her, kissing her hard on the mouth. We floated up into the air a bit, and I held her as tightly as I could. This passionate,
tender moment together was one that I wished I could remain in forever, but of course, as with all things, it was ruined by my friends. My family.
Will, Julia, Alex, Bell, and Bentley all came outside from the sliding glass door of her house, and cheered and clapped for us. It threw me for such a loop that I lost focus on floating, and Alannah and I fell to the ground. Now, I fell on my back and held her tight to protect her of course, but it still wasn’t super fun.
“Nice landing,” Will said, smiling wide.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” I asked, getting up, though admittedly I too was still smiling.
“You really think I didn’t know how this was bound to play out?” Bell asked, smirking. “I know you far too well, son. I knew my plan would never actually happen; it just needed to push you to do it on your own.” God damn, this guy was a pro.
I just laughed, and moved over to him for a hug. The others all moved in for their collective hugs for both me and Alannah, and even Bentley gave her a hug, since they’re apparently the best of friends. Then he walked over to me, and was actually not scowling. It was a miracle!
“So was there ever a helicopter?” I asked. He shook his head.
“We weren’t gonna waste precious federal materials on an inevitable no-show,” he explained.
I just chuckled, and he extended his hand. For a second I stared at it like it wasn’t from this world– and even then, most things not from here I know about anyway– but then I reciprocated, and proudly shook his hand.
“Congratulations,” he said. I nodded my head in appreciation, and then the most shocking thing in the universe happened. Bentley smiled. Like… what dude!? It was ever so slight, but it was a real, genuine smile, through and through. The worst part about it was that it was a really nice smile too; better than mine, even.
“Where’s my family?” Alannah asked, looking at Bell curiously.
“I had my brother tell your brother to take them all out for dinner somewhere so you guys could show up without worrying about all the flying,” Will explained. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Thanks, pal,” I appreciated. He just winked at me in response. “Wait, where’s Sam?” I asked, noticing that he wasn’t around. Bell and Bentley looked at each other kind of… knowingly, I guess, and Bell just put his arm around me.
The Wanderer (Book 2): Stranded Page 11