“No,” I said.
“Then what the hell are we doing here?” Uly asked.
“Just follow me,” I said.
“This better be good,” Vera said. “I could be doing stuff with Hil right now.”
“I agree,” Mara said.
“Oh, you want to do stuff with me, beauty?” Hil asked Mara.
“Go climb a statue, Hil,” Mara said. “So you can fall and break you neck.”
“That’s a little harsh,” Hil said.
They all started to bicker.
I sped up a little and took Belle with me.
When she saw where we were going, she looked at me.
It was the spot where I stood with her the night of her mother’s engagement party.
The flowers. The lights.
They were on again tonight.
The perfect place for something I had to say.
“You all stay here,” I said as I stepped up and took Belle with me. “This is just for me and Belle. You can watch.”
“What are you doing, Ash?” Belle asked. “Are we going to have a pretend divorce now?”
“No, angel,” I said. I took her left hand. “This entire thing has been crazy. It’s been non-stop crazy. There hasn’t been a chance to breathe and I’m okay with that. With you, I’m okay with anything.”
“That’s so cute,” Hil said.
“Shut up, Hil,” Belle said. “Let Ash talk.”
“Everything about my life is somehow twisted and backward. That’s how it’s always been. I mean, I have Hil as a brother.”
“Stepbrother,” Hil said. “There’s a big difference.”
“Just let Ash finish, man,” Uly said.
“We know the story,” Mara said. “You two love each other.”
“Just kiss so we can leave,” Vera said.
“I’ll get to that part in a bit,” I said. “First I wanted to talk to Belle…” I lowered down to one knee. Everyone gasped. “I’m just going to say what I have to say. I love you. Everything around us is crazy. But we have each other. I have the tattoo shop. You have your books. I’ll forever sketch for you. You can write anywhere, anytime, and I’ll be there. We can do anything we want together. Just as long as we’re together. Because any time we’re apart, that’s when it all falls apart, angel. I don’t want to be apart from you ever in my life. No matter what happens. So I guess…” I reached into my pocket with my left hand and took out a diamond ring. A thin, silver band with a nice diamond glistening right on top. “I want to be yours, angel. So I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m asking you to let me spend the rest of my life keeping you happy.”
“Holy shit,” Mara said.
“I’m fucking crying over here,” Vera said. “He fucking proposed to her.”
“Hey, wait a second,” Hil called out. “This can’t happen.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Belle yelled. “All of you. Shut up.” Belle looked down at me. “Why did you bring everyone?”
“I regret it now,” I said.
“Ash, stand up,” Belle said.
I rose to my feet.
Still holding Belle’s hand. And the diamond ring.
“This is fucking crazy,” she said.
“Very.”
“This isn’t something we should be doing right now.”
“I know that.”
“But you just don’t care.”
“Nope.”
Belle laughed. “We’ve both seen that forever kind of love doesn’t happen. It’s just now and then it’s over.”
“Right,” I said. “But the now… it’s pretty fucking good with you.”
“So you’re asking me to give you the now?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what you want?”
“That’s what I’m going to get, angel,” I said. “Now put the ring on.”
“I didn’t say yes.”
“You said yes a long time ago.”
Belle touched my face. “Fine. It’s a yes.”
Uly whistled and clapped.
I slid the ring on Belle’s finger.
Everyone came rushing up to us.
Hugging me. Hugging Belle.
Except Hil.
He stood with his arms crossed.
“What’s wrong, bro?” I asked him. “Jealous?”
“No. This doesn’t mean anything.”
“Excuse me?” Belle asked.
“Hil, don’t be a dick,” Uly said.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I asked him.
“I tried to talk to you about this before,” he said.
“About what?” Vera asked.
“You’re not engaged,” Hil said. “I don’t give a shit about the ring.”
“Who do you think you are?” Mara asked. “Are you seriously trying to ruin their moment?”
“No,” Hil said. “They already had their moment.”
“What are you talking about, Hil?” I asked.
“You two are already married.”
* * *
“What?” Belle asked.
Hil grinned. “Married. Your last name is Rivers. Has been since the night I married you both.”
“Hil…,” I said.
“That was a pretend wedding, man,” Uly said. “We were all just fucking around.”
“I wasn’t,” Hil said. “I have the power to marry anyone I want. In this state.”
“You’re kidding,” Belle said.
“Nope,” Hil said. “A few months ago I got drunk and decided to become an ordained minister. Just for fun. Did it all online. Wasn’t that hard.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said. “You’re telling me that the night we were all here…”
“And I stood in front of you and married you, it was real,” Hil said.
“Ash and Belle are legit married?” Mara asked.
“Yes,” Hil said. “Do I have to fucking write it in a different language or something? What I said counts. I asked if they wanted to be together. They said yes. I said everything else needed. And… boom… married.” Hil clapped his hands together. “I tried to talk to you about it, Ash, but you wouldn’t give me a second to tell you.”
“You married us without our knowledge?” Belle asked.
“You knew,” Hil said.
“It was for fun,” Vera said. “It was pretend. It was to kill time. We were drinking…”
“So what?” Hil asked. “She’s loved Ash from the second she saw him. And he’s loved her from the second he picked her notebook up off the floor. I saw it. I knew it. He’s my brother, right? I know these things.”
I stepped toward Hil.
I grabbed his shirt.
I pulled him nose to nose.
“You’re serious right now?”
“Dead serious,” he said. “I can show you proof if you want.”
“Wait,” Mara said. “Don’t you need to announce it though? Sign legal documents and stuff?”
“Depends on the marriage,” Hil said. “But what I said, what I’m qualified to say… they’re married.”
“Married,” I said.
“Married,” Hil said back.
“Ash, let me have at him quick,” Belle said.
I stepped back and Hil looked down at Belle.
“Hey, beauty,” he said. “You look even better as a married woman.”
Belle slapped him across the face.
“So, wait a second,” I said. “I’m married to Belle…”
“That’s right,” Hil said. “You’re welcome.”
Belle looked at me.
We both kind of smiled at the same time.
I reached for her left hand again. “Your thoughts, angel?”
“My thoughts? Hil married us? He got some kind of, what, certificate online to marry us?”
“You can find some weird shit on the internet,” Hil said.
“So let me run this through my head out loud,” I said. “A drunk guy, who was drunk when he did whatever online to be able to
marry people, is the one who married us. And we thought it was pretend. But it was real. So now I propose to you, but it doesn’t matter because we’re already married.”
“I think that’s the whole story, Ash,” Belle said.
“Fuck. You’re my wife, angel.”
“I guess I am,” she said.
“Is that what you want?”
Belle pulled her hand away and looked at the ring. “I’ll think about it.”
“You’ll think about it?” I asked.
“For the record, I can take some law classes online and figure out how to do a quick divorce too,” Hil said. “Anything for you two.”
“I think you’ve done enough, Hil,” Uly said.
“So… do we say congrats now?” Vera asked.
“You better,” Belle said. “I’m a married woman now.”
Everyone screamed at the same time.
Jumping up and down, clapping, hugging all over again.
It was short lived though as someone yelled at us.
“Fuck,” Hil said. “It’s the flashlight guy again.”
“We better get out of here,” Uly said.
And just like that, we were running away again.
I reached for Belle’s hand and we ran side by side, a smile on our faces, the flashlight guy running after us.
It was Them and They. Making a mad dash to escape, just like we always seemed to have to do.
Belle and I looked at each other and started to laugh.
The ride with Belle had been wild.
And it was just getting started.
Epilogue
She never,
said,
With nothing to speak,
softly, in time,
Reaching the peak.
It’s a matter of time,
space,
Where we stand behind the stars,
Our turn, to watch,
The past with its scars.
I flipped the page and started to sketch.
I had so many pages to work on, but it was all worth it.
The beach house was finally quiet for once.
And to think it only took hours of partying… and plenty to drink.
Uly and Mara were on the couch.
Hil and Vera on the floor on a bed of sleeping bags.
I stood at the counter, still sipping a drink, feeling like life was perfect.
The old beach house still needed a little work, and that was okay. We’d get there when we felt like it.
It was Vanessa’s idea to give the beach house to Belle and I.
We had to tell everyone about our surprise marriage.
My father was shocked but not pissed at all.
Vanessa laughed, saying that somewhere in her heart she always knew I’d meet the right one and get married fast. And young.
Oh well.
Belle’s mother was annoyed for about ten seconds. Just because to her Belle would always be her little girl. But I reassured Michelle that Belle was well taken care of. But it was Belle who went for the throat.
Look at my upbringing… you got engaged two hundred times… and now you’re marrying Pete after knowing him for a week.
It was brutal to hear but it worked.
Belle’s mother nodded and wished us the best.
Then she offered both of us a spot in her wedding.
Which meant Belle and I would get to walk down the aisle together.
And now the beach house was home.
I told Belle if at any time she wanted to move, we could.
She told me the beach house was the perfect place to keep writing.
The sketches and poems were better than anything Miss Whitaker could have imagined, and Belle was a week away from signing her first book deal. And I made sure to keep to my promise and made sure that everything I sketched was hers. I wanted nothing out of the deal other than to see Belle happy and writing.
I worked alone for an hour and then shut the notebook.
I had to track down Belle and knew right where she was.
Her favorite spot in the beach house wasn’t actually in the beach house.
I had to fix up the hammock because when I showed it to her, she fell in love with it. The thing was so old that when I grabbed her and fell into the hammock, it broke.
We hit the ground with a hard thud and burst into laughter.
And then we just stayed there on the ground for a few hours, talking, laughing, kissing, and more.
Outside, the sky was clear and warm.
The rush of the ocean was the perfect background noise.
I found Belle in the hammock, a notebook on her chest, a pen in her mouth, her head to the side, fast asleep.
I took the pen from her mouth and put that and the notebook on the ground.
I stared at her and shook my head.
I couldn’t get too crazy tonight because I had to get down to the shop by noon.
My schedule was full.
Ink-a-Tat was no more.
There wasn’t a new name yet though.
Nobody could agree on one.
Eventually Tin would think of something that worked.
Lark tried to hook up with Shuffle and got in trouble. Kyan had moved on to another love interest through tattoos. Banana chick was no more. Ale was quiet as always. Iggy was brooding and scary. But he stopped calling me kid. I was Ash. That was a big deal. Hae was still in love with Belle, but she was dating some surfer guy that couldn’t count the fingers on his hands.
I slipped my hands under Belle’s body and she groaned.
“Sleep out here,” she whispered. “It’s too nice.”
I didn’t object.
I slid my ass into the hammock next to Belle and she put her head onto my chest.
She let out a long sigh and had a death grip on my shirt.
I played with her hair and took deep breaths, taking in the night.
My eyes slowly started to shut and Belle popped her head up.
“Ash,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“I want to do something crazy tomorrow.”
“Like what?”
“I know you’re busy and all… but I think I want to get a tattoo.”
“Sure,” I said. “What do you want done?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it, but I can’t figure it out.”
“Okay. We’ll figure it out together. That’s kind of our thing, isn’t it?”
“Totally,” she said. “Everything we do is together. Hey, we should get a tattoo together.”
“Matching tattoos?” I asked.
“Is that stupid?”
“That’s really stupid, angel,” I said. “Plus, I wanted to give you your tattoo myself.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Belle put her head down but kept her eyes open.
“You know we’re going to get matching tattoos now, right?”
“Yup,” she said.
I smiled.
She just had a way about her.
There was no way to explain it.
The only thing I could do was live it.
Be part of it all.
Live in the world Belle lived in and stand back when she needed to create more of it.
There was no other way to describe it.
She needed a room to write in and I gave her a beach house.
She wanted a tattoo and I was going to make sure I got the same one as her.
I couldn’t help myself.
After all, she was my wife.
And if I could keep my wife happy, then I was doing my job.
“The waves are nice tonight,” she whispered. “I can just be here and stare all night.”
I nodded as I stared at her.
Yeah, angel, I know the feeling.
What’s after #bfh?
BAY FALLS HIGH … is OVER… maybe ‘for now’ or maybe ‘for good’…
But darlin’ I’m not done yet. I’ve been teasing two letters for a y
ear now.
BC
Brooks Crest
And it’s happening. It’s really happening…
* * *
Ready to meet Mac? Here’s a preview of his upcoming book:
I open my eyes.
Happy fucking Birthday.
My room isn’t as trashed as I figure it would be.
The birthday banner still hangs on the ceiling, even with the zero missing.
That’s because Taz got a little crazy and said he could prove how thick he was at a certain area and wanted to wear the zero down there.
Just in case you care, he was full of shit.
I had no idea where the zero ended up, but if touched the area I thought it did, Taz could keep it for the rest of his life.
I don’t mind the room.
It’s the biggest in the building.
I’m used to being on the other side of the BC world.
Kind of fucked up and funny when you think of someone like me graduating.
Right?
Nothing that much shit is different now though.
It’s the same bullshit of classes, just in a different setting.
I still control the entire place.
It’s my little empire, wall to wall, and everything in between.
I reach for a cigarette before my phone.
Priorities.
I slowly sit up and groan through the sledgehammer inside my skull.
Every time I turned around last night someone was showing a drink in my face.
Of course everyone showed up. They all wanted a chance to kiss my ass. Which was smart on their part. Because there were two people that didn’t show up last night.
And today, they were going to get the beating of a lifetime.
I stick the cigarette between my lips and can’t find a lighter.
I move my right hand under the covers and touch something.
Cloth at first.
Then skin.
Warm skin.
Soft skin.
Something delicious.
The curve of woman’s hip.
Hmm…
I lift the covers and there’s a cute blonde girl next to me.
Well, maybe she’s cute.
I can’t see her face.
Just from behind.
She’s wearing my jacket. My fancy, Brooks Crest jacket that I have to wear when I’m walking around the shit hole. You know, have to keep up appearances and all that shit. So all that big hush money isn’t going to waste.
ASH: a bay falls high novel Page 21