be a man about it

Courtney giggled when he kissed her, blissfully forgetting the horrible scene that surrounded them. “I love you, I love you,” she returned, kissing his nose. “I. Love. You.” With her cheek against Patrick’s chin, Courtney turned to find the cops and he smile fell. She nodded and took his hand in hers to lace their fingers together, letting her heart patter one more time when he tacked his last name onto her first. “Come with me?” 

Patrick intertwined their fingers, following her like a lost puppy anywhere she could ever imagine going. He approached the officer with her, zoning out as he watched her speak, not wanting to hear the details but instead watching the simple beauty in front of him. The curve of her lip, the sharpness of her jaw, how her nose dipped and her eyelashes were so long and dark. He was forever enchanted by her beauty and always had been, and the day she swapped her name for his was a day that would cause him to explode if he had to wait one more second until she was his, forever.

“Can’t do what –” Courtney started to ask when he let her go. Her hands still held the fabric of his shirt when she lifted her brown eyes to the blue she’d so thoughtlessly fallen for. A gasp escaped her lips when he proposed. Though it was a breath of surprise. It was also joy, in it’s purest form. Never before had she felt the surge of happiness that filled her heart in that school’s parking lot. Her eyes were wide when a final tear spilled over onto her cheek. She hadn’t meant to take so many seconds of silence before a smile curved her parted lips. Courtney moved her hands from his sleeves to his wrists to smile wider, to answer his question. “Yes.”

Patrick grabbed the sides of his fiancee’s face, pulling her face towards his, pressing his lips against her own, “I love you, I love you, I love you. And because I love you so much, I’m gonna have to let you go talk to those cops because it looks like they have a lot of questions,” Patrick stroked her cheek gently before letting her go, “I love you Courtney Writen. Now go help them find this guy before I find him myself and crack his skull.”

Courtney no longer felt her overwhelming need to keep herself glued together. When Patrick held her, she didn’t have to be strong because he would do it for her. Courtney gasped when he pulled her to him, letting herself cry when his strong arms wrapped around her. With her fingers gripping the material of his shirt, she heard his admission, feeling her heartbeat accelerate for the thousandth time that day, but kindly, it was in the best way. “I love you too.” 

Patrick felt his body freeze as he realized the words he had just let slip. “I- Court...” the second he heard her precious voice utter it back relief washed over him, “I love you so much, I can’t do this without you.” A sense of calmness hit him as he realized what she was to him. Without thinking he became rigid, pulling away from her as he grabbed her chin, tilting her face up to his, “Marry me.” Despite the chaos of crying parents and cops and pushing children all around them, the shooter still loose and people he knew and loved dead, all he could think about was how if he had lost her, if he ever loses her, without her knowing how much she truly meant to him, it would feel as if he was a failure, that he himself had died in that shooting. Without her, he was nothing, “Marry me, Courtney Worth. Marry me.”

Damn. 

I’m more of a chocolate cake kind of guy myself.

"Okay," Courtney complied thoughtlessly. She stood on her tip-toes to peck his lips one more time. Holding a little handful of his tshirt’s material in her fingers, she let her smile falter. "I need to go see Kate. Do you want to come?"

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