Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

Chapter 63: Trust Issues 

EMMA’s POV :

"Will you marry me?"his words were ringing in my ear.

I was watching his expression, making sure that this was real and that he wasn't joking.

When I realized that this was, in fact, very real indeed, I asked him, "lan, what are you doing?"

He looked up at me with a puzzled look and said, "I'm asking you to marry me,"

He said it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.Like it was so obvious.

That made me flinch and I pulled my hand away in response.

"lan, you're the one that broke up with me,"

I stated matter-of-factly.

"You made me believe everything was over, and here I was, saying my goodbyes to you, and all of a sudden you asked me to marry you?"

"Yeah,"he said simply.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

I almost shouted.

"I know it’s sudden, but I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.We don’t have to get married right away, it’s more of a symbolic thing,"he tried to explain, but his explanation made no sense to me.

"What in the effing hell, lan?"I yelled.

"What?"

he got up to his feet and an irritated look was splashed across his face.

"Are you bipolar or something? What is this? What in the hell is going on?"

I was absolutely thrown off course.

I felt like I was being Punk'd and Ashton Kutcher would pop out with a camera from behind the couch.

"Do you not wanna marry me?"he spat.

"What?"

"Are you in love with someone else? That kid Tyler?" Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

"What?!"my voice was seriously high pitched this time.

"Is that why you’re hesitating?"he asked again.

"lan, please stop talking,"I said with both hands raised in the air.

"Tyler has nothing to do with this.

You can’t keep doing things like this to me, okay? You broke up with me, you were the one that left me and said we weren't gonna work out, but now all of a sudden, this?"

"Emma...I..."that struck a chord in him, he couldn't bring himself to continue.

"Oh my God, lan! You're so dumb, you're doing it all wrong!"suddenly we heard a voice coming from the bedroom.

I whipped my head around and a familiar looking girl was standing at the doorframe.

"Hailey?"I gasped.

"Hailey, what the hell? I thought you left!" lan yelled.

"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?" I said again.

"Emma, please excuse my brother.His way of going about this is crude, but he’s coming from a good place,"

Hailey said to me, and she turned to her brother and said, "I can’t leave until I know you'd get her back.And thank god I didn't, I knew you'd need my help,"

"I don't need your help,"he scoffed.

"Emma, just ignore him,"she turned back to me, completely tuning out her brother,

"He’s bottled up his feelings for some time now and what you're seeing is the explosion of all that.I know it's shocking, but that’s lan for you.He really cares about you and letting you go was the worst thing he’s ever done.He’s been carrying that ring ever since Valentine's Day, he wanted to propose to you then.He told me about your accident and he thought it was all his fault.He thought he was bringing pain and misery into your life.He thought staying away would be the best thing for everyone but it just ate him up on the inside.This is his way of telling you that’s made a dumb choice.So please, just take a deep breath and listen to him,"

As Hailey was telling me all this, I caught a glimpse of lan’s eyes and I knew she was telling the truth.

"Is it true?"I said to him.

"What?"he asked.

"You realized that you've made a dumb choice?"

"I thought it was a wise choice at the time,"he answered.

"What changed?"I asked.

He took a deep breath and his hand went to rake his hair as he said, "Time...time puts things in perspective.I realized we're out of time now.You're gonna leave and you'll forget all about me.And to live in a world where a girl like you exists and I chose to let you go, that doesn’t sound like living at all,"

Hailey took a step back and I was watching lan’s full posture.

He looked nervous and scared, but he was also being absolutely honest with everything.

This was the lan that I had hoped to see much earlier on.

But he was never this vulnerable with me, not even when we had that talk on the beach.

"Maybe it’s too late or whatever, but I just have to tell you,"he said again, pausing for a moment before continuing ,

This is how much I love you and care about you.I don't know what the future will be like for the both of us, but if you give me another chance, we'll make that future together

"A future together...that word struck a chord in me.We had a plan for that.That was all I ever wanted.But then he broke my heart and my dreams went down the drain.It was the worst thing ever and I didn’t wanna handle anything like that ever again.I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

"lan...this...this is too much.I came over here with my mind all made up that I was gonna say my final goodbye .."

I was stammering all over the place, "I'm gonna need some time to think about this,"

There was disappointment in his eyes when he heard me, but then he nodded his head in agreement and said, "I know it’s a lot.You don’t have to say anything right now, take all the time you need,"

It was awkward being in that room.

A part of me was still under the impression that this was just a crazy dream and I would wake up to my mom screaming for breakfast in a couple of minutes.

Hailey was still standing somewhere in the back.

lan was standing in front of me with his hands in his pockets.

Meanwhile, I was staring at my feet.

"I have to go,"I said finally and turned to my heels.

"Take it,"lan stopped my tracks and handed me the velvet box.

"But..."

"If you decide you don’t want it, you can give it to me then,"he spoke again before I could say anything else.

I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could, so I didn’t think too much about it.

I took the box from him and said, "Okay,"

Just as I opened the door, lan spoke again, "Goodnight, Emma,"

I turned my head back one more time and gave Hailey and lan a nod and a small smile.

"Goodnight,"

After leaving lan’s apartment, I drove straight to the party at Madison's house.

By the time I got there, the party was already in full swing.

Music was blasting on the stereo, all the senior kids were in attendance, and they were going all out.

It was our last high school party ever, obviously everyone wanted to make it count.

"You guys will not believe what just happened,"

I pulled Tiff and Carrie away from the crowd of partying seniors as soon as I spotted them inside the house.

They had red plastic cups in their hands, filled to the brim with some alcohol concoction that Mark probably created.

Mark was busy moving the keg with a bunch of guys, so this was the perfect moment to steal Carrie away from him.

"What?"Carrie yelled over the music.

"What?!"Tiff yelled louder.

"Come with me, it's an emergency!"I screamed to their ears.

I looked around and there were too many people near us, so I pulled them both all the way outside.

We walked out of the house to the front yard, and we kept walking until we were at the end of the street.

"What is it?"they asked impatiently.

"Mark’s waiting for me inside,"Carrie whined.

"And I’m waiting for Nick, he says he’s gonna come,"Tiff followed.

I took another look around and made sure we were completely alone.

Tiff and Carrie crossed their arms at me, waiting for an explanation.

"Guys..."

I pulled out the velvet box from my jeans pocket and said, "lan just proposed,"

Their jaws dropped in an instant.

Their eyes were as wide as saucers and they were waiting for me to continue or say something like I was kidding.

But I just nodded my head firmly, making sure they knew it was serious.

"No effing way!"Tiff exclaimed.

"Holy crap, are you serious?"Carrie said and grabbed the box, examining it.

"Shit, it’s real! Dude? What did you say?"

Tiff asked when she saw Carrie opened the box, revealing the little ring perched inside.

"I told him I don't know...I have to think about it,"

"Holy shit, this is a real diamond?"Tiff giggled.

"I thought it was over for sure between you guys? You wrote that whole letter and everything,"Carrie said.

"I know, that’s what I thought!"I agreed.

"What the hell happened?"

Tiff’s gaze was still stuck on that little ring.

"I guess...he realized he made the wrong choice,"I shrugged.

"So now he’s giving the choice back to you?"Carrie asked.

"I guess so,"I shrugged again.

Tiff looked up and asked, "So, if you guys get back together...does that mean he’s gonna follow you to Philly?"

"I don't know, we haven't talked about it,"

"You're still going to college no matter what, right?"Carrie asked.

"Of course!"

"Maybe you guys can do long distance?"Tiff suggested.

"Uh...I don't know about that..."

"Well, do you want to be with him?"Carrie asked.

"Of course, I do! But...it's complicated and scary...and...getting my heart broken by him was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.Now, I'm finally at a good place and I don’t want that to ever happen

again,"I sighed dramatically.

Tiff let out a sympathetic smile and Carrie patted my shoulder."Everything is happening so fast, you guys.lan’s so unpredictable, he’s like a hurricane.He should have come with a warning,"I scoffed.

"Hurricane lan,"Tiff snorted a laugh.

"What do you think you'll do?"Carrie’s face remained serious.

"Honestly, I don’t have a clue..."I shook my head hopelessly.

Tiff and Carrie exchanged a worried look.

Carrie then turned to me and said, "Well, this is clearly an emergency.We can ditch the party and go somewhere quieter and discuss this some more,"

"Yeah, we can make a pros and cons list, I know how much you like those things,"Tiff added.

"Are you guys sure?"

I asked cautiously, "It's the night before graduation, and you guys came here to have fun.Mark and Nick are probably inside waiting for you two,"

"The boys can wait,"Tiff said simply.

"I have a legal notepad in my car.I'm gonna go get it, and you two start brainstorming on the list,"Carrie ordered.

I have the best two friends in the entire world.

They are the people who make my problems their problems, just so I don't have to go through them alone.

No matter what happens in the future, I know I've hit the jackpot.

I am the luckiest girl alive.

"What will I do without you two in college?"

I sighed and pulled them into a hug.

"Bitch, you’re not gonna get rid of us that easily,"