My inspiration came from this website today!
The inspiration was: A school is the location, anticipation is the theme. A diamond ring plays a part in the story.
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Today is the last day of high school. Grasping the pocket of his pants, Andrew knows that it is madness to do this but in his heart he knows he has to do something. For years his best friend has been dating other guys and being let down. Yesterday she was dumped by another guy who “wants to keep his options open” while he goes to school downstate. Thomas has heard this excuse a dozen times by a dozen different people. It is the number one excuse for high school sweethearts breaking up.
Andrew doesn’t want every love story from senior year to be about relationships running their courses. Andrew wants people to come to the ten year reunion with one thought on their minds: Are Andrew and Charlotte still together? Of course, the answer to that question will hopefully be ‘yes.’
Just as he’s hoping the answer to the question first question is also ‘yes,’ but that could be a long shot. Andrew asking Charlotte to marry him is definitely one of those things best suited for dreams. One of those things that nobody should ever act upon, right? Andrew knows that he is lanky, he has a light brown hair color and boring grayish blue eyes. He is tall and awkward with a sideways smile, and a voice that sounds so unsure all of the time. Even though proposing to Charlotte is sincere he is kind of banking on her not taking him seriously.
A part of her will probably think it is sweet, maybe even exciting. Inevitably there will also be a part of that will want to give him all of the reasons why it could never work. The first being that they are just too good of friends to ever be something more. Every best friend in the world has heard this before because for every trope there seems to be an anti-trope. Andrew is expecting her to shoot him down whether or not she thinks the proposal is serious.
Classes go as normal for the morning, reminiscing. People talking about their futures, people avoiding the truth about their futures, teaches looking bored knowing that they will have to work hard to get grades finished up tomorrow. Charlotte is sitting in the front of the class talking to her best friend Tina. Together they laugh. Together they leave the classroom and together they go to lunch.
Andrew was hoping that they would separate at some point because ideally he was going to propose at lunch. When her table fills up he leaves the line and forgoes lunch altogether. Maybe he wasn’t as committed as he thought he was at first which is scary because he wants to be with Charlotte so badly. It feels as if it is the only constant in his life – this love for her.
“You just want it so much that you are afraid to get it,” Andrew explains to himself in a whisper. A few people may have heard him, who knows, but nobody would really remember he’s sure. That is the wonderful thing about high school, isn’t it? So many people overhear things that they don’t know will be important someday. Importance is all a matter of perspective. Andrew decides that just because he is too scared to propose that it doesn’t negate that he wants to get it out of his system.
Carefully scrawling his question onto printer paper from the library brings about an intensity that Andrew had no idea existed. These are the words his lips will never speak but they take his breath way just the same. Charlotte’s locker is 238 just across from the science labs. Nobody is going to question him being that he has chemistry after lunch so after he finishes his thought he folds a simply diamond ring into the paper.
In the middle of class, Andrew decides that he absolutely has to put this note into her locker. After chickening out earlier he decided to slide into his desk in the lab instead. Admittedly, he understands why he’s never been a viable option for Charlotte. She’s this brunette beast of a women with so much confidence, power, and control. Charlotte doesn’t regret anything she does, and even though she feels every emotion she does it with enthusiasm. Ever the optimist, even in light of her break-up she smiles and gets on with life. True passion comes from oneself, she thinks.
As such Andrew dismisses himself from the classroom and walks straight to her locker. Nobody can see him, thankfully, because her locker is around a corner. No windows from classroom doors can see it. Imaginary crunching sounds cause Andrew to hunch over, his chest is collapsing in the back of his mind. Being an introvert is possibly his worst trait, making him feel a bit cowardly at some of the silliest of things.
“Just do it!” Andrew grumbles a little louder than he should have, but it works because he drops the folded paper into his locker before slipping into the bathroom to cover his face in cold water. Wash away the memory of wearing his heart on his sleeve and hiding behind a locker note. Before long he realizes that his “bathroom break” has been too long for comfort and that he needs to get back to class – even if attendance can’t hurt him anymore.
Andrew is usually one of the last people left in the school. It’s his habit of picking up trash off of the floor in the hallways. Being that his father is a janitor at one of the elementary schools it’s just a family habit to tidy up. Many people make fun of him for it, calling him obsessive compulsive. People who know him well know it is nothing like that at all. He is just a clean guy with respect for people who don’t get paid nearly enough to make sure the schools aren’t a waste zone.
By the time he reaches his car he finds that Charlotte is waiting there holding a very familiar piece of paper in her hand. Her short hair is whooshing around in the summer breeze and the sunshine is making her wrinkle her nose. It’s cute because she inadvertently smile as she squints. Pace slowly exponentially as the possible scenarios play through his head. What if he just got her excited about rekindling her relationship? What if she is really made about it? What if she thinks it is sexual or emotional harassment? Dear goodness, what if Andrew just did something that makes her really mad!
Slowing himself does nothing for the short distance that remains, and because of this he is standing next to her with hands shoved as deep into his pockets as he can manage. Somewhere in the middle of his forearms there are indents from the stitching pressing angrily against his skin. Pursing his lips seems appropriate and mysterious. Andrew is convinced that this is going to work but Charlotte touches his arm in this all mighty way that confirms that she knows it was him.
“How?” Honestly, he’s lucky that he could even make a sound let alone a real word.
“Because this is your grandma’s ring, stupid.” Laughing with her entire body, Charlotte leans into him at first. Her face is pressed against his shoulder. Soon her arms wrap around him in a proper hug. They remain this way for several long and glorious minutes. Quietly waiting to see where things go, Andrew starts preparing himself for the worst, reminding himself to smile no matter what she says, or how she reacts.
There are maybe two cars left in the school parking lot before a deep breath cuts through the surprisingly peaceful tension. Can peaceful tension even exist? Her hands yank his from his pockets, playfully, nearly knocking him off of his feet. Chin tilts up in a way that Andrew finds he can’t resist mocking. The two of them smile before lowering their heads, and as they look at the ground Charlotte finally responds; “I don’t think I’d mind that, actually. We should just go for it and figure it out along the way.”
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