WARNING: Lerome fluff ahead!

Jerome's POV

"Jerome?" she asked. "Is that you?'

"Last I checked," I said. "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad to see you! I missed you so much!" Louise gave me a bear hug. Out of instinct, I leaned down and kissed her. It took a minute to register that Mitch was talking to me. "It's so great to see you Louise!" he said. "I think I'm gonna take Lexi out somewhere else, so you two can have some time to catch up."

"Okay," I said. "Be careful." Alexa and Mitch said goodbye, and left the premises. I was glad in a guilty sort of way; I loved my friends, but right then I just wanted to hang out with Louise.

Speaking of Louise, she was crying softly in my arms. "Lou, what's wrong?" I asked nervously.

"Nothing," she replied through sniffles. "I'm just so happy! I was so afraid that you would move on and forget about me."

"Move on? Never." I said. "How could I find someone as perfect as you? And I know it sounds really cliché." She smiled. I noticed a platinum and blue diamond engagement ring on her hand, the same one I had given to her all those years ago.

*FLASHBACK*

It was a beautiful spring day. I was taking Louise out to this barbecue place she liked, and then we were going to see THE HUNGER GAMES. I fiddled with the blue velvet box in my coat pocket. My stomach felt like butterflies – no, snakes – were crawling around inside of it. She asked me if I was okay, I told her I was perfectly fine. We got popcorn and root beers and headed into the theater.

I didn't really pay attention to the film all that much, but I remembered the part where Rue died, because Lou started to cry. After the movie was over, we headed out to the lobby. It was a pretty fancy theater, with velvet and gold furnishings. I got down on my knees and pulled out the ring. She gasped. Everyone around seemed to stop and watch, but I didn't even notice them. My attention was on Lou.

"Louise," I began, "Ever since I met you four years ago, my life has brightened. You light up a room when you walk in, you make me laugh, and you make me smile. I don't ever want to be without you. Will you do me the honor of making me the happiest man in the world?"

She looked so happy as she bent down and kissed me. "Yes!" Louise said.

*END OF FLASHBACK*

"You still have the ring!" I exclaimed.

"Of course I do!" she exclaimed. "We're still engaged, aren't we?"

"If that's what you want," I said. She nodded. Just then, another waiter, a man with hair dyed blue and orange, walked over to us. "Louise, what are you doing? That's against policy!" he said.

"It's okay Quentin!" she said. "This is my boyfriend, Jerome."

The man – Quentin – looked pretty embarrassed. He apologized quickly and ran off. Lou looked up at me and said. 'It's the end of my shift, and Quentin's. He's going to do a fireworks show in a few hours. Want to come?"

"Sure." I answered. "Just let me run home and get a jacket."

"Okay Jerome. I'll meet you at the park in, say 45 minutes? Then we can grab some food before the show starts." I nodded.

Mitch's POV (A few hours later.)

"And then I said to the guy, 'Back off or I'll knock you into the fountain.' and he's like, 'No." So I took out his knees and he got kinda wet." Lexi concluded. We had just finished a game of laser tag, and we were sitting at the snack bar eating nachos and drinking Cokes.

"Whoa, remind me to never EVER get you angry!" I laughed. Lexi laughed too. I liked the way her nose scrunched up when she laughed. I looked at my phone to check the time: it was 9:45.

"Oh God, we have to get home!" I yelled, gathering the remaining nachos into a take-home container. "What, why?" Lexi asked. I showed her my phone, and she started to grab her stuff. We left in a hurry. About 15 minutes later, we arrived at our street. Lexi gasped. I looked around, and realized that we had a big problem on our hands.

My house was on fire. A fire truck drove by quickly. I could only watch.