Hey guys! Chapter 10 here. This was one of my favorite chapters to write, apart from the epilogue. I really enjoyed showing the progression of Megan and Aiden's relationship as they grow up and start to finish up college. The song for this chapter is Wake Up With Me and it's by Gabrielle Aplin. I only recently discovered her, but she's amazing.
Megan and Aiden decide to pay Alex Carver a visit, on an unusually sunny day in the middle of March. They end up in a dark alley in downtown Littleton, knocking on apartment number three.
A very tattooed man answers the door. He probably got the tattoos to cover up the freckles that cover almost every visible inch of skin he has. He has a piercing through his right eyebrow. The ensemble frightens Megan. "What?" The man, presumably Alex, answers in a scruffy voice. It sounds like he's a heavy smoker.
"Are you Alex Carver?"
"Look, I don't know what my landlord told you, but I got the rent money, I swear. Shoved it under his door yesterday."
"I'm not from a collection agency. I came to talk about Hanna Atherton. Your girlfriend."
Megan gets a door slammed in her face. Frustrated, she turns to Aiden. Aiden knocks again.
"Alex, come on man, we just wanna talk."
Alex throws open the door, and Megan looks down to see a knife in one of his hands. She tries to hide her fear. "I don't want to talk about that whore. She's better off dead. Now if you don't leave," Alex pauses, lifting the knife and breathing on it, wiping it with his shirt, "You might get hurt. I wouldn't want a pretty little face like yours to get mauled like hers did."
Aiden pulls Megan back behind him, to protect her. "Don't you dare threaten her like that."
Alex holds the knife. "Would you rather I threaten you instead?"
Megan pulls Aiden down off the doorstep. "We're leaving, thank you." She calls, still clutching onto Aiden's arm.
They quickly get into the car and drive off. Alex watches them until they're out of sight.
"He's scary." Aiden mutters under his breath.
Since they're in Littleton, they planned to meet up and have lunch with Tori and Spencer. Aiden begs out, but Megan wouldn't have it.
"I missed you guys! We should do this more often." Megan says upon seeing her friends.
They get a table at a corner café, much like Lento's. Spencer is reaching to take a drink when Megan snatches her hand. "What is this rock on your finger?!"
Spencer laughs, smiling. "I was wondering how long it would take you to notice. Tyler proposed last weekend! I was going to call you but I thought you'd appreciate hearing the news in person, since I knew I was going to see you."
Megan squealed. "It's so pretty. How did he ask you?"
Spencer launches into the story of how her now-fiancé Tyler proposed, and although he didn't care much for the details, he loved watching Megan's reaction. One day, hopefully very soon, that would be her. He thought for sure he would do it on Valentine's Day, but once again, it just didn't feel right.
"Oh, I forgot to ask, would you like to be a bridesmaid?"
Megan squeals, and draws the looks of several other restaurant patrons. "Oh, my goodness, of course! I'm so excited!"
Spencer smiles. "It's so weird to think that when we were in middle and high school that we used to dream about growing up and being best friends and being in each other's weddings, and now it's actually happening."
Tori laughs. "I never thought you'd be the first one, Spence. Honestly, I thought you'd be the last."
Spencer fakes a shocked look. "I know, you guys thought I would be the old maid of the bunch. The terminal bachelor. But Tyler is the one. He's perfect."
They take a small break to eat their food. Tori looks between Megan and Aiden. "What about you two? Do I hear wedding bells ringing in your future?"
Megan goes beet red, and Aiden almost chokes on his food. The ring was burning a hole in his pocket. He carried it with him everywhere, waiting for the right time.
Megan takes a deep breath, and looks at Aiden. "I don't know, do you want to marry me?" She says it in a joking voice, but Aiden can hear the slight hesitation behind her words, as if the answer could even possibly be 'no'.
To calm her nerves, Aiden replies with a simple, "Yes," looking deep into her eyes. It's enough to make Megan's cheeks go even redder, and Tori and Spencer to reply with a chorus of compliments.
"Me, too." Megan says quietly, and Aiden is the only one that hears it. It makes his heart soar.
The thunder begins just as they are signing the check for lunch. Megan says goodbye to her friends, and she and Aiden climb into the car. They make small talk for the most part, but it isn't lost on them that they are driving into the storm, and not away from it as they would have liked to be.
It starts pouring ten minutes before they are back at Aiden's apartment.
When Aiden turns the car off, they sit staring out the windshield. The thirty foot walk to the door will soak them. Aiden looks at Megan. "I say we make a run for it."
Megan groans, but reluctantly agrees. After a short countdown, they throw the doors open and slam them, running to the porch.
Aiden reaches it before Megan, but he stops. He is laughing now. Megan is frustrated. She's already soaked to the bone, and Aiden won't open the door. "What are you waiting for?" She calls over the roar of the rain and wind.
"I left the keys in the ignition!" He calls back, already on his way to the car. Megan had left her keys inside, on the counter. She could practically picture them sitting next to the mail and bananas.
Megan wants to be mad, but she can't. The love she feels for Aiden is too strong to waste being mad at him on something so trivial. So she laughs. He obviously saw humor in the situation, too—probably because they were both sopping wet, and getting more wet by the second.
He grabs the keys, and runs back to her. He doesn't go for the door, though. Instead, to Megan's surprise, he grabs her by the waste and picks her up, spinning her around. The water saturating her hair flies in haphazard directions. "What are you doing?" She calls, knowing good and well that he won't set her down until he fulfills whatever burning desire made him do this.
"Apparently, a love isn't real unless you dance in the rain. Just ask Nicholas Sparks." He sets her down, but doesn't give her a chance to respond. He grabs her face, placing a searing kiss on her lips. After he is finished, he pulls back, turning to unlock the door.
"Sometimes, Aiden Lucas, I don't understand you." She shouts over the thunder.
The power is out when they finally enter the apartment. "Great." Aiden moans, throwing the keys on the table by the entryway. Megan stands, out of her element. It's not that she was out of her element. It was just that she was sopping wet, and had no idea where to get out of her clothes, or what to change into. Aiden had already started taking off his jacket, when he caught sight of her standing, somewhat helpless in front of the closed door. "Come on, silly."
Aiden brings her to his bedroom and finds some clothes for her to wear. He hands her a marigold yellow t-shirt and an old pair of basketball shorts. After she changes, she throws her clothes in the dryer with Aiden's wet ones. Hopefully they will be dry by the time she is ready to leave.
When Megan comes back from the laundry room, she is taken off guard. Aiden has had the opportunity to light candles throughout his bedroom. He catches her looking at him. "I just thought it'd be better than sitting in darkness." The sun had just set outside. She nods, trying not to read too much into it. Aiden is wearing a white t-shirt, and it is sticking to his still-wet skin in all the right places. She has to distract herself.
She begins walking through his house, opening the various closets she comes across. She knew exactly what she was looking for, but the problem was that she had never looked for it. Megan didn't even know if it existed.
Aiden follows her. "Can I help you find something? There's blankets in the living room if you're cold."
She throws open the closet door, and gives an exclamation. She's found it. Aiden's board-game collection. Behind her, her boyfriend sniggered. "Really? Are you twelve?"
Grabbing her favorites, she throws him a look. "Well, what did you have in mind? A movie?"
"I have a laptop, you know. Netflix on the iPad, too."
Megan walks back into the bedroom, throwing the games on the bed. "Just be young with me. Please."
A few hours later, the game pieces of Sorry and Trouble lay scattered on the bed. They were now playing a two-in-one game, twenty questions mixed with a thumb war. It was a game they'd created a year or two ago. For every win one person got, they got to ask the other person a question. Aiden was going for his 12th win, but Megan pinned his thumb out of nowhere. She giggled happily, and Aiden gave her a loving gaze as she thought of her question.
"Did you mean what you said earlier? About wanting to marry me?" Because Aiden was watching her, he noticed her face go from content to concerned.
Instead of setting up to start a new question, Aiden reached out and took both of her hands. "Megan Grace Foster. You have no idea how much I love you."
Megan didn't get emotional very often, but every now and again she did. There were tears welling up in her eyes. "Will you tell me?"
Aiden's heart melted. He didn't know how, but every time she did something without thinking about it, like tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, or twisting her earring, or fussing at him for not having his shirt tucked in, he fell in love with her even more. "I love every single part of you. I love your beautiful blue eyes, and your smile. I love the way that your hands fit in mine so perfectly." He squeezed her hand for emphasis. Her eyes were dry, but one tear had managed to escape. He leaned forward to kiss it away. "I love the way you just barely have freckles on your nose. I love the way you're passionate about your work, and school. I love your mind. You make me think things I never would have thought about if I hadn't met you, and it's not a bad thing. I love the way that you say you hate naps but you end up taking one every single Sunday afternoon. I love the way that you can't pass a puppy or a baby on the street without stopping to say how cute it is."
Megan was smiling, her insecurities long gone. It still blew her mind how Aiden knew her better than she knew herself. She would have dropped it there, but he continued.
"And every time I see you stare at those puppies and those babies, I can't help but picture what it would be like to have them with you." Those words melted her heart, and she didn't know if she would ever be able to talk again. "So to answer your question, Megan, yes. I do want to marry you. I've even asked your father."
Megan didn't react any on the outside to that news, but her insides were on fire. Was he going to ask her right now? It wasn't about the way he did it, or the ring. It was getting to spend the rest of her life with someone who made her melt every time he looked at her. She was only waiting for him to ask, so she could say yes.
They sat, staring at each other for a long time, and Megan realized he was waiting for her to say something. "Are you going to ask me?"
There was so much anticipation in her voice that Aiden didn't want to tell her no. He softened it with a laugh. "Not tonight. I will, soon. I promise. I want it to be special."
Megan's shoulders fell. "This is special."
Aiden leaned in and kissed her. "Your hair is sopping wet. Mom told me that I should make sure your hair and makeup are done, and nails too. So when the hidden photographer takes a picture you look your absolute best." He was rambling.
Megan laughed, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close. "Are you saying that I don't look my best right now?"
Aiden trailed kisses along her jawline. He whispered into her ear. "I prefer you like this, actually."
Megan had to work to control her breathing. "What, in your bed?"
"Yes." Aiden's voice was throaty and full of meaning, and she wanted to look him in his eyes to see if they were thinking the same thing. She pulled back, and stared at him the eyes, her hands resting on his chest. "I have loved you since I met you. In every way but one. I want to love you in every possible way that I can."
Megan's heart was pounding so hard she thought it might burst out of her chest. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she heard Aiden's heart beating as well. She did the only thing she could trust herself to do—pull him closer.
Aiden reacted almost instantly, falling on top of her as her head hit the pillow. "Ow." She pushed him up temporarily, so she could retrieve a Sorry game piece gone rogue.
"Sorry." Aiden said sheepishly. It was the color piece he was playing with.
"I know, that's the point." Her words were playful and seductive all in one, and Aiden was back to kissing her as if it'd never happened.