Thank you Trosario, Leslie wjack, Princess Selina, boston, Ivette Moon, James Birdsong, Kasienda, SailorMoon489, Tropical Remix, TaxPrincess, kera69love, LoveInTheBattleField, Artemis630, BrianaJS, Ghetsis is best dad, Nich31, amyllia, , Loca8892, Yonten, and kbtjmandy for reviewing chapter nine of this story. I cannot believe how far this story has come and all the wonderful feedback I have received from my amazing readers! I cannot believe how this story has reached 118 reviews and it isn't even finished yet! Thank you so much, everyone, for sticking with me to the end and being so amazing through it all! Anywho, enough with the sappiness, and let's continue with the story! -Natasha

Chapter 10

I should be happy to have taken this step, but when twenty seconds pass and Rita still hasn't given me an answer, I can't help but feel horrified. I can't help but curse myself for doing this in front of everyone I know and love. If she says no, I'll have embarrassed myself in front of everyone I know, and on my birthday!

Forty seconds…

Oh god, this must be what having a stroke must feel like!

When Rita finally opens her round, playful lips to give me the answer I've been waiting for, my chest is beating what feels like over nine thousand beats a minute.

"Oh, I don't know…"

The room is closing in. The air is getting tight, and my entire upper body is going numb. Yep, I'm definitely having a stroke right now!

Rita asks, "Are you going to let any other teenage girls kiss you?"

She grins jokingly at me, her eyes laughing at me as she knowingly drives me insane. She loves this, doesn't she? Playing mind games with me, and constantly keeping me on my toes. Rita was so wicked sometimes.

"Of course not!" I squeak out like a humbled chipmunk.

"Aww, man!" Lita whines from the middle of the guests crowded around Serena, Darien, Rita, and I. She scrunches her face up, her face hot and flustered with embarrassment. "I mean, that's so sweet…?"

'Yeah, nice save, Lita.' I think to myself, using my index finger to loosen the collar of my shirt from choking my neck.

Rita rolls her eyes at the school girl who obviously crushes way too hard on me, and decides. "Yes, you idiot! Of course I'll marry you!"

My insides burst into jelly and I am so overwhelmingly happy that it's amazing I wasn't floating in the air from feeling so light and numb. I slip the tanzanite ring on her finger, and pull her so she falls into my arms and lap. I kiss her all over her face. Her lips again and again, then her cheeks, and her forehead. It's only after I see the salty drops of water on her chin and forehead that I realized I'd been tearing up the entire time.

Who knew that being so happy could make you cry? I guess I've never been happy enough to know that before, until now.

Mom and dad start clapping and whistling for us. Soon, Lizzie and the girls are clapping along too. Everyone joins in, and begin yelling and screaming, "Congratulations!" to us over the cheers.

In fact, there was only one person at the entire party who didn't get the memo he should be celebrating, and that mime of a person just happens to be my best man, Darien.

"What the hell just happened?" Darien asks himself, looking from left to right, and then to us, the happy couple. He looks confused, like a lost puppy left in the road on a stormy day. The puppy looked like he needed guidance, shelter, or some kind of help, but he just didn't know where to look. He was defeated, even if only temporarily.

Serena manages to sift through the crowd, and even though her hair was stepped on and she wailed several times, she still looked like today was the best day of her life.

The childish young lady taps me on the shoulder and says, "Um...Andrew, I know this probably isn't the best time, but can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure, Serena." I answer, using her small hand to help lift myself and my beloved up.

Serena makes a sideways glance at Darien and whispers, "In private?"

"Oh no you don't! I'm coming too! Someone needs to start explaining things here!" Darien butts into our conversation, making it known that wherever Serena goes, he will follow.

"Well, this ought to be interesting, there's no way I'm missing this!" Rita decides to join in with a little jingling laugh at the end of her comment.

I sigh with exasperation, and have to hold back the sarcastic question of whether or not anyone else would like to join in. After all, that's the last thing we needed; more people joining in on this mess.

When the family and friends who are not involved whatsoever in Operation: Make Darien Jealous go back to karaoke, video games, and mingling, I lead the small, but slightly annoying group to the back room.

The very second that I click the door shut behind us, Darien demands with an air of resentment to know what's going on. "Someone better tell me what's going on this second! What happened out there was totally unacceptable!"

"Which part?" Rita asks, patting his head oh not so subtly, "The part where Andrew and I got engaged, or the part where you made yourself look like a blubbering idiot in front of everyone?"

Serena laughs aloud, but then covers her mouth with her hands, and whispers, "Sorry!"

"You know which part, Rita!" Darien gripes at her, still embarrassed about pouring his heart out in front of probably every medical professional we had met so far in college and while volunteering at hospitals. I really hope this doesn't ruin his reputation in the medical field too badly.

But while messing with Darien's head had been so amazingly fun, it was time to stop doing so. After all, if we didn't let him completely in on everything that happened, then how would Rita and I move on, let alone Serena and Darien?

Well, someone's gotta start telling him the truth, and if Serena won't start, then it may as well be me. "Serena wanted to make you jealous, and she twisted me into this plan to make it work."

Serena interrupts, clearly wanting to prove she wasn't a total jerk. "It was mostly that I was freaked out at first, and I didn't think you would notice me unless I was dating your best friend. Then, when you walked me home you kept talking about how you were the only guy I could trust who always has my best interests in mind. That was when I thought maybe the plan could work."

Darien shakes his head no, completely insistent that the reality we had created for him was true. "Wait a minute, Rita and Andrew really did break up! That was real!"

Rita cuts in now, because obviously she knew better on this topic than Darien. "Actually, we did, except for the fact that we didn't."

Darien glares at her.

"Darien, I was playing along, just for your sake really." Rita adds on, clutching my hand with hers, and rubbing her head against my shoulder for emphasis.

Darien shakes his head at her, looking like his brain was going to explode from frustration. In a stern but calm tone that he rose higher and higher with each sentence he spoke, he said, "You had me on the phone for three hours while you ate chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. You cried for hours about how Andrew left you for a fourteen year old girl and you thought you were too ugly or too fat or not smart enough for a wannabe doctor like him! You made me listen to you as you called Serena a skank and complained about how she purposely wears skirts that are too short to attract older men for like half an hour!"

Serena and I cock our heads and stare at Rita with shock and amazement on our faces. Wannabe doctor? Where does she get off saying that even in a world where we did break up? I'm not a wannabe doctor! I know I'm not because I will be one, and I know I can do it. That doesn't make me a wannabe doctor, does it?

"I do not!" Serena wails. Rita, Darien, and I all shrink our heads back in response to her hideously annoying crying. "Why would you even say something like that?"

Rita shrugs indifferently. "It had to be convincing, I guess I just got a little too carried away…"

I roll my eyes at her. She sure could be a drama queen. Apparently my wife-to-be is a better fake crier than Serena. Now I know what to watch out for. I will not cave if she comes crying for a Louis Vuitton purse or some kind of nonsense like that. Well, not every time at least...

When I focus my attention back on Serena and Darien, they are practically pretending the other person doesn't exist as they rub their own arms and space off at the walls. I mean they might as well be whistling like they are from Toy Story pretending that they aren't about to do some crazy plan or something of that nature.

"Anyways," I pick up the conversation, refusing to allow all this to be for not. "The point is, we got you to admit how you really felt."

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts! We got you in front of everyone, just admit it!"

Darien shakes his head. "No…"

"For the love of God, Darien! Why are you complaining?" Rita takes note of how Serena and Darien slowly kept inching apart out of the pure awkwardness of the situation. "Also, why aren't you two holding hands or something?

My beautiful fiancée smashes the duo's bodies together with a satisfied smile on her face. Serena looks up at Darien sheepishly, and after a second of hesitation, but with Rita's forceful guidance, she holds his hand.

"Fine!" Darien pouts, smiling for a brief second at Serena's initiation. "But I know I will never hear the end of this."

Serena looks at me smugly. Yep, if we had telepathy I'm pretty sure she would be telling me, 'I told you this would work!' But thankfully we don't have that, and wait a minute? Don't I have presents to open?

"Okay, I've got presents to open and cake to eat. Now unless someone objects-"

Serena interrupts me yelling, "CAKE!" and she drags Darien behind her as she bolts out the backroom door and rushes into the crowd with all the excitement of a two year old getting a lollipop.

Rita looks at me, and I look at her. We stare at each other for a moment, both trying to hold back a grin. Instead we burst into laughter.

The door bangs open again, and Serena's tiny little body pops in. She races up to me, and pulls me down so I can hear her. "Thank you, Andrew! If it wasn't for you, I could've never done this on my own."

I doubt that. Eventually they would have gotten together right? Like, she might have tripped on him and they would make out on the sidewalk or something like that? Anything would've been possible.

Serena pecks me right on the cheek in front of Rita, who looks like she's turning into a huge red balloon in need of deflation. Serena turns and runs back out to her now newly appointed boyfriend, leaving me with my very infuriated fiancee.

"Hmm...Jealous much, Rita?" I ask, hoping to make her calm down with a reference from Operation: MDJ. I hold her in my arms, brushing her hair out of her eyes with my fingertips. When I lean down to press my forehead against hers, her face turns back to it's beautiful peach like skin tone.

She punches me playfully in the shoulder, and leaves my warmth. Before she walks out the door Rita turns and says, "Never!"

As I follow Rita out the door and see all my family sing the Happy Birthday song to me, I can't help but realize how strange life can be, and how you never know what it will bring to you.

Well, at least there's one thing that I know, and that's as long as Darien and Serena stay together, there will be never ending craziness for Rita and I to watch together. And you know what?

I think I'm okay with that.

It's over. :'( Anywho, please review and let me know what you thought! And also, I keep debating in my head on what to focus my writing on. I have Fragmented and The Moon Princess. I can only write one chapter a week with such a heavy work schedule. So, when you review this story, please let me know which you would prefer that I focus on. I keep going back and forth, so your opinions matter! -Natasha