Kaitlin and Bradin sat in silence on the couch of his living room. Neither of them knew what to say. Kaitlin hasn't said a word to him since he asked her to marry him. Bradin looked at Kaitlin and saw tears down her face.

"What?" he asked worriedly pulling her hands away from her mouth, "Katie Baby, what's wrong?"

"Bradin, I'm only seventeen," she said, "I'm not ready for marriage or a big commitment like that. I can't make my own decisions by myself. I can't take care of myself. I haven't made any right choices the past few months. I chose to lose that race so I could come back and go to the wedding. I chose things that I didn't want in life. We're still young, Brae."

"Kait," he said wiping her tears, "I understand that. You just make me so happy that I had to give it a shot. I want to be with you for the rest of my life."

"You're only eighteen!" she shouted standing up, "You'll be going to college next year. How do you know that you won't find someone else that you would want to be with rather than me?"

"No one is going to take my heart away from you unless you let it."

"I just want you to be happy. But Bradin, I want to graduate from high school, go to college, graduate from teaching and get a job before I think about marriage. I love you, Bradin. Really, I do. I don't want to rush this. It's not the right time."

She looked down at him to see him looking like he was really upset and that she broke his heart. "I should go," she said.

Everyone was walking home from the reception when Kaitlin ran out of the house in tears with Bradin running after her.

"Kaitlin!" he yelled.

"What's going on?" Susannah asked as Bradin ran by them. He didn't stop when she asked. He kept running after Kaitlin. He got all the way up to her house right after she slammed the door.

"Kaitlin!" he yelled pounding on the door, "Kaitlin, open up!"

"Bradin?" he heard. He turned around and saw Kaitlin's family there. "What's going on?" her mother asked.

"I keep causing her to cry," he said.

"What? We thought that you two were over," her father said.

"We were. Then, we got back together. I blurted something out that I should have kept inside until the right time."

BRADIN'S HOUSE

"What's going on?" Derrick asked his brother as he walked inside.

"Fuck off," he said.

"Bradin!" Nikki yelled.

"What is wrong with all of you?" he bellowed, "I just ruined something important to me! Okay?"

"What?" Jay asked.

"Holy shit," Bradin mumbled before punching a wall.

"Whoa," Jay said grabbing the teenage boy by the arms, "What's going on?"

"I asked her to marry me!" he yelled before actually going into his room and slamming the door.

Inside his room, he was undressing and waiting for his internet to load. Once he was changed, he sat in front of his computer and looked at his buddy list. Sarah was on along with Mike and David. Sarah sent him a message that read,

"How could you let that bitch do that to me? I thought that you cared about me. You're just like everyone else. No one cares about me. They all think I'm a drug addict."

You are, he thought to himself, it's all you do.

MORNING

Bradin woke up and looked around. He fell asleep at his desk on his keyboard. He rubbed his face and shook his head to wake up. He got up, grabbed clothes, and got ready for the day. As he was brushing his teeth, he headed back to his room to put the dirty clothes in the hamper. A picture of Kaitlin and him caught his eye. He picked it up and looked at it. They both were so happy.

"I love you, Kaitlin," he said out loud.

He turned away and walked back to the bathroom to finish brushing his teeth. As he went to walk out of the house, he saw Kaitlin walking on the back patio to his room. He smiled and ran out.

"Hey," he said.

She jerked and said, "Hi. Um, can we talk?"

"Yeah, sure," he said. He led her into his room and sat her on his bed. She covered her face and folded her hands in front of her mouth. "Baby?" he asked.

"I thought about last night," she said looking at him.

"Kait, I can wait until you're ready. I don't care how long that it will take. I love you. Not a thing or person will change that."

"Okay," she said, "I didn't even have to finish."

He smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Let's go to the beach," she said standing up.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and fell back onto his bed bringing her on top of him. "I'd rather kiss you," he said as he kissed her.

"Is that all you want to do these days?"

"No," he said, "If it involves you, I don't care what I do."

"That's good or bad?"

He laughed and kissed her. "It's an amazing thing."

"Then, come to the beach," she begged, "Please?"

"We're alone here," he said, "No one will be home for hours."

She bit her bottom lip knowing what he was talking about. "That's my job, remember?" he asked. She moved so that she was lying next to him on the bed. She covered her face and sighed. He moved on top of her and looked down at her. She looked at him.

"I don't mean us having sex," he told her, "We can be alone here. If we go to the beach, we could be seen by our friends and have them go crazy over us after what we went through. I thought that we can spend some time together around here. We can watch movies, play games, talk, anything that you want."

"I guess that's okay," she said.

"But," he began, "we will do that after this." He leaned down and kissed her passionately on the lips. When he pulled away, he looked into her eyes. He saw her lick her lips and take a deep breath. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," she said with a nod, "I don't know how to act around you."

"Be you," he said running his hand through her hair, "I fell in love with who you are. If anything that has happened between us has scared you, we can talk about it. I want you to feel comfortable when you're around me."

"You… would talk about it with me?"

"Of course," he said smiling, "I want you to be happy."

He moved off of her and sat next to her as she sat up. He placed his arm around her shoulder.

"Do you want to stay here or go for a walk?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter," she said, "I just need to talk to you about everything."

"I'm here, Katie Baby," he said softly. She looked at him.

"When I got a message from my sister about you and Sarah, my heart literally stopped beating. It dropped from my chest down and out of my body. I could feel it break and fall to pieces. All I did was cry that day. I stayed locked in my hotel room. I ignored everyone that tried talking to me. All I could do was think of you being happy with someone else."

She looked at the floor as she continued.

"I realized that I was in love with you and didn't want to lose you. It took me hours to actually get the courage to write to you and send you back the locket. I thought that I was doing the right thing. I thought wrong."

She wiped her eyes with her hand. Bradin turned her head so that he was looking in her eyes. "Take your time," he whispered, "Take as long as you need."

"When I placed the letter in the mailbox, I completely broke down. I went to my race after I dropped the letter off. I was upset but did great. Days later, I started to get those calls from you and really did begin to think about what I was doing. Do you want to know what I did?"

"Only if you think that I should know," he said.

"I lost my last race on purpose."

"Why?" he asked in shock, "Why did you do it on purpose?"

"After a few talks with my father, I had to see you. I was in love with you, Brae. You don't know how crazy I was being in another continent far from you."

He got off of the bed and knelt in front of her holding her hands. "I went crazy when you sent the letter," he said. He showed her his hand that was full of cuts. She took his hand and ran her hand over it before looking at him. "I was angry. After I found out my aunt called Sarah, I flipped. My anger got me into so much trouble. I was alone all of the time. I only talked to teachers at school. The counselors at school called me in and wanted me to talk about this."

"Why did you ask me to marry you?" she asked.

"Same reason why others asked their boyfriend/girlfriend to marry them," he said, "I love you so much, Katie Baby. I don't want anything to tear us apart again. I thought that if I asked you to marry me, that wouldn't happen. Both of us would be happy."

"I'm sorry, Bradin, for everything."

"I'm sorry, too," he said, "I love you and mean it. Nothing has changed that. The kiss that happened between me and Sarah made me realize that I loved you. I didn't want the kiss to happen, but I'm glad it did. It made me realize how much you mean to me and my feelings towards you."

She kept looking at his hand as he talked. She concentrated on the cuts that she caused him. She leaned forward and hugged him tightly.