Chapter 7:
It is such a boring day, which gives me a perfect reason to write this chapter so here we go!
Disclaimer: Whatever all I own is boredom.
Martin walked towards the Camden house on Monday morning knowing Ruthie would still be in school finishing that days final. As he knocked on the door he noticed how weird it felt, to realize what he was just about to do. If someone had told him four years ago that he'd be walking into the Camden's house and asking Reverend Camden for his permission to marry his daughter, he would of laughed in their face.
But he also realized that four years ago he barely knew Ruthie, or he didn't know that in two years she'd become one of his best friends or that in four years he'd be completely in love with her.
So really asking Reverend Camden for his approval of his daughters marriage wasn't that strange. So as Martin waited for the door to open he tried to rehearse his speech. The door opened to reveal Lucy. "Hi, Martin what are you doing here? Ruthie's still at school." Lucy told him.
"I know I just needed to talk to your dad. Is he home?" Martin asked her. "Yeah, I think he's in his office. Or maybe in the kitchen go check his office first." Lucy said opening the door for Martin to enter.
As Martin walked through the house he stopped in the living room for a moment to look at the photos on the mantle. There were photos of every person in the Camden house, family photos, pictures with friends, many of the brothers and sisters together, a few of the Reverend Camden and Mrs. Camden and one of Ruthie and Martin.
Sam and David were snooping around the house one day using a disposable camera to catch people in random positions, Ruthie and Martin were sitting on the living room couch just talking and then the photo was snapped. The Camden's thought it was a beautiful photo so they had kept it with a lot of the others. But that wasn't the reason that Martin liked it so much, he liked it because it showed him and Ruthie doing what they loved to do the most-just talk.
'Me and Ruthie can talk about anything.' He smiled to himself. 'I have never been afraid to tell her anything about me.' He was still looking at the photo as a voice said "Ah, Martin, Lucy said you wanted to talk." Reverend Camden smiled a warm and inviting smile. "Yes that's one of my favorite photos of you two too. It makes me happy to see that there are some kids today that aren't spending all their time kissing, even if it is a seventy-five percent thing for the two of you." He laughed. "I'm just kidding, you were probably the best thing for Ruthie." He told the boy turned man. The boy he brought into his house a long while ago. The boy he would of never believed would eventually have dated his daughter.
"Reverend Camden, I have something very important to tell you." Breaking the Reverends thoughts. "What nothing's wrong with Ruthie right?" He asked with obvious concern and worry. "No, no nothing like that. It's just important." Martin told him.
"Okay do you want to go into my office and discuss it?" Martin nodded and followed the Reverend into his home office. They shut the door behind them and sat down.
Lucy who was not really spying was sitting in the living room trying to find out what was so important that Martin had to come over when he knew Ruthie wouldn't be home. Matt walked in just then, "What are you doing here?" He asked her. "Oh um nothing, um I was just trying to um." Matt cut her off. "Listen to dad's and Martin's conversation. Aren't you supposed to be a Reverend? Doesn't that involve not spying?"
"I'm not spying." She told him stubbornly. "No your just sitting here listening. What are they talking about?" Lucy got serious then "I'm not sure, but Martin said it was serious quiet listen." She told him.
In the office Martin was having a very hard time telling Reverend Camden what he wanted to tell him. "Well Martin you did come in here to tell me something. So go ahead." Martin swallowed a few times. "Okay" he said slowly. "What I want to tell you is that I love Ruthie." Martin told him all in one breath.
"That's good Martin, you spend enough time with her I'm happy that you love her." Reverend Camden told him in a slightly confused voice. "No that's not what I wanted to tell you. Well you see I love your daughter a lot. More then I've ever loved anyone. She's nice and smart and beautiful and great and I love her. So much more then you can know. I want her to always be happy and I want her to always be safe." Martin told him.
"That's good Martin, I've always wanted that for her too. I believe that she feels the same for you. I remember when me and her mom were so positive that she liked you. But she wouldn't admit it not to me or her mom or any of her siblings. But she always liked you I remember her telling me once that you had 'dreamy eyes' yup she was always crazy about you." He told Martin in reminiscence.
"See, Reverend Camden I feel the same way about her and that's why I've kind of come to ask you a big question. A huge question even, one that you might not love to hear. But I really need to ask it and I need to ask now. Because I might not be able to do it later and if I don't. It'll not be good. Because you see I really need to ask it, now basically. If I don't then-" He was cut off from his babbling. "Okay Martin why don't you just ask it. I won't get mad I'm sure you're a good man and you've never done anything to hurt this family please go ahead." Reverend Camden told him calmly.
"I want to ask your permission to ask Ruthie to marry me." If a man's face couldn't turn purple in a millisecond well it could now. Because that's how fast Reverend Camden's face took to turn a color closely resembling an egg plant. "Reverend Camden maybe you should sit down." Martin told him. Reverend Camden took a seat and placed his head in his hands. He took a few deep breaths and finally looked up.
"Martin you're only so young and Ruthie's a baby she's my baby girl. She's not ready for this, you're not ready for this." The Reverend told him. "Reverend Camden with all do respect I am ready for this I love your daughter and she loves me and I feel like it's worth it. We belong together I'm a better person because of her and it wouldn't have to be right away." Martin told him calmly.
Outside the door, Matt and Lucy both stared at each other wide eyed. Both gaping at each other and both seemed unable to form words into sentences. Matt kept repeating "but-but but-" while Lucy seemed to be unable to think of anything other then 'five years old'. If someone were to walk in at this moment they'd find the sight terribly funny.
Finally Matt was able to speak. "Over my dead body, will that whatever he is marry my baby sister." Lucy seemed to come out of her trance as well. "Matt she's not a baby you know that. She's more mature then we were when she was our age. Really it was going to happen someday, I just didn't expect it to be this soon." Lucy told him.
"You're okay with this. She is only just about to start college, how can they think about getting married?" Lucy thought and then responded with, "Well he did say it wasn't going to be right away." Matt gave her a sarcastic look. "Oh okay I feel better now, knowing it won't be right away. She's a little kid, she's barely dated anyone besides Martin shouldn't she get to know some other guys?" Matt asked Lucy.
"Hey, when I met Kevin I didn't want to date anyone else. Ruthie's lucky she found the man she wanted to marry her soul mate at fifteen years old. It takes some people they're whole lives." Lucy told him with tears in her eyes.
Back in the Reverends office. "Reverend Camden are you okay?" The Reverend was still breathing deeply but it was slowing down. "Are you absolutely positive about this?" The Reverend asked Martin. "I'm more positive about this then anything else I've ever thought of. Reverend Camden I love your daughter I have since I was about seventeen, we're best friends and I think I'm only truly happy when she's by my side." Martin told him smiling.
"Well if you're so sure?" Reverend asked. "I am." Martin told him with a nod, "Well then I guess the only thing for me to say is you have my blessing."
Outside of the office Lucy and Matt were mulling over how he would ask Ruthie to marry him. "Oh maybe at her next birthday?" Lucy said. "Or maybe at school away from prying eyes?" Simon walked in just then they had moved themselves to the kitchen so when Martin and the Reverend came out it would look like they didn't know anything.
"What are you two talking about?" Simon asked them as he opened the refrigerator for a glass of milk. Pouring the milk he began to take a sip. "Oh just trying to figure out how Martin's going to ask Ruthie to marry him." He spit a mouthful of milk across the kitchen. "Your What!" He yelled at the two of them.
"Martin's going to ask Ruthie to marry him." Matt told him. "And you two know this, how?" Lucy responded with "Well you see Martin's talking to dad and he said it wasn't that something was wrong but that something was completely perfect and then he told dad not to be worried. So what do you think it means?" Matt concluded with "Plus we heard him asking dad's permission." Lucy elbowed him.
"So Martin's going to ask my little sister to marry him." He said with a certain amount of awe in his voice. "My sister the one I shared a room is going to get married, wow." Simon said.
"I can't believe it." Matt said. "I can't believe it." Lucy said. "I can't believe it." Simon said.
"You can't believe what?" Ruthie asked them walking into the room. "Oh nothing." Lucy said. "Nothing." Matt said. "Nothing." Simon said. They said this at the same time.
"Okay, freaks." Ruthie added under her breath. "So um I took my history final today, no more history. It's a good thing." Lucy, Simon and Matt responded with a "Yeah that's great, fantastic wow." Ruthie still confused. "Okay I'm going to go find mom is she home?" They all shook their heads. "No she took Mary, Carlos and Charlie out." Lucy told her.
"Oh okay, I guess I'll just go upstairs then. Bye." She said walking upstairs towards her bedroom.
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"So when are you going to ask her Martin?" Reverend Camden asked him coming out of his office. "I'm planning to ask her at her graduation party." He told him. The Reverend nodded and smiled. Finally turned around to the idea of his daughter's impending marriage he figured that if she had to get married it should be to someone as great to Martin.
"That's a good time to ask her." Reverend Camden nodded. "Yeah a good time." Martin nodded. "Martin? What are you doing here?" Ruthie said coming downstairs only to see her boyfriend and her father talking in the living room.
"Oh um I was just um waiting for you of course. How was your final?" He asked coming over and hugging her. Reverend Camden smiled and walked into the kitchen.
"Fine, really easy. What were you talking to my dad about?" Martin's eyes grew wide. "Nothing, nothing just saying hi and telling him I was waiting for you." Martin told her nodding.
"Okay, everyone's so weird today. Matt, Lucy and Simon were being completely weird and now you seem to be acting weird. I feel like I'm missing something today you know?" Ruthie told Martin. "Yeah well I guess everyone's just hyped for the graduation and the party and stuff like that. You know people get abnormal sometimes when they're excited." Ruthie nodded at what Martin just said. "Yeah that's probably it. Hey you want to go get some lunch at the Promenade?" Ruthie asked him.
"Sure, let's go." Martin told her and on the way out they passed Lucy, Simon and Matt all sitting in the kitchen deep in thought. And maybe it was just Martin's imagination but he was almost sure that he saw Lucy wink at him before Ruthie pulled him out of the house.
A/N: Chapter done. Isn't that nice? Lol well review Review REVIEW please! I am so hyper right now I don't understand it but I just all of a sudden got really hyper. Whatever Review please!