Chapter 94 - Epilogue Volume IX - One step ahead

During the interview, the reporter asked us questions such as, "What do you feel about the rest of your friends finding their own jobs?", "What do your parents think about this?", "How did you two meet?", as well as may others. We must have stood there for about an hour, with both of us answering questions left and right. Although, the second question really irked me: What did my parents think of this? I looked into the camera, answering that question with, "I... I'm not really sure what they think of this, but... I suppose I'll be getting a call from them soon, and before they do, I just want to let them know that I love them..!" My jelly boyfriend nudged me on the shoulder, grabbing my attention. "I'm sure your parents think this is lovely, Mark!", he told me, wearing a smile. I gave him a hug as he said that, before returning to the interview.

After the interview was all said and done, we began walking back home. Nobody drives in NYC, so nobdy offered us a ride. While we headed back, my jelly boyfriend thought about all the things we could do together, or all the people they would be able to see. He looked over at me as he walked at my side, growing concerned as he saw my face looking down in sadness. "What's... What's wrong, Mark?", he asked me. I breathed a sigh before replying, "I just... I just don't know..." He stopped walking, causing me to take a few steps, slowing down as I realized he stopped. "Wha- What do you mean, Mark...?", I heard him ask behind my back. I turned around, looking at him. "It's just... my family's kind of... divided, I guess?", I told him. He stood there, giving me a look of concern, slowly walking to me. "My parents are... are...", I mumbled, trying to spit the words out, trying to think of a good way to put it.

Suddenly, my phone began to ring in my pocket. We both flinched, not expecting the sudden commotion. I reached into my pocket, pulling out my phone. As I read who was calling me, my face went blank. "M-Mark?", my jelly boyfriend asked me as he saw my fear through my face. I slowly pressed the "answer call" button, bringing the speaker up to my ear. "H-Hello?", I asked. "Mark, you better have a good explanation for all this...!", I heard from the speaker. I stood there like a statue, unable to say anything back, for about 10 seconds. "Mark... who is it?", my jelly boyfriend asked me. I cupped the microphone, looking at my jelly boyfriend as I felt myself tear up. "Jelly... It's... It's my dad...", I told him.

"Mark! What the hell are you doing with some sort of... monstrosity?!", my dad asked me, yelling into his phone. My jelly boyfriend reaches over, placing his right hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, Mark...", he told me. "No matter what happens... we'll always be together!", he says, grabbing the phone out of my hands. I wore a look of complete and utter shock on my face as he cleared his throat, placing the phone next to his ear. "Look, Dad... I understand if this might not appeal to you, or if it disgusts you, but there's something you have to understand. I've been all alone my whole life, and I became... desperate...", my jelly boyfriend said in my voice. "So your first choice was some sort of... mistake for a creature?!", my dad snapped back. My jelly boyfriend winced in horror at the statement, beginning to tear up. I walked over to him, hugging him. "He's not a mistake, Dad! He's the first one who actually cared about me other than Mom! He took care of me whenever I needed him, unlike you!", I screamed over my jelly boyfriend's shoulder, hopefully having it pick up over the phone.

My jelly boyfriend hugged me back, crying into my shoulder as he turned on the speakerphone. "Why couldn't you be with someone normal, son?! Why do you have to be so weird?!", my dad yelled. "Why can't you just accept us...*sniff... for who we are?!", my jelly boyfriend shouted back using my voice, in between his cries. "Look Mark, I wanted to have grandkids, but that doesn't matter to you, does it?!", my dad said. I backed away from my jelly boyfriend, grabbing the phone. "Not anymore, it doesn't!", I screamed, hanging up.

For the next 5 minutes, my jelly boyfriend and I stumbled down the street, holding each other close as we both got over one of the worst discussions of our lives. My dad has always been a homophobe, so I knew that he wasn't going to like me after discovering my true sexuality, but hearing those words from your own parents really does hit you in the hardest place possible. My jelly boyfriend felt really bad as well, as my dad hit him hard as well, calling him "a monstrosity", and a "Mistake for a creature"... Add on the fact that I was crying the whole time, and it adds more and more to his sadness. Eventually, we made it to my street again, slowly making our way back home. My tear ducts were running out, so I picked myself up, wiping my tears away, beginning to feel better. "M-Mark?!", my jelly boyfriend asked me, as I stopped leaning forwards. "Jelly... I've just realized something...", I said to him, wearing a smile. "...He's been terrible to me my whole life, but now... now, I never have to worry about him ever, ever again!"

"Wha- But... he's going to keep calling you and visit us when he's angry, right?!", my jelly boyfriend said to me, wiping away his tears. I wrapped my arm around him as I explained, "He's not going to hurt us, Jelly... He might call me and text me a couple of times, but I can block his number!", I said with a tone of excitement in my voice. It was about time my dad got out of my life... My jelly boyfriend wrapped his arm around me, wearing a smile as we approached our house. "I... I love you, Mark...!", he told me as we walked onto the patio. As I gripped the front door handle, I looked back at him, replying, "I love you too, Jelly... Even more than my family...", before opening the door.

The next couple of years were bittersweet: I blocked his phone number the next morning, which effectively shut him out of our lives. Every day, we never went any more than 10 feet from each other. It was the exact opposite of a restraining order! We would go everywhere together: Out to the park, getting the mail, going to the store... Hell, he even liked going to the store again, because people waved "hello" wherever we went, instead of bothering him in a negative mind. We even met a lot of celebrities, attended a lot of talk shows together, and even met the president!

Meanwhile, while the rabbit crew were growing successful with their journeys, they always sent me money as a thank-you gift for saving their lives from captivity. I don't mean a little 25$ gift card to Wal-Mart, either. It's more like I get my hands on a breifcase full of cash every month through the mail. I always look like a cocaine dealer whenever I walk down the street with it in my hands, even having it handcuffed to me for extra protection. This way, I never, ever had to work another day of my life. And it was all because of my jelly boyfriend... We always went on planes whenever we could, whether we were riding with Barry's band during a world tour, or visiting a Megalo vs. John Cena match, we always wanted to support them all the way.

Sure, whenever me and my jelly boyfriend were left alone... we did have some fun, but it was a lot less than before, due to all this commotion going on. I mean that, too. I would constantly be getting phone calls from people, whether it was the president, or an awards ceremony, or from the buns themselves, it certainly didn't leave a lot of time for me and my jelly boyfriend to be intimate. When we did get intimate... oh boy. Let's not get into details here, hahahah...

Little did I know, my jelly boyfriend was planning something very big and serious behind my back, keeping it a secret until the perfect moment.

One day, I woke up in my bed, surprised that my jelly boyfriend wasn't lying next to me, like he usually would. I sat up in my bed, thinking to myself, Well, maybe he's just making breakfast like he does sometimes... I got up, starting to smell the familiar smell of Denny's fill the house yet again. I walked out to the kitchen in nothing but my boxers to find the nostalgic sight of jelly in his octopus form, making breakfast over a stove. I sat back down in the kitchen table, looking at how beautiful he looks. Eventually, he notices me sitting in the chair, reminding himself of his first morning with me.

"Good morning, sweety!", he says with an excited tone of voice, finishing up. "Good morning, Jelly!", I reply back, smiling as he brought over the food. The food looks just as amazing as it did on that first day: 2 Buttermilk pancakes, 4 pieces of bacon, and 2 eggs, sunny-side up. As we ate our food, my jelly boyfriend began to grow further and further excited for what laid in store for us. You could tell, since he began to shake the utensils in his hands. "What's wrong, Jelly?", I asked him. He stopped his shaking, looking back up at me. "N-nothing!", he says, looking back down to eat. I gave him a weird look as I took a sip of my coffee.

When we finished eating, we went for a walk, heading towards the park. My jelly boyfriend began to feel beads of sweat on his forehead as he thought to himself, Just wait for the perfect, calm open spot... somewhere not too overcrowded... As we approached the park, the trees swayed in the wind, as beams of sunlight shined through them onto the beautifullly paved path, surprisingly lacking of random passerby, with an occasional mother or two walking down with smiles on their faces.

We began walking on the path. "Mark... there's been some things I've been meaning to talk to you about...", my jelly boyfriend told me. I looked over at him, wearing a look of concern as I asked him, "Oh yeah? And what's that?" He kept looking forwards, shedding a tear as he prepared himself. "Let me tell you the exact reason I came to you specifically..." My eyes widen as this washed over my ears. "See, Mark... I've seen you before, through the street grates, and... and you looked pretty to me! I always wanted to know you, but I didn't know how. One day, I followed you home, and, well...", he says. I wrap my arm around him, bringing him closer to me as we continued to walk. "Jelly... really?", I asked. beginning to tear up myself. My jelly boyfriend wrapped his arm back around me, replying, "Yes, Mark... for real...!" This was insane, I spent my whole life thinking that nobody would find me attractive at all, and then, suddenly, he comes into my life.

"Mark... this isn't the only thing I wanted to talk to you about...", he says, starting to slow down. I looked back at him, wearing a concerned, yet happy look on my face. "I've been.. making some investments... lately...!", he says, taking in a deep breath. "What do you mean by th-", I begin to say, before he stops our walking pace, getting in front of me. Before I could say anything else: he does a single action that funamentally redefined our relationship. He kneels down on one knee, looking up at me with a smile as he reaches into his pocket.

For the first few milliseconds, I didn't know what he was doing, but then it really, really hit me. It hit me harder than anything I could ever imagine. I cupped my hands over my mouth, almost instinctively as I tried to prevent myself from squealing like a 13-year old girl being given high-end jewelry. Time seemed to slow down, the world seemed to fade away as this event began. There was absolutely no possible way that this is happening to me...

He pulls out a small, black box. He opens it, revealing a small ring. "Mark, will you marry me?!", he asks, wearing the widest grin of his life. I felt the tears running down my hands, as I replied, "Y-Yes!" You could hear people all around us clapping as I lowered my right hand, allowing my jelly fiancée to slip the ring on my finger. I felt my knees shaking with joy, my whole body shivering from happiness. After slipping on the ring, my jelly fiancée stands up, tearing up. I couldn't control myself at this point: I lept onto him, hugging him as tight as I possibly could, crying into his shirt. He did the same, hugging me tightly as he cried into my shoulder.

This was it. This was the one thing I could never envision myself doing, even in my wildest dreams, yet here I am! My jelly fiancée just proposed to me, solidifying our love forever. I couldn't think of myself being with anyone else, no matter how hard I tried. This... this is too perfect...

This is too perfect for a moment to cap off the most important year of my life...