“Falling for him wasn't falling at all. It was walking into a house and suddenly knowing you're home.”

Songs for the chapter:   Mirror - Justin Timberlake
                                        One And Only - Adele
                                        Woke The Fuck Up - Jon Bellion 
                                        Marry Me - Jason Derulo

Chapter Fifty-Three: Mine

“You were in college working part time waiting tables,
Left a small town, never looked back.
I was a flight risk, with a fear of falling,
Wondering why we bothered with love, if it never lasts.”   was the first thing Char heard when her breathing slowed.

She scanned the crowd in front of her with her mouth slightly agape. Kingsmile wasn't a very big town, which was why everybody knew everybody. But seeing the entire town in front of her, the entire 1000+ of them, including her parents, the Millers, Nicki and Chase, and her two stupid best friends was quite shocking.

How they all managed to fit in the lake was equally shocking, but what surprised her the most was the person standing in their middle.

Daniel.

He stood with a guitar in hand, and a hopeful expression on his face.

A little to the left of him was Zach, a small smile gracing his features and a slightly bigger guitar in his hand.

Beside him stood Cat, her left hand on his shoulder and a wide grin spread across her face. Char was confused. Hadn't they just had the biggest fight in the entire history of fights?

By this time, Char looked like a bride. With the bundle of roses in her hand, the make up and pretty face, she looked delightful. All that was missing was a white dress.

But still, she couldn't for the life of her fathom what was going on.

She let out a shaky breath, “What's going on here?”

“Do you remember we were sitting there by the water,
You put your arms around me for the first time.
I made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter,
You are the best thing that's ever been mine.”

The words hit her hard and she swallowed, and took a deep breath to keep her composure. She felt her eyes watering at the feeling that warmed her heart when she thought of how her remembered the way she'd sang this song for two weeks straight the minute she'd heard it. Her love for Taylor increased speedily.

She faced him, looked him in the eyes, never once relenting.

“And we got bills to pay, we got nothing figured out.
When it was hard to take, yes, yes,
This is what I thought about.
Do you remember we were sitting there by the water,
You put your arms around me for the first time
I made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter,
You are the best thing that's ever been mine.”

And the funny part about it all was that even though Daniel was a shitty singer, he didn't sound bad. At all.

“Do you remember all the city lights on the water,
you saw me start to believe for the first time.
I made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter,
You are the best thing that's ever been mine.”

She opened her mouth to say ‘really?’ but the words refused to come out. She heaved out a deep breath, and blinked twice, peeling her eyes away from his. She couldn't stand the look in his eyes, she just couldn't.

“And I remember that fight two thirty am as everything was slipping right out of our hands.
You ran out crying and I followed you out into the street.
Braced yourself for the goodbye, cause that's all you've ever known.
And I took you by surprise,
I said I'll never leave you alone,”

His fingers stopped working the strings of the guitar and Char's eyes snapped to his. Her eyes were brimming with tears but she couldn't look away. Not when she was so close to finding out what he wanted from her.

“I said, I remember how it felt sitting by the water,
And every time I look at you, it's like the first time.
I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter,
She is the best thing that's ever been mine.”

A small sob escaped Char's lips as the words poured out of his mouth.

“I made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter,
You are the best thing that's ever been mine.”

Char turned around and made to run, tiny sobs coming out of her mouth. How was it possible that even after everything, he still held a very special place in her heart? She knew that if she didn't get away right now, she'd never be able to resist him.

She had to leave.

She was almost there, but then Cat stepped in her way.

“Move,” she said between sobs, “Please, C.”

Cat shook her head with a solemn expression. “I'm sorry, but I can't do that. This is for your own good, babe. And his. Even ours. You're never gonna live the life you deserve if you keep running from it. You have to sort this out.”

Chat wanted to hate her just for that, but she couldn't find it in her. So she did the only thing she could do. She wiped her tears, turned around and walked towards the only person who could break her.

She didn't miss the grateful look Daniel threw Cat behind her. “Okay, List—”

“No.” he shunned her. “The last time, you did the whole talking. It's my turn now. You know what I've come to realise? It's that you're too full of life to be half loved.”

He said it with such conviction that Char had to close and open her eyes a few times to calm her breathing. “Look, Daniel. I really don't want to do this. Please.”

“It doesn't matter. One way or the other, you're hearing this.”

She swallowed, her eyes finding her mother's. Leslie gave her a small nod, and char gave a small smile in return.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but if every single one had to happen to make sure I was right here, right now, to meet you, then I forgive myself for them all. I made up my mind. I don't want to look back in five years and think, “we could have been magnificent but I was afraid.” In five years, I want to tell of how fear tried to cheat me out of the best thing in life and I didn't let it.”

He took a deep breath, lifted his eyes up and exhaled.

“It's you,” he said through a shaky laugh. “Every single time, it's you. I want to hold your head in my arms as my lips brush against the softness of your skin, and I know you don't need me, you want me and I want you back and there's nothing in this world that will stop me from choosing you every night before I fall asleep and evey morning when I awake because there's magic of choice and I promise that every single day I'll choose you. Always you.”

“Falling for you was like falling down the stairs. I was in complete control at first, then, without warning I was spinning, tumbling, and had no idea how or why. Then before I knew what happened, I lay at the bottom; shocked, stunned and so oddly aware that I still ended up exactly where I was trying to go.
Sometimes, the best way to appreciate something is to be without it for a while, which was exactly why I decided to stay away.”

He tore his gaze from the sky and stared directly into her eyes. Char's breath hitched when she saw the tears that were dancing in his eyes.

“I hurt you. I made you feel less than the amazing woman that you are and—”

“I let you. I fucking let you in and you destroyed me.” she cut in.

“I know that, and I feel like the biggest dick in the entire universe for even thinking for one moment that you were never going to be the one for me and now I see that I was extremely wrong.”

Char nodded emphatically, her mind spinning with different possibilities. She didn't want to do this here, in front of the entire town staring at them and waiting for her to say something. Still...

“Do you love me?” she asked him.

He hung his head, eyes down because it was too hard. She was so much more than she was, beyond anything she could have been, sublimely impossible and the only reality left. Wanting her always and admitting it, was too much. Yet all that mattered was her. The entirety of existence, the whole universe, lay before him. This was it.

“I feel like everything in my life has led me to you. My heartbreaks, my choices, my regrets. Everything. And when we're together, my past seems worth it. Because if I had done one thing differently, I might never have met you.”

Char warmed but still she wanted to hear those three words. From his mouth.

“I like your chaos. The way you blow into my life like a fucking storm, tearing the nails and windows out of my soul and opening me to the sky. I like it when you stare at me when you think I'm not looking. I like the way you're so obsessed with SpongeBob. I like tha—”

His voice broke at the end, and when he lifted his eyes to hers, Char could see the tears running down his face. Then he did a very unexpected thing. He dipped his hand into his back pocket and brought out a red velvet box. Char felt the tears coming, and her mouth gaped open with a gasp. Daniel slipped unto the ground, kneeing with one leg.

“Marry me,” he said as he opened the box to reveal a big diamond ring with a huge diamond on it. “Let's spend our nights eating cereal on the floor when there is a perfectly fine table behind us. We can go to the movies and sit at the back row just to make out like kids falling in love for the first time. Marry me. We'll paint the rooms of our house and get more paint on us than the walls. We can hold hands and go to parties we end up ditching to drink wine out of a bottle in the bathtub. Marry me. And slow dance with me in our bedroom with an unmade bed and candles on the nightstand. Let me love you forever. Marry me.”

Char couldn't speak for the life of her. She just stood there staring at him with her mouth wide open as he took her left hand and slipped the ring onto her finger.

“I promise to love you: at 6am when you're waking to go to work, to school or whatever road life takes you on, and when you didn't sleep well, your hair is a mess and your eyes are sleepy. At 8am when we say goodbye for the day and you're rushing out the door with a cup of coffee in your hand and your car keys in your other hand. At 5pm when you're exhausted from the day and people have worn you out and you feel like crying, falling asleep and escaping from everything. I will kiss your forehead and wrap myself in your arms. At 10pm when you're heading to bed, even though you won't sleep for hours. Especially when we become a human knot wrapped in sheets and kisses. At 3am when loneliness and sadness do not destroy you, but consume you and when you weep without an explanation, I'll kiss your lips softly and tell you you're the absolute best and things will be better soon. I will love you when you grow old and I will love you after that. I will love you if I'm no longer here. I will love you, and I will love you.”

Char stared at him through her watering eyes. She couldn't believe it. She wanted to, but she couldn't. How in the name of the holy virgin...? Life sure was funny. Years and years, she'd waited for this and now that she'd given up, it'd come, hitting her hard in the face.

Ah fate,... Cruel, cruel fate.

“Charlee...” Daniel spoke up when he saw her hesitation.

Immediately, Char's eyes widened. She tried to, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd heard that name. It'd been too long. Suddenly, her entire life flashed before her eyes. This was it. The it. All she'd ever wanted was right there, in front of her. All she had to do was say yes. She thought about it long and hard. She weighed the pros and cons. The only con she could think of was the fact that if she gave herself to him again, he would break her and that alone outweighed all the pros.

Tears ran down her face and from somewhere in the audience, she was sure she heard a voice whisper ‘say yes’, a voice that sounded similar to her mother's. She could hardly believe it. It all seemed so surreal. Daniel was here, in front of the entire Kingsmille, confessing his love for her and asking her to marry him. If someone had told her that this would be happening two weeks ago, she'd have given them a seriously hot slap on the head, laugh at their face and direct their ass to the nearest mental hospital. She let out a shaky laugh, took a deep breath and looked at him.

Then she opened her mouth and made the decision that would change her life forever.

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