love story

I hear a faint voice come out of Ryden's phone, "Are you busy right now?"

He glances at me, "I'm kind of in the middle of something, but do you need something?"

"I need a reason to call my son?"

I hide my smile behind my mug, his dad's response reminds me exactly of my mom's response when I ask her why she's calling.

Ryden sighs, "Dad stop saying that, its not a funny joke anymore."

His dad lets out a disappointed noise, "You can't make me."

"Sure dad. But really, I am in the middle of something."

"Alright alright, I'm sure you're very busy with whatever you do all day long."

"Dad, you know what I do all day long."

"Well apparently not." His dad shoots back at him.

Ryden's brows shoot up, "What do you mean?"

He shoots a look at me and grins. I grin back leaning forward more so I can hear the call more clearly. He pushes the phone closer to me and I can feel the heat radiating off of his hand.

His dad coughs, "I've been hearing that you're having marriage talks with someone now?"

"Dad!" Ryden says sharply.

"What? Your old man's not allowed to ask you about your life?"

"No, I'm just on a date right now."

I feel my cheeks immediatly heat up. Hearing Ryden confirm that its a date in real life is much different than reading it from a little text box. I stare at his handsome features, I'm really on a date with Ryden Halls.

His dad pauses on the other side and I hear crackling, a womans voice filters through, "Is it with Sophia?"

Sophia? I feel a twinge of something akin to jealousy mixed with disappointment, why would his parents think that he's on a date with Sophia? But the very next second Ryden's expression clearly tells me that he has absolutely no intention of ever going on a date with Sophia.

"What? No! Why would you think that?"

I look at Rydens face. His handsome forehead is furrowed in confusion, his lips are pursed, and his dark eyes look at me nervously as if asking me not to misunderstand anything. He doesn't know anything at all.

I think back to what Kacey told me about Ryden never taking the hint from Sophia before and smile reassuringly at him. I thought she might've been exaggerating about how blind he is to her obvious attempts, but he clearly has no idea.

After the initial surprise that followed from me pulling out the slip, Kacey and I had quickly put our heads together to get to the bottom of who had written the slip. We knew the names of some people who'd chosen not be be anonymous, and going off of that we were left with a short list with Sophia's name at the top of the list.

Based off her reaction, the fact that she brought up the idea of the game, the elegant handwriting, the dot that someone had marked on the paper, and Sophia's decision to hand us slips rather than let us pick and choose I would rather eat my left shoe than believe that Sophia had not been the one to write that paper.

But Ryden had either not reached that conclusion, or had just swept away any of his curiosity about the culprit by seeing the paper as a childish prank.

"Oh!" A surprised voice filters out, "It's just that she told us that we should be expecting good news from you before your party. So I thought that it would be you two. I guess I misunderstood her, she must have been trying to tell me you had a girlfriend."

A girlfriend?

"No she's not my-"

Ryden pauses and looks at me questioningly.

I nod, not even knowing what I'm agreeing to.

"I mean yes, she is my girlfriend."

My heart jolts. But it quickly calms back down, he only said that to get his dad off his back. I say to myself.

"Wow! You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend!"

"Yeah, well we just started dating recently."

Very recently, I think.

"And you're already going to get married?" his mom asks.

"No-"

His dad pipes up, interupting Ryden's answer, "Haha! I knew my son would just be like me!"

"Dad no-"

His dad ignores him.

"When I met your mother at the pub all those years ago, I knew right away that she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Screw dating and then marriage. We went straight to the marriage phase a week after meeting each other becuase we liked each other but knew that it would turn into love and look at how that turned out!"

Ryden's mom takes over the phone, "Yes, we fell in love a month after we married and then we had you! And even though he drives me crazy sometimes," his dad butts in again, "You know I like it."

I swear I can hear Ryden's mom rolling her eyes through the phone, "Ignore him Ryden. Just because he doesn't understand how annoying he can be sometimes doesn't mean that his son doesn't know how he can get."

"So whens the wedding?"

"Mom, Dad. I'm not getting married."

There's an awkward silence before his dad clears his throat, "Oh. Alright then. Well...just think about it."

"Okay dad."

"Don't just say that. Actually think over it okay?"

"I will, i'll hang up now okay?"

"Bye"

"Bye dad, I love you and mom."

Ryden hangs up and looks up at me, "Well, those are my parents. I hope they don't scare you away."

Is he kidding me? They're so cute! "No, I don't mind them at all! They seem like very interesting people."

I think back to their eager retelling of their love story and smile. That really might have been us if we had gone through with the dare. I feel a bit of regret, to grow old together, have children together, and be able to talk so sweetly about their love story as if they'd stepped right out of a novel was something not many people in the world had the ability to do.

With so many options available, so many possible connections to be made, people no longer committed to their feelings with ease, always wondering if there was someone else out there. Someone better.

It looks like I might've lost my only chance at having a fairytale love story that night.

I take another sip of my matcha and the liquid slides down into my stomach, making me feel warm and comfortable.

I've never gone on a date before, and the whole way here I was thinking about all the things that would happen during it. But now that I'm here, I find myself just enjoying the moment with Ryden.

I may not know him very well yet, but something in me tells me to not let the chance to bring him into my life go to waste.

Something bubbles up in me and I swallow, trying to keep the rising urge to be spontaneous.

Ryden says something to me and I snap out of my thoughts, "I'm sorry, can you repeat what you just said?"

"I was asking if you want to order anything else, your drink's almost finished."

I look down to see my mug more than halfway empty, "Oh no thats okay, thanks for asking."

I've had enough sugary drinks for the day.

"You looked pretty deep in thought earlier." he says lightly.

"Yeah I was just thinking about-" I stop myself from saying what I really want to. Lacie, I reprimand myself, no. Don't say it.

"Yes?"

"Oh nothing it wasn't that important."

Ryden leans forward in his seat, "Well it seemed pretty important to you so it's important to me too."

I shift uncomfortably, I've already resolved not to say it to him, but my heart is screaming at me to just blurt it out.

Ryden pushes me one more time, "Come on, you can tell me." and the words rush out before I can stop them.

"Well, like your parents said. You are in the talks of marrying someone right now."

"What?"

"I mean, you told me we could talk about it later. Now is later, let's talk about marriage."

Ryden's face turns blank and he stares at me.

Oh shit oh shit oh shit, I've said too much. I feel disappointment and shame welling up in me. This was the first time I ever tried to honestly communicate my feelings to someone I was interested in. But it looks like I jumped the gun too fast, Ryden will be leaving this date without ever wanting to talk to me again, it it will be all my fault.

His expression remaining blank, he opens his mouth slowly to speak. I hold my breath, toes curled in my red sneakers as I prepare for the worst.

He's going to tell you to never talk to him again.

He's going to get up and leave.

He's going to-

"I was expecting to have to bring that topic up."

Huh? I stare at him dumbfounded.

The happiness comes a second later and I can feel my face break out into a huge smile, "Really?"

He returns my smile, "Yes. You've already heard about my parents story. I've grown up hearing it so I've always been curious to see if I would ever find an opportunity to experience anything remotely close to it, but I never did."

He sighs, "It's understandable, you'd have to he crazy to marry someone you'd just met."

"Well then I guess we're both crazy."

He raises a brow, "Are we?" I can sense a bit of teasing behind the sentence. He wants me to be the first person to say the words out loud. I smirk, he's not going to be having it that easy.

"I don't know, you tell me."

He looks at me silently for a second and I can see him searching face for any weakness. He doesn't find what he's looking for and raises his hands in defeat.

Looking down at his watch, he gets up and walks over to my side, reaching out a large hand for me to grab.

"We are if we make it to the civil office in time"