Chapter 27 – This Was My Moment
Saturday
My dad pulled up to the curb outside Empire High. I ran out onto the sidewalk, not even bothering to close the door. I took the steps two at a time and burst into the school.
Music was blaring into the hallway from the cafeteria. I kept running.
Axel Stevens loved me back. Axel freaking Stevens loved me back! I ran into the cafeteria, but it was absolutely packed. I pushed my way into the students dancing and turned around in a circle. Where was he?
I made my way farther onto the dance floor. It felt like I was in a movie with everyone in their 50s attire. The only problem was that I couldn’t find Axel anywhere. If I was in a movie, he’d be here, waiting in the middle of the room. But I finally saw someone I knew.
“Soph!” I yelled. She was grinding with Eli, but she hurried over as soon as she saw me.
“Tell me everything!” she said. “Did you accept?” She grabbed my hand and frowned when she saw there was no ring. “You said no?!”
“What? No. He was gone when I came out of my room. He’s supposed to meet me here, but I don’t see him anywhere. Have you seen him?”
She shook her head. “But I’ll help you find him.” She hooked her arm through mine and we made our way through the crowd.
I saw Luis the Cheater dancing with a girl that wasn’t his girlfriend. I shook my head and turned around. I couldn’t believe that I’d ever thought the kiss thief was anyone but Axel.
“Where the heck is he?” Sophie said. We stopped by the windows and she pulled out her phone. She tried texting Axel but he didn’t respond. “We need to split up to find him. I’ll get RJ to help. He’s hiding from Parker anyway. We’ll check the classrooms. Maybe you can check outside?”
I had no idea what Axel would be doing outside. It was freezing out tonight. But I nodded my head. Sophie went off to find her brother. And I hurried out the other side of the cafeteria. I’d just walked up the front steps and Axel wasn’t there. Maybe he was out back.
I walked through the empty gymnasium. My high heels clicked on the floor.
And I realized for the first time that my dad had actually let me out of the house in a nice pair of heels.
He’d probably been a little off his game after the whole trying to ruin my life thing.
Hopefully he was finally done trying to control me.
I pushed open the side door and a blast of cold air made me shiver.
But I saw the lights on in the stadium. Axel might be there.
I ran out the door and down to the stadium.
It didn’t take long for me to find him sitting in the bleachers.
His elbows were on his knees as he stared down at the jewelry box in his hand.
He was flipping the top of the jewelry box opened and closed.
Staring at the ring he’d proposed to me with.
I still had a million questions running through my head. But there was only one main question that mattered right now. Axel had proposed to me. He was waiting for an answer.
My heart started pounding against my ribcage. My whole life, I’d been too scared to tell him how I felt. But I wasn’t scared anymore.
I ran up the bleachers toward him.
He heard the sound of my footsteps and lifted his head. He snapped the box closed, shoved it into his pocket, and ran down the bleachers toward me. He stepped down onto the same row I was on.
“Scarlett, I’m so sorry. I should have just told you the truth back in sixth grade...”
“It’s okay.”
He lowered his eyebrows. “Nothing about any of this is okay. I never meant to hurt you.”
“I forgive you. And I’m sorry too. I should have told you how I felt.”
His eyes searched mine. “And how do you feel?”
My heart kept pounding. This was my moment.
I’d tried so many times and failed. But he’d put everything on the line already.
He’d made my job here easy. “I saw the videogame you made for coding class. But I don’t need a quest to find my Prince Charming.
I already found him. Axel Stevens, I love you.
I’ve loved you my whole life. You mean everything to me and I don’t want to go another second without you knowing... ”
His lips slammed against mine.
I felt like I’d kissed a million boys trying to unmask him. But no one’s kisses beat his. Axel kissed me like I was the air he needed to breathe. And I felt exactly the same way about him. We just...fit. We always had. We’d wasted so much time but I was never going to waste another second.
For the first time ever, he didn’t grab my hands away as I wrapped them behind his neck. He no longer needed to conceal his identity. And I could finally do something I’d always wanted to. I lifted my fingers into his hair and they immediately got stuck.
I laughed and pulled back. “That is a lot of hair gel.”
“I was trying to fit the theme of your dance,” he said with a laugh.
“You do. You look perfect.” I’d run my fingers through his hair later. I smiled at the thought of a lifetime of laters.
The wind blew and I shivered.
Axel shrugged out of his leather jacket and put it around my shoulders. “The only thing that would make you look more perfect is if you were wearing my varsity jacket. But you still have that.” He smiled down at me.
“And now I understand why you never took it back.” And why he’d never given it to anyone else over the years.
“It was always meant to be yours, Scarlett.”
For a few seconds we both just stared at each other. Something in the air had shifted. And everything finally felt right. The way it was always meant to be.
He dropped his forehead against mine. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
Axel took a deep breath and pulled back. “But I’m gonna need you to answer my question before I lose my mind.”
I knew what question. He’d asked me to marry him. One day I’d be Axel’s wife. There was no doubt in my mind. But there was something I wanted first. Actually, a whole lot of somethings. “Can we maybe start from the beginning?”
Axel tried to get back down on one knee.
“No, not there,” I said and grabbed his arms to stop him. “I don’t want to skip any moments. I want it all with you.” I lifted the homecoming king crown. “Axel Stevens, will you be my boyfriend?”
Axel laughed as I stood on my tiptoes and placed the crown on his head.
“I would love nothing more.” He pulled me back into a searing kiss.
God, how had I ever existed without his kisses?
His fingers slid down to my ass and he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he twirled me around in a circle.
I’d gone to sleep so many nights, dreaming of kissing him in the stands just like this after one of his games. It felt so perfect that it was hard to believe it was real.
I heard cheering and Axel stopped spinning me. We stared down the stands to see Liam, Soph, RJ, Jacob, and Parker running toward us. Axel set me back down on my feet and the five of them threw their arms around us.
“It’s about time,” Sophie said. “Seventeen years in the making.”
“Yeah, yeah,” RJ said. “But I have so many questions. How did you get out of Odegaard without any of us seeing you?”
Axel laughed. “I asked Mr. Nigel for help with that. All I had to do was agree to let him call me grandson.” He shrugged.
“I knew there was more behind that,” I said.
“I love Grandpa Nigel,” Parker said. “I’m glad he adopted us.”
Jacob shook his head. “Mr. Nigel is so sneaky. I’m just used to him helping me.” He laughed.
I stared at him for a moment. He looked genuinely happy for us.
“What did you think of Sophie’s Gog costume at Odegaard?” RJ asked. “Because she gave me a hard time about it.”
“I think I saw right through it,” Axel said.
Sophie slapped RJ’s arm. “I knew it!”
RJ laughed. “You’re the one that called yourself Gog though.” He turned back to Axel. “And...burner phone?”
Axel nodded.
“And did you know about the cameras in the locker room?”
“The what?” Axel asked.
“Um...nothing,” RJ said.
I looked up at Axel. “All those pacts that you kept trying to make with me? About me not dating anyone on the team. And then the vow of singledom thing...”
“I didn’t want you to date anyone but me.
And I knew you’d narrow down the kiss thief to people at that first party of the year.
Which was mostly my team.” He shook his head.
“We made it all the way to our senior year without you wanting to date anyone and suddenly you wanted to kiss everyone and I panicked.”
Sophie folded her arms across her chest. “The only reason she was single for so long was because you told people on your team she was off-limits.”
Axel scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah...um...I did do that. And for a long time that worked. But at that party when you told me you were ready to give away your first kiss to someone other than me, I knew I needed a new plan.”
“And the kiss thief was born,” Liam said. “It’s really gross that you like kissing my sister, man. So disgusting.”
Axel smiled. “I really like kissing your sister.” He grabbed me around the waist and kissed me again.
“Stop being disgusting,” Liam said.
“It’s not disgusting,” RJ said. “Your sister is clearly very hot.”
I laughed and pulled back.
“But why did you dress up as the Empire High mascot, Axel?” Sophie asked. “That was a really shit thing to do when you know how much I love Mr. Halifax.”
“Yeah, I did not realize that you guys would actually think I was the mascot. I was just goofing around. Did you seriously think I was Mr. Halifax?”
I cringed. “It was a very real possibility that terrified me.”
“But you’re not your mom.” Sophie patted my shoulder. “Thank goodness.”
“I still can’t believe you read my mom’s books. And oh God. All our parents hate each other now, don’t they? Or...maybe they always have?”
“Uncle James kind of went on an apology tour when you ran out of the room crying,” RJ said. “I think everything is fine. That guy is a real piece of work. It’s so weird that our dads are brothers. My dad is nothing like yours.”
“Tell me about it.”
Sophie laughed. “Kind of like how RJ and I are nothing alike.”
We all just stared at her. They were exactly the same.
“And I can’t believe we didn’t know it was Axel the whole time.
Of course it was. I read your mom’s books years ago, but I totally remember your dad hating Axel’s dad now.
Such a shame I didn’t wait to read them until more recently and then it probably would have all clicked.
Uncle James is so vengeful. Also...your mom and dad are kinky as hell in those books... ”
“Ew, stop it,” I said.
“I have a question,” Axel said. “RJ, why did you break into my room?”
“Those three did it first.” He pointed to me, Soph, and Parker. “But they left up the feed of the locker room on your computer...”
“Did you seriously put up cameras in the men’s locker room?”
“Yeah,” RJ said. “They made me.”
“We hardly made you,” Sophie said.
RJ shrugged. “If I had my way, I would have put them in the women’s locker room.”
Liam laughed.
And then Parker kicked RJ.
He yelped.
“We broke into your room to look for clues to see if you were my kiss thief,” I said. “And we found that countdown in your notebook. Have you really been counting down the days until you could be with me since sixth grade?”
Axel nodded.
“Just like a serial killer,” RJ said. “And I have about a million more questions...”
Parker kicked his shin.
“Stop kicking me, you little twerp.”
“Just let them live happily ever after too,” Parker said.
“What the hell do you mean by ‘too’ there? Who else is living happily ever after here?”
“Us,” Parker said.
“Help me,” RJ said to Axel.
Axel shook his head. “Parker, RJ is too old for you.”
“No, I think he’s just right.”
“But you hate me,” RJ said. “Clearly. Cut it out.”
“Love and hate are a fine line,” Parker said. “That’s what all my favorite TV shows say. And I do hate you. So it’ll work out. Can we go dance now?”
She really did watch way too much reality TV.
“I’m down,” Sophie said. “I still need to get Mr. Halifax to catch me with my half-kilo.” She lifted her red purse.
“Terrible idea,” I said. “But...I did plan this whole dance. And I don’t want to miss it.”
“Then I better get my girlfriend to the dance before the clock strikes twelve.”
I laughed as Axel lifted me over his shoulder.
My hands fell to his butt as he carried me down the bleachers.
We weren’t driving off in a horse drawn carriage like in the fairytales. But this was a million times better. Because it was so us.