86. Seth
Seth
The bell over the diner door dings when we step inside, and the sound feels ridiculous after what we’ve done.
Brooke keeps her sunglasses on anyway. I keep my cap low. We look like we walked out of Hell. Smoke still lives in our clothes. There is ash in the seams of her hairline. I have a smear at my jaw I missed when I wiped my face.
The hostess barely looks up.
“Two?” she asks.
I nod once.
We slide into a booth near the window. The diner is warm in that familiar way, heat turned too high and the smell of old coffee and pancakes hanging in the air. The place reminds me of Lorraine’s Diner, the same worn booths and steady vibe of a place that never really closes.
Brooke wraps her hands around the menu even though she already knows what she wants.
I pull my phone out and check it.
“Beau said the pilot will be there in an hour. We eat. We don’t need to rush.”
Brooke lets out a breath that almost counts as relief. “Cool. Maybe we can sightsee.”
I lift my eyes, and see she is trying to be funny.
“We’re technically dead. We don't want anybody to recognize us.”
Brooke snorts and nods. “Right.”
The waitress appears with two waters and that tired late night voice. “What can I get you?”
I don’t even open the menu. “Coffee. Black. Eggs, fries, bacon.”
Brooke smiles.
“Turkey sausage,” she says. “Pancakes. Extra syrup.”
The waitress scribbles and walks off.
Brooke looks at me. “Where are we gonna go after this?”
I lean back and scan the room without making it obvious. My posture says relaxed. Even though my eyes say I will kill anyone who looks at her wrong.
“It’s up to you.”
Brooke swallows. “I guess, figure out what peace looks like for people like us.”
I smile. “I like the way you think.”
The food arrives fast. The coffee hits the table with a soft clink, then the plates. Eggs glistening. Fries piled high. Bacon crisp. Brooke’s pancakes are golden brown and fluffy, syrup already threatening to run.
She cuts into them anyway. The first bite makes her shoulders drop a fraction. The rush of sugar and heat hits her.
We eat without speaking. It is quiet between us in a way that doesn’t feel empty. It feels like we’re learning how to be normal.
Brooke glances up and catches me watching her.
“You’re staring.”
I don’t look away. “I like what I see.”
She laughs under her breath. “Yeah? With blood and ash all over my face?”
“Yeah…Especially with that.”
She reaches for her water. “You’re insane.”
I take a bite of bacon. “I know.”
A small record player sits on the edge of our table by the window. One of those diner decorations people bring back because nostalgia sells better than plastic menus. The casing is scratched, but the needle arm still sits in place.
I lean slightly toward it and look at the small playlist cards stacked beside it.
Most of the titles are the usual filler.
Then I see it.
“Lovesong”
For a second I just stare at the card.
Out of all the songs that could have been sitting there tonight, it's that one. After everything that just happened, after the fire and the blood, this is the one waiting on the table.
It feels absurd.
Then the television above the counter flashes bright and I realize something else.
It’s New Year’s Eve.
I completely forgot.
My hand moves without me thinking, slipping into my pocket out of habit. My fingers brush against something solid and familiar.
I freeze.
You’ve gotta be shitting me.
I pull it out slowly, already knowing what it is before I even look.
The ring box.
These are the same pants. The ones I shoved it into before everything went to hell and we had to leave the safe house.
I stare down at it for a second, my grip tightening around it.
Of all the times. Of all the places.
And somehow, it’s still here.
It feels like the universe lined something up just for this moment.
I reach over and press the button. The speakers crackle.
Then the opening of “Lovesong” by The Cure drifts through the diner. The steady bass line settles into the room and Robert Smith’s voice follows a second later.
Brooke blinks in surprise.
Then her mouth curls.
“Awww,” she smiles. “This is my song.”
“It’s our song now,” I tell her.
She shakes her head, smile widening.
The diner noise fades as the song wraps around us.
She looks at me and laughs quietly.
“Who would have thought we’d end up back in a diner together, after everything we survived?”
That is when it hits me.
The certainty.
I have never been so sure of anything in my life. Not a shot. Not a kill. Not survival.
Her.
I think about New Year’s Eve, exactly a year ago. The hotel, the rose gold ring that never made it to her finger. The interruption. The chaos. I remember the nerves that night, the way my hands shook, the doubt that crept in even though I love her more than anything in this world.
I don’t feel that now.
Not even a trace.
I keep my eyes on hers. I don’t blink.
“I knew from the moment I saw you.”
Brooke’s smile stalls, caught between wanting to tease me and wanting to cry. She just watches me like she is trying to understand what I am about to do.
I reach into my pocket and pull out the ring box.
Brooke’s gaze drops to it, then lifts to my face.
“I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you, Brooke. Even when you didn’t know I was there yet. Before you looked at me. Before you even said my name.”
Her eyes gloss. She tries to blink it away.
I reach for her hand and lace our fingers together. My thumb rubs over her knuckles.
“We’ve been through hell together, Brooke. We’ve bled together. We’ve killed together.” A faint grin tugs at my mouth. “I’ve stacked a lot of bodies for you.”
She lets out a quiet laugh while she wipes at the corner of her eye, and my chest eases at the sound.
“I’ve taken a bullet or two for you,” I add.
I shake my head once, staring down at our joined hands for a second before looking back at her.
“I kept waiting for the right time to ask you this. Every time I thought I had it, something went to shit.”
I let out a breath through my nose.
“And then it hit me. The perfect moment is whenever I’m with you.”
I hold her gaze, not looking away.
“I don’t need everything to fall into place first.”
My grip tightens slightly around hers.
“I just need you.”
The words scrape something raw out of my chest.
“I want the rest of my life with you.”
I open the ring box, letting her see it before I say anything else.
The rose gold catches the diner light, warm against all the grime and exhaustion. There is still a fleck of my blood on it, dark and dry in a place most people would never notice.
“Brooke, will you marry me?”
She looks at the ring for a second before lifting her eyes back to mine, as if nothing else in the room exists.
“Do you even have to ask?” Her lips tremble around the smile trying to break through. “Yes, duh.”
The tension leaves mt chest all at once with a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
I take the ring out of the box and reach across the table for her hand. My thumb rubs over her knuckles before I slide the ring onto her finger. The warm metal looks beautiful against her skin. Mine, finally, where it always should've been.
Outside, headlights sweep across the window as a car pulls into the parking lot and idles.
I glance toward it, then back at Brooke.
“Time to go.”
Before either of us moves, the television above the counter crackles louder. The screen flashes bright colors as the New Year’s broadcast cuts in. The crowd on the TV starts counting down, voices rising together.
Ten.
Nine.
Brooke lifts her hand, and the ring catches the cheap diner light. She gives me a look that says ‘You did that’ and she isn’t letting me forget it.
“Okay,” she murmurs. “Husband.”
My mouth quirks. In that moment I feel the happiest I have ever felt.
“Soon baby,” I squeeze her hand and stand. “Let’s disappear first.”
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Brooke grabs the front of my shirt and pulls me down.
Five.
Four.
Three.
She kisses me hard, her hands sliding into my hair as the last numbers echo through the diner.
Two.
One.
I kiss her back just as fiercely. I hold onto her like I’m not letting anything take her away from me again.
The television erupts with cheers behind us as the new year begins.
“Lovesong” continues playing while we leave the diner.
Me and my final girl survived it all.
That’s the only ending that ever mattered.