I woke up the next morning still curled up in Eddie’s arms, his face nuzzled into my neck. I moved my head slightly to look at the clock, it read 6:30 am which meant I had another half hour to stay cuddled up next to Eddie. I missed being able to just lay in his arms and not have a single worry in the world except for school. That’s when I remembered something and tried to get up from the bed, only to have Eddie pull me back down.
“Nope, no moving. Stay home today. Just lay here with me.” Eddie mumbled.
“Ok, I can call into work but you have to let me up. I have something for you and I can’t believe I didn’t remember it until now.” I said, and he groaned and let me up, grumbling about how I’m taking his warmth away and I’m a meanie. I just laughed and walked to my closet and pulled a box out, a box I haven’t even looked at in ages.
“What’s that Dove?” Eddie asked, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I sat next to him on the bed and he wrapped his arms around my waist, looking at the box in my lap.
“Well, after the upside down and your death I took it upon myself to retrieve whatever I could from the trailer after the gates tore it apart. We all helped Wayne move everything we could salvage, which wasn’t much but we saved your room for last because no one could bear to go in. Well they weren’t going to let me go in because I was pregnant and it wasn’t safe, but I’m stubborn and went in anyway. Wayne followed me and while he made sure I was ok, we decided who would get what. He gave me all the band tees he could find and a couple tapes, but these two things were the most important and he insisted I keep them.” I said, giving him the box.
When he opened it, I couldn't read the look on his face. I don’t know what he expected to find, but I'm sure it wasn’t what was in the box.
“You’ve had these the whole time? Why didn’t you say anything, Dove?” Eddie asked, bringing the small black box out, then the green folder.
“Well, I was saving the black box for Ivy, thinking it would be something she’d like, and the folder I forgot about till this morning. Open it Eddie.” I said, motioning to the folder.
“You haven’t opened the box? This whole time?” Eddie asked, sitting against my headboard and smiling.
“Nope, not one time.”
“Ok, tell you what? I’ll open the folder if you open the box. It was for you anyway.” he said, handing me the box and taking the folder.
“It was for me?”
“Yup. I know I couldn’t keep a secret from you to save my life, but this is the one I kept.”
I opened the box, seeing the most beautiful Emerald princess cut ring I’d ever seen in my life.
“Eddie? Is this what I think it is?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
“If you think it’s the ring I was going to propose with, then yes it’s what you think it is.” Eddie said, “ I was gonna do it after graduation, if I even graduated. I want to marry you no matter what, but I figured you’d rather marry someone with at least a high school diploma. Well that didn’t happen, so I figured I'll take some night classes and finally do it.” he finished.
“Jesus christ Eddie, I’d marry you no matter what, but do me a favor and open that folder before you say anything else?”
Inside that folder was his Diploma. All the work he did finally paid off. Eddie graduated, actually graduated and not one of those given to people who should have graduated but didn’t because they passed when the town divided. Eddie looked at it for a while and I saw the tears that fell from his eyes drop onto it. He looked up at me, shocked.
“I did it? I actually graduated?”
“Yes baby, all that hard work paid off. You did it and I’m so proud of you.” I said, wiping away the tears on his face. “And you know, I really wouldn’t mind having the same last name as you and Ivy, If you still wanted to marry me that is.” I said, smiling at him.
“Jesus Dove, of course I still want to. I’ll always want to. I’ve always thought about what our future would look like. I swore I would do anything I had to, to make sure we were together. A couple kiddos and maybe a nice house, but I would live in a damn box if it meant I was with you. So with that said, Y/n Y/l/n, will you marry me?”
“A million times yes! Yes Eddie, I’ll marry you.”
