I Care About You Too

Chapter 35 "It Is Time"

A/N: I'll be making a second book to continue this story so this will be the last chapter of this book.
Serena and I have been watching The Three Stooges for a few hours now, about three empty bags of popcorn, some empty cans of soda, and a half eaten bag of candy lie in front of us on the coffee table.
Curly: "Oh, oh, oh, Ohhh look!"
Curly said as he nursed his head then pointed at a pickaxe that Moe was holding, the pick was now comedically bent with a bunch bends.
Serena and I chuckled.
Larry: "nice job, genius, now we're down another pickaxe. That makes three this week!"
Larry said to Moe.
Moe: "Quiet, porcupine."
Moe said as he threw the pickaxe to the ground and on both Curly's, and Larry's feet.
Serena and I chucked yet again.
Vaudeville and slapstick comedy is the best kind.
Serena: "I swear, I could watch this shit all day, every day."
Serena said as she rested her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closer to me and agreed that I too could watch this show all the time.
Jake: "You wanna watch a few more episodes or do something else?"
I asked as I turn to her.
Serena: "A few more episodes."
Serena answered.
Serena: "But we're gonna need another soda."
Serena said as she turned and kissed my cheek.
Jake: "Oh, yes ma'am."
I said as I returned the kiss and got up to go get another soda, just one though. Serena and I can share because we're just gonna watch just a few more episodes. Grabbing a can of Sunkist Berry Lemonade from the fridge in the garage, I returned to to Serena just in time to see on screen, Moe beating on Curly while those iconic sounds played. I cracked open the can and took the first sip before sitting back down next to Serena and handed her the can for her to take her sip.
Serena: "Thanks, bae."
Serena thanked as she took a slightly larger sip than I did, something told me that she would be the one to have the very last sip, figured I best enjoy the single can as much as I could until then.
Serena: "What time even is it, anyway?"
Serena asked, keeping her eyes on the screen.
I saw the sky out the window when I went to grab the soda, the sun was setting pretty low, casting a bright, fiery orange light through the windows so I knew it was getting late. Pulling out my phone from my pocket, I saw that it was 4:38 PM.
Jake: "4:38."
I answered. Serena nodding her head in response but still keeping her eyes on the screen. Something seemed a bit off about Serena. She was a bit too focused on the show. I mean don't get me wrong, I like paying attention to what I'm watching but Serena, something was on her mind.
Jake: "Something's troubling you, babe..."
I said as I looked at her.
Serena just looked down and sighed before looking back at me.
Serena: "Jake, I... I think... I think it's time..."
Serena said very hesitantly.
I knew exactly what she meant... She was saying that it was time to reveal her.
Jake: "... Are you certain about this, baby..?"
I asked as I paused the episode.
Serena: "Jake, my love, I want to go out there, see the world, go to restaurant dinner-dates, go shopping, maybe get a job, I want to experience the new things with you."
Serena said with a single tear running down her cheek.
Gently wiping away the tear, I gently grab hold of her hand with both of mine, and look into her beautiful eyes.
Jake: "I... I would love to do all those things and more with you, but... How would we do this..?"
I say to her.
Serena: "... I don't... I don't know...But... I want this to happen! I can't wait any longer! I want to go out there with you and do everything together... I just... I just can't wait any longer... This has to happen! I need it to..."
Serena confessed to me with yet another tear running down her other cheek.
What was I to do? I wanted all those things just as much as her if not more! But the fear, the fear of what could happen to us, more importantly, her, made me so hesitant. But the hesitation, the hesitation was becoming crippling..."
Jake: "We need to figure this out..."
I said more to myself but still keeping my eyes on hers.
Serena: "Jake... Jake, my love... Absolutely no matter what happens, as long as we're there to suffer it together, I'll be happy... "
Serena said as she let out two more tears.
Those tears. Those tears pained me but I couldn't help but agree, so long as we're together... that's all that would matter, neither of us would let anything get in the way or separate us. Our love for each other is too strong for anything to get in our way. It sounds corny, I know, but it was true. Neither one of us could live on without the other. Much like how light cannot exist without the dark and the dark cannot exist without the light.
We would make this happen... It will happen! But we still don't know how. I could feel anxiety and determination having a battle in my head.
'Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, ok you're panicking.'
I say to myself in my head. I needed another distraction but if I'm distracted then I can't think of how to do this whole thing but I just didn't know what to do about anything.
Serena could sense my distress as usual. She said we can just try doing something and thinking about this at the same time, though she wasn't very certain about that herself but she was desperate as me, to ease this headache.
We found ourselves in my parents room looking at old vinyl records, my parents had a turntable that still worked so Serena and I just started listening to the songs my parents had. We could tell what records were mom's or dad's. Eventually we reach a record with some Elvis songs and we started listening to 'Can't help falling in love with you'. It was a great song. Serena and I looked lovingly at each other and we closed the gap between us, held each other's hands, and swayed left to right with the song. I tell ya, we really liked the song.
Jake: "This song is basically about us. We fell in love so damn quick when we first met."
I said as we continued to sway.
'But I can't help falling in love you.'
The song played.
It really did describe our relationship. So quick.
Jake: "This 'oughta be our song."
I say, continuing our swaying, Serena is resting her head on my chest now.
Serena: "Agreed."
She said as she smiled into my chest.
By now the song ended and began playing another note but I wasted no time in reaching for the tonearm and placing it back at the previous song and continuing to sway to it.
We replayed the song like three times before we found mom taking pictures of us.
Looking over at her, she stopped her picture taking.
Mom: "No, no, no, keep going, keep going!"
Mom said as she readied the camera again, since we know it's futile to talk mom out of more pictures, Serena and I simply decided to keep going in hopes that mom would be satisfied soon. Thankfully, mom was satisfied rather quickly so Serena and I counted our blessings and left for my room but not before snatching the vinyl record and it's cardboard cover.
So Serena and I finally have a song and we also... Still haven't figured out how we're gonna go about revealing Serena... but... I think I know how to do it.
N/A: I tried really hard to reach 2000 words for this chapter but simply couldn't for the life of me. Anyway, this concludes this book (Volume One) and I'll be writing volume two very soon! I hope you all enjoyed volume one and hope to see you in volume two and I hope you enjoy it just as much as you've all enjoyed volume one!
-With much Love and appreciation!
-AJ <—- (Me, the author)