Broken and Afraid- A Tythan Story

Chapter 14- Surprise?

Tyler's POV

Planning this party was extremely difficult. It took several hours, several trips to the store, and even more hours on the phone to different stores, companies, and friends. Mostly Mark, but still.

Anyway, after all of this, I think we're finally ready to set up. Mark and I both grabbed different things, and began setting up.

"How did you get Ethan out of the house?" Mark asked me after a while.

"To be honest, it wasn't really that hard to do. I just told him that he should get out of the house and go hang out with Amy and Katherine or something," I replied, only half telling the truth.

In reality, I had actually asked Amy and Katherine to call him and see if he wanted to have a "girls+Ethan" day at Katherine's place. It's never hard to get any of them to comply to a girls day.

"That's a good one," said Mark, chucking a bit, "how much did it take you to pull that one off?"

I leaned over the table and playfully punched him in the arm, and he faked falling out of his , screaming something about the agony.

We laughed and got back to work. I told Amy to have him back by 4, and it was already... ! It was 3:30 and they'd be leaving to come over soon.

"Shit!" I said, semi-startling Mark, and semi-hurting myself.

"What?!" said Mark, before following my eyes to the clock, and also screaming, "Shit!"

We both clambered up from our seats, running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

We tied up the balloons, taped up the streamers, threw the confetti everywhere, set the food on the counter tops and table, along with plastic cutlery and paper plates, keeping the cake in the fridge.

Guests began arriving at around 3:45, and everyone who RSVPed was there by 4:15, besides Ethan, Amy and Katherine. At this point, I began panicking, wondering where they were and when they'd be here. I thought about texting them, hesitating for a second until I head voices and keys jingling outside the door. I told everyone to hide as quietly as I could, turned off the lights, and then found a hiding spot as well.

Ethan, Katherine and Amy all walked in chatting with one another. Ethan called my name and turned on the lights , at which point we all jumped out and yelled "!"

I was shocked when i started to see him cry.

"Surprise?" I repeated to myself quietly before running over to comfort him.

"Enjoy the party, guys, we'll be right back," I said, taking Ethan's hand and leading him upstairs.

Ethan's POV

I don't even know why I'm crying, I just am. Maybe I was just too startled?

Tyler led me into our room and shut the door behind him, then cradled me in his arms.

"What's wrong, baby?" he asked softly, gently pulling back so he could look into my tear-filled eyes with concern.

"I don't even know," I said, pulling him in again and weeping onto his chest.

I could feel every breath and his heartbeat as it sped up just slightly.

He wrapped his arms back around me and kissed my head gently, pulling away again gently. He cupped my face with his hand, wiping my tears away with his thumbs. He kissed me tenderly, but almost tentatively on the lips, and I kissed back just as lightly, but more deliberately.

"There," he said, pulling away from the kiss, "better?"

"Yeah. Thank you, Tyler. I love you so much," I said back.

"I love you too, baby."

We returned to the party hand-in-hand, and began greeting people, beaming from ear to ear as we engaged in conversations.

Eventually, after numerous updates on everyone's lives, Tyler separated his hand from mine and grabbed a microphone from a stand on a platform him and Mark had set up.

Tyler's POV

I gently took my hand from Ethan's grasp and stepped up to the platform. My hands sweat as one reached for the microphone and the other reached into my pocket. I couldn't believe I was actually doing this.

"Hey everyone, I hope you're all enjoying the party," I started, feeling everyone's eyes travel towards me, "I just have a few words to say and then you guys can go back to... whatever you guys were doing before."

I licked my lips and my hands started trembling. I took a deep breath and exhaled sharply before turning back to the microphone. Mark at this point had set up the camera and I nodded at him to hit the record button.

"As you all may know, Ethan and I have been dating for almost two years now. I've unfortunately been battling cancer for a little less than half of that time. It's been a long and hard journey for me, but I don't think I could've done it without having Ethan in my life. Ethan, will you come up on stage, please?"

Ethan looked up when he heard his name, and blushed. Most people didn't notice because of how dim the lighting was, but I could spot even the faintest blush from miles away. He walked up and I grabbed his hand to help him up onto the make-shift stage.

I turned back to everyone else and chuckled slightly, continuing what I was saying.

"Ethan is by far one of the most amazing, compassionate, and easy-going people I know. HE means the absolute world to me, and from the second I saw him, I knew that Ethan is the love of my life. I knew from day 1 that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. When I was diagnosed with cancer again, I kid you not, my heart stopped, because I thought that that would be the end of me; the end of us. I'm happy to say that I am now cancer-free, after several long months of chemotherapy, radiation, hospital visits, and all of the other shit that goes with it. This is why, I stand before you all, and say this."

I turned to look at Ethan, who had his hands over his mouth as he sobbed, presumably shocked by all I had just said.

"Ethan, I've never felt the way I do with you before. It's like a roller coaster: the most terrifying yet exhilarating feeling in the entire world. I never want to feel this way with anyone else but you."

Ethan and I looked at each other knowingly and with deep emotion as Marry Me by Jason Derulo began playing on the speakers. I glanced around the room, and all of our close friends were crying, though none as hard as Mark, who was downright SOBBING.

"Ethan, I want to be with you, and only you, for the rest of my life. And so," I said, kneeling down on one knee, and pulling the box out of the pocket where my hand was, "I ask, will you marry me?"

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Oh what has your girl been up to?

It's been one hell of a ride I guess, but it isn't over. I'm thinking maybe another 5-10 chapters after this one, then maybe an epilogue.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this super long chapter. I actually spent several hours in a cute little coffee shop writing this while whispering to myself about wtf I did with this story a year and a half ago. 'Twas very awkward as the girl sitting next to me kept looking over and judging me because of the fact that I was criticizing my past self.

Anyway, that's it for this chapter/ I left a little cliffhanger for all of you who are actually still reading at this point.

Okay, this is getting too long BYEEEEEEEEEEEEE

p.s. if you want to know anything about this story now compared to a year ago, or just anything about why i was gone for so long, you can dm me on here or on instagram or snapchat

Instagram handle: emiline_clough

snapchat handle: eclough04

ok bye again