Chapter 26

Angela's eyes widened at the sight in front of her.  "This is not happening!" she thought.

Brian chuckled at the expression on her face.  "Don't worry!  I'm not going to ask you to marry me."  She let out a sigh of relief.  "At least not right now anyway," he added.  She just laughed softly.

"Angela, I just want to know that you'll always be my girl and that we'll always be together no matter what happens."  He opened up the box to reveal a gold right that had a circle of small diamonds with both of their birthstones in the middle.

He took her right hand and placed the ring on her ring finger.  It fit perfectly.  Brian looked up at her and saw that she had started to cry again.

This was for all the hell that she had put him through and she was happy to know that he still loved her.

Brian stood back up.  "Why are you crying again?" he asked her softly.

"Because I'm so happy that I have someone who will love me and put up with me no matter what," she replied.

"Anything for you," he whispered at their lips touched.  He could taste her tears, but didn't care.  Brian knew that these were tears of happiness and love.

"Let's go," she said after they broke apart.  They left as a happy couple once again.

That night...

"Krista, if it wasn't for the fact that Brian and I are back together, I was really going to kill you," Angela was telling her.

"You really have no idea how afraid I was," she replied.  "So let me see that little ring of yours."

Angela slipped it off her hand and handed it over.  "Very nice, very nice," Krista said while inspecting it.  "Hey!  Did you know that there is an inscription on the inside?"

"No.  Let me see."  Angela took it and looked on the inside, and sure enough, there was a small inscription.  It read, 'Brian and Angela forever.'

"Life doesn't get much better than this," she said as she fell back on her bed.

"You're telling me.  I'm falling for Nick harder and harder everyday. It's great," Krista said as she fell back on the bed as well.

A couple of weeks later....

"Let's do something stupid tonight," Krista said to Nick.  They were at his house trying to figure out what to do for the night.  Brian and Angela didn't feel like going out, so they stayed at Angela's.

"Like what?" he wondered.

"Let's......go bowling!!!"

Nick slowly looked at her and a grin grew on his face.  "Alright."

"Well, what are you waiting for?  Let's go!"

At Angela's...

"Stop it," Angela screamed at Brian.  They had gotten into a play fight after she found out that Kevin wrote the song that Brian had sang to her a couple weeks earlier.  She teased him that Kevin had really made up with her and not him.  And now they were running around the house, chasing each other.

Brian had found a water gun and was squirting her with it.  Angela was throwing anything and everything at him while trying to keep from getting wet.

"Never," he yelled.  "Not until you apologize about the song!"

"No," she laughed.  "I believe that I should call Kev and thank him!"

"OK then."  Brian squirted her right on the back.  She grabbed a pillow and whacked him right in the face.  Playfully, of course, and then ran down the hall.  "I can play this game," he said down the hall.

Angela tried hard not to laugh at her boyfriend.  She could hear him going from room to room looking for her.

"Angela," he said sweetly.  "Come on out Princess."

She giggled and got ready because she could hear him coming toward her room.  She could see his feet right through the crack of the door.  So she back up behind the door as far as she could and got her pillow ready.

The second he stepped past the door, she leapt out at him, swinging the pillow.  Much to her surprise, Brian caught it with her still attached.

"Gotcha!" he laughed.

"Why do I have such a bad feeling about this?" she wondered.

"Oh, but you shouldn't," he said in a singsong voice.

The next thing Angela knew was that Brian had swung her around onto the bed.  She landed softly with him on top of her.

"We can get rid of this," he said, tossing her pillow aside.  "Well, now, look what that leaves me with."

"Me?"

"Actually I meant my watergun."

Angela kicked him the little bit that Brian would allow her to.   "Let's try this one more time.  What does it leave you with?" she asked him.

"You," he replied, right before he kissed her.

Meanwhile...

"Alright!  Another strike!!" Krista screeched and danced around Nick. She was doing some serious butt-kicking.  "I never bowl like this!  It must be my lucky night."

Well, I'm going to get a strike this time," Nick announced, taking his turn.  He bowled both frames, only knocking down four pins.  "I'm just letting you win," he said, trying to defend himself.

"Yeah.  Sure you are," she teased, picking up her ball.  "I believe you."

She went over to him and kissed him for reassurance before taking her turn.

Krista went to go throw the ball, but she went with it.  "Ow!" she whined.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked, getting up to see what was wrong.

"My thumb is stuck."

"Here.  Let me see."  Nick examined her thumb for a minute.  "How did you do this?"

"I don't know," she whined some more.  "I just want this stupid ball off."

"Try twisting your thumb," Nick suggested.  She tried, but had no success.

"Alright.  Ummmm.....Let me go get some ice and we'll try to get the swelling to go down."

"OK," she said and sat down.  "Why me?" she asked herself.  "Angela will never let me live this down."

Nick came back a couple minutes later with a cup of ice and some paper towels.  He wrapped a couple of cubes in the paper towels and gave it to her.

"Here.  Hold this by your thumb for a few minutes."  She took it and gave him a weak smile.  "Don't worry.  I'll get you out of this."  He kissed her on the forehead.

"He's being so sweet to me.  I love this.  Even if my thumb is stuck in this bowling ball; it's great," she thought.

Krista took the ice off her thumb after it started to melt a little.   She tried to pull it out, but, once again, had no success.  "Nick, It's not coming out."

"I don't know what else to do.  The only thing I can think of is to take you to the hospital and see what they can do."

"Alright," she sighed.

"Let me go explain what happened to the people at the front desk and I'll go get the car."  Nick gathered both his stuff and hers, and left.

"This is going to be a long night," she thought.