Work Text:
Promise Me Forever
by Pirate Turner
Kim stared, unable to believe her eyes at the fiasco before her. She gawked, her mouth falling open, as her living nightmare closed in upon her. Her arms and legs spread against her locker, her eyes darted around the hallway. She had nowhere to run, and every one was looking right at her! Their laughter burned her ears and made her face turn red as she clawed down the urge to run.
Her heart was already in her throat when he started to sing, and Kim closed her eyes in a futile attempt to block out the terror. As he hit an especially sour note, her green eyes cracked open again, and she watched in breath-taking horror as the huge, red heart that nearly eclipsed her gawky, gangly boyfriend who wore it with a lacy ribbon, and she feared that was all, wrapping it to him came ever closer.
He continued to sing as he approached her, and she prayed like never before that he would shut up. Her whole body was red by the time he reached her, and she trembled slightly from the embarrassment of it all, knowing she'd never live this day down. Then he knelt before her on one knee, opening his arms wide, his eyes never leaving hers, and lifted a box to where she could see it.
Kim's heart hammered even faster and harder. Jewelry?! Ron had bought her jewelry?! She must be dreaming! That was it! She was having a nightmare! Yet, although before she would have loved to have been able to wake herself up and prove that it was all just a dream, she lingered in uncertainty, one thought now flashing over and over again in her mind. Ron had bought her jewelry!!
"Kim," he asked, opening the box so that silver winked up at her, "will you be my valentine?"
In that moment, Kim forgot all else. She forgot that all her school peers were watching. She forgot the loud snickering that had burned her ears and the fact that Bonnie would lord this over her forever. She forgot, quite simply, to be embarrassed. She even forgot that Ron, up until now, had thought that good jewelry came out of a Cracker Jack box.
She stared at the ring, and as her vision cleared, she realized that it was only a simple, silver band with perhaps the tiniest rock she'd ever seen. The simplicity of it did not phase her, however, for it was the enormousity of meaning behind the simple ring that had shocked her to her core. She had never expected to part from Ron, but to see and to know that he had put such thought and caring into their life together amazed her and warmed her through to her very soul.
"It's -- It's just a promise ring," he offered, "a promise that we'll be together forever." His voice shook. The long, lacy ribbon quivered ever so slightly, and she realized that he was trembling behind the costume. He had been scared and embarrassed, she noted from the darkness of his own cheeks, but he had done this for her, all for her.
"Oh, Ron!" She threw herself on him, hugging him tightly and crushing his heart in the process.
"Easy, Kim," he whispered, and she pulled back to look at him with questions dancing in her sparkling eyes. He blushed even redder. "Don't crush the velcro."
"Velcro?" she repeated in a hushed, confused whisper. Then she turned as red as her hair as she realized that velcro was the only thing still keeping the heart together for the ribbon had been completely loosed! She giggled through her embarrassment and kissed him nonetheless, sealing the promise.
The End