Complicated Love

It felt like forever before it was Christmas break, but here it was and my boys would be home tomorrow. I couldn't wait.
Kayla and I had decorated the house beautifully with lights and fake snow on the windows. I had a huge fake tree that my parents had used all my life set up in the corner of my living room and keeping Titan out of it was near to impossible.
Kayla was pulling him off of it for the upteenth time and was leading him outside. When she came back in, I smiled at her.
"What're you smiling at?" she asked me.
"You," I said. "You really have a soft spot for my Titan don't you?"
She shrugged as she helped me put the remainder of the presents under the tree. "He grows on you. I'm not going to lie, he did scare me when I first got here. But he sure is the sweetest thing."
"Yeah. I really do owe Brian one for bringing Titan to me," I said.
Kayla sat on the couch and looked over at me. "Don't they come home tomorrow?"
"Yes. You get to finally meet my boys." I said as I finished cleaning up the living room.
The whole rest of the day, we went over to Val's and watched Christmas movies and drank egg nog (well, Val and kayla did. I think that stuff is disgusting. I think it's like drinking old chunky milk).
Kayla and I went home late that night and said goodnight in passing as we went straight to our bedrooms to pass out.
When I woke up the next morning, I was aware of a warm body really close to me. I thought it was Titan at first and reached out with my eyes still shut, to pet him and froze when I realized it was a human in my bed.
My eyes flew open and I shot up into a sitting position and looked towards the other person laying down beside me.
My fear was instantly replaced by extreme happiness when I saw who it was sleeping peacefully in my bed.
"JIMMY!" I yelled and hugged his sleeping frame.
He jolted awake but relaxed quickly and wrapped his arms around me. "Hey there baby. What a way to wake up, huh?"
I squeezed him then pulled away to look at him. "I'd say so. When did you guys get back?"
Jimmy looked at the watch on his wrist and saw that it was seven a.m. "Well we got into town maybe around three thirty and then I came straight over here to be with you."
I hugged him again, tightly, and we laid like that for another hour and a half talking about how much we had missed each other.
Finally I leaned up to kiss him. "Want some breakfast? I'll make some chocolate-chip pancakes," I said.
Jimmy jumped up, pulling me with him, and he threw a pair of sleeping pants at me and then ran into the kitchen yelling, "Pancakes are the food of the gods!"
I pulled the pants up then followed Jimmy into the kitchen. I saw him pulling stuff out to make breakfast but when he saw me, he stopped and pulled me into his arms and kissed me hard.
When I pulled back, he hugged me tightly and rested his cheek on my hair.
"God, I've missed you so much Brooke."
"I missed you too, Jimmy. So very much. Now come on, lets make some delicious pancakes huh?"
Twenty minutes and about thirty pancakes later, I heard Kayla's door open then shut. She made a stop at the bathroom and then made her way into the kitchen. She was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, so she didn't see Jimmy at first.
"Something smells good, Brooke. What are you making?"
Before I could answer, Jimmy said "Chocolate-chip pancakes."
Kayla looked up at him with wide eyes. "Who are you?" she asked.
Jimmy did a very theatrical bow. "I am the Reverend Tholomew Plague. It's nice to meet you finally, Duckie's friend from college."
Kayla turned to me with a confused look and I laughed. "Kayla, this is Jimmy. And Jimmy I told you to behave." I threw him a playful glare and he pulled me to his side.
"And I told you I couldn't promise that." he said and then turned his attention back to Kayla. "It really is good to finally meet you, Kayla. Want some pancakes?"
Kayla finally stopped staring at him and nodded her head. "That sounds great, but first, can I talk to you Brooke?"
"Sure," I said following her into the other room. "What's up?"
She turned to me and I could tell she was kind of angry. "Why didn't you tell me he was going to be here this early? I'm came out in my pajamas, Brooke! You have any idea how embarassed I am?"
"Oh, relax," I said rolling my eyes. "Jimmy doesn't care. And besides, I woke up with him next to me. He came in very early this morning."
"How'd he get in?"
"He has a key. All of my boys do."
Kayla's eyes got wide again and I briefly wondered if she kept doing that, would they pop out?
"You gave a copy of your key out to that many people? Brooke that's crazy."
"Kayla, they are my family. I've known them longer than I've known you and I gave you one. So just calm down and change if you're embarassed. We're going to go meet the rest of the guys later." I started walking back to the kitchen. "And you're invited too, Kayla," I threw over my shoulder.
After we had all eaten breakfast, I went in to my room to change and Jimmy followed. I headed for my closet, but he had other ideas and he pulled me down on to the bed, wrapping his long arms around me.
"I told you I would attack you when I saw you," Jimmy whispered in my ear.
I laughed as I reached up to kiss him. "Then get with the attacking, mister."
Almost an hour later, we were finally ready to go and when Jimmy and I came out of the room all smiley, Kayla gave us a weird look.
"You know," she said. "I could hear you two. You might want to be a little more quiet when somebody else is in the house."
Jimmy laughed. "Or maybe you shouldn't listen. It's very rude, you know, to eavesdrop."
Kayla grunted and turned on her heel headed outside. I shook my head at Jimmy but we followed her out to Jimmy's car.
Jimmy drove us to Matt and Val's house and I could see the cars of the rest of the guys in the driveway. I turned in my seat to look at Kayla in the backseat.
"You ready to meet the rest of my boys?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, I can't wait."
Jimmy and I walked up to the door hand in hand and Kayla followed. We didn't even bother to knock, we just opened the door and walked inside.
Val came in from the kitchen. "Yay, you guys made it," she said hugging Jimmy. "Hey there Jimbo. You were the only one I didn't see when they all showed up earlier."
Jimmy smiled at her. "Yeah, I decided to spend my night with Brooke. But I'm here now."
"Where are the rest of the guys?" I asked Val.
She pointed to the other room. "Living room."
"Come on," I said grabbing Kayla's hand as I pulled her behind me heading for the living room.
As soon as I was entered the room, I heard a collective "BROOKE!" come from the four guys sitting on the couch.
I laughed as they all stood and swept me into a group hug. "I missed you guys!"
When they finally pulled away, I could see that Jimmy and Val had joined us and Kayla was looking scared.
I turned to my boys. "Guys, this is Kayla. Kayla, this is Matt, Zack, Johnny, and Brian," I said pointing to each man when I said their name.
Kayla did a small wave. "Hi."
Brian stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. "Hey there, Kayla. Stop being scared of us ok? We're the coolest people you'll ever meet."
Kayla only nodded and moved to stand beside me. I laughed. "She's kind of shy guys. But trust me, when she warms up to you, she's a pretty awesome person."
"Like you, huh Brookie?" Johnny said.
I nodded once. "Exactly Short Shit."
"But, he's taller than you," Kayla said causing all of us to laugh again.
We all spent the rest of the day together and decided to come back the next day which was Christmas Eve and have a party. Jimmy dropped Kayla off at my house because I had decided I wanted to spend the rest of the night with Jimmy at his place.
When we got to his house, we both went straight to his room and this time I pushed him down on to the bed. I climbed on top of him, straddling his hips with my legs and kissed him showing him how much I had really missed him. He kissed back with a passion that equaled mine and soon it turned into hot and heavy sex.
Later, I was laying on top of his chest under the blankets and both of us were breathing heavily. Jimmy was running his hand through my hair and he leaned down to kiss the top of my head.
"You have no idea how happy you make me, Brooke. I have dreamed of being with you like this for what feels like my whole life, and now that I finally have you, it's better than what I had ever imagined."
I smiled in the dark. "I love you Jimmy. You make me the happiest girl around. I can't believe I never started anything with you before. But now I know I'm going to spend my life with you."
Jimmy was silent for a long time and I thought he had fallen asleep when I heard him speak again. "You mean that, Brooke? You're going to spend the rest of your life with me?"
I nodded against his chest. "Yes. I mean, I know we haven't been a couple for very long, but we have been with each other and loved each other for so long I know it's what I want."
Jimmy grabbed my arms and gently moved me off of him and got off the bed. In the dark, I heard him searching through his drawers for something.
I sat up. "What're you doing Jimmy?"
"Hold on," he said. Then, "Ah here it is. Ok light coming on."
I held my head under the blanket to hide my eyes from the bright light. I felt Jimmy pulling on my arm. "Open your eyes, Brooke."
I came out from under the blanket to see Jimmy had put some sweatpants on and he was kneeling beside the bed.
"What-" I began but was silenced when Jimmy held up his hand.
"Brooke," he started. "I was going to wait until I knew you were ready for this and I know you are now." He held up a small black box and tears came to my eyes. I knew what this was.
Jimmy continued. "I have loved you for so very long and now that I have you, I refuse to ever let you go again. Brooke Lynn Claster, will you please make me the happiest fucking man in the world and be my wife?"
He opened the box and inside was a beautiful silver ring. The band was wrapped around the diamond in a spiral and it sparkled in the light. I was struck speechless so all I did was nod like crazy. Jimmy was patient though and I knew he was waiting for the actual words.
Finally I found my voice. "Yes James Sullivan! I will! I will marry you!" I reached across the bed and hugged him hard.
Jimmy laughed as my hug made us both fall to the floor but neither one of us cared. He pulled both of us into a sitting position, and with a huge smile on his face, he slid the ring onto my finger.
I looked down at it. "It's beautiful"
Jimmy leaned down to kiss me. "Like you," he said.

Notes