You Belong With Me

I nearly choked on the water I had been drinking.

Had he just said he was thinking about proposing to Jade? He was joking. He had to be joking...right? I was hoping, for my sake, that he was.

"Are you okay, Abbie?" he asked me with a look of concern.

"What?" I asked in a daze, but snapped myself out of it. "Oh, yeah. Just...took me by surprise is all."

"It is rather shocking isn't it?" he asked, grinning.

I knew, at that moment, that he was not joking. He seemed too convincing to be joking. He was, indeed, thinking about proposing to her. That, to me, pretty much meant that he was going to. When he got his mind set on something, he did it. That was not good. Well, for me at least.

"Yeah," I said. "What brought this on?"

"I don't know," he said. "It kind of just sprung up really. I woke up one morning and looked at her lying beside me. I just kept thinking how lucky I was to have her and how I didn't want anyone else but her. I realized that she's the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I know it seems strange. Hell, it even scared me at first. I never thought I would feel this way about someone. Not this soon anyways, but it happened."

It was beginning to be too much. Hearing him say that was painful. It was as if someone had ripped my chest open and tore my heart out right there.

"You two haven't even been dating that long," I said, trying to sound fine. "Are you sure you're ready to marry her?

"Are you trying to talk me out of it, Abbie?" he asked in a joking manner.

'Yes.'

"N-no," I stammered out. "Of course not, Tom.

"That's a relief," he said. "It would be rather sad if I didn't have your approval."

Approval? What did he mean by that?

"Why would you need my approval?" I asked.

"You're my best friend," he said looking at me like it should have been obvious. "Of course I would want to know what you think about the whole matter, which I'm not quite sure what you think yet."

He wanted to know what I was thinking about the whole matter? It was pretty obvious what I thought. Well, to me of course. He shouldn't propose to her. He hadn't been dating her long. It was far too early for him to even consider it. I knew I was just making up excuses as to why he shouldn't, but it was how I felt. I wouldn't be telling him that, though.

"Well, if you love her, Tom," I started to say, "and you're sure you want to marry her then...propose to her. You have to follow your heart. If your heart is telling you that's what you should do, then do it."

I was hoping I sounded convincing enough. I know it's best if you tell your friend the truth and how you really feel about something, but I couldn't tell him not to do something if it made him happy like this. Plus, I couldn't tell him the truth. I couldn't tell him that I loved him. That I had loved him even before Jade was in the picture.

"I do love her, Abbie," he said, seriously. "I've never felt this way about anyone else. I'm happy with her. I can't imagine being with anyone else."

As the words left his mouth, I felt my heart break even more. I held back the tears that were threatnening to cascade down my cheeks. I couldn't fall apart. Not right there in front of him.

"Well, I guess you know what you shold do then," I said, putting on a fake smile.

"I guess so," he said, smiling back. "You're the first person I've told about this. I knew you would be happy about it."

Little did he know, I wasn't. I wasn't happy at all. I was heartbroken.