My Guardian Vampire

"You what?!" I exclaimed, laughing disbelievingly. He nodded.

"I do. And most of those abandoned buildings in the outskirts, though they're not really abandoned. Tonya and Amber's shops and the rest of them around there. And the police station-"

"Wait what? The police station? Why the hell would you own the police station?"

"Because they owe me. My parents were very successful people, and owned a few places in New York. Then later when New York started to become overrun with vampires, I started to take out the bad ones for money. I promise to protect them, for a fee. And the police station works with us because there are certain... people they can't take out, obviously."

"So that's how Officer Tony knew you," I said, thinking back to that night. "Wait a second, how long has this been going on for?"

"Well, that leads to the other part of what I have to tell you... I'm not exactly a teenager or anything."

'Okay, I could have guessed that. He doesn't look like a teenager, but what does he mean. Twenties, thirties...?'

"How old are you?"

"Well I'm not fifty or anything..."

"Oh thank god," I sighed.

"I'm 200."

'...'

My mind couldn't even come up with a stunned remark for this one, because I was just that: stunned, in the literal sense of the word. I think my heart may have stopped.

"Ali, are you breathing?" Billie Joe asked, looking legitimately concerned. I took in a breath, not realizing my lungs had stopped.

"You're 200?" I asked, feeling faint.

"Well, almost… I'm a few months short."

I stopped breathing again, my mouth slightly open as all the air was sucked from New York. I sat down on the bench now, grim. Billie watched me anxiously.

"What... What does this mean for us? That's like... way past illegal, right? I may be past the age of consent, but… Do they have laws for if someone is older than 100? 150?"

"It doesn't mean anything if you don't want it to. I love you, more than I have loved anyone else in all this time. This is all in your hands," he said, looking paler than usual. I looked at him, it becoming a struggle to remember how to keep breathing, let alone process this.

I stood up, and walked over to him, lightly touching his face.

'His two hundred year old face...'

"Billie, I-" I said, my stomach lurching. I swallowed down my fear, everything, looking into his eyes. This technically didn't change anything. He was still the same person I knew before, the same person that had taken my broken heart and tried sewing it together with a chipped needle and fraying thread. I sighed, and looked down before looking back up, into those olive eyes that had captured me from the beginning.

"Billie Joe, I love you," I said, and he grinned, kissing me and swinging me around in a circle.

"Please say it again," he said once he set me down, close to my face. His face was more alive, more elated than I had ever seen before. "I need to hear that again."

"I love you," I said, smiling weakly, as if it had zapped all the energy from me.

"I love you too," he said, kissing me again, leaving me dizzy once we broke apart.
But then he totally did something unexpected.

He broke away from me, and got down on one knee.

'Holy shit!' I screamed in my head. 'Please say you're just tying your converse, please just-"

He pulled a small velvet box out.

'PLEASE JUST SAY YOU NEED A SMALL VELVET BOX TO TIE YOUR CONVERSE, PLEASE JUST SAY YOU NEED A SMALL VELVET BOX TO TIE YOUR CONVERSE-'

He opened the box, a ring shining in the moonlight.

'...'
"Alexandra Elizabeth Reed, will you marry me?"
'...'

"B-billie? Are you f-fuck-ck-cking s-s-serious?" I said, shaking. He nodded, and my knees suddenly felt weak, the bones suddenly turning into a quaking gelatin. "B-but we've only b-b-been going out f-f-for a month..."

He shook his head, smiling and then looking back up at me.

"I don't care. I’ve been here nearly two centuries now, Ali. A month may seem short to you, but to me, it’s been a blink of an eye—and yet, still the longest month of my life, the only one that’s seemed to matter. I’ve been here long enough to know what I want. If you're not ready yet, then I'll wait. But if you really want this—you and I—then just please take the goddamn ring for now until you're ready."

I paused, breathing heavy, and still shaking.

This was it.
Yes or no.