A Brand New Ending

Chapter 56

Phoenix



The rest of night goes by in a blur, trying desperately to push my feelings down. When it came time to open the presents I felt drained but so grateful for everyone's gifts. When the party started to wind down people were filtering out and pretty soon it's just Braeden and I left, my nerves growing more with every minute of silence. When he says goodbye to the last guest he makes his way over to me, his hands wrapping around my waist.

"Thank you," I say. "That was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."

He places his lips against my forehead and we remain silent for a few minutes. Tell him. I pull back and go to open my mouth but Braeden holds something out in his hand. A small box with a red bow on top. I lose my train of thought.

"I wanted to wait until everyone was gone before giving you this."

I take it out of his hands and open the lid slowly, a beautiful bracelet nestled among the cotton. Braeden reaches inside and unclasps it. Sticking out my wrist he works delicately to attach it, the tips of his fingers brushing against my inner wrist, it making my legs seem weak. Once it's attached I turn it over more, now noticing the angel wing charm attached to one side of it.

"It's beautiful," I whisper, holding the tears back.

Braeden's fingers come under my chin, them raising my head slowly.

"Are you happy, Seraph?"

"More than I could ever explain."

"Well, good, because I got one more surprise for you," he says.

Putting his hands on my shoulder he guides to over to a chair and then plants a kiss on my lips.

"You're not going to strip are you?" I laugh.

Braeden shakes his head.

"Maybe later."

We both smile wide and I watch him reach underneath a table. From it he produces an acoustic guitar and my heart beat fastens. He grabs a stool nearby and props himself on top of it, the guitar lying across his lap, his fingers placed delicately on the neck of it.

"This is to my beautiful girlfriend, whom without her I would cease to exist," he states to the nonexistent crowd.

I feel a familiar burn in my cheeks but I can't take my eyes off of him. He starts strumming on the guitar, a beautiful melody filling the night sky. He then starts to sing. The words coming out of his mouth are beautiful and I can feel tears prick behind my eyes, the sight before me too much for my emotions to handle. I continue to just stare at him, every moment of the past few months running in my head. I have a hard time regretting the decision that brought me here. He was my fate. He is my destiny.

When he finishes up the song he leans the guitar against the stool and hops down. Launching myself off the chair I wrap my arms around him tightly. I hear him laugh and his hands find their way to my hair. We both pull back and our eyes meet, our gaze holding.

"That was beautiful."

He shrugs. "Just a little something I've been working on."

"Ready to go inside?" he asks.

As much as I want to stay here in this moment forever, my relaxed body is exhausted, my emotional ups and downs taking its toll.

"Yeah," I say as I place a kiss on his lips.

"Why don't you start heading back down," he says. "I'm just gonna take care of a few things here."

"OK," I respond.

When I reach Braeden's bedroom I immediately plop myself onto his bed, feeling as though my eyelids have weights attached to them. Laying my head on the pillow I watch the minutes click on the clock and once I get to seven the darkness overtakes me.