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“Do I know you?”
Buffy turned towards the familiar voice with a soft smile on her face. “I think you would KNOW that you can’t recreate our first conversation EVERY time we go to a party.”
“Why not?” Marty shrugged, nonchalantly.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Well for one, you HAVE eaten a frog now,” she paused; “Not that that’s something I want to remember seeing.”
“Okay it wasn’t alive.” He smirked. “But what of it? All that means is I’m no longer lying. In fact, it makes recreating it even better .” Buffy rolled her eyes again, but the affection on her face was all too evident. “What, like character development?”
“Exactly.” He had the nerve to sound proud of himself.
Buffy turned towards the party, surveying the room. It was Andi’s New Year’s Eve celebration, and the party was in full swing. There were many people from SAVA and Andi’s college that Buffy didn’t recognise, but the faces she knew were easy to spot. TJ and Cyrus were talking to a couple of Cyrus’ friends, TJ’s arm permanently slung over his boyfriend’s shoulder. Jonah was cheerily chatting to a random crowd, until Amber pulled him away and began speaking to him hurriedly. Jonah nodded and grabbed his guitar from where he’d (stupidly) left it leaning against the wall. “I’ve had a song request.” He spoke into the microphone that was already set up on stage. It was customary for Jonah to always do a performance of some kind at Andi’s parties. Sometimes TJ would play the piano, but it was rare for him to do so without Cyrus begging him to.
It was a romantic song, but it wasn’t coming from Jonah. Buffy knew who it was, it was Amber to Andi. They weren’t officially together but there had been constant mutual flirting between them for years. The song was bittersweet, and Jonah sung the lyrics with as much emotion as he could. Andi was smiling softly, face to the stage but eyes on Amber.
“They really should just get together already.” Buffy stated, turning back towards Marty, but he had disappeared. “Well that was nice of you!” she called out, as if he were still there. She sighed and grabbed a cupcake from the stand. Okay seriously, where is he? She checked her phone briefly, but it was just social media notifications.
She stood awkwardly for a moment. Should she talk to other people? She glanced around, trying to find someone else that wasn’t already in the middle of a conversation. By the time she turned back towards the cupcake stand, she was met with the face of her boyfriend, who was grinning at her a little nervously. “Hey.”
“Hey? Where did you even go just now you idiot?” she asked. Marty bit his lip. “Actually… I have something I want to ask you.” He said. His usual arrogant aroma was stripped away. Buffy tilted her head, confused. “What? You needed help finding the toilet?” she teased. “No… actually I wanted to ask you something.”
“You just said that.”
“Buffy.” He looked up then, his eyes meeting hers. Not breaking eye contact, he lowered himself down onto one knee. She stared back at him, cheeks warming, but not with the embarrassment she would’ve expected. With love. With happiness. With excitement.
“Buffy…” He trailed off, taking her hand in his. “I… will you marry me?”
Cheeks pinked, Buffy’s eyes widened. She’d suspected that was what he was asking- they had talked about getting married for a while now, after all- but she didn’t know for sure that it was coming until he said it.
She knew her answer, but the words couldn’t come. Everything was just so damn perfect. Of course his nostalgic, romantic ass would propose at a party. Hell, he’d even done it right next to the food table.
Buffy wasn’t much of a romantic herself but for some reason Marty always got to her. Everything he did for her made her stomach flutter, her cheeks warm, her smile soften. All her life Buffy had imagined herself being the kind to reject a marriage proposal, and even after meeting Marty she had figured it would just be something casual, like a random “let’s get married” during the ad break of watching free to air television.
But in this moment she knew what felt right for her, and she could no longer imagine it any other way.
“Yes.”
-
“Wait really?” Marty asked, a bewildered expression on his face. Buffy laughed. “Of course, you doof. I love you.”
Marty grinned. Moving swiftly, he slipped the ring on her finger, and he stood up, lips meeting hers like they had been since that perfect night in eighth grade.
They were surrounded by people, but miraculously it seemed nobody had noticed their proposal. And that was perfect. It was just them.
-
“Hey, you beat your PB!” Marty exclaimed. It was Saturday morning of the next week, and they were taking turns timing each other race at the college track. Buffy smiled. “Good.” She said, taking a sip from the water bottle he handed her.
“You should’ve joined college track when you were studying here. I-“
“Can you get me more water?” she interrupted.
“Well excuse me princess,” he took the bottle back from her, “It’s not even empty!” he exclaimed.
“I’ll need more when I beat your current PB.”
Marty laughed. “As if that’ll happen. I’m the one with the sports science degree.”
Buffy raised her eyebrows. “How does that make you faster? You’re training to be a physiotherapist, not an athlete.” Marty chuckled until Buffy’s fist hit his chest. “Water?”
Doing a mock bow, he took the bottle. Buffy watched him walk away. The water fountain took him a five minute walk one way. She had ten minutes.
-
When Marty re-approached the track, he was met by a warm, familiar hand latching onto his arm. “Come up the bleachers with me.” Buffy instructed. Bewildered, Marty followed her.
With each step up to the top, Buffy would clench her fists. She did that when she was nervous, he knew. It was the only way she could prevent herself from biting her nails. He’d only ever seen her like this during grand finals. What’s going on?
As if on cue, Buffy stopped and spun around, arms in the air. “Behold!” she announced. Marty almost snorted at the word choice, but turned around to see what was putting such a proud expression on her face.
He gasped.
In the field at the centre of the track, Buffy had laid out hundreds of rose petals to form the words “MARRY ME 11.5?”
She hadn’t called him that in years, and his record was faster now, but he knew why the nickname was there. She wanted him to know she alone had done it for him. It made it special.
“Buffy…” he turned back to her beaming face. “This is so romantic.” She beamed even more. She looked gorgeous, and god, he just wanted to kiss her but he had to ask, “Wait, aren’t we already engaged though?”
Buffy snorted. “You really thought I would let you win best proposal?”
It was Marty’s turn to laugh. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”
She smirked. “I know,” she nudged his shoulder, “but you love me.”
“I really do.”
And the next thing Marty knew, Buffy was in his arms and his hands were in her curls and they were kissing and laughing and he was vaguely aware of some whistling from their newly arrived gang of friends but he didn’t care.
“I literally love you so much.” She whispered in between kisses.
“Me too, princess. Me too.”